Comments on: Readers, What Makes You Stop Reading?

By: Bill Henderson

Bill Henderson — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:26:30 +0000

Thank you! Couldn’t agree more.

By: Cam Snow

Cam Snow — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:12:04 +0000

For me it has to be unrealistic dialogue – I go absolutely crazy when I read an author’s attempt to write in a voice that clearly isn’t natural for them. I remember reading one book where the author was trying to sound like a young American man, and kept lacing what was supposed to be an up-and-coming businessman and college graduate’s dialogue with terms like: Dude, bro, homey, etc.
It was enough to make me set down the novel for good.

By: Danielle Ingram

Danielle Ingram — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:43:30 +0000

What a great idea, I see so many blogs where people are giving advice on how to write better, but the people we really need to ask are the readers they are the only people that can advise on how to write better!

By: Readers, What Makes You Stop Reading? « Three Fish Limit

Readers, What Makes You Stop Reading? « Three Fish Limit — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:56:53 +0000

[...] Take the Survey: Readers, What Makes You Stop Reading? [...]

By: Dean Rushmore

Dean Rushmore — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:17:00 +0000

Writers that spend too much time on tangents lose me. Also, I tired of one green writer who went out of his way using the Roget to substitute lofty words wherever possible…very contrived and tiring. Finally, fiction authors that don't do their research.

By: Lee Capps

Lee Capps — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:57:00 +0000

The deadly sins: Clichés in any of several dimensions. Pretentiousness — usually as a result of a writerly inferiority complex, not ambition. (I tend to credit ambitious failures.)But simple boredom probably stops me more than anything, and as often as not, I think this is just caused by a difference in taste. I suppose this could be mitigated, but only so far. Not every book is for every reader, right?

By: Susan Carver Williams

Susan Carver Williams — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:48:00 +0000

A boring storyline stops me cold, no matter how good the technical aspects of the writing. I am irritated by poor sentence construction and strings of choppy, simple noun-verb sentences. Books with too much technical description used to do it, but I've just learned to skip over that stuff.

By: Eros-Alegra Clarke

Eros-Alegra Clarke — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:04:00 +0000

cardboard characters, bad prose, and a predictable storyline…all combined. I can be forgiving of at least one of these in a novel if other good elements are in place but if they are all there together: Goodbye.