Dear Writer,
I have read your work of fiction, and am ready to render my opinion, plus my belief (Not Advice! John Steinbeck said, "You know how advice is. You only want it if it agrees with what you wanted to do anyway.") on what is required, mode to adapt, and how to create fiction that readers will peruse to the last word.

But please make no mistake: I am not offering you rules, plot scenarios, proper grammar, punctuation or spelling. I am, instead, offering you what I believe are the changes and the sacrifices necessary to become not a flash in the pan but an enduring author whom readers will align with their life experiences, and fantasize about your characters while they relish your written words. This is a journey.

So here is the puzzle you must solve, the maze you must travel through, your journey.
First, "Why are you writing?" Discontent, Anxiety, or are you trying to interpret yours and others lives? Another Steinbeck quote: "The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty."

So you must bare your soul to criticism. Hemingway said; "There is nothing to writing. All you have to do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."

Your first requirement is to learn to see. No, you do not know how. You look, but you do not see. Look at the sky right now. If you just see blue... How light is the sky at the horizon? How deep blue at the zenith? How does the sky slowly change as the sun vanishes again? Do you see beyond, the sunlit planet, the immense oceans, the vastness of space? Do you realize that blue sky is an illusion created by the sun's rays penetrating our atmosphere?

And in seeing, there are stories everywhere.

You are sitting on a bench in the main walkway of a large mall. Across from you here are many ladies looking at sale dresses on a rack outside a famous garment store. Single out that lady choosing dress after dress from the rack and holding them up against her while she looks in the full-length mirror. Is she impatient or just particular? Cheap, or a careful purchaser? How old? Tall, slight, trim, medium or stocky build? What color is her hair, long, short, bobbed, is that her real color? How is it held in place? What does her body language tell you about her? Sensuous? Strictly upright? Graceful? Wedding ring? No? Single, divorced?
What would her response be if you walked up and said, "The blue dress with the flowered print looked best."
If you are man, she may feel threatened("A Mall Masher!"), Insulted("How would you know?"), or amused("Funny! Let's see if this wise guy knows what he is talking about!"), even flattered("Wow, twenty ladies here, and he is talking to me!"). Any of those responses will tell you a lot about her character.
If you are a lady, she make consider your advice. Does she look at your clothes to see if you are qualified to render judgement on hers? Does she smile and say, "Thank you!"
In any case, you have sharpened your ability to really see, and possibly gained some material and even a character for a story.

Your second requirement is to emphasize. At your stoplight, there is an old, ragged man in dirty clothing holding up a sign: :Old Vet, broke, hungry, Please Help."
What do you see? What is your reaction? Do you see a young man full of dreams, slowly pushed into his present, suffering from the battles he fought, the divorce caused by his drug habit, picked up in Vietnam, the rejection by his parents and children? Or do you see a lazy derelict, mooching from gullible drivers? Does he stand straight? Is his head held high, or drooped in despair? How does he endure the vacant stares, the averted eyes, the contemptuous looks?
The light turns green. Do you roar by, swallowing your momentary regret, or do you fish in your wallet and slow down while you hand him a few dollars out the window. How do you feel now?

But enough for this time. You have enough to think about.

I leave you with a final obstacle: "How do I transfer what I see and feel from my mind to the written page?" And you thought the above as the tough part.

Think it all through, until you know what actually happened and how you honestly felt. Grind it up into your most honest rendition. Write it out without stopping, the first time. Let it sit for a while. Read your scribbles. Condense and rewrite. Polish and rewrite until your rendition is your best effort. Post and suffer. Take all criticisms for what they are; Good, Bad, Nit-Picky, Indifferent.

Welcome to the loneliest endeavor in the world.

Hemingway: "We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master."

Dear Writer, "Of course you feel better now."