2/23/2015 0 Comments Bad Writing MondayLast week I read a story in first person POV where the character was supposed to be a best selling novelist. If you're going to do this, you better at least have a clue as to sentence structure and grammar, and preferably a broader vocabulary when it comes to descriptions. I could believe a third person best selling novelist in a badly written story, but not first person. Also, when did switching POV become a "thing" in first person narratives? Did I miss the memo?
I'm not a big fan of first person POV to begin with, but it seems to be the thing to do these days, for no apparent reason. Didn't writers used to consider POV carefully, to decide the best one to use? Last gripe, which is not so much bad writing per se, but a bad habit of some writers. If you ask for critique on your writing, you are asking a reader to give their opinion. It's like asking their favourite colour, there is no wrong answer. Maybe you were trying something and it didn't work for that person, then it didn't work for that person. Maybe yeah, they didn't "get it" but you don't go tell them they're wrong. Don't change it if only one reader has an issue with it. But when several readers point out the same thing, and you tell them all they're wrong, and you did what you did deliberately...they are telling you that, deliberate or not, you failed. Now accept the crit, use it or don't, but move on. I saw this where several readers posted near identical crit and the author corrected them...and all crit after that was only praise, which seemed to be the only kind the writer wanted. Writers like that make it hard for people who genuinely want to improve to get honest crit. Stop, you're ruining it for us all. Happy Monday!
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