writer gotchas.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Two things that I see more in self-pubbed titles than I've seen in Big 5 titles that really ruin my enjoyment of the book:

Characters that have no particular characterization and act merely as interchangeable pawns to move the plot forward.

An author whose narrative is too conversational. If the book is narrated in the first person, that is one thing. If a third person narration is like that, I figure the author doesn't know what s/he is doing.

I suspect the second one is from people who can tell a good story in person and try to translate that into writing a book.

Writing really is a craft and to be a good writer you need both the talent and the craftsmanship. I vaguely remember reading a "Things you should avoid as a writer" article a number of years ago that mentioned some of this stuff.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by issybird

Lady Jones is not Lady Jane Jones is not Lady John Jones is not Jane, Lady Jones. They are four different people and Jane Jones may be Lady Smith for a fifth (and not Lady Jane Smith).

Wow, that makes my head swim!

I'll stick to F&SF where that stuff can get made up!

[Penforhire]

Some good ones already mentioned. I will add factual errors. When an author uses incorrect details it distracts me. It can happen to the best of them.

Robert Ludlum, rest his soul, was a great novelist. But he mentioned someone driving a fifth generation Corvette Z06 convertible in one of his thrillers. That vehicle was only ever offered as a FRC (fixed roof coupe). D'oh!

Or if your character activates a manual safety switch on some unspecified modern revolver. That is an rare feature in this type of firearm, almost unheard of after the early 1900's.

These are simple factual errors to anyone who knows a particular topic, item, or place.

[FizzyWater]

Lately most of my reading has been listening. I find the things that bother me in audiobooks different from the written word. Character names that sound like something else or are too similar when spoken can be frustrating. One book I listened to had a character named "Xi", said "Shee". I could eventually tell when the narrator meant "the character Xi said...." versus "the female character Xi was talking to said...". But it still annoys me when I revisit that audiobook.

Another book, which I'd read years before listening, had two female characters: one named Kaylin and one named Caitlin. Very visually different when reading in print. Very similar when listening.

I also found that while reading something like this about a character driving a car: "Eve turned into the parking lot" - that never made me look twice in print. But when I hear it, it's "look, it's magic, she turned into a parking lot!" and I can't hear that phrase without saying "poof!" Now she's turned into a door! Poof! Presto chango, and for my next magical trick....

[Pulpmeister]

In one of the Modesty Blaize novels, Modesty's chauffeur opens the back door of her Rolls-Royce Camargue -- which was only ever a two-door coupe. Maybe he used an angle grinder.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

Some good ones already mentioned. I will add factual errors. When an author uses incorrect details it distracts me. It can happen to the best of them.

Robert Ludlum, rest his soul, was a great novelist. But he mentioned someone driving a fifth generation Corvette Z06 convertible in one of his thrillers. That vehicle was only ever offered as a FRC (fixed roof coupe). D'oh!

Or if your character activates a manual safety switch on some unspecified modern revolver. That is an rare feature in this type of firearm, almost unheard of after the early 1900's.

These are simple factual errors to anyone who knows a particular topic, item, or place.

This kind of error is especially annoying in modern books written after such information became easily findable via a quick Google search.

In one book I read, a character's car was described with a color, model and year. I actually owned a car of this model and year and it was never available in the specified color. Another novel I read was set in my city. A character drove "a few miles" from point A to point B, when in actuality the distance is a mile or less. It would have taken so little time for the author to look this up on Google or Mapquest.

[Philippe D.]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

2) the short attention span narrative. The author jumps between a lot of different characters point of view. Imagine the Wheel of Time series compressed down into one volume. It's possible to do, but it's very hard to keep the reader's interest. There is a reason that most authors either use a primary protagonist or only have a couple. I think that a lot of authors do this because they think they can't have action happening off screen or were told in some writer workshop not to do so, but they have so many ideas for scenes they want to use.

Would you say GRR Martin's Ice and Fire series falls into this category, or are you thinking of faster switching than that? (Martin does this with one character's POV for each chapter - I'd say it's pretty well done, but then as I already stated in another thread, I'm pretty much a fan)

As for grammar/spelling... even as a non-native English speaker, sometimes it's pretty annoying. But then it's the kind of problem that I notice much more on the Web (forums and so on) than in properly published books - at least when the editors do their job. (Not surprisingly, spelling and grammar are pretty awful in the scientific literature - where there are many non-native writers, and the publishers let us do their editing job for free)

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Philippe D.

Would you say GRR Martin's Ice and Fire series falls into this category, or are you thinking of faster switching than that? (Martin does this with one character's POV for each chapter - I'd say it's pretty well done, but then as I already stated in another thread, I'm pretty much a fan)

As with much else in Ice and Fire, the POV shifts were fine in the earlier books, but by the end there was a ridiculous number of POVs expounding on incredibly tedious and extraneous details. Remember when characters could get from Winterfell to King's Landing without describing every excruciating yard of the journey?

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Philippe D.

Would you say GRR Martin's Ice and Fire series falls into this category, or are you thinking of faster switching than that? (Martin does this with one character's POV for each chapter - I'd say it's pretty well done, but then as I already stated in another thread, I'm pretty much a fan)

As for grammar/spelling... even as a non-native English speaker, sometimes it's pretty annoying. But then it's the kind of problem that I notice much more on the Web (forums and so on) than in properly published books - at least when the editors do their job. (Not surprisingly, spelling and grammar are pretty awful in the scientific literature - where there are many non-native writers, and the publishers let us do their editing job for free)

As I mentioned in another thread, I never got all that far into the series, so I don't really have a basis for commenting. The book that I had just finished before starting this thread did switch POV more than once per chapter. I've read books with a fair number of POV that have been able to do it successfully. For the most part, they have one or two primary POV that get the major focus.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Oh Man! Don't be a homophone!

I hate the continual confusion of "Loose" and "Lose", I actually saw it in a book the other day, it changed how I viewed the book completely.

Some other words I see mixed up frequently: track/tract; tack/tact; and pour/pore. Whenever I read about someone "pouring" over documents I picture a pitcher of water spilling all over

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Some other words I see mixed up frequently: track/tract; tack/tact; and pour/pore. Whenever I read about someone "pouring" over documents I picture a pitcher of water spilling all over

How do you feel about a 'pour soul'?

[GrannyGrump]

For that matter: picture/pitcher.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by GrannyGrump

For that matter: picture/pitcher.

They ALL make me creazy! But the loose/lose issue seems to be creeping into the culture.



I know what I did

[Catlady]

Confusion of lie/lay drives me crazy.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Confusion of lie/lay drives me crazy.

Yes! when someone says they "lay on the bed" I picture a chicken laying an egg