There seems to be a shift of perspective when we become authors. We move from being just readers into being both authors and readers. And so, our relationship with books becomes complicated: I find it hard, nowadays, to just read a book. I will notice verbs, underline interesting words or even copy something I find irresistible and have to introduce into my own writing. But I can’t just read a book. Not anymore!
I have even turned my wife Electra into a critic of sorts, and she keeps complaining that I have ruined her reading experience. A few weeks ago, she read a book where the author used a lot the expression ‘the brow of the hill’. She thought that it was a really nice way of depicting the hill, but when she saw the aforementioned expression used for the umpteenth time, she glared at me and complained that I have ruined her reading experience, because a year or two ago, she wouldn’t have noticed it.
Anyway, I recently ran into a blog post from Novelspot, called “Reasons to stop reading”. Morgan, as the helpful blogger is called, makes a great list of all the aspects she hates in books, which eventually deter her from reading the book. Much like her, the following mistakes put me off from reading a book:
- Typos, errors, grammar mistakes are off-putting. Personally, I can forgive a couple of typos and I don’t mind if a comma or a full stop are before or after the quotation marks. But if I stumble upon several serious grammatical errors, I feel a bit unsettled.
- An unlikable character: This doesn’t mean that all characters have to be saints. They do, however, need to be believable, and consistent with the genre. So, an upbeat romance should involve to some extent a character that represents just that!
- Believable: Yes, we are authors. We use our imagination. All the same, there are some rules that make a person or a story believable, and we should keep these in mind. A beta-reader pointed out that in my new book, the way that a character reacted to an almost-fatal attack was not believable. So, I will have to go through that and make it more realistic.
- Lack of research and factual errors: especially when history, places or people in the past are concerned. This kind of mistake can creep into even the smallest places: I had a character that was pregnant, and I went through the book a number of times to ensure that she was giving birth after the normal time!
- Sameness: a writer can write many novels, but repeating the plot while simply changing the character names does not qualify as a new book. It just discourages readers from buying another book.
- The agenda-peddlers: although an author’s personality is bound to appear through the lines, a fiction book should steer clear of preaching. I like to finish all book I start, and have broken the rule only a handful of times. This is usually why.
- The story doesn’t go anywhere: There are few things worse than a rudderless plot, with no clear beginning, middle and end. I want to have a story arc and to feel that the story is progressing towards a denouement.
- Too little conflict: As with normal life, conflict and struggle –and we are not necessarily talking about full-blown war here- is an integral part of a plot.
- Too much conflict: Few people like a gore-fest. The pacing should include both drama and pauses; jumping from one tormented character to the next can leave the reader exhausted.
- A good book throughout: starting off with an amazing story and then leaving the whole plot to lazily unfold towards an uncertain ending can be irritating because readers start with great expectations and then find themselves towards an unexplained anti-climax.
- No explanation: if terms, places, people or events require an explanation, give it. Otherwise, readers are left with question marks hanging over their heads and feel they must be missing something.
Incidentally, I recently came across a conversation topic in Linkedin, where somebody made a very good point: that we should be writing books for readers, and not just fellow authors. Sometimes we may forget that, making any or all of the above mistakes. Instead, we really should seek to sell our books to our previous selves, rather than our current ones.
As a writer I think you develop a kind of shorthand – you know the plot and the characters and in your mind they are fulfilling your expectations. It is easy to forget that readers have not got that level of insight and require a more in depth story line. I have read a number of books recently where there are gaps and got distracted wondering where all the connections were. This is where being a reader first and then a writer pays off. Even when you are finding unexpected gaffs – they serve to remind you to triple check and read you own work with a readers expectations not your own.
Thank you for the excellent points you’re raising! As my books combine multiple storylines, I always worry about that. My first line of defence against the offences you mention is, of course, my wife (who’s also my first – and strictest – beta-reader), then the rest of my beta-readers.
Which is why they have such a prominent place in my acknowledgments! 🙂
Yes I am lucky in that my husband is also the person who does a final edit for me when formatting my books – I have got to know a certain look on his face….. We are both very blessed.
Ooh, the Look… I know what you’re referring to, the Look and I are well acquainted… 😀
I’ve written a ridiculous book, which turned into a four part trilogy (yes, I count like Baldrick out of Blackadder). I have put a caveat on my books that they don’t stand alone because to recap everything would involve so much info dumping it’d be laughable. I have characters discussing stuff that’s gone before. As for hints of future stiff. My hero’s so thick people are screaming at him to see the light by the time he does, in book 3. I commit every plotting anathema known but it seems to go down ok. I can only assume that’s because I like it and I’ve stumbled upon some readers who are as warped as I. Or maybe it’s just a case that we writers can get away with anything if we write it with enough conviction.
