Ever Give up on a book or a story?

[JamesSavik]

Have you ever given up reading a book or a story?

 

What would prompt you to punt? Bad writing, poor editing, ridiculous plot?

 

Was it simply not what you expected?

[thatboyChase]

all the f**kING time

 

i can never write ever anymore. I try really hard. The other day I sat down and tried to actually do another Secret Life of an/A Overture boy (i was getting annoyed at the title!!) sequel or something. I wrote like the first paragraph a hundred million times and could never get the voice or tone or anything. My microsoft Word is full of so much weird unfinished stuff its like a grimiore of some f**ked up lunatic (ME =D ) i have no idea what to do. Were you going to post a helpful link?

 

And its all of the questions up there, minus the editing part I usually have other people edit and from their vast amounts of edits i conclude that I am just plain terrible at grammar. I also think all my plots have been already used, somebody will find it and denounce me as a writer or something, or I think everything is so similar to that of a mainstream novel or something even on the internet. its very difficult writing and those of you who are good at it and want to make a living out of it, thats something i covet.

 

I also think some of my work is far to bizarre.freakish/lame to post here on GA, let alone a lack there of a gay theme, you know? In the past i've tried to muse about a story or plot i had but implementing gay characters. I'm pissed my Elijah 2 is sitting there sucking and city of rust is all in my mind but the words won't come. I sound like a huge bitch.

 

bye

[Nephylim]

I have often ditches a book after the first couple of chapters. Usually because it's too dry and bores me. I need vivid description, emotion depth and lots of life to keep me going.

It doesn't matter if the writing is technically perfect if it doesn't have Oomph it turns me off.

[Graeme]

In novels I've bought, I'd say there are only a handful that I didn't finish. Most of them would be stories where the plot just dragged out and I didn't see it changing. The others would be ones where I just couldn't 'get into' the story. It didn't grab my attention (which isn't that hard to get -- I stayed up until close to midnight last night reading a new book, when I knew I should have gone to bed early because it had been a long day) and so I gave up.

 

As for series, I've stopped reading a few. For some, it's the originality of the original one or two books got lost with latter books. After several books that were 'more of the same', I just stopped buying them. For others, it was that the story just didn't seem to go anywhere. There's one particularly well known fantasy series that I gave up on eventually because after the last two or three books, subplots that were left hanging were still left hanging three books later. I could just about summarise the last two books I read as 'everything that was going on before was still going on, plus a handful of new things'. I gave up at that point.

[Hamen Cheese]

Yes, for the few books that come to mind, I primarily give up either because of writing style or topic/theme.

 

One book comes to mind where it spends waaaaay too many sentences describing just one or two things. It's not that I don't want to really get the image in my head but if the topic isn't interesting enough for me, then I usually give up on it. (This is especially true if I can watch the movie version).

 

I've given up on a few stories here that have too much sex.

 

I've given up on a few that seem too depressing.

 

I've given up on one for bad grammar (but I've also kept reading one that had consistently bad grammar because the plot interested me).

[Cia]

For online stories it's typically poor writing. If the story is too cliche or there isn't a good flow I'm just not going to enjoy it so why waste my time? Books.... well typically it comes down to knowing what I like and what I don't. I will purchase books in specific genres to give them a chance and then if I like them I buy the series. The poor writing rarely comes into play with a published work so then it comes down to plot originality and the characters usually. If I can't identify with them or go, ooh... that's interesting when I read I won't continue. Being a speedreader I typically give it 200 pages or so to grab my attention, after that if it's no good, I toss it.

[PrivateTim]

I've bailed on a lot of online stories I was reading because they were so badly written or they moved way too fast. In fact I probably bail on a lot more than I read online.

 

I don't usually bail on books and don't recall doing that, but I did tear a book up once after I finished it I was so upset by the ending. It was That Was Then, This Is Now by S.E. Hinton and I read it because I loved the Outsiders. I don't even remember what upset me so much because I think I've blocked from my mind the story.

[Hylas]

A lot.

 

There are others I'm actually sad to ditch. Online stories which start out awesome but then once the conflict has been resolved, becomes OMGWTFBBQ so saccharine that you'll be treated to chapters and chapters of how nice your previously beleaguered hero's life has become, how many times he's had sex with his new BF/GF and where and how, how he forgives his old enemies, and how everything is unicorns-pooping-rainbows-while-butterflies-dance-around-lions-telling-lambs-bedtime-stories, etc. etc.

 

The thrill of the story's climax becomes lost in a prolonged epilogue and I lose interest. :[ Sad because the stories were actually very good... if only the authors knew when to stop.

[JamesSavik]

I'm reading a book now that I'm tempted to punt. The plot is so horrifying that makes the movie Paranormal Activity look like the Sound of Music.

