What are your pet peeves when reading a novel? What are some of the bad storytelling (or writing) practices that irk you the most?
Said. It is redundant. Any word that describes that someone is speaking really, whether it be said, asked, yelled, barked whispered, etc. There is no reason for it for them what so ever. That is what quotation marks are for. Just remove them out altogether. Kill them with a burning passion. How will get the reader to understand who is speaking? You may wonder. Well, my good writers, that is what creativity is all about. Here is an example.
It's the kind of thing that varies from person to person.I don't know that I can agree with this. I don't think it is always clear who is actually speaking and said would seem to serve that purpose. Further, and just as an offhand thought, but sometimes words are needed or not needed to keep a certain type of flow. Further, I do think it is important at time to add the extra bit of description, such as barked or yelled, or just plain said.
It's the kind of thing that varies from person to person.
I currently have an aversion to which, but that does't mean it's wrong to use it. It's just a matter of style. Some writers use more beats. Some use tags. What matter is if it works or not. Nothing's going to work for everyone.
I use said when I need to pick up the pace of a conversation and if it needs to be even quicker I drop tags and beats completely, but not for long.
Another pet peeve of mine is characters who take the time to explain things to the main character, even though those things really should be obvious to anyone living in the world. Favourite (not) example from something I read recently was someone who got attacked by some monster in the forest. The monster paused and explained to the character who they were and what they did, and then proceeded with the fight.
Another pet peeve of mine is characters who take the time to explain things to the main character, even though those things really should be obvious to anyone living in the world. Favourite (not) example from something I read recently was someone who got attacked by some monster in the forest. The monster paused and explained to the character who they were and what they did, and then proceeded with the fight.