When it comes to errors, I do find that I notice bad writing or phrases repeated again and again until they become like white noise – yes E L James, I’m talking to you – but if the characterisation is good, the spelling correct and there are no holes in the plot I don’t really notice the grammar. Whereas I know another writer who just can’t read something if the dialogue isn’t punctuated the way she does it.
Cheers
MTM
“Whereas I know another writer who just can’t read something if the dialogue isn’t punctuated the way she does it.”
I, too, know people like that. That’s why I once said that writers should remember what it’s like to be a reader.
I should probably emulate you. I worry too much about my books standing on their own. Mad Water was a nightmare in this respect. I ended up using a character list and a brief summary at the beginning, as well as having a chapter “recapping” everything that had happened before. I think I’ll be more relaxed about it in the 4th book.
I love that you’ve hit on a winning recipe, thanks for sharing! 🙂
Mwah hahaahrgh! I think you should use the word ‘winning’ advisedly there. (phnark) although it works for me, writing it.
Cheers
MTM
A note on the foreshadowing question. My series The Labors of Ki’shto’ba Huge-Head (in which my extraterrestrial intelligent termite people relive Greek myth as they undertake a quest to reach the sea) includes a lot of foreshadowing in the form of Seers’ prophecies. Of course, prophecies are always couched in ambiguous language (like “Twelve will set claw on the wood where the two moons shine, but in the end there will be One and One. “All through the books there is speculation as to who the One and One will be.) I would hope that like the characters, the readers will be hooked into wanting to know how these prophecies will be fulfilled. Seers fit perfectly into the culture (I introduced them first in the predecessor novel, The Termite Queen, where the Shshi people make first contact with humans), and of course Greek myth is loaded with oracles and seers, so it all makes sense. Also, the narrator in the series will occasionally say things like “We didn’t fully understand the meaning of that at the time … but that is for later. telling.”
Lol – ah yes, us Greeks and our prophecies. The problem with prophecies is that they are only understood in hindsight. Like poor Croisus, king of the mighty Median empire, who consulted the Delphi oracle on whether to cross river Aly to invade the Persian empire.
“If you cross river Aly, a great empire shall fall,” the Oracle prophecized.
He did, and his own empire was wiped out by the Persians.
I can just imagine him in his capital, the Persians about to storm his palace, going “Oh, NOW I get it. A great empire, that was us. He he, that’s funny. Duh, stupid Croisus…” (chuckle interrupted by swords impaling him)
My other favourite prophecy was one told to a poor man who wanted to know whether he would die in battle or not.
“You will go you will die not back home you’ll return,” came the Yoda-like reply. As ancient Greek had no commas to differentiate between
“You will go, you will die, not back home you’ll return,”
and
“You will go, you will die not, back home you’ll return,”
this must not have been the Oracle’s finest moment…
And yes, the story of river Aly has found its way straight into Pearseus! 🙂
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog….. An Author Promotions Enterprise!.
Thank you for the reblog, Chris! As always, it’s much appreciated! 🙂
For some reason, I can reply, but if I try and ‘like’ the thing gets stroppy and asks for login details I don’t know because my browser remembers it all for me.
Loril; I like!
Actually, all you guys, I like. This is a quality place to visit Msr Rossis 😉
Thanks, I guess: Mrs Rossis? How did you know that my wife helps me come up with blog topics (and even drafts many of them)? *bug-eyed staring around the room* WHERE ARE YOU???
If you’ll excuse me, I have to make a tin-foil hat now…
Should have read Mssr Rossis, as in Messieur 😉
*Clears throat* Erm, yes, of course, that’s what you meant *swiftly removes tinfoil hat from head and tosses into garbage, casting nervous glances around*
In college I majored in Film Studies, and I experienced the exact same phenomenon – I can’t simply watch a movie anymore without examining it critically. And since I started writing, I’ve definitely developed the same issue with books, which drives me a bit batty at times. Take adverbs. As a reader, I never even used to notice adverbs. Now they seem to jump off the page! But that’s exactly the kind of thing I wonder about – do the issues that we think are so crucial as writers actually even matter to readers who aren’t writers? Readers are far more likely to be concerned about the types of mistakes that you’ve mentioned, especially when it comes to story, character, and plot structure.
Hi Lori and welcome! That is so true – I’m convinced that readers couldn’t care less about the things we obsess with.
