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
@sleepingbearcat Editing and simply style. My wife doesn't understand why I open a new book to the middle to read a couple pages before starting it - if I can be engaged during a random page- you've got a reader.
@Virtualk Love that visual! Though it does put the pressure on for every page to be engaging—honestly, that's not a bad thing.
@sleepingbearcat Okay, so I'm reading the back cover and immediately when it suggests any sort of romance, nope, gone.
@Anemone I hear that. I don't mind romance in my stories but I don't want the romance to BE the story.
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.
@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?
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.
@sleepingbearcat bad or non-existent editing