Thanks for this. I've just realised that at the moment my critiques fit into the lousy category.
Whilst finding someone professional to critque your work would be a gem these are also qualities writers can work on, critiquing others and critiquing their own work, right?
I guess that's a "Thanks" that could serious, sarcastic or bittersweet. I'll assume the best.
I'm ambitious so I try and write for the "Wow" factor. I try and imagine a moment that would make the readers go "WOW!" and build the scene around it. Sometimes I get that "WOW!" and sometimes I don't, but it helps.
I find posting in the Writing Questions and World Building forums more helpful to me than the Showcase because they help me develop my own idea of what a good story looks like. When it comes to prose, I think you're going to learn more by interacting with prose that's better than yours.
If you want to learn how to write, grab a book off the shelf that you have criticisms about, open to a chapter where there's a lot going on, and rewrite it to make it better.