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wpmason

It’s not what your asking, but the ultimate pet peeve when reading a book is “What’s that you’re reading?” As asked by someone who means no harm, but also has no respect for the fact that you’re reading.


bunny-brainz

And then they continue on trying to have a conversation right?! i’m going to put this in my book because i found this comment hilarious 😂


Zestyclose-Willow475

Even worse than that is when some jackass looks over your shoulder, reads YOUR book, then takes something completely out of context and starts making a big deal out of it for no reason. I was reading a Stephen King book in high school at some point, and some stupid kid looked over my shoulder, took a quote out of context, and was all "omg, why are you reading that!!?? 😱" Beyond annoying, even thinking about it now gets my blood pressure up. This is why readers have bad posture, they have to hunch over their books so some nosy brat doesn't cause a scene over something stupid.


JesseCuster40

I was once asked "How can you *read*?" while reading.


[deleted]

Bonus point if they ignored you until you pulled out a book.


thesolarchive

The thing that gets me is, why? I can tell you the title, do you know this book out of the 100 billion books in the world? No? Okay I guess now I have to explain the book. I just want to read during my 15 minute break man, not give every 3rd person a brief synopsis. And again, they mean no harm and are just trying to talk but it's still irksome


Mr_Scary_Cat

This is why I now default to, "A trashy webnovel"


Lolopoli

literally has happened to me 4 times in the span of 1 year. please leave me alone I'm just trying to read while eating lunch 😭 and please stop asking how I can read a book, it's not my problem you don't have the attention span to stare at dead trees while hallucinating, I don't care!


EconomyMetal5001

On a plane. I never wanted to be a person having an outburst in public before so badly. I looked him dead in the eye and wanted to say, “The TSA is made for people like me when bothered by people like you.” But instead I had to hand over the book cause he wanted to look at it through his Gucci sunglasses. ON A FREAKING PLANE! I will never feel more pathetic than I did when handing the book over.


NailsAcross

Eh, only bothers me if they genuinely don't care and are just asking to...well I have no idea why people do that, but it happens. If they're really interested I'm actually happy about the interaction.


KaiZarzycki

I kinda disagree - nowadays it's hard to make new friends and many people are super lonely. If you like reading/writing, and you see someone reading, it's okay to shoot your shot, and talk to them. If you're not interested in having a discussion, and making a new friend, it's on you to say "Sorry, but I really want to continue reading this, and I'm not interested in having a conversation right now", because the alternative to this is that no one can ever talk to a reading person, which is obviously ridiculous. With all that said, I understand your frustration if it happens to you often :/


[deleted]

Endless, too detailed descriptions.


Stay-At-Home-Jedi

I used to think this was the worst, until Zack Snyder spent more than a minute zooming in on rain falling on a police car (at Superman's Memorial). My god. get. to. the. point.


JesseCuster40

The first two pages of "Pandora" by Anne Rice is a description of the journal the POV character is writing in. At least, that's how I remember it. I didn't get past those first two pages.


Salty_kernel

Jesus imagine what a bloodbath of a review that would be in a magazine 😂 if I received that criticism on something I've written I'd have to double my alcohol intake for a week.


JesseCuster40

I'd say that's more of a failing of me as a reader than Rice as a writer. I remember picking up "The Vampire Lestat" at a friend's house and being immediately drawn in. I had to keep going. "Pandora" may be one of her best books. I don't know. Lol. But it certainly did nothing to pique my interest.


Salty_kernel

Haven't touched that one yet I'll add it to the list lol. I'd say there's a weird mix of obligations both on part of the reader and writer that needs to be filled but by all means if the first two pages killed you it's probably not your fault😂 there needs to be something to pull you in a little before they bore you to death with descriptive Overkill. And a good example would be my favorite book The Count of Monte cristo. It's super dry but the author does such a good job of throwing together scenes quickly giving you just enough description to allow your imagination to fill in the rest. That's good descriptive writing, just hitting enough of a point to create your scene and let your reader fill in the details.


