readers Readers, What Do You Skip?

[Cia]

I read a writing tip today that seems sort of obvious... "Try to leave out the part readers tend to skip" (Elmore Leonard). But what part is that? It had to vary, but there's probably an overall consensus about the types of scenes or story elements that readers gloss over, skip past, or just stop reading. So share your thoughts to help GA authors improve our craft! 

[MacGreg]

My eyes usually start skimming over lengthy, detailed descriptions, such as landscape, backstory, or even character descriptions. I'm a firm believer in "show, don't tell" in writing, so once a story gets too bogged down with minute details, I either skip to another part or put it down altogether.

[JayT]

For a new story, I'll read the description and then decide if I want to go from there. If a description catches my eye, I'll open the story. If the story is poorly edited and has grammatical errors, I'll read as much as I can stand. if I think the story has a good base, but would be improved if those mistakes were rectified, I'll normally send the author a message letting them know that their story is good but needs to polished. Over the last almost two years, my tolerance for the number of grammatical mistakes in a story has greatly declined. 

Once I'm in a story and enjoying it, my analretentive mind has to read every word. I've gotten better about this and now tend to skip parts that get preachy. If an author feels he or she has to use their characters to get the soapbox issues aired, I'll either skip to the next part or stop reading. 

[MacGreg]

I agree with Jay, too, that rampant grammatical errors or pure sloppiness will make me skip over - well, everything.

[mogwhy]

for me, it's the extremes that make not want to read. way to detailed of descriptions. i  don't want to be able to make architectural plans with description nor do i want the simple, he was a boy. the biggest bug-a-boo that will get me to stop reading, no matter if the story is good, is the line spacing. sentence on top of sentence, is a killer. oh and change the characters names with in the same chapter.

[FormerMember4]

I am also one to read description. I want detail, but not War and Peace. More and more I skip teen stories. Unless there’s a new take on it. My age, and the fact genre done to death.

Grammar and editing huge. There’s a popular author with multiple stories who refuses an editor. Good ideas, horrendous sentence structure. Gave up and won’t read another by this author.

[Narias1989]

I'm generally a forgiving reader but I can't stand terrible dialogue.

 

[Graeme]

I tend to skip things that seem repetitive. If it too similar to scenes I've already read, I skip ahead. While these tend to be sex scenes (I'll read the first one or two, but when it becomes more of the same...), it also applies to sporting scenes, travelogues, song lyrics, yet another classroom, .... You get the picture. I want to escape when I'm reading, and repetition rarely helps.

[FormerMember4]

I forgot this. If you are an author with multiple stories, don't use the same A and B characters with new names and locales. It's obvious and lacks originality and imagination.

[Puppilull]

Apart from poor grammar and stilted dialogue (the latter worse for me, since I can forgive errors to a point), I agree with @MacGreg. Longwinded and overly detailed descriptions make me snooze and leave. 

[Timothy M.]

I usually skip graphic descriptions of violence.

I'll skim detailed descriptions of scenery etc. but they have to be really long or badly written to make me skip them completely.

[Carlos Hazday]

I skip scenes designed to elicit tears. Overly dramatic/romantic scenes designed to twist my emotions are lost on me. I like it when simple, unpretentious scenes make my eyes water out of happiness but fail to see the appeal of reading sad stuff which seems written only to do so. If I want to be sad and upset, I'll read the front page of the newspapers.

[Mikiesboy]

I will skip descriptions of anything that are too long unless they are so well crafted I have to read them.

 

Tell me too much and I just won't bother. Let the character tell me the story with their words. Short descriptions that set a scene are fine.  

 

 

[Brayon]

I'm the opposite of people here. Infodumps are alright. Tell, don't show. I want details. Give me descriptions. The more the better.

[JayT]

4 minutes ago, BHopper2 said:

I'm the opposite of people here. Infodumps are alright. Tell, don't show. I want details. Give me descriptions. The more the better.