 

The damn thing had me in a cold sweat and I'm a veteran of much horror.

[Former Member]

Have you ever given up reading a book or a story?

 

What would prompt you to punt? Bad writing, poor editing, ridiculous plot?

 

Was it simply not what you expected?

 

In general, it's not often I give up on a book. If it's feeling boring to me or problematic, I usually just put it back on the shelf and save it until another time. Perhaps I'll be in a different frame of mind, be more patient, objective or something, and came back a month or two, or even years later and try again. Sometimes I give it away to a friend or trade for another.

 

There has only been one book out of the thousands I've read where I got so pissed off with it, and it was so bad I would have felt embarrassed to give it away and have someone waste their time on it.

 

Can't think of the title now, but it was a fiction book, supposedly about a tribe in pre-Roman Britain, usually a subject I find interesting. But the writing was choppy, the plot hard to discern (if there ever was one, main characters kept dying every other page and then you have to guess where the story was going next!), the dialogue was written like they were Neanderthals, and the writer didn't seem to know what a paragraph was. What was so strange was that I'd read other books by the same author which were pretty good. Men's adventure type novels.

 

Maybe this one was a fluke, a filler, an different style or idea they tried but I chucked it in the bin gladly. I usually recycle paper. It wasn't worth even that.

 

P.S. Some online or "special" genre books I stopped reading altogether because I came across too many poorly written ones, confusing, etc. etc. I love to read, GOOD stuff. I literally got tired of hoping for at least pretty good, then the grim let down. Was wasting my time.

[Dolores Esteban]

I usually finish the books I buy, even if I feel bored. I remember two books in particular. One was about a werewolf running around and killing others every two or three pages. I really wondered how that author found a publisher. The plot of the other book sounded interesting. But the author described gipsy life in detail. It did not further the plot and it was all so boring. I finished the book just because of the money I had spent.

 

 

[Agaith]

Normally i hold too much hope for a book so read it past where i think 'um this is isnt great'.

I almost did that on Kevin. J.Anderson's Saga of Seven Suns series because there was so many subplots that the story moved too slowly but im glad i stuck with it because it got better as the series went on.

 

With the online stories i guess its a case of writing style or if the story isnt what i expected of it. Maybe i should use my hope more online!

 

 

[TetRefine]

Yeah. If they have a boring plot that seemingly has no end, it gets the boot.

[Tomas]

Yep! Do that all the time with online stories. Bad writing, no discernable plot or the plot just falls apart, an inordinate amount of time between chapters, etc.

 

Dead tree books? I have my favorite authors (Raymond E. Feist, Janny Wurts, Joan D. Vinge, Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven and a few others) and I usually don't bail on one of their books, but it has been known to happen.

 

Back when I first discovered LOTR, I bought all three books. Started Fellowship of the Rings and didn't get past the first chapter, put them on the bookshelf and forgot about them. Then sometime later, I read an article about how they were all the rage on college campuses. I remembered that I had the books and wondered what was so great about them and started to read them again. This time I went through all 3 books one right after the other. Then went back and got the Hobbit and read it.

 

Because of the time lag between chapters of online stories, if I'm really enjoying the story, I'll likely re-read, at least parts of it, while waiting for a new chapter. Usually, when I do that, I discover little things that I've missed the first time around. Jamie's The Scrolls of Icaria is one such story. There are many little gems that I've discovered in re-reading all or parts of the story. But, there again, a story has to be well written with all of the elements that hold my interest.

 

By the same token, I frequently re-read dead tree books. With books in a series I'll start with the first book and continue through all of them.

[Tipdin]

Oh gosh, I must have a hundred books or more on my bookcases right now that I have yet to slog through. Most of the time it seems that I just don't care about what's going on. The author has failed to capture my attention - which really isn't that hard to do.

 

I have dozens of unfinished series to read as well. I enjoy the first few but then I start to see the pattern or recipe used in the subsequent books and the stories go flat. I cared about characters for the first three or four books but after a while, even something good can get old. Even poor 'lil Harry Potter could have concluded sooner, perhaps should have; authors need to recognize when the end has come - for a character or a story.

 

Online reading I rarely even start anymore. Grammar mistakes, spelling errors, language that is too far over my head or too remedial; all those are fatalities as far as my reading habits are concerned. There may be some REALLY great ideas; however, the lack of editing or polish can keep a diamond in its rough state. And unnoticed.

[Tristan]

Books not so much, I take a lot of time to pick my books, which normally results in me reading the first chapter while still in the store. But I know what I like, and can normally find books that hold my interest (although I currently have a book mark in five, I haven't given up on them and will get back to them eventually).

