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"In the future, you might remember that in writing, you must consider your audience and to not use terminology that is at best, confusing." No. YOU are not the only audience. Not every piece of writing needs to cater to you. 👇🏽 youtube.com/watch?v=DQ0mMj
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Normally I roll my eyes at emails like this and move on. But, considering the current climate, I think it bears repeating: Representation matters. The real world is full of varied, awesome people, and my stories will continue to reflect that to the best of my ability.
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Message: Ms. O'keefe,
Yesterday, I started, and was thoroughly enjoying your novel Velocity Weapon. One of the primary things I look for in a novel is the flow of the story. The flow of your story came to a halt when I had to stop reading to figure out why you kept referring to a character in a multiples context. At first, I thought it was an editing error, but repetition told me that it was purposeful. I thought maybe you were trying to portray the character as someone with multiple personalities or maybe possessed, but neither idea fit your general narrative. I finally asked my daughter (an English major) to look to see if I was missing something. She explained you were using "personal pronouns" which apparently is a current fad among younger kids, and that I had to just read through it. Well, I tried, but it became an exercise in frustration that completely ruined the enjoyment of reading an otherwise well written story. So, I'm sorry to say, I had to quit reading your story.
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I get so much grief using the gender-neutral they/them in my writing, which was SINGULAR until grammarians decided to promote the “generic “masculine. Thanks for your post!
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