Dampening a friend's interest in writing

I was just out of college in 1979, and a close friend of mine showed me a short story he'd written.

It wasn't badly written — I was actually impressed with it — but it had about a half-dozen mistakes, and I pointed those out. My friend showed it to our high-school English teacher, and she agreed with my edits.

Then something happened I didn't want to see. My friend was so stunned at the edits that he didn't try to write short stories anymore. I don't know that he's ever written another.

Over the years, I've learned how to make edits without hurting a writer's feelings. I know I'M pretty sensitive, and others are, too. And I remember my friend's reaction to my editing.

I don't want to dampen a person's interest in writing as I did by accident now more than 40 years ago.

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