Capture Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 When reading contemporary or modern literature, what common writing or style problems do you notice? Is this a general pattern in modern lit or in particular genres, or only in particular books? Does it significantly affect your enjoyment of what you read or do you dismiss it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 I have a problem when a writer seemingly just makes lists and thinks they're sentences. Take Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon for instance - a typical start of one of his paragraphs runs something like this: And this, and that, and this, and that, and the other, and this one other thing, and this, and that. But.... He typically starts with "and" then lists a load of things with lots of "ands" in between. Oh yes, and he starts sentences with "but" as well, which I really take against. Actually, Sunset Song is just an example of a really dull book on top of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimmy619 Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 I don't like it when an author uses the same description over and over again. For example, Meyer always uses "my favourite crooked smile" and "wolfy grin". It really starts to get annoying after 4 books! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Univerze Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 ^I agree on that one, Laurell Hamilton does that, even in one book she often uses the same description for the same person twice or more, exactly the same phrasing. And from book to book, the words she uses to do that hardly ever change.. it's okay when you read the books a long time apart, but when you read one after the other it gets SO annoying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capture Posted February 8, 2010 Author Share Posted February 8, 2010 One of the problems I notice with some writers is that the descriptions are overdone. Sometimes, writers will describe a scene or setting in vivid detail but although very specific, the overemphasis on the minute details affects the smooth flow of reading. The focus on every piece of information takes away from the story being told. It's good to have great descriptions but too much can be difficult to wade through. The worst of it is reading a novel which is entirely description and very little narrative. But to each his own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinay87 Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 hahaha Robert Jordan's books are filled with women crossing their hands under their breasts and glowering their people. But I've only been annoyed with the way writers make paragraphs. If most are too long, then the novel becomes hard for me to read. And oh yes, when some characters speak too much without interruption, talking like oration is filling their every orifice. Really hard to believe something like that. And when some characters speak as though they're reciting an essay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigWords Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 And when some characters speak as though they're reciting an essay. Sums up a lot of Ayn Rand's work. And some Heinlein. Oh, and lest we forget L. Ron Hubbard... That's more to do with authorial politicism of their work and a serious lack of editing, rather than merely bad writing. It's annoying either way, of course. The most irritating stylistic tic I've picked up on in the last few months is the tendency for some books (both in and out of series work) to leave major plot points hanging mid-way, as if that is going to convince a publisher to greenlight a sequel. I'm not bothered by minor plot details being ignored, but when something which the story absolutely hinges on is disregarded it can feel as if the book is unfinished. Works by more than one author (co-written books from big publishers specifically) tend to do this more than was customary even a decade ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 I'm reading THe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo at the moment and the problem I'm having is too much back story and back history. It's constantly harking back to things that have happened in the characters' pasts right in the middle of something that's happening "now" which is really jarring and I don't like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookie Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Like Kimmy619 and Univerze both said about repetition, I find this really frustrating. This also happens in Martina Coles books (or at least some of the ones I've read) she will say "She was not a nice person" and then say the same thing again in the next chapter until you're left thinking yeah, I get it not get on with it already! Also chapters that are too big, I read in chapters you see and if they're too big I don't want to start one if I've only got five minutes to spare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirinrob Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 I'm reading THe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo at the moment and the problem I'm having is too much back story and back history. It's constantly harking back to things that have happened in the characters' pasts right in the middle of something that's happening "now" which is really jarring and I don't like it. I had the very same problem 'The Quiet Girl' by Peter H Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimmy619 Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 I'm reading THe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo at the moment and the problem I'm having is too much back story and back history. It's constantly harking back to things that have happened in the characters' pasts right in the middle of something that's happening "now" which is really jarring and I don't like it. I agree Kell, I thought about giving up with this book for that very reason. Stick with it though, it gets better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 No, I'm afraid I've ditched it. It was boring me senseless and I have too many books waiting to be read for me to waste my time on a book I'm not enjoying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinay87 Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 I don't know if it's the effect this place is having on me or just my own new petpeeve but I can't stand books which "get better in time" now. Which is why I'm slaughtering my book to make it awesome in my own eyes from page one. Why should readers be expected to "hang with it" till the author sees fit to bleed awesomeness in his/her book? It's unfair of them to expect us that methinks. If the book gets better at page 100, then page 100 should be page 1, should it not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BookJumper Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Why should readers be expected to "hang with it" till the author sees fit to bleed awesomeness in his/her book?I agree entirely, which is why I usually abandon books which don't grab me early on - my reading time is limited to my non-infinite time on this planet, and I refuse to 'hang with' books that don't pull me in from the word go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 If the book gets better at page 100, then page 100 should be page 1, should it not? Oh, that is SO true! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SueK Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Oh, that is SO true! I also echo that. Some books feel they need to build up to a depressingly long crescendo ...... life is too short my friends and as much as I hate to do it, I have to ditch books if they are not enhancing my life. As for annoying things, I very much like Barbara Erskine's books but the last few I found that every one shrugs their shoulders so much they must be walking around with cricks in their necks. It's OK once or twice, but every other page? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmaline Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Books that jump around in time. One page you are in a memory the next someone is dreaming about the future, then for a paragraph you are in current time, back to a dream. Ugh, I just can't keep up when they do that. I think that is why every time I try to read Withering Heights I just can't get into it. I spend so much time trying to figure out did this already happen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinay87 Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 Books that jump around in time. One page you are in a memory the next someone is dreaming about the future, then for a paragraph you are in current time, back to a dream. Ugh, I just can't keep up when they do that. I think that is why every time I try to read Withering Heights I just can't get into it. I spend so much time trying to figure out did this already happen? I'm guessing it'd be pointless to say The Time Traveller's Wife achieves the time jumping, in the very literal sense, quite well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missybct Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 I'm trying to think of the particular author who just kept using the same word over and over and OVER again. I can't think who it was and I can't remember the book but it really grates on me - whenever I've tried to write short stories the first thing I do after spell and grammar is make sure I've not put a word in repetitively! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinay87 Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 lol I do that with certain words. Happens daily. Hard to avoid it sometimes. Especially when writing about 1000 words a day. Yesterday the word was "eerie". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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