Today's question: your literary pet peeves?
Let's try this for our question today: what are the things that drive you crazy about a book (and I mean crazy in a bad way.)
I'll start:
-- characters (especially heroines) who are stupid despite us being told repeatedly by the author that they're just feisty. Nope. When the FBI task force says "stay in the car" but the heroine leaves the car to run after the serial killer and gets taken hostage, then it's stupidity. Sorry.
-- stories that are supposed to be about agriculture (aka farming) that get the details wrong. I can't read them. Recently, I tried to read one because it's gotten A LOT of critical acclaim, but it's clear to me those critics aren't farm girls because...well...farm girls know better.
-- ditto the above for stories about small towns.
-- stories that are "told" rather than "shown". This is a point of debate among authors and, like most things, people like what they like, and that's okay. But I don't like "telling" books. I want to be taken inside the character's mind and world not told about it from a far off place.
-- books that have scenes that go on too long. Right now I'm listening to a highly buzzed and big selling women's fiction debut, and I can already tell that if I were reading it I would have stopped by now. But here's the kicker: the author can really write! She just (in my opinion) doesn't know when to shut up. There'll be a great line that, I think, sums the scene up beautifully, but she'll keep going for a few more paragraphs--just to get a few more things in, you know while she has us there. I want a scene to end in a way that makes me want to read the next scene, not skip ahead and wonder how much longer this chapter is.
I know I've got more, but those are the big ones on the top of my head.
What about you guys? What are your pet peeves?
-Ally
edited to add: oh, and I also hate it when the author has done a lot of research for the book and insists on using all of it--like the character doesn't just pick up a gun, it's a specific brand, type, make of gun and we hear all about its history and the type of person who usually uses that particular gun and maybe how the character got his/her gun when all I really care about is whether or not he/she is going to shoot somebody.
Basically, if the writing reminds me that there was a writer involved, then I'm jerked out of the story and into editor mode and I start looking for red pens.
I'll start:
-- characters (especially heroines) who are stupid despite us being told repeatedly by the author that they're just feisty. Nope. When the FBI task force says "stay in the car" but the heroine leaves the car to run after the serial killer and gets taken hostage, then it's stupidity. Sorry.
-- stories that are supposed to be about agriculture (aka farming) that get the details wrong. I can't read them. Recently, I tried to read one because it's gotten A LOT of critical acclaim, but it's clear to me those critics aren't farm girls because...well...farm girls know better.
-- ditto the above for stories about small towns.
-- stories that are "told" rather than "shown". This is a point of debate among authors and, like most things, people like what they like, and that's okay. But I don't like "telling" books. I want to be taken inside the character's mind and world not told about it from a far off place.
-- books that have scenes that go on too long. Right now I'm listening to a highly buzzed and big selling women's fiction debut, and I can already tell that if I were reading it I would have stopped by now. But here's the kicker: the author can really write! She just (in my opinion) doesn't know when to shut up. There'll be a great line that, I think, sums the scene up beautifully, but she'll keep going for a few more paragraphs--just to get a few more things in, you know while she has us there. I want a scene to end in a way that makes me want to read the next scene, not skip ahead and wonder how much longer this chapter is.
I know I've got more, but those are the big ones on the top of my head.
What about you guys? What are your pet peeves?
-Ally
edited to add: oh, and I also hate it when the author has done a lot of research for the book and insists on using all of it--like the character doesn't just pick up a gun, it's a specific brand, type, make of gun and we hear all about its history and the type of person who usually uses that particular gun and maybe how the character got his/her gun when all I really care about is whether or not he/she is going to shoot somebody.
Basically, if the writing reminds me that there was a writer involved, then I'm jerked out of the story and into editor mode and I start looking for red pens.
posted by Ally Carter at Thursday, December 14, 2006
18 Comments:
My biggest pet peeve is when an author writes about a rich girl or a celebrity and makes them seem all "I can't help that I'm rich and everybody loves me!" And then she tries to give them a back bone or a concious, and it just doesn't work. Sorry, I'd like to read about a REAL girl with REAL problems rather than "Do I wear Oscar or Vera to tonights premier?"
Example: Gossip Girl. The first wasn't so bad, I was actually thinking that Jenny was a good kid, and then it all ended and the second one started. There's not much you can do with a bunch of shallow charecters ten times in a row, end it at five or something!!
My second has to be when things are miss phrased, or when a middle aged author makes their charecter text a friend, and it's all "U go grl" and stuff like that! It's just me, though, because I hate it when people take our great language and chop it up! Even though I know I've misspelled a few words right now...
And my third is normally the publishers fault, when they forget to print a period or quotation mark and you're not sure where things begin and end. OR when you're reading a book and you suddenly realize that thirty pages are missing right when the story is getting good so you have to run out the next day to get a replacement book and that whole mistake turns you off the entire series. This happend to me with Meggan McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts. Which was great, by the way.
I think I'm finished ranting!!! I love your books, though, Ally, so don't worry!!!!
Sigh. Oddly enough, my pet peeves are very similar. I HATE too stupid to live heroines.
I also hate when the writer wants us to believe that the MC has NO IDEA what's really going on even though the reader can see it a mile away. Or the foreshadowing might as well be a brick through your window because its not at all subtle.
I too, hate farmer books that aren't true. I know that cows AND bulls both have horns. Don't tell me you figured out it was a bull by the horns. Dont tell me the farmer is friggin milking his cows by hand or that he only does it once a day. (Dairies milk 2 or 3 times a day.)
That's all i can think of, at the moment.
