"Fine if you find catharsis in writing, but please don't drag me into your bathroom, point in the toilet and expect me to praise your crap."
I see a good deal of 3rd person told as if it's first person. (I understand that's how 'chick lit' is written, generally) I think many 'net writers simply don't know the difference.
I try to look at the context of the writer, the level, if I can use that term. Blogging -- like on sites like Gather -- has created a new generation of writers we could call 'first draft writers,' concerned only with puking out a quick idea, caring nothing for the presentation of the idea, posting it and forgetting it as if it's a finished work. OK, maybe to this type of writer, it is a finished work. Again, context.
I suffered through a poorly written piece a couple weeks ago and did five paragraphs out of the 1500 words, just to give the writer a hint of what I thought she needed to work on.
Her response:
"Well, it's not like I'm getting paid to post on Gather, so why should I put time in editing a piece? I just want to know what you think of the story idea anyway."
If that's the case, I'd suggest a blurb, not a story:
A woman encounters what she thinks is a ghost only to discover she's the one that's the ghost.
Leave out the other 1487 words so I don't have to suffer through them.
Oh, what I think of that story idea? Hackneyed and trite, told so many times my only hope is to fall asleep before my teeth turn around in my head and eat my brain.
I try to avoid first draft writers because I find something inherently wrong with me spending more time on someone's work than he or she does.
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Comments: 21
Needless to say, I don't give many critiques anymore.
You'd hate my writing; I write third person as if it's first person, even though I don't write chick lit. But I don't submit first drafts, nor do I submit work with typos, misspellings, grammatical errors, so I suppose that's a plus.
Writing, learning to write, which I've called "finding our voice," is a process. We all, that's to say all of us, think we're great writers the first we put pen to paper. That's part of the discovery. I started writing back in '99. I sat down and wrote a book: Time's Blood: across the dreamscape. 190,000 words. Great story so poorly told, it makes me weep bitter tears. At the time, I didn't know how badly written it was.
Much is a catharsis and I'm glad I wrote it. Someday, I might rewrite it, but I don't know.
I don't mean to pick on the writer's work I site above. You wouldn't believe what people have told me in defense of their errors. One guy wrote "break" for "brake," referring to the brakes in a car -- the breaks failed, and said he did that intentionally because as the writer, he doesn't have to follow the rules. That way, his work will stand out.
I have a list of words I've gotten wrong from feign to peal.
If indeed you have a character in the story, who's not involved in the story, constantly interrupting the story to offer diatribe, narrative, stage direction, opinions and observations, I'd personally find the story difficult to read, wondering who this character was.
Aren't you the person who said: "And for the love of all that's holy, don't ask me, the reader, a question like women's literature is infamous for now. 'She found her right front tire flat. What was she going to do now?' WTF you asking me for?"
I do use constructions like that. If you can get beyond that, you might actually like my books.
But, I stress, that's just me. That style's becoming popular.
I do understand the device. I'm just of the belief, in 3rd person, the narrator should be invisible, not involved in the story, an objective presenter of events and not a character to tell the reader what to think and what to make of anything.
That's what I believe the characters in the story are for.
Instead of "He was very mad!"
I'd rather see:
His fist came down hard on the table.
Again, that's just me.
It's a choice the writer makes.
As a reader...there is and awful amount of junk writing thrown out on Gather
As your gather friend...I did decide to go to the library and check out Catch 22
"there is an awful amount of junk writing thrown out on Gather..."
Indeed.
I also love Slaughter House Five. That one is sitting on my kitchen desk right now.
For some reason I have always been hot for Billy Pilgram.
His innocence I suppose.
my only hope is to fall asleep before my teeth turn around in my head and eat my brain.
I noticed a typo - "cite"is the spelling you want in this article.
It is your choice to spend precious time helping someone else. First drafts are the soup du jour on Gather. Nice thing is...one can always go back and edit.
I stole the teeth thing from Lewis Black.
I would think, Janet, people would wish to hone and sharpen their work. However, for many 'one draft instant fiction' is fine.
It's all good.
If we had an understand award, it'd be yours.