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Readers, What Do You Skip?


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2 hours ago, northie said:

Dialogue with 'said ...' following every time ('stated' is a particular bug bear) is something I find irritating. Repetitive description of characters' characteristics - hair colour noticed every time, for example, is another thing I don't like. The level of general description I'd like varies. For short stories it can be really sparse, just enough to place it in time and space. For anything longer, more detail is necessary, otherwise I find I can't connect with it on the right level. But, as has already been said, excessive detail is a killer. I don't want to feel as though I'm wading through verbiage to get to the actual story. 

 

As Wildone has already mentioned, description of sex is another problematical area for me. I enjoy it up to a certain level, but once it starts to get excessively anatomical, I start to squirm. Imagination is a powerful tool ... Oh, and don't describe it using flowery or excessive metaphors.

 

Basic grammar, syntax and spelling do matter. Why should our readers be expected to filter a story out of a mess of misspellings, and incoherence? I'm not perfect, but I do try, and where possible, I learn. 

 

In my book, less is more. I'm much more likely to employ my imagination than I am to waste my meagre reading time wading through page after page of description.

I think using said with dialogue is acceptable, as long as it is not every single sentence.  People should be able to tell who is speaking through dialogue.  What drives me crazy is anything aside from said, asked and occasionally, exclaimed.     

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11 hours ago, MacGreg said:

I've noticed this trend, too. If multiple stories contain the same characters, the author should connect them together as one story, not post them as individual pieces.

I'm kind of doing this right now by writing Scott's (a character in Chapter 1 of TJ) story. But I've added the story as a second book in a series. 

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I’m bothered by misspellings and grammatical errors. But I understand why one author (who seems to have been alluded to for several different issues) writes the way he does without editors, it’s because his writing is his therapy. I used to offer suggestions to him with corrections in my Comments, but gave up when I noticed that even though he appreciated the help, he wasn’t updating the chapter to fix the errors. (Sometimes descriptions of hair color and other characteristics are in-story thank you's or inside jokes.)

 

I'm actually more likely to PM an author when there’s a mistake that really bothers me.

 

But I’m tired of seeing the same incorrect homonyms being used. I hate it when authors use texting abbreviations out of context. Why don’t some people know when and where to use an apostrophe correctly? I understand and make allowances for non-native speakers, but their English is often much better than those of us who only speak a single language.

 

Sex scenes are boring. I really don’t want to read someone else’s fantasies. I’m not here to read porn.

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@Cia: Thank you for this informative and helpful topic! I learned a great deal from this :). Sometimes you don't know when you're doing something that may turn off readers. This has offered me good guidance.

@Narias1989: I'm the same. I'm pretty accepting and will give writers a chance to improve so I tend to look past a great deal. Spelling mistakes, mostly grammar, bother me far less than most.

 

But there are a few things that will make me start skipping or stop reading a story: 

  • Dialogue: Admittedly, it's difficult to be good at it. Stilted dialogue was mentioned. Hearing how people talk to each other can improve this, noting body language and quirks. I enjoy authors who are good at describing human behavior and eliciting emotions without too many details. Which brings me to:
  • Excess detail. Someone mentioned "stream of consciousness" narratives. Too much and monotonous information about someone's everyday life can be uninteresting. I fall into this trap as well. I prefer show over tell, though admittedly, telling sparingly works for me.

Maybe I can add more to this when I'm not headed off to work :P !

Edited by BDANR
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I forgot another over-used theme: the use of vast wealth to solve every problem.

 

It bothers me when the protagonist goes to great pains to tell us that he doesn’t like effeminate, flamboyant, and visually identifiably Gay people. How he’s not like those people. How he hates Gay ghettoes (and ends up creating his own mini-ghetto by the end of the story). I get it, some LGBTQs are butch, masculine, and macho. But differences should be celebrated, not denigrated. Being proud of your identity should not require insulting other people's identities and how they present.

 

I skip stories where large groups of previously very heterosexual young men suddenly turn Gay after the protagonist Comes Out in school. LGBTQ is not an infection. Straight boys don’t suddenly fall in love with each other just because they’ve been exposed to a classmate who is Gay. Whole schools do not switch sexual orientations! Most studies have found that LGBTQs are minority populations. A straight boy who experiments is still a straight boy – behavior is not the same as identity.

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8 hours ago, Sam Wyer said:

Now, I'm off to make coffee, and passing as I do, a mirror or other reflective surface into which I can stare, I'll also describe myself in tedious detail.....

How much detail can there be? Just about every Legoland face looks like the others down to the Simpson-esque yellow color. Even the same slightly effeminate androgynous eyebrows! You’d think they all came out of a factory or something!  ;-)

 

Is this phrasing less offensive, @Sam Wyer?  ;-)

Edited by Former Member
Less offensive term?
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2 minutes ago, droughtquake said:

How much detail can there be? Just about every Legoland face looks like the others down to the Simpson-esque yellow color. Even the same slightly effeminate eyebrows! You’d think they all came out of a factory or something!  ;-)

But notice how the light reflects off of my perfectly smooth and shiny skin, highlighting my box-ish beauty.  And my hard, equally perfectly smooth body...

 

But effeminate!?  I've always imagined it as 'slightly evil'. :) 

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1 minute ago, BHopper2 said:

Like you told me last night. "Rules are made to be broken." And that to look for creative ways to express stuff

You know .. my wonderful editor and i often send each other things... how does this sound to you?  Does this work?  What's another word for???   A, if you want to do that with me...you're welcome anytime. I'm not an editor by any means, but I'm happy for you to run things by me if you want to. Writing is a lonely job, but sometimes we have to help each other. 

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