Two observations today

[Demesnedenoir]

I was researching agents, seeing who reps who, and took a look at some book previews of authors rep'd by agents I was looking at. I won't name names or give quotes, but I came across an epic fantasy writer that I kind of liked on their previews... didn't fall in love with the prose, but I liked it enough to consider buying a novel. And then the writer poked me in the nose, and I didn't even realize it would bug me as much as it did... they italicized about 5 or 6 words in dialogue on one page. The first jarred me, the second made me go ugh! and by the time I got to the third I'd decided no way I would buy the book.

Why in the world did this author feel it necessary to highlight vague words that mean nothing! It was like highlighting the fact the writer knew these words were pointless, so they tried to give them weight with emphasis. Anyhow, I had no idea I'd grown so easily annoyed by italics.

But I later came back to this author, and read a little of another book in the series, didn't see much italics and and was just warming back up when they punched me in the face with a simile that just didn't work at all for me... twice in three pages, just knocked my eyeballs right out of the read with brain saying "whhaaaaaat? No."

Which was kind of amusing, because just the day before I was reading a blog talking about simile and metaphor and how they can be a powerful tool for a writer, and a horrible enemy because they draw attention, so when they blow up, they blow up in a spectacular display.

I still may give a book of his a chance and buy it, but I gave myself a quick lesson in how little things can turn off a potential book buyer, LOL. Mind you, these alone would not stop me from buying, it seemed borderline to begin with, but they may have pushed it over the cliff.

What other pet peeves do folks have? Heck, i didn't even know I had these until today, LOL.

 

[FifthView]

One pet peeve that will often ruin a story for me: unintended anachronism. Things described in a fantasy world in ways they should not be: "The feeling was positively electric." Um, no. One book (that was bad for other reasons as well) tried to describe some priestly get-up by saying it resembled those deep-sea fish that had a long stem hanging out over their heads with a glowing ball at the end--something I think we in our world only discovered relatively recently? I also do not do well with things like, "That's cool!" or "Whoa, that sucks" in an otherwise medieval milieu, although this thankfully seems rare. I don't want to read about some magical ball of light, or animal, making an "orbit" around a field....the list can go on and on.

 

[Heliotrope]

For some strange reason the line:

"A single tear dripped down his cheek..." Makes me want to vomit. And I see it so often! It can come in a variety of ways... sometimes the tear trails down the cheek. Sometimes the tear leaves a wet path... but that damn single tear makes me want to throw a book every time.

Anything that starts with a noble girl leaving her home to become a warrior. Not saying any names, but a particular author with a particular steam punk pirate air ship captain novel caught my attention recently. I like air ship pirates, and the man on the cover was my type (*cough cough*). At the very beginning, it started with a noble girl leaving home to become a warrior. I was so disappointed!

 

[We Rise Above]

Anything that starts with a noble girl leaving her home to become a warrior.

This has been such a cliche for so long that I'm always surprised to discover an author that uses it. Way back when, I regularly played D&D and anybody who created a character whose background involved something along the lines of "She was born to a noble family but she didn't want that kind of life. What she really wanted to do was fight and have adventures..." would have been ridiculed for being unoriginal.

Ever since, I've put down any book with a cover blurb that talks about a well-born person who voluntarily gives it all up to go off and fight. Now, if they're forced to give it all up, that's a different story...

 

[Svrtnsse]

One of my pet peeves is phrases along the lines of "a kind of <something> called <specialname>" when used when introducing the world of a story. It rubs me the wrong way for some reason, like I'm supposed to be impressed that someone's bothered coming up with a name for something.

EDIT: I'm aware this isn't exactly rational of me, and it seems to be fairly common so don't take it the wrong way if it's something you do.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Rational is not required in order to be a pet peeve, LOL. That's for sure. Can we get a more specific example, because depending on what gets plugged in the holes, I think I might get this one... but my brain is barely awake, heh heh.

One of my pet peeves is phrases along the lines of "a kind of <something> called <specialname>" when used when introducing the world of a story. It rubs me the wrong way for some reason, like I'm supposed to be impressed that someone's bothered coming up with a name for something.

EDIT: I'm aware this isn't exactly rational of me, and it seems to be fairly common so don't take it the wrong way if it's something you do.

