Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Well, lol...if I pick up a book (nowadays, look at the LITB [Look Inside the Book]) and I see telling, I'm outta there. I mean, people can rave about the freedom of self-pubbing, and all that, but one good result of the old system was, I never had to fear that I'd actually end up with a book that was TELLING. That's simply unacceptable. I mean, Christ, it's Cardinal Rule of Writing 101, isn't it?
I, too, have seen an unfortunate number of books that do just that, since the advent of large-scale self-pubbing. I've also seen Info Dumps, aka, Exposition. And, bizarrely, a CRAPLOAD of books that start with info dumps--not with dialogue, or action, or ANYTHING that might entice you into reading.
I'm old school, having cut my teeth on the classics and all that, and I'm not allergic to longer, slow openings, but by god, it takes a decent writer to do that and still get me to read it. Most are simply horrid examples of "why the gatekeepers still matter."
My $.02, FWIW.
Hitch
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Oh yes. I call those will you shut up already and get on with the story. 99% of the time I figure the person will babble the entire book so I move on to the something else.