Thread: What ticks you off when reading a book/story?

Seriously when I'm reading stories or books I seem to find things annoying. they may not be gramaticaly incorrect or anything it's just the general read of it.

What ticks me off the most is when a writer uses the same adverb more than once in a paragraph or two. Seriously, get a thesaurus!

At the moment I'm reading Stephen Kings "The Mist". I just saw the new movie of it and whenever I see a movie based on a book I always want to read the book afterward. Like About A Boy I got the movie for Christmas from my brother because he lives for movies, and always wants to get me a movie but he also knows that I LOVE Nick Hornby. Yesterday I watched the movie before reaidng the book and now I REALLY want to read the book even thought I heard from many people that it was they're least favouite of them all.

ANYWAYS

As I'm reading "The Mist" I have noticed alot of this almost every page of the second chapter he used the same adverb, and sometimes even the same verb in the same paragraph.



WHAT TICKS YOU OFF WHEN READING?

I remember The Mist. King used the word "acrid" a lot.

The thing that pisses me off the most is really transparent plotting. I know how 90% of stories are going to play out and end just based on the first chapter.

And yet the vast majority of creative writing classes and writing books tell you you have to write that way.

I hate when they put long articles.
Like, if the character is reading a newspaper
And it just goes on, and on.
I loose focus, and just skip over them
And hope I didn't miss anything key.


J. K. Rowling is a bit guilty of that

Like, if I'm reading a murder mystery, and some dumb cop is a redhead on Page 37, then on Page 154 she has black hair. That type of thing REALLY pisses me off.

Originally Posted by The Backward OX

Like, if I'm reading a murder mystery, and some dumb cop is a redhead on Page 37, then on Page 154 she has black hair. That type of thing REALLY pisses me off.

Why does a ginger bint trying to better herself by dying her hair a human colour annoy you so much?

Originally Posted by Pete_C

Why does a ginger bint trying to better herself by dying her hair a human colour annoy you so much?

Perhaps you were jesting. If not, maybe I should have taken my usual amount of time over a post, and expressed myself more clearly. What pisses me off are obvious contradictions not picked up by the Copyeditor. Even when they are chapters apart I see them.

I once knew an Australian girl who, in a fit of boredom, dyed her pubes. When I expressed surprise at blue pubic hair, she reassured me saying: 'It's okay, they're not naturally that colour. I dyed them.'

No shit, Sherlock.

Anyway...

Agreed on the obvious contradictions and the rediculously repetitive words.

I really, really, really hate it when I'm reading a book and the main character is either one dimentional in every way or a complete cliche (sometimes both).

It just really irks me when the character is moving through the plot like a retarded robot or something.

I also can't stand pages and pages of diologue or pages and pages of prose with not break up.

Racheal

It annoys me when authors use their characters to express their own opinions, especially if it serves no purpose to the story.

Unnecessary details are the most annoying. That's one of the reasons I couldn't finish Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.

I get ticked off when I realize that I can write twice as well as the author, and he's published.

Originally Posted by Mr Sci Fi

I get ticked off when I realize that I can write twice as well as the author, and he's published.

This is probably a classic example of the truism "It ain't what you know, it's who you know."

I hate unnecessary details, random tangents that stray from the plot to express an/a "ingenious/philosophical" opinion, or shitty plots that get praised by critics. I'm looking at YOU, The Thirteenth Tale. Ugh.

I hate when the main character knows everything.

I hate the use of the word "kloven" to describe anything but hoovs. I also hate when an auther writes a book with no conpletely randon tangenz having little to do with the plod, and a lot to do with the author's girlfriend boyfriend running awf with the next-door neighbor. And also sepelling gramerr punctuuation erors.

I hate it when the narrator decides to give away something that's going to happen soon but withholds necessary information. It sounds really corny and cliche and reminds me a little bit too much of a Goosebumps book. For example, the last sentence in a chapter would be:

But that would be the last time he would go in that building for a long, long time.