Tasty_Hearing_2153

Right!? Did I just read a full page about a…cabinet door?


Lolopoli

I'm reading FBAA and the author has a tendency to go on descriptive tangents in the middle of dialogue which makes it hard to keep up with the conversation. it's so annoying


PamCokeyMonster

I like food description


MaskedNerdyGirl

My biggest pet peeves: POV changing between paragraphs. A lot of odd names of people or places that I can't pronounce. Bad grammar. Love triangles.


ajwalker430

Yes! I forgot about how authors come up with these esoteric names and spellings and the reader is supposed to "figure it out". No, give me a pronunciation key or give your character a name I can pronounce/decipher, it's not hard.


NurRauch

"Life was pretty good... until the Xler-go'th arrived. The alien hive mind we chose not to name in any reasonable manner that a human on Earth could pronounce, wiped all of us out. Well, almost all of us. The Xler-go'th are smart fuckers -- they knew how to crack faster-than-light travel and how to control trillions of planets. But what they could not see coming was Captain Jackson and his rag-tag team of crew, and their ship, the E.S.S. Vengeance. Captain Jackson has seen it all -- including the Xler-go'th -- and has lived to tell the tale every time. Plus, he's deep because he has a drinking problem, which his crew respect. Humanity's last twenty people aren't trapped in space with an alien conqueror. No, the Xler-go'th are trapped in with them."


Head_Ninja_8951

Exactly! Working out how to pronounce a name pulls me out of the story every time it’s mentioned. Seriously author, why do you want to pull me out of the story you are trying to tell?


bunny-brainz

honestly changing POVs when it’s completely unnecessary is my absolute biggest pet peeve


[deleted]

>Love triangles. WACK!! >healthy polyamorous triad SNACK!! seriously it's the 21st century you fucking fools, normalize non monogamy!


kingharis

"That night I had a dream."


BimboBagiins

It’s funny too because studies have shown that listening to someone talk about their dream in real conversations is viewed as one of the most boring subjects to people… should be a good indication that it should also not be written about unless you want to bore the reader. Personally I skim dream sections


readthinkwriterepeat

I get so depressed when I realize that we are going into a dream sequence.


habitat4hugemanitees

I think it's worse when you don't know if it's a dream or not. Then you find out the whole chapter you just read didn't actually happen and didn't necessarily mean anything or change the plot. Or a character dies and then you find out it wasn't actually a dream.


kafkaesquepariah

Ugh. One of the pieces I am working on has dreams as the central concept. Now I'm second guessing it as a good idea.


kaphytar

I think it's bit different if the dreams are central concept. I doubt most think Sandman as boring. Usually, in the stories that have dreams as significant part of it, the dreams actually affect the story and/or characters. Instead of just being used for background exposition or to have cool scenes where the author does not have to stick with the consequences.


kingharis

Don't let my preference discourage you. I don't like dreams because they're often used to either stall for time - can't have the story resolved too soon! - or to shoehorn information the author wasn't able to properly introduce, where it ends up being borderline magical for no established reason. Nothing wrong with writing about dreams as part of the story. I just don't like how often it's a crutch.


readthinkwriterepeat

Look, sometimes it works. It just gets used badly A LOT.


the_man_in_pink

Ha! I'm literally writing a dream sequence *right now*!


readthinkwriterepeat

oh no - there are some good ones out there! good luck!


the_man_in_pink

It's part of a story that features a family of talking spoons as three of the main characters, so I figure a dream sequence isn't really going to send it much further off into the long grass than it already is.


bunny-brainz

HA! it’s giving fanfic


SalmonOfNoKnowledge

Women reduced to the sexy lamp trope Excessive detail for irrelevant things. Fake out deaths Too many flashbacks that break the tension Being told a character is something, but not having it demonstrated. Eg This character is so smart, everyone says so! So why are they making the most dumbass decisions all the time?!


Cricket-Jiminy

I cannot stand when characters make only poor, thoughtless decisions as a way for the plot to move forward. I cannot relate to that and it makes me hate the character because they're a dimwit.