You're a big Tolkien fan aren't you??? hehehe

[Brayon]

4 minutes ago, JayT said:

You're a big Tolkien fan aren't you??? hehehe

Opposite actually. I hate Tolkien with a passion man. Love the genre he is credited for starting, but his writing is extremely dry in my opinion. I've literally used the LotR trilogy as a cure for insomnia on my really bad nights.

 

There has to be a balance in the details, and descriptions. Make it to where I can picture the place, that you the author is telling me about, but I don't need a play-by-play on how many ants infest an ant hill, three miles north, of the rock we just sat on, to eat lunch.

Edited November 5, 2017 by BHopper2

[Puppilull]

4 minutes ago, JayT said:

You're a big Tolkien fan aren't you??? hehehe

 

So busted!

 

[JayT]

1 minute ago, BHopper2 said:

Opposite actually. I hate Tolkien with a passion man. Love the genre he is credited for starting, but his writing is extremely dry in my opinion. I've literally used the LotR trilogy as a cure for insomnia on my really bad nights.

 

There has to be a balance in the details, and descriptions. Make it to where I can pretty the place, that you the author is telling me about, but I don't need a play-by-play on how many ants infest an ant hill, three miles north, of the rock we just sat on, to eat lunch.

I made it through two chapters of The Hobbit and got the Cliff's Notes and wrote a report using that gods that man could go on and on and on and on about absolutely nothing 

[Brayon]

Just now, JayT said:

I made it through two chapters of The Hobbit and got the Cliff's Notes and wrote a report using that gods that man could go on and on and on and on about absolutely nothing 

True story. Tolkien's friends used to hate hearing him talk about his book. Because in real life, he was as bad as Gandalf.

[JayT]

Just now, BHopper2 said:

True story. Tolkien's friends used to hate hearing him talk about his book. Because in real life, he was as bad as Gandalf.

lol 

 

[blake_logan]

I generally end up skimming (or skipping over) "stream of consciousness" narrations.  I don't need to know the menu for every meal or what designer label is on the clothes the character is wearing every time they change.  If it doesn't contribute to the progress of the story, leave it out.

[Cia]

I like detail, and have always been a huge fan of stories with a lot of it. Growing up, I always wanted books or book series, the longer the better. But for me, rehashing story scenes through alternating point of views drives me crazy. It feels like pure laziness to use the same scenes in order to be able to show the reader the opposing character's POV of the scene. I think it's better to show the motivations/thoughts/feelings of the other characters by adding in more subtle cues like body language and actions along with their dialogue, rather than write the same dialogue and actions twice to show different thoughts. 

[FormerMember4]

There’s also a trend I’ve been seeing. Absolutely drives me crazy. Having characters from one story of the author, visit another story of the author. One scene, or chapter is fine. Don’t keep doing it. It shows an author is out of ideas. Maybe author needs to step back and reevaluate the course of the story.

[Valkyrie]

I like detail, but not overly-long, drawn out, technical info dumps.  Sometimes technical information is necessary for a story, but paragraphs of it will usually cause me to skip.  

 

Like Graeme, I also tend to skip a lot of sex scenes.  I don't need to know every little detail of what happened, especially if every single time the characters have sex is described to the minute detail.  Sometimes less is more.  

 

Bad editing will usually cause me to skip the story altogether, especially if the story description itself is riddled with typos and grammatical errors.  If the author can't get the story description right, then I don't hold much hope for the story being any better.  Writing is a craft and part of that craft is knowing proper punctuation, spelling, and language usage.  

 

 

[CassieQ]

This is probably more specific than what Cia was asking for, but I hate if the very first thing a characters does is get out of bed, check himself out in the mirror and go about his daily routine.  That's boring.  I will usually skip over it to see if something more interesting happens later on, but it usually doesn't.  

 

And if it is full of spelling errors, forget it.  My grammar is not the best, and I'm willing to forgive little things like a misplaced comma or two (or five) but if the author can't even be bothered to fix the spelling, I'm not very confident that they care enough to put together a decent story.