Monday post!

(okay I know I said Tuesday-Thursday but those are my busiest class days so fuck it.
I'll update today and then see if M-W-F suits me better.
Also: fuck I hate critiquing for my workshop class. I hate it so, so much.)

You know what I can’t stand?
Authors who feel like they have to keep a running commentary of their thoughts during their story. I’m just trying to read something, you know, but the author keeps busting in with their little [[author comments]] and breaking my suspension of disbelief.
The sad thing is that I’ve even seen this happen in stories that are otherwise very good.
Look, this is really simple. If your story is good, it can stand on its own. You don’t need to add little comments throughout the story. Nor do you have to comment on how much you like some character. Your readers don’t care, they can draw their own conclusions about the character without you popping in every two seconds to say how cute GIR is.
Quite simply, the rule is this: author notes do not belong in the story text. Depending on the site you’re posting on, there may be a “comments” field where you can say something, or otherwise you can add some notes at the beginning or end of the chapter/story (where your readers can easily skip them). Feel free to write as many author comments as you want-- outside of the story. But inside the story proper, please put aside your brackets and your parentheses and let your writing speak for itself.