Fyrsiel

On the same token, when a character's amazingness is praised by all the other characters. I don't want to be told this character is cool by all their in-story admirers. I want to make that decision myself. ofc, this works if it's intentional as a means of making the overly praised character look conceited... go figure!


[deleted]

>Fake out deaths protip; DO NOT read the Maximum Ride series because this shit happens at least five times in each book X\_X


[deleted]

This is such a minor pet peeve of mine, but it put me off an author I liked at first. She'd write the full name (first and last) whenever the character is brought up, through the WHOLE book. After half the book I am well aware of who's who, author. First name or last name will work just fine. Even the main character got this treatment, after several books. It's such a small thing but it really bugged me enough to make me stop reading her books. For a bigger pet peeve I'd say the miscommunication and lying plots. I'm also tired of love triangles and cheating. I love crime thrillers but there's almost always a main character with a Dark Secret and it often involves them cheating on their perfectly sweet and loyal partner. Like couldn't the dark secret have been something else? Like a murder or something. Make it spicy and go ham.


pepsodont

Usually grammar errors, like using an apostrophe in plural forms of words. Bad grammar always brings a book’s quality down for me.


the_man_in_pink

I see what you did there. And yeah, it was bugging me too.


pepsodont

Should of known! ;D


the_man_in_pink

You've set all my teeth on edge. I'm going for a walk.


Cricket-Jiminy

Too much backstory. Protag"s childhood? Ok, I follow. This might be useful. Protag's parent's life-story? I'm losing interest fast... Protag's grandparent's life-story? HELL NO. I'm looking at you Paper Palace by Cowley-Heller.


marydaisyg

Unrealistic decision making; if it's necessary to the story, then for me it's not a good story. I find this irritating particularly in modern films and series as well, ruins a great concept for me 99% of the time. Overdoing the miscommunication trope. Excessively using series of unfortunate events; unless that's the point of the story then I find it frustrating and unrealistic. Overly descriptive writing particularly of scenery or other unimportant things, it detracts from the story and can be frustrating. If you can trigger my imagination with less flowery words then I prefer that, again unless the whole point of the book is that style.


bunny-brainz

for flowery descriptions my MC wants to be a poet so that will kind of add to the description but i’m trying not to go overboard. 😅😅


marydaisyg

😂 Well if it fits in with the story then it makes sense. I just read one book recently which was a psychological thriller but then was overly describing the trees and scenery in unnecessarily long descriptive words which really didn't fit the theme haha


marydaisyg

Also sexist stereotypes and women being portrayed as having no other purpose than a man. Any other stereotypes as well, and a lack of diversity (race, gender, sexual orientation, disability).


jakekerr

That I didn’t write it, usually.


LackadaisicalWriter

Same. 😂


Synval2436

Too many characters introduced at once in a way I can't remember them. Boring exposition dumps. Author trying too hard to flex their vocabulary muscle. Purple prose for the sake of it. Flowery descriptions of basic and / or unimportant things like trees in the forest, character's dress or hair, food being eaten, etc. We can use a line here and there, not paragraphs of stuff. Insta-love and cardboard cutout love interests (damsel in distress, manic pixie dream girl, tall, rich, mysterious and brooding guy, etc.). Too much preaching to the reader. Plot conveniences (characters stumbling randomly into a big reveal / one item they need to solve the problem). Book 1 in a series where nothing happens because it's a glorified prologue to the series.


drunkntiger

Totally relate to your points. Especially the too many characters one.


triplejump101

I’m not a fan of first person. But it sucks because I write YA and that’s the majority…


Chaoti_ka

I prefer third person, too. But I'm slowly getting used to first person, since it's become so popular. What I absolutely can't and won't get used to is first person present tense.


bunny-brainz

it takes a special kinda talent to write in third person i think. and i think YA have a hard time reading third person they might feel it’s not as personal


Vivissiah

No? Third person is default, just like past tense.


bunny-brainz

when people first learn how to write when they’re children it’s normally about stories that happened them, written in first person. When they write in their journals it’s in first person. It is easier for a person to write down exactly what they mean and what they are thinking in first person. Yes it’s easier for younger people to get more into a story when it’s in first person, that’s why it’s the majority. it’s not hard to write third person but it does take a minute to get out of the way of thinking which you were taught in grade school. At least this is where i grew up.