 

Online stories I give up on about half of the time. This is normally due to poor spelling and grammar, which I blame on the fact that I'm a teacher and I get so frustrated that I just want to get out a red pen and make corrections There are also some plot points that I cannot stand. Amnesia plot lines irritate me and will make me stop reading immediately.

Edited July 15, 2010 by Tristian

[Hoskins]

I bailed out on Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time around book 8, there was too much wandering around and it became pretty clear he was just milking it for the dough

I bailed out on Terry Brooks' "Seeker" books because there was too much of Richard and that woman being all googly-eyed in love, wow was that boring

I bailed on Modesitt's books (can't even remember the series) because he had the horse "whissing" and "whiiying" or some nonsense and it was annoying

 

If an online story goes too long without updates, I probably won't go back and read it when it's updated again unless there's word that its totally spectacular - one notable exception is "crosscurrents" because there just needs to be an end

 

So yeah, lots of times I give up on a story or set of stories.

[scotchirish87]

In stories i usually stop reading if it is completely unrealistic, and relatively so in a sci-fi story. if it has poor grammar and structure so that it is impossible to follow the train of thought. If there are eight year olds talking with better vocabulary and more wisdom than an 80 yo English professor from Oxford. I've become pretty picky in the stories i read. Even going back to some that I used to think were awesome, I can hardly get through them anymore.

[Bumblebee]

if i buy a book i normally read it, or it sits on my book shelf until i feel like reading it!!

 

the twilight series........ well i'm just astonished that she even got them published. i read a few pages of the first book, and i was disgusted.......... vampires DON'T SPARKLE!!!! i could go on but i won't.

 

bad grammer, poor spelling, text speak, and a plot that either goes to fast or to slow will make me stop reading them online,

i have pretty bad spelling (weird because i read ALOT) but if you want to be an author and you want people to like your stories, please send it to an editor to pick up the mistakes!!!!

[Forty-Two]

For online stories it's typically poor writing. If the story is too cliche or there isn't a good flow I'm just not going to enjoy it so why waste my time?

 

This is the heart of it for me. If the story is short I will finish it just so I can try and give the author some feedback and hopefully avoid more awfully written stuff going up. In published books I find the writing style sometimes bugs me, but unless its bad plus the plot is weak, I will finish it anyway. It feels very sacrilegious to not finish any book, because even if it's bad I need to finish it to be able to justify that I should be taken seriously with my thoughts on why its so bad. I love characters more than plot, so if I think the main character is a dolt, I'm not going very far in the book.

 

I'm reading a book now that I'm tempted to punt. The plot is so horrifying that makes the movie Paranormal Activity look like the Sound of Music.

 

The damn thing had me in a cold sweat and I'm a veteran of much horror.

 

DUDE - what book? I love horror, but I have NEVER found a book scary enough!

[corvus]

I never buy books. It's great -- I never have to feel guilty about a shoddy purchase, and I never feel the need to force myself through a book as a result. And since I can't renew library books indefinitely, I have an excuse for all the books I never finished.

 

Books I never finished include Joyce's Ulysses (I got through 1/5), Eliot's Middlemarch (I got through 1/3), and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (I got through 1/2). I'd actually like to finish the last two, but they were long and got recalled/I left the state.

 

But I was very glad to return DeLillo's Mao II. It was such a middle-aged upper-middle-class white American writer's jack off fantasy fantasy. The 200+ pages of crap was basically about a harem of women enthralled with the writer's masculine pen.

 

[zland666]

Yes so many times and most of them is because i get writers block alot. Once that writer's block hits me and i wait to long for it to go away i loose intrest in the story i'm writing.

 

But when i actually post it what turns me off from writing is i don't get that much feedback. Yes I usually write it for myself but if you don't get reviews you have no inkling if people are actually enjoying the story or not, it might indicate that it's not really good. And then i get writer's block and completely loose interest sometimes, unless I'm hooked into my own story then it might have a chance ://

[DragonMando]

I don't chuck a book unfinished very often, but when I do, I'm usually pretty irritated with it. I can only think of two at the moment, one of them being when I was in highschool and literally threw my bible out my second story window and into the cow pasture. I couldn't stand the thing anymore

[Tommy_B]

Funny you ask this question (or funny I saw it today). I stopped reading a book today called The Whistling Season. I really, really, really wanted to like this book because the topic interested me and I can't get through it the writing is so bad, so convoluted... it is like he is trying to put the words in unnatural combinations so people will think he is deep or something. I may give it another chance tomorrow.

[Former Member]

I only give up on reading books if I don't have to read them for school and if they are really, REALLY boring .

 

I only give up on writing... well, never. Not anymore, that is. I gave up on a story once, because I wrote it together with a friend and she didn't want to write anymore.

 

I don't plan to ever give up on writing a story ever again :king: And so far, so good.