I was watching Changing Rooms on BBC America the other day when one of the designers made a comment that made an impression on me. At the end of each show, the host Carol Smiley sits down with the designer in the newly redecorated room and chats about the changes. Carol asks about the favorite item in the room, comments about the results and reports on the budget.

At the end of this particular show, the ever-perky Ms. Smiley said something to the effect that "I love this room, but it really isn’t your style, is it?" To which the designer answered, "No, it isn’t but then when you’re a designer, you have to accommodate the tastes of your clients. And sometimes that isn’t the same as your taste."

I am a Sagittarius. I’m proud of that fact. In fact, that’s where my pen name came from. Nick is my real first name but Archer is a pseudonym. Sagittarius is the sign of the Archer - get it? Archer is also the name of the street where my parents lived when I was born. A nice coincidence.

According to almost all the descriptions of Sagittarians I’ve read, we are truthful and honest. We can also be blunt and tactless. OK, I don’t buy into all that astrology crap but it does explain one thing; I love to give my opinion about things and I’m very honest about it. This characteristic has gotten me in trouble on a number of occasions.

I am a critic of writing. Essentially what I do is a book report like the ones we did for our sixth-grade teachers. I summarize the story and write about my reaction to the writing. It’s as simple as that. While I don’t have a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, I do hold a valid teaching certificate in Language Arts and Reading. I’m a voracious reader. Most of my reading is fiction; non-fiction often puts me to sleep. I’m also a writer. I haven’t been published yet, but I’m working to correct that situation.

So I figure I’m as qualified as anyone to write my reactions to books, stories and articles. I just love to aim my arrows at bad writing. And I would indiscriminately aim those arrows at amateur authors as well as professional.

I have changed my attitude about criticizing amateur writing.

I’ve often told the story of how I was directed to Nifty and how it began my writing career, but I’ll summarize it again because it’s important to this essay. I had just gotten my first PC back in 1999. It was a hand-me down Packard Bell with Windows 3.1. After I upgraded the operating system and got online, I discovered instant messaging. ICQ was the first IM program I mastered and I began chatting with a friendly guy named Denny.

Denny was the responsible party for mentioning Nifty. Thanks, Denny.

Less than a month later I had outpatient surgery and I was home from work for a week to recover. I quickly bored of daytime TV so I turned to surfing the Net to relieve my boredom. It was then I began to read the stories at Nifty. I read until the wee hours of the morning. I read until my eyes were bloodshot. I’ve always liked printed anthologies of short stories like the Men on Men series because if you don’t like one story, you simply go on to the next. No wasted time and/or money. Nifty is an anthology on steroids. Sorted into categories, all it took was one click to go on to the next story.

Some stories were good. They had the bones of a good story but needed some work. Some were OK. Some entire categories didn’t interest me at all; most notably the boyband stories. (I’m too old - been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.) But the vast majority of stories were just plain crap. They were badly written and unbelievable.

As I read, I noted how some authors would address the audience directly in the introduction of the story. He’d write something like "Hey, thanks for all the emails," or "This is my first story, so please be nice." They were getting feedback on their writing!

At this time I was also writing. I had filled about 15 of those little hardcover journals that you’d buy at a commercial bookstore. I always wrote for myself. They were fantasies, nothing more. And I never intended to show them to anyone. It was a hobby; something I did in my free time. Some people keep a scrapbook, some people collect salt and pepper shakers, some people hunt for antiques at garage sales; I write.

Based on the feedback that other people were getting, I decided to take the plunge and put something on the Internet and see what happened.

Then it dawned on me. I can do better than this. Although there were a few gems, most of what I was reading on Nifty was pure crap - badly written and full of errors. My inner English teacher wanted to get out the red pen.

So I decided to string together some pieces of a story with the intention of posting it on Nifty. I was still enamored of Microsoft Word and the ability to cut and paste whole sections and the built-in spell check. I started to stitch together pieces and edited and revised as I went along. That’s how Paternal Instincts was born.

I began to post Paternal Instincts to Nifty and began to get feedback. The feedback itself was like heroin - not that I know what heroin is like from personal experience. In any event it was addictive. I got to the point where I was writing and posting two chapters a week. I was just churning it out. And every time I posted a new chapter, I got more feedback.

In my Internet surfing I also found other sites that featured writing. A lot of these sites were individuals who created a site at Tripod or Geocities to further highlight their writing. I was so addicted to feedback that I decided to create my own website. I named it Archerland. I found that creating my own website was a very creative, highly satisfying but extremely time-consuming hobby. But I loved it.

Eventually, I began to invite other authors to Archerland. I wanted only the best and the stories I liked. The first author I invited was the person who was my editor at the time Papyrophile. I added others from there. Eventually, I created a Suggestion Form and invited other authors to join Archerland.

Meanwhile, I was still reading stories at Nifty with an eye out for potential authors to invite to Archerland. I began to be very critical of the writing at Nifty. My line of thought was that we may be amateurs, but our writing but we can at least express ourselves clearly. I made fun of the bad stories. I badmouthed stories and even certain authors. I offered my opinions freely and copiously.

Hell, the bad stories even motivated me to write better, to write more, and to edit more carefully.

I started to notice patterns in the stories. There was the "But First, Let Me Introduce Myself" introduction. A number of authors began stories with an alarm clock. It seemed to me that in the High School section almost half the stories featured the main character moving to a different town. I poked fun at a lot of these conventions in an essay called Jumping The Shark.

In conjunction with Richard, I posted a ratings list for a short time at Archerland called the A List. It ranked a number of stories on Nifty with a star system. You should have seen the hate mail! I think the A List lasted less than a week at Archerland before I yanked it. I didn’t need the controversy.

There were other drawbacks. I was alienating people. I had developed a reputation as an asshole.

Other authors were angry with me. I had to say "no" to authors who wanted to post their stories to Archerland. One particular incident stemmed from a story that a young man submitted for Archerland. It was a pretty good story, needed a little work, but the bones of a good story were there. The problem was that it featured two high school students as the main characters. I thanked the author for his submission but told him that Archerland’s focus was adults. Well! Author X had a hissy-fit. He accused me of not supporting gay youth, internalized homophobia, lying on my income tax returns and keeping a messy sock drawer. Another rejected author wrote me again almost three years -THREE YEARS - later to ask why I wouldn’t post his story. At the time I told him that my policy was not to post stories for authors who had their own websites. By the time Author Y emailed me three years later, I had posted the writings of two or three authors who had their own websites. Author Y demanded to know why.

Lookit, I have always written for myself. My writing reflects my reality as I see it. I have my own style and I’ve found my own voice.

But it’s time to stop being so critical of others. It’s not necessary and, truth be told, I’m not accomplishing anything. Plus I’m wasting my own time; time that could be better spent on writing.

Maybe I’m maturing. Maybe I’ve learned to control that nagging, niggling inner English teacher. And significantly, kids, I really want to be liked. Everyone does.

There are some important conclusions:

So there you have it. The stories I dislike may not be my style, but the author has a right, maybe even a need to say what he has to say. Oh, I’ll still have my opinions. And I’ll still read bad Nifty stories for inspiration on What Not To Write. But too many authors out there suffer from TSS (Thin Skin Syndrome.) And who am I to burst their bubble or rain on their parade?

Just because they’re not my style, doesn’t mean they’re all bad. Somebody out there is reading them.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to re-arrange my sock drawer.