I sure do hope our obsessions make us better writers, though. We just have to watch against our writing getting in the way of our story. 🙂
I’ve read a huge amount on film structure and for a while it spoiled films for me but now I actually appreciate good films even more. If I’m so involved in the film I fail to notice the mechanics, it’s a good film 🙂
I envy you guys; all this studying of films must have really helped when you became authors!
I never said I learnt anything, I just read a lot 😉
I ‘see’ my stories as if through a lens, I thought that would lend itself to screenplay but I couldn’t get my head around having to show my characters emotions without writing actor direction. That killed it for me, I think I’m a director at heart but, that ain’t gunna be a happening 😀
We’re all the directors of our stories! I always “see” a scene play out as I put it down on paper, much like a director would. My part in this is noticing the details that will expose the characters’ feelings and goals to the reader, without relying too much on exposition. You don’t have to write a screenplay for this. In fact, I believe it makes for excellent prose! 🙂
Ha ha, great perspective, Chris! That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it – getting to the point where you’re not thinking about how it was done, but simply enjoying that it was done! 🙂
….’makes me feel unsettled…’
Haha! I like that! Such an understated way of saying things! But I know exactly what you mean…I notice ALL the errors in the books I read nowadays. If only I could spot all my own just as easily…
Thank you! As you may have guessed, my unofficial motto is, “if it’s worth saying, it’s worth saying in an understated way.” 🙂
As for the typos, I know, right?? What’s with that?? You know, I should just send you my books, and you can send me yours. That way we can finally put our skills to use! 😀
I am amazed that even after three rereads, I can fail to notice word repetition I keep finding ‘the the’. I’m becoming suspicious of my software… maybe Sarah Connor was right but the machines are starting really, really small!
Lol – did you know that last week the UN started work on the ethics of killer robots? Maybe we should ask them to look into the annoying kind, too! 😀
Regarding the entire post, I suspect this is why I’m primarily rereading old favourites.
Mustn’t forget though, the first reason to write has to be for ourselves.
Personally my writing issues tend to revolve around too much / too little conflict. As most of my writing is about emotional conflict, I worry I either have skimped or said too much. I really don’t want characters to come over as whining but neither do I want them to seem hardened. I have to go with my instinct and wait for somebody to read the first draft and comment.
Beautifully put, Chris! It’s important that we remember our job is not to please everybody (as if that were possible), but to be true to ourselves, and constantly strive to improve our writing.
I have a question about that last note. One obstacle I’ve run into with my series is that some readers have no patience for foreshadowing or setting up for future events. So, I’m curious as to ideas on how an author who is running a long story can keep subplots and foreshadowing going without running into the ‘no explanation’ debate. Is it even avoidable?
Maybe you can give the reader ‘an’ explanation that is credible and compelling but the true reveal comes later (which either can’t contradict the previous explanation or clarifies that the character’s understanding that the original explanation was flawed).
For example, the main character is seeking revenge for the death of a loved one. You know he is driven and is focused on his target but you want to hold his motivation back from the reader to surprise them with the backstory.
The impetus of the story is the chase, not the cause, nor the confrontation. Spelling it out ruins the story, telling them nothing ruins the readers experience but giving them a lie for an explanation because the main character believes it is true could work. The main character thinks the loved one died from negligence but learns it was a murder; as the writer, you knew but didn’t want to share.
Long explanation, not sure I conveyed my intent (bad news for a writer huh?) Maybe it’ll nudge something anyway.
I think your explanation (by example) is just fine, Chris! 🙂
Charles, I know exactly what you mean. It’s even worse in a series. I gave Mad Water to my beta-readers. The ones that haven’t read the previous installments in the series, had a bunch of questions regarding references described previously. Should I recap the explanations for first-time readers, or assume that everyone would have read the previous books? I’m struggling with this one, to be honest (and any ideas would be more than welcome!)
Also, I agree with you: a lot of the readers nowadays seem to rush through books, refusing to give the author a chance of properly expanding his story or gradually revealing information (yes, even if that means throwing a red herring every now and then). To be perfectly frank, I find it disrespectful to the author, so I refuse to simplify my story just to accommodate lazy readers.
I guess this brings me back to Chris, and his next comment, that we should write in a way true to ourselves. With any luck, this will win over those readers who appreciate it, and wean out lazy ones.
I must confess that I’ve given up any hopes of pleasing everyone by now… 🙂
That makes sense. Kind of like putting part of the explanation. Just enough to satisfy the reader.