Several years ago, I rented a furnished Florida condominium for a couple of winter months. The owner left his computer there and told me that I was welcome to use it. I found the Word program handy for letter and email writing. It was only natural that my curiosity would urge me to delve further into the material stored within the computer. The owner hadn’t restricted my use, so I felt comfortable clicking on programs.

Shortly, I opened a file in Documents that contained pieces written by the owner. One of his major works was an autobiography. He also tried his hand at poetry. On one wall of the condominium I found a framed poem to his granddaughter that had been published as part of an anthology of poems. I knew that this publisher collected a good price for a volume of this work, and that everyone who submitted a poem was published if they so wished. The merits of their works were not even a consideration. The particular poem I refer to was mediocre, in my kindly opinion. In fact, I knew that this entire poetry scheme was a scam, usually exploiting people with a passion for writing poor poetry.

There was also a book length detective story. I learned that he had submitted this latter work to a publisher/literary agent across the Florida peninsula in Sarasota. Several letters had been passed between the author and his potential representative in the publishing field. Apparently, from bills presented, the publisher deigned to read the book manuscript at some cost to the author. Then the publisher suggested that the author pay more money to have the book extensively edited by a "professional" on their staff. Follow up letters indicate that charges continued until the matter seemed to come to an abrupt end. Another elaborate scam to separate money from the author’s wallet.

As a retired English teacher, on first reading the material on the computer, I was appalled at how poorly it was written. The spelling, punctuation and word choice were what I’d expect from fifth graders, the syntax caused my eyes to water from the strain of transposition, the plot rambled and often dead-ended, names of characters inexplicably changed as the plot progressed. If an eighth grader had turned in such a story, it would have earned a charitable D from me, and warranted a long talk with his or her seventh grade teacher.

Despite all these shortcomings, I had empathy for the writer. Clearly, he was unschooled in writing. From his autobiography I learned that he had never graduated from high school, having to go to work young, to help support his family. I could also discern that he did have things to say in his written endeavors. He was like a man with a known destination, driving aimlessly through an unknown city with no map, and oblivious to all traffic signs. Indeed, I, too, would have felt obliged to charge him to critique his tedious and obtusive meanderings, but, ethically, only the first page of it.

What disturbed me about his relationship with the potential publisher was that he was not told up front that his work was too inferior to ever be considered for publication. Instead, he was manipulated financially, time and again, given the hope that his work could be made publishable and saleable. A false hope, indeed, unless it was entirely rewritten by someone with at least fundamental writing skills, which he lacked.

It is despicable that people are exploited in this way, and it happens all the time. Even a very good writer usually finds the ordeal of becoming published too much to cope with. Rejection slips pile up until the writer gives up the notion of seeing their work in print, unless they self-publish at their own expense, and that is generally a losing proposition, because of lack of advertising and exposure.

All of this has been leading to an idea that is germinating in my mind. It would be wonderful if potential writers had a web site to which they could submit samples of their work for free critiques by knowledgeable volunteers, no strings attached. The writer would only be entitled to one submission based on their email address. The critique would offer hope, where even marginally merited, or be painfully honest. Terrible writing is easily identified. Yes, there may be sites where writers "pussy foot" around critiques, afraid to hurt feelings or incur rebuttal, but I have yet to find any web pages where critiques are brutally frank.