My main pet peeve at the present time are "tourist" stories. I talk about it here:
http://dianapeterfreund.blogspot.com/2006/08/tale-of-two-stories.html
I hate it when the plot is predictable. I like to be surprised. Like in LYKY, when Cammie goes to her mom's office to apologize for forgetting her dad's birthday and finds out about Bex's dad, I totally wasn't expecting that. I love unexpected twists and turns in the plot. If it is predictable, it is boring.
I don't like books where the main character isn't likable. If don't like the character, I don't care about them. If I don't care about a character, I don't want to hear about them. Kind of like how you avoid people you don't like.
I also hate it when authors do a bad job of imitating the way teens talk, especially in emails. It bugs me when teenage characters are always using phrases that us actual teens never say. Like the phrase, "You go girl". Misspell it however you’d like, but I don't think I have ever actually used that phrase. It's one of the phrases my mom sometimes uses because she thinks it's cool, but it's not. It's just embarrassing.
Thankfully, you don't do any of these things. Julia and Cammie are both great. I love them! When the girls in LYKY talk to each other, it's all very believable. I could see my friends and I having those same conversations (if we went to an all girls spy school, of course).
I'm having trouble of thinking of any right now because I am reading a really good book and can only think of all that book's good qualities at the moment. Ta ta!
~Cat
I hate schools about all girls schools or private schools that get it all wrong!!!!!!! It makes me so mad. And don't wry ally ur not at fault for this. It is like ur thing with farming and small towns...the same thing with stories about rich girls and guys who live in CT, assuming that all people in CT r rich or that people who r rich only live in CT....it is just not true!
Agree with everyone!
I have several that are similar to yours, and the above posts:
TSTL characters, especially if they're supposed to be smart.
Mary Sues
Flat or stereotypical characters, or character assassination (in the sense that the character is changed unbelievably or inorganically - not character growth - usually for the worse, not necessarily that she or he's killed off.)
Cringe-worthy dialogue or descriptions
The Big Misunderstanding plot device - if the characters would just _talk_ to each other... particularly if they're supposed to be great friends or together forever
Stuff about horses that's wrong.
Telling instead of showing. Some telling is necessary, but no info-dumps please. And show what the character is supposed to be like, instead of telling us (and then showing something completely different - see TSTL)
Typos and spelling and grammar mistakes - they pull me right out of the story.
And yet, if the story is well-written enough or there's something about it that's compelling to me, I'll read it. Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, which I highly recommend, has some elements of my peeves, but I still really like the story (including the sequel); they bother me more when I'm discussing the book, and not nearly so much when I'm actually reading it.
Misspellings and typos, as well as the wrong-farm-girl/wrong-boarding-school-student/wrong-teenager factor.
My pet peeve is when the nararater fipes between 2 or more people. to me that is the most anoying thing ever!
Scenes that are entirely too long. I think that this peeve goes along with the show don't tell peeve as well. The author is so wrapped up in telling us what's going on that the scene becomes unnecessarily long and awkward. It is at these moments that I turn the next few pages to see how much longer I have until the next chapter starts. It's really quite distracting.
i hate it when authors concentrate on the things that arent important in a book and they strech the story out to long so u lose trak of whats going on and it makes it hard to read
Like you and many above, I very much hate stupid main characters. Especially when there would be no suspense or story without the character's stupidity.
Someone else mentioned conflicts caused by misunderstandings--again, much with the hate. Talk to each other! Find out what's really going on!
Another peeve is villains who are evil for the sake of being evil. Boh-ring. Just because they're the antagonist doesn't mean they need no motivation or development.
Similarly--plots/characters that are all about black and white. Nobody's all good or all bad. Shades of gray are where it's at.
I don't like when an author repeats themselves a ton. They try to say something in a slightly different way, but it usually ends up sounding exactly the same as they said 2 pages before. Then they repeat it 30 times throughout the book. I usually get it after the first mention. Then I just get annoyed, they think the reader isn't smart enough to understand.
Ally, I think the edited comment to say that anytime you notice a writer is involved, you jump out of the story. I think that's so true! What a great way to explain it.
Hi, I was anonymous number one, as in the first comment. I just thought of something else that totally annoys me: When an author has her punk rock charecter listening to like, Avril Lavign or something!! She'll be all, "And Angie was listening to Avril's 'Complicated' at full volume." Or something like that. First of all, no true punk will listen to Avril and tell the world about it. The author probably just learned about this singer from her thirteen year old daughter or her granddaughter! "Stop trying to be cool!! Write about stuff your own age!!!" I want to scream. Sorry, just another little thing that popped into my head. I'd also like to say that I love how everbody is saying they hate something and then they realize that something is in Ally's books, so then they're like "Oops, that's not what I meant!" I did it too, but I think it's funny how when you're rambling you don't pay attention.
What ag book are you reading that's so inaccurate???
i pretty much agree with all of you. I think the one that applies the most is Ally's edited to say comment. I think a good book makes you kind of forget that you are evn reading a book, like you just get really into it. I hate it when the author says something that pulls you out, then you remember that it is a book and it kind of ruins it.
I despise when an author kills a main character because i bond with all the character.. ex... Star by Star..... the killed one of my favoritwe characters. And in the Gregor the Overlander books they put thoughts in quotation marks. That really makes me mad because i dont know what theyre thinking and what theyre saying and it totaly throws me off.
My pet peeve is typos I hate it, it is so very annoying. I can never read a book without seeing a typo or no quotation marks and it just gets old. Like isn't that what a publishers job is? To fix misspelled words?? If that is what a publisher is, they better go back to school and learn how to read!!
(I didn't find any mistakes in LYKL, but then again the story was interesting enough that i don't think I would've noticed if I had seen any)
~*Angie*~
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