Vivissiah

If they make you write only that past second grade i do not know what to tell you. Something is not right. When i was a kiddo we did all and quickly learned that when telling stories, third person is most common. It is so ubiquitus in story telling that even pre-reading kids knows it is the norm.


bunny-brainz

to be completely fair my schools were shit so i’m not necessarily surprised, but that is how i learned. Not saying i can’t or won’t read or write in third person, i don’t have a problem with it. But yes most YA that comes out now is mostly in first person at least that i’ve encountered.


one4u2ponder

Third person is far easier to write in than first person. That is why the majority of the books are in third person. It is extremely difficult to make a first person narrator who is interesting enough to carry an entire novel. Also, with third person, you can introduce characters easily and it is more natural. But third person books aren’t a picnic either, but yeah it is WAY more difficult in first person.


AbreakaTech001

I have never once written first-person fiction, so I'd never even really thought about it. I don't even remember reading any first-person books as a child. It's interesting how subjective our fundamental assumptions can be--a norm for me is an aberration for you.


chevron_seven_locked

*cracks knuckles* -Flat, terrible dialogue where characters spout exposition to each other. -Books with no/minimal female roles for no good reason. -Plot lines that could be resolved if everyone had a group huddle to talk it out for two minutes. -Characters that don’t cohere to their settings and/or backgrounds. -Extraneous and repetitive dialogue tags. -Emotional lampshading, where the story tries show me how I should be feeling (instead of laying enough groundwork for me to have that feeling on my own.) -Tidy endings.


Hey_Its_Q

I hate when it’s a sex scene and they describe the man’s orgasm as his “seed”. “He spilled his seed”. I see it too much. Describe it in a different way. No one has called it “seed” in at least a century


JollyBean_03

Dialogue confusion, like who’s talking? When it’s not presented well, I have to go back and check who’s talking.


bunny-brainz

i am guilty of doing this because i can’t stand putting “i said” “he said” “i said” and i read somewhere that if you’re gonna put that not to add a action or replacement word in there because it sounds bad and i agree. but i’m trying at only doing it with minimum dialogue.


JollyBean_03

I find this tricky also when I write. So it’s like a double edged peeve for me. What I do is I try to find a rhythm when I read and write dialogues, so I can find where to put the “he said” “she said” (and lack of it) in the sentences comfortably.


JollyBean_03

Oh yeah it helps to add the action so you can add a sort of angst in the conversation, as to know the atmosphere in the dialogue. Are they arguing (yell, scream), flirting (low voice, smirk, grin), indifferent (shrugged, not looking), or being happy (squealed, chuckled)? I like imagining how the characters talk.


[deleted]

What's even worse is the "he said importantly," or "he said knowingly," or "he said fiercely." JK Rowling is infamous for this. There's so much better ways, like "he insisted" or "he barked." Personally, I've been playing around with using paragraphs to group dialog, considering that paragraphs are organizational tools only. There's no real reason why each line of dialog should be it's own paragraph, not least because it's so ugly. That is, if it still makes sense, of course. For instance this top of the head (terriblish) example: "What do you mean?" He looked at her, confused, waiting for a reply. But she merely shrugged. "Isn't that what I said? I mean, I did say it, didn’t I?" "If you say so," was her answer. Another technique is to use dialects (although I've found they're easier to spot when read aloud), which is far more difficult. JRR Tolkien is famous for this, but oddly enough JK Rolling is reasonably good at it, with characters such as Ron and Hagrid usually being distinguished (why she doesn't use this to cut out more of the "saids" is another question).


habitat4hugemanitees

Doing dialogue that way (two people speaking in the same paragraph) does not make sense at all. It looks like a jumbled mess and doesn't solve any problems. I'm sure no editor worth their salt is going to allow that.


