Hello! I'm a member of a face-to-face writers group where we review each other's work in a manner similar to the workshops on this site. I recently brought a piece to the group, and one of the reviewers didn't like the fact that I used contractions in the narration. His point was that narration isn't the voice of any of the characters (my piece was in the third person) and so should remain formal even if the characters themselves are not. I can see his point of view (no pun intended), but I'm wondering what others here think about it. Should I train myself to avoid contractions in the narrative text of my work? Is that really considered better? Thanks!
No. It depends on the style that your going for (or narrative voice if you want to call it that). You can use contractions in narration - plenty of writers do. As long as you want that more informal style there is nothing wrong with it.