[ SECRET POST #2209 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2208 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 121 secrets from Secret Submission Post #316.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I generally distrust first person (even in published novels), because it more often than not is used as a crutch for the author.

They speak to themselves in first person, so it's easier to put thoughts and words into paper. You can be clipped and terse and unpoetic because your mind is clipped, terse, and unpoetic.

[(Anonymous)]

Okay so let me get this straight. Writing in a way that feels natural and helps one write easier is "using a crutch?

So everyone is supposed to just write in a style that hinders their progress and doesn't feel normal to them because "it's the RIGHT WAY?" Well fuck that noise. First person is a legit style. Yes, people have misused it in terrible stories. Does that make it automatic bad writing. No.

Also when someone is 'poetic' all the time in their writing it's really annoying and sounds pretentious.

[(Anonymous)]

Because it's easier, less informative, and quite frankly, I know a lot of people do it because they are simply poor writers.

Poetry does not need to be poetic. I'm sorry for you.

[(Anonymous)]

*Poetry does not need to be pretentious.

[(Anonymous)]

Well that's something, that can be revised in the editing stage. When i'm in the initial getting the stuff down stage I use first person. Sometimes I use limited third. Whatever works. Sometimes it's a choice because it works for the story and the character's perspectives are actually part of the story itself.

It may not always be but with that "I pity you" line you're being awfully pretentious yourself. I don't need your pity for having a different opinion. I do not hate poetry itself, but I do find that when some try to aim for poetic they do it wrong leading to a carnival of "how many fancy words can I use at once" rather than just being real and having their own voice, Often people fall into needless purple prose because that's their idea of poetic.

Poor writers do a lot of things. That does not make the things bad if so many poor writers use them. In that case, well with the long history of literature, everything would be poor writing. Avoiding it because you find it weird is one thing. But declaring someone a lesser writer and or saying that "works that use it are mostly shit" is being, quite honestly, a snob.

[(Anonymous)]

Wrong! It's a perfectly valid choice and need not mean any such thing.

[(Anonymous)]

It need not, but it often does.

[(Anonymous)]

Same could be said for the tons of crappy third person POV fic, welcome to literature.

[(Anonymous)]

Fic with OCs tend to be worse than the standard fare, therefore many people are wary of OCs. I'm sure the fans of those fics would defend it as you are.

[(Anonymous)]

Actually they're not "worse than standard fare" the bad ones get noticed more,kinda like a vocal minority. I've seen a lot of really shitty stories that dealt with canon characters only.

Like the stories in HP fandom where Harry leaves his wife to be with Hermione and it's okay because his wife is "fat and naggy" so her feelings mean nothing. Or a similar story where he goes back in time to erase his wife's assistance. Or the story where two guys who the author paired together decide to torture their 'slutty' female friend (There's a lot of fics like that). Stories where one pairing is viciously broken for another pairing between two canons.

Those are equally as bad or worse than just some story where Princess Serena Moonshine falls in tragic love with [hot canon male]. I understand what you're getting at but I feel like saying that OC fics are usually worse is a misinterpretation. They get noticed. Bad 'canon' fics don't get so much attention, and people just pass over them.

I understand that a foreign element in a fanfiction raises defenses , but the idea that creating one's own characters in a story should be a bad thing or indicative of a poor writer just because it's written within someone else's universe, is frankly stupid. Getting practice in creating your own characters is a good thing especially if you plan to move on to original fiction because, if you can't write good characters you can't write a good story. Even a bad plot can be saved by good characters but if you can't write good character a good plot won't make much difference. If you can only ever write characters that are pre-created for you, you won't get anywhere.

So while OCs can be annoying or badly written, as can anything else to claim that using them is inherently bad or makes a story 'bad' is incorrect. Just like assuming that first person is bad because it was used wrong or used by a lazy author is a logical fallacy. Some stories are bad. If we all stop using first person, or stop writing Original Characters, some stories will still be fucking bad. Sorry if I seem a little annoyed but I see this so much that it gets irritating. The whole "some bad authors write bad OCs so OCs are badfic" is an example of the 'Hitler Ate Sugar' argument fallacy (person who is bad/infamous did this thing so you shouldn't do it or you'll be like the bad/infamous person, basically).

There's a difference between being wary of a certain thing, and refusing to give it any credit no matter what because you're so stuck on your own preconceived notion that it is 'just plain bad'. It sounds like OP is doing the latter.

[ninety6tears]

Except that's so not true, because to do it well they have to imitate the character's inner voice instead of their own. It has its own challenges, and it's not like there's never such a thing as conversational third person either.

[(Anonymous)]

You just pinned down why I can't write in first person. Never could figure it out, but it's (wow this sounds annoying now that I'm typing it) because I'm a poetic writer by nature. Every time I've tried the characterization's been off because I don't write characters who are as pretentious-sounding as me (with one exception, but yes, I'll admit it).

[(Anonymous)]

... Or you can be clipped and terse and unpoetic because the character is clipped and terse and unpoetic? There are some characters whose POVs, whether you're writing in first person or limited third, who are not going to be poetic about things, particularly in certain circumstances where they don't have time to be smelling the flowers. I mean, some characters do have a naturally philosophical bent, but even they are going to have moments where it's more "Get off the roof, get off the roof, get off the roof!", you know?