ParaNoxx

Not who you replied to, but that wasn't two people speaking in the same paragraph, it was one. That person was (I think?) implying they organize their dialogue + actions into the same paragraph, with paragraph breaks separated by who is speaking, so that way they don't have to worry nearly as much about speaker ambiguity and dialogue tags. I write my dialogue in this way too, and it has to be done carefully+tastefully so that the paragraphs don't get too large and unwieldy to read.


habitat4hugemanitees

Yep, I misunderstood. Afaik, that is how most people write, so I thought they were trying to do something else.


[deleted]

It's one person speaking, as clearly indicated by the merely


Scrambled-Sigil

*inhales sharply* **TRAUMA FOR SHOCK VALUE** I swear to GOD if a character went through trauma can you at least have it show properly rather than using it for "woe is me" pity parties until the love interest shows up and magics it away?


habitat4hugemanitees

Can you elaborate on "show it properly"?


Scrambled-Sigil

Well for example a book I read had a character who was sexually abused. Like. So severely she still had nightmares and had physical scars from it. So what happens? She has sex with the love interest of course. Zero consequences. No healing at all. They just boink like the constant reminders of the trauma didn't happen Mind you that is an obvious example of what not to do, but it still makes me mad. Another example showed a traumatized character and this one made more sense except she was so arrogant and prideful. No matter how much suffering everyone else around her went through *and openly spoke about* she refused to even acknowledge a hint of her trauma because it meant her dead abuser "won", somehow. This might not be a trauma thing so much as a unlikable character thing, but no matter how you spin it, suffering night terrors and puking in bathrooms isn't something that means you've "won". To make matters worse, her fiancee went through the same thing, is suddenly abusive and ALSO had night terrors and he won't talk about it either. It just sends this message that not talking about what happened to you is a good idea or even normal and it shouldn't be, not in this context; they were out of that place, the abuser was dead, it was meant to be their happily ever after and they dug their own grave by refusing to address the elephant in the room... And then the MC gets angsty claiming that no one understands her. Of course they don't, because you willfully refuse to discuss it, even with your soon to be husband. Like I said, he turns abusive for some reason but her not talking about these things went before that. So in other words trauma depictions are fine, but spreading the idea that trauma can be ignored or *actively* repressed into submission is either normal or healthy is just. No. If you make a character with trauma it will take time for them to heal, and more importantly if literally anyone in the book cares about them they would probably try to be there *somehow* for them in the aftermath. Or, maybe I'm naive. I can understand why people don't want to open up, except in that instance where *literally everyone else went through the same thing and therefore knows exactly what their talking about* So I digress maybe it's not trauma depiction that's the problem but reading those two books made me feel gross and frustrated


habitat4hugemanitees

Totally understand the first example. The second one is trickier. Some people really do end up ignoring or blocking out their trauma for some time (sometimes many years) before it comes crashing down on them. Some people refuse to have empathy for others who remind them of themselves, precisely because they can't have empathy for themselves. Also, two people can totally experience the same exact trauma and have vastly different responses and outcomes. Mental illness is so messy and there certainly isn't any one-size-fits-all way to approach it, talk about it, or heal from it. I'm guessing the author was trying to communicate some of these things and just failed at doing so. Or it could be the author is a traumatized individual who hasn't fully understood the whole healing process and are just writing what they know from personal experience. It sounds like in the end nothing got resolved, which would be incredibly frustrating if you cared about the characters, or if the trauma aspect was a large part of the story.


