# Help me figure out how to respond to my friend's poems and stories.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-figure-out-how-to-respond-to-my-friends-poems-and-stories/660418>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 7, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-figure-out-how-to-respond-to-my-friends-poems-and-stories/660418 "2013-06-07T20:05:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2013, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-figure-out-how-to-respond-to-my-friends-poems-and-stories/660418/21 "2013-06-09T22:35:09Z")

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Just tell her it’s great that she’s writing, and encourage her to submit them to magazines or other publications. Most of the published work is shrugworthy anyway, so she may achieve success.

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2013, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-figure-out-how-to-respond-to-my-friends-poems-and-stories/660418/22 "2013-06-09T22:59:54Z")

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> [@carlotta](#):
>
> IThey’re not bad, just not my kind of thing.

That’s the starting point: “This isn’t my kind of thing. You’d be better off sending these to a more appreciative reader.”

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**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-figure-out-how-to-respond-to-my-friends-poems-and-stories/660418/23 "2013-06-10T00:57:16Z")

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Suggest they join a writer’s group where everybody’s work is critiqued by everybody.

Danielle Steele sucks but she’s rich. You never know.

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