 

[Svrtnsse]

At first I had a hard time finding the example I was thinking of, but then I ran a google search on "magical crystalls called" and got the following results on the first page:

The Land of Crystals like the name is surrounded by tall and powerful magical crystals called Lacrima.
Using powerful magical crystals called Lumcastia, [...]

They worshiped Meridia at a glorious cathedral, and their city's prosperity was ensured by magical crystals called the Lights of Meridia.

These warriors are able to use magic and control monsters called "Spirits" using magical crystals called "Shards."

The key of these powers in(sic) found in ancient magical crystals called Gorm Stones

Riding on the wind, he arrives in a world where warriors called Shard Casters fight endlessly with each other, using magical crystals called [...]

I have a hunch this is something that's pretty common when it comes to anime-based games/stories, and it may be it's a quirk of translation. Perhaps it's fine in it's original language, but to me it really grates.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Yes, I can see where it would get annoying. LOL.

At first I had a hard time finding the example I was thinking of, but then I ran a google search on "magical crystalls called" and got the following results on the first page:



I have a hunch this is something that's pretty common when it comes to anime-based games/stories, and it may be it's a quirk of translation. Perhaps it's fine in it's original language, but to me it really grates.

 

[skip.knox]

The farm boy with a destiny. Maybe it's because I'm old, but I don't think so, because this particular peeve has been my pet for a couple of decades at least.

Once upon a time, I did like coming-of-age stories. But I grew out of it. Now I give the book a pass if I see it's about young people engaged in a fantasy quest. I want a story about grown-ups. In truth, I'd like a story about an old man on an epic quest. But adult, anyway.

Adults have a depth that youth cannot have. Give me someone with a history (but not someone like Kvothe, please). Someone with scars rather than aspirations. Someone with a past rather than a destiny.

'Scuse me. Gotta take my pet for a walk.

 

[Chessie]

Why in the world did this author feel it necessary to highlight vague words that mean nothing! It was like highlighting the fact the writer knew these words were pointless, so they tried to give them weight with emphasis. Anyhow, I had no idea I'd grown so easily annoyed by italics.

I'm totally guilty of this thing you speak of. However, it's a bad habit that I'm trying to break and your post gives me a strict reminder to knock it off. (see what I did there mw hahaha)

Pet peeves in books? Hm...probably dryness of any form. I'll let a lot go but if the story is boring and slow then I give it right up. One such fantasy book I recently read annoyed me because the first chapter was probably the longest I've read in any book ever. Nothing happened. Two chapters later, the story was still in the same freaking bar it had started in. So I rage quit.

 

[Heliotrope]

Oh my gosh Skip I am so with you on the young person/coming of age story. I see why they are popular, for young people, but I feel like there is not enough adult lit in our genre (as I write yet another YA... maybe that's why I'm having trouble moving forward with it?)

I recently read The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared. It was wonderful. I find that when I sit down to write the characters that pop into my head are people with life experience. A war hero with survivors guilt. A mother with a deformed child. A newly married woman questioning her identity and her choices...

Hmmmm.... I think I might be writing the wrong novel.

 

[Deleted member 4265]

My pet peeves are:

any story about someone abdicating their responsibilities without any consideration of the consequences. Usually this fall into the princess (or prince) doesn't want to go through with a politically arranged marriage because love or they want to be a "free spirit" or something but there have been some other worse instances too.

Anything in first person that's not written as journal entries or being told by an older version of the MC. It really throws me when something's written in more "immediate" first person. I'm just always wondering how they can be conveying the story to me as its happening.

Generic religions. This is a sort of weird one, but I'm fascinated by religions and it really annoys me when I read a story with a very obvious generic copy of real world religions. I hate it when author's take a real world pantheon and change all the names, and call it a religion. What makes a religion fascinating isn't so much its deities as its message(s).

Anything YA. Its just not for me

Female character who doesn't want kids is forced to take care of a baby and starts developing maternal instincts (I get this is a bit of a double standard because I don't mind this plot line with a male character, but female =/= good with children)

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I'm with you on all of these. I try to erase my knowledge of world religion when coming at developing their mythologies, coming up wth individual creation myths and running from there.

YA, yeah... ugh.

My pet peeves are:

any story about someone abdicating their responsibilities without any consideration of the consequences. Usually this fall into the princess (or prince) doesn't want to go through with a politically arranged marriage because love or they want to be a "free spirit" or something but there have been some other worse instances too.