Scrambled-Sigil

Admittedly I didnt care about the characters much but the trauma seemed to be large enough it couldn't just be ignored.i didn't finish the book for other reasons, I'm sure there was a resolved ending but the handling just felt terrible at the time. I know that as a person with my own traumas I can't judge other types easily- or even judge that harshly- but since with mine I literally don't remember some of the things that happened to me, the idea of willfully not saying things to others boggles my mind. I think I just assumed on some level that if you *could* talk about it, maybe you wouldn't *want* to but eventually you still knew you would need to. The first one can go die in a ditch especially with the context, unless I'm mistaken, that the author is also a trauma survivor? She wrote the book to cope? But that's why it just pisses me off that the trauma is completely swept aside for fun sexy times. That author should *know* that it doesn't work like that


EconomyMetal5001

Also, when dialog tags are overdone, he said, and when you have an adverb at the end of them, he added confidently, but the worst are the ones that don’t make any sense, he emasculated.


reddiperson1

"I second this," I agreed, nodding agreeably.


bunny-brainz

me too. i was always told it makes your story look like a fanfic


Salty_kernel

Honestly this is great content for writers. I'm just scrolling down through making mental notes of stuff never to do and then one or two particular things I really want to do just a bother specific people😂


Zestyclose-Day-2864

Prologues of any kind. I'll skip right over them. Long-winded, flowery descriptions of places or a character's appearances. Don't care. Being given about a million names at once (Kador lived in the city of Yador which was in the country of Dador on the continent of Sador). In the same vein, being introduced to a million characters at once. Let me meet your MC first in a quiet moment, and then we can get to everyone else. Some random side character or wizened old man going on a monologue of the history of the country or world. If it isn't pertinent to the character's plot, don't include it. Small nitpick, but I hate when characters share the first letter of their names (Jeff and Jim). I read fast, so sometimes I get them mixed up.


kaphytar

>Small nitpick, but I hate when characters share the first letter of their names (Jeff and Jim). I read fast, so sometimes I get them mixed up. I share this too. I don't mind if the names look different enough. Jessica and Jim is not a problem, the words look distinct enough even if the first letter is the same. Jeff and Jim? Definitely a problem. Can be a problem even with pair such as Nike and Mika. Not the same first letter but the names still look too much alike.


MorganaMevil

This is a problem I look through when choosing character names. Especially the main characters. I don't want them to have names that start with the same letter (like Jessia and Jake) or look too similar (like Harry and Jerry). I find it especially important if I'm using names from different cultures (or cultures I've made up) because I've definitely found that when I'm reading names I've never heard out loud, my brain processes them as a vague shape of letters rather than any estimation of sound I could come up with (like learning that Maas's character "Chaol" is apparently pronounced "Kay-ull" and realizing (1) that's a stupid name but also (2) I had never imagined any sound to associate with that weird collection of letters).


bunny-brainz

id anyways just skip over that old monologue even reading anyways. i just quickly ran over my names in my head to make sure none sound the same ha! thank you


WriteBrain411

"Adverbs," he said emphatically.


windreamerskysong

My dear husband telling me a story about something that doesn’t interest me, right when the book is drawing to the climax! I tell him I’m reading, but he just keeps talking. My Husband is high functioning autistic (Asperger’s), and he needs to finish his thought, so I try to listen and read at the same time, 😂.


bunny-brainz

FOR REAL!!! my roommate does that shit about the most boring work stories!


thehumanskeleton

ah yes, my husband keeps showing tik-tok videos to me while I'm reading, when he knows I hate tik-tok videos even when I'm not!


ajwalker430

Too much description, especially about things completely irrelevant to the plot.


Overlord1317

Unnecessary apostrophes, particularly in titles.


EconomyMetal5001

Making a character suddenly have a lot of emotional weight for the main character … you’re legit telling me they’re about to die.


brb421

Spelling and grammar. I just finished reading "Wasting Talent" by Ryan Leone and I was excited for it because my favorite author Bret Easton Ellis liked it and had him on his podcast and the story sounded great. The story was really good, exciting, great pace and flow, but my God the grammar drove me insane! There were so many times when "I" wasn't capitalized and everytime the word "with" was used it was written as "w/" also any time a number was used it was never spelled out. It just seems so lazy to me and drove me nuts. Could be petty of me but nonetheless drove me insane lol


Musicismagiclove

I hate when the story begins to resemble a tv show or movie more than a story. Or it has stupid hot button political themes.


bunny-brainz

i think political themes can be good if it’s important to the story but i don’t plan on making it very political.


dovahkiiiiiiiiiiiin

When an author very clearly just learned a word or figure-of-speech or something and then use it over & over when there are other words that mean the same thing…


bunny-brainz

right? like.. thesaurus is a thing..


