User blog comment:Banningk1979/Writing Advice for the Solid Writer/@comment-26326346-20150511192157

This was a good read and I wish that I had read it sooner. I agree with you on your stance regarding pictures, they absolutely do make stories look more professional (when they match the story). I get annoyed when I go through a pasta and look back at the picture and think how was that supposed to fit? I am guilty of settling for pictures in an instance or two, but I always felt that they worked because nothing in the story contradicted them.

When I was younger I used first person a lot, but I came to find it a horribly flawed way for me to tell the stories that I wanted to tell. I like being able to fill in any potential plot holes and I like being able to take the story in any direction that strikes my fancy as I am writing; first person can prohibit that. I never really had much problem with killing off the main character when doing a first person view, when I did that I'd switch to another character and make them the main (usually whoever killed the previous main character). It was a trick that I liked to use because most people would assume that if the story is being told in first person than the character would survive.

The whole "I don't have much time, I am going to post my story here so that everyone knows" thing bugs me to no end. I absolutely despise that. If I was in such a situation I would be spending my time trying to figure out how to get away or to contact help. I get that the writers that do this are trying to explain how the story got out there, but this is one such instance of less being more. I'm somewhat guilty of this in The Intrusion, but I did it in such a manner to where the character was undoubtedly trapped and leaving a record of what had transpired was really his last option.

This is a very good blog post and I wish that it would get more attention.