A lively discussion with some writing friends got me to thinking about what makes us love or hate a book, or drives us nutty about the story. For me, head-hopping will turn the book into a wall-banger very quickly. If you can't figure out how to tell the story without constantly jumping from head to head, I don't want to invest the effort into trying to follow the storyline. But for other people, that doesn't bother them.
Weak characterization is another thing that drives me nuts. Characters who are TSTL (too stupid to live), or who do things with no motivation whatsoever are another bugaboo for me. But my critique partners and other writing friends have lists of other things like historical mistakes, occasional flaws in the story logic, and other items that they can't forgive while I can.
On the other hand, strong storylines and characters with deep motivation and strong goals will bring me in every time.
So the writer in me wants to know. . . what drives you batty when reading fiction?
2 comments:
Head hopping, indeed! Floating body parts - such as "throwing up her hands." Ugh. Heroines too stupid to live. Typos sometimes can't be helped, depending on the formatting or proofreading, but when the book is riddled with them, that screams at me.
Bad or stilted dialogue. Inconsistent characterization. I can tolerate just about anything else if the story is interesting.
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