Question: what's the biggest deal-breaker when you're reading a novel (or contemplating reading it)? Imagine you read the back cover or the first couple pages...what would make you immediately lose interest? #cosowriters #amwriting
Bad editing. Bad humor. Open with long exposition. Long internal dialog, (this can be done well, but usually not). Tropes, for the sake of tropes, not moving the story along.
But most of all cardboard cutout characters.
Yes !
I can live with minor characters that feels like a place holder. But any major character has to have depth and nuance. I don't have to like them, or even trust their veracity. But they have to be complex.
As for tropes. Using a trope as a trope, either tongue in cheek, or just as an in joke is ok. The moment it is used to hide bad plotting, or lazy story telling I am out.
@corlin Love this list. Have you ever abruptly stopped reading a book or series due to the introduction of a particularly bad character or the implementation of a very tired trope?