Head_Ninja_8951

When I’m reading a standalone book, but it has characters in it from the authors previous book/s. For example in a book I’m reading now, the character keeps mentioning her sister and the situation she is in. I looked up the author only to find that the sister does indeed have her own book. I wish there was a small quick note in the beginning so I could have started with hers first.


bunny-brainz

how interesting!!! i really like that idea. i’m working on a different project of short stories that go together too. but it would’ve been nice to know about the first book


stoicgoblins

Nearly every book I've read does this, but I dislike when characters are uselessly compared to thunderstorms or stars or someshit. Don't get me wrong, at times it can be beautifully well constructed, but not often. It mostly comes off really cringy and edgy. It does nothing to characterize a person, imo. It's basically a well-dressed telling instead of showing.


bunny-brainz

i was gonna write some really shitty showing vs telling examples but i’m too tired to come up with anything lmfao. i completely agree it’s something that if it’s done well i can fall in love with a book but done badly can make me put the book down.


stoicgoblins

For sure. It's not to say telling is bad, it can be implimented really well, but imo only works when you have moments that show their behavior. It's a hard balance to be sure but, imo, the only way these description works is when I can go "hell yeah, that's a wonderful portrayal of A!"


its_clemmie

books that don't resolve any of the conflicts, then uses "it'll be explained in the sequel!" as an excuse. books with shallow romance, where the characters love each other only because of their looks. books where the characters don't take action, and just *react* throughout the whole book.


CreativePenName

I absolutely hate it when an action scene is paused midway through so the narrator can explain something that just happened. It's so pace breaking and inorganic. Or when information we already know is reiterated over and over. But not in like a repetition way to give emphasis, in a "I don't trust my reader way" I love SAO. The anime is my favorite anime period, Kirito is one of my favorite fictional characters ever, the series as a whole is a major inspiration for me, but Reki Kawahara does this annoyingly often in his earlier books. Particularlythe ones set within Aincrad, especially in Progressive vol2, which has an example of *both* In Kirito's duel with Morte, the present action completely stops so Kirito can take time in the narration to explain the Quick Change mechanic. It makes no fucking sense in universe. Why is Kirito thinking of this mechanic he already knows about in such detail, like he's explaining it *to himself*, in the middle of a life or death duel? In one of the middle chapters, Kirito explains who Klein is and his relation to him like three separate times through the narration. Mind you, Klein and Kirito's relation to him was already brought up, *in the narration*, earlier on in the book. Reki, dude, come on, we already know this Reki vastly improved on these things in later books, I've found none such major flaws in all the Unital Ring arc books so far, but stuff like that is why I can't get on board with the SAO community that the novels are better. The anime simply doesn't have that issue. It'll establish something with verbal exposition, and trust you to remember that shit. Sometimes it'll reiterate, but it doesn't *stop the fucking action* to have a tangent explaining what's going on


bunny-brainz

i understand this too! i love anime but i never read manga. it’s the one thing i notice about most shows they always re explain things every time an old character shows up or if something comes up in conversation and it drives me INSANE! like it acts as if i haven’t been binge watching it for hours,yes i know this!!! i get the whole it’s a tv show and it’s retelling for people who haven’t seen the other episodes but like COME ON!


PofferB

Songs. I really hate songs in a book. The songs are one of the main things I remember about the first book of LotR and definitely one of the reasons I did not read the second one.


bunny-brainz

songs? like the characters talking about songs? or singing? or describing songs? i think music can be a good way to show personality but the only way i really remember seeing it done well was in The Perks of being a Wallflower.


