My girlfriend is an aspiring writer. She gave me one of her short stories to read. It was really poorly written.

I wasn't really sure what to expect but I just read a short story she wrote and it was bad. I've been wanting to write for a while and I've read a lot of books for my age, I'm 19. And I've read a lot, I've read Hemmingway, Tolkien, Austen, and others. So I wasn't really expecting her to write at that level but she just isn't a good writer. There were typos and grammatical errors everywhere. The story wasn't even coherent. The plot and characters changed in random places. It was just a bit of a mess. I don't know what to say. I don't want to be mean but I don't want to just say it's great. I also don't want to edit it, I feel like that's a bit too much. I don't know, should I just be brutally honest? Or try to find something nice to say? What should I do, I don't want to be mean but I also want to help her become a better writer. I care about her but I just can't lie and say it's good. <br><br>Edit: Wow, I wasn't expecting this to get so many replies. Thanks everyone for the advice, it has been a really big help.