Anything in first person that's not written as journal entries or being told by an older version of the MC. It really throws me when something's written in more "immediate" first person. I'm just always wondering how they can be conveying the story to me as its happening.

Generic religions. This is a sort of weird one, but I'm fascinated by religions and it really annoys me when I read a story with a very obvious generic copy of real world religions. I hate it when author's take a real world pantheon and change all the names, and call it a religion. What makes a religion fascinating isn't so much its deities as its message(s).

Anything YA. Its just not for me

Female character who doesn't want kids is forced to take care of a baby and starts developing maternal instincts (I get this is a bit of a double standard because I don't mind this plot line with a male character, but female =/= good with children)

 

[Demesnedenoir]

The bildungsroman is unavoidable, it has been and always will be one of the key stories in human myth... at least until we're all immortal and no longer bother having children. heh heh.

I do agree, more adult is better... but not the T-n-A kind, LOL... I skip sex scenes, they bore the bejeebers out of me.

Oh my gosh Skip I am so with you on the young person/coming of age story. I see why they are popular, for young people, but I feel like there is not enough adult lit in our genre (as I write yet another YA... maybe that's why I'm having trouble moving forward with it?)

I recently read The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared. It was wonderful. I find that when I sit down to write the characters that pop into my head are people with life experience. A war hero with survivors guilt. A mother with a deformed child. A newly married woman questioning her identity and her choices...

Hmmmm.... I think I might be writing the wrong novel.

 

[Vaporo]

On the subject of italics, it drives me up the wall when I see an author italicize the word before the word that should be emphasized. Try saying that last sentence out loud. It sounds completely unnatural to emphasize "word" instead if "before." It would be one thing if it was a one-time mistake, but I've seen it done in several different books. When I see it, it's just so jarring that I have to stop and say the sentence to myself a few times to try and figure out how the author intended for it to be read, and even after repeating it to myself a dozen times it usually still feels unnatural.

My own pet peeve? I made a thread about this a month or two ago, but I absolutely hate it when a book ends an exciting chapter on a cliffhanger and cuts to a relatively dry and unexciting scene. Do you honestly think that the chapter is so dull that you have dangle a bit of interesting plot at the end just to convince people to read it? If so, then it probably deserves to be rewritten or cut out completely. It's such an artificial way of creating suspense and it just frustrates and annoys me every time I see it.

 

[skip.knox]

Devouring Wolf reminded me of another pet peeve: writing in the present tense. It's a huge red flag for me. Add any one other pet peeve, even the lesser ones such as poor grammar, and I stop reading. I know there are exceptions out there somewhere, but they're as rare as unicorns and there are so many other, better books waiting to be read, why drag myself through the Swamp of Inept Immediacy?

 

[Demesnedenoir]

For some strange reason the line:

"A single tear dripped down his cheek..." Makes me want to vomit. And I see it so often! It can come in a variety of ways... sometimes the tear trails down the cheek. Sometimes the tear leaves a wet path... but that damn single tear makes me want to throw a book every time.

Muwahahahahahaha! I was perusing a preview of The Grim Company on Amazon and after slugging my way through wasted word after wasted word, and a 4 sentence paragraph with 4 pointless adverbs (including an echo within 10 words) I came to the end of the chapter to find....

A single tear rolled down his cheek.

And I thought of you, LOL.

 

[Heliotrope]

OMG WHY!!!!!!! WHY do they do that?

Oh my god did you feel the bile rising in your throat?

I picked up a book one time at the grocery store by a highly prolific fantasy author with the initials SK and it was on the first page! I just couldn't....

 

[Demesnedenoir]

No bile, just pee inducing laughter, heh heh.

Bad part is, it seemed fairly interesting, but dang, it was like the author was pushing my buttons to make sure I didn't buy it.

OMG WHY!!!!!!! WHY do they do that?

Oh my god did you feel the bile rising in your throat?

I picked up a book one time at the grocery store by a highly prolific fantasy author with the initials SK and it was on the first page! I just couldn't....

 

[Demesnedenoir]

OK, PM if you must, is it King, Kelso... who violated your sensibilities! LOL.

OMG WHY!!!!!!! WHY do they do that?

Oh my god did you feel the bile rising in your throat?

I picked up a book one time at the grocery store by a highly prolific fantasy author with the initials SK and it was on the first page! I just couldn't....