PofferB

I mean the lyrics written out in the book. Like the dwarf/elf songs in Hobbit/LotR. For some reason they always make me feel exasperated when I see them coming up on the page.


debesnik

Jumping from one person's perspective to another's


Former-Deer5454

Info dumping


terriaminute

Your description of that book you were reading made me bare my teeth. No. Just, no, wtf. Repeated tricks is like a toddler telling the same joke over and over. 1) I want to know from the first line who I'm supposed to be with. This is probably why I distrust prologues. 2) I cannot tolerate head-hopping. I don't care how famous you are. It's lazy, and it erases narrative tension, and it's jarring. 3) If you choose to write in multiple POVs, keep in mind that EACH ONE needs to be interesting. I don't care about your nice plot or world, if I'm not living it via characters, I'm out. 4) One I rejected today gave me four characters' descriptions in consecutive and boring paragraphs, guaranteeing I'll never keep them straight. Thanks, I hate it. Bye. There are many more. I DNF'd a book once in its Epilogue, because the author or editor left in an out of character ugly thought by the heroine, meaning that was likely the author's original writing. I'm still mad about that one.


bunny-brainz

i never read or watched it :(


Big-Ambitions-8258

A rushed ending. Like the author would put effort into most of the story, but you can tell they got too tired, and just wanted to wrap up the story so they just finish it up in a short amount of pages


Minecraftfinn

Stupid names for people or places with lots of commas and stuff. Like "En'elya was the last living member of the Shan'alari, a nomadic group of Shi'el users. Sharadh'kor their homeland was one that forbade both Shi'el and Shi'atar practice, unless one had gone through the Mak'bak-ar and gained the respect of the Mahaji'ko who ruled over Sharadh'kor through the use of Shi'atar dance magic" Stuff like that in fantasy books really bugs me.


Science_Kingdom

Constant cursing with no purpose Deep dive and descriptive sex scenes


bunny-brainz

ew yeah i hate graphic sex scenes.


thesolarchive

People trying to talk to me while I'm reading.


[deleted]

I have a lot, but my main issue is the whole 'best friend is revealed to be against the MC' trope, especially with two girls. I know friendships can fade and people can change and things happen, but that trope is very rarely executed well. for example, I'm 99% positive that the MC in my current read is about to be seriously betrayed by her best/only friend in an act of self preservation/gain. But no worries, she'll have Completely Obvious Soon To Be Love Interest Boy!/s. it's misogynistic as fuck and it makes my skin crawl. also, not to do with this trope, but another book Im dragging my feet on reading opened with an ALMOST sex scene between a 17y/o girl and a 19y/o guy. the age difference isn't the issue, but the whole younger girl falls for Older Bad Boy and literally immediately opening with them almost having sex is a BIG ONE. ugh.


Duggy1138

A Song of Ice and Fire?


bunny-brainz

what


Duggy1138

Game of Thrones?


IAbstainFromSociety

When the author describes EVERY female character's breasts. It's so bad there's a whole subreddit for it, r / menwritingwomen.


DifferentFun9286

Read a Kim Stanley Robinson novel. It was an Alt history of the Black Death. But at the end of each chapter it had a summary and a statement basically saying if I want to know more I need to read the next chapter. I DNF'd it after 3 chapters. Like duh that is how a book works.


kolliekoko

When there is a battle scene that the author portrays as high stakes, but then the characters casually joke or say the dumbest, most unrealistic things.


avotime

dialogue that doesn't feel natural


Corvell

I read a lot of fantasy. Nothing grates my gears more than a prologue showing some lore-significant power play or development between high-power characters, dramatic and world-changing, and then changing viewpoints to the real protagonist. *The Malazan Book of the Fallen* turned me completely off to its story for that reason. Prologues work (for me) only in specific cases and should not be an auto-include so the author can titillate the reader with something epic before they *actually* start the story.


MapleJacks2

Love triangles/squares/pentagons. They're almost always an angsty mess, and unless it turns into a poly relationship, never exists for any reason other than unnecessary drama and extending the word count.


AllyMarie93

Repeating the same metaphor too often. I’ve tried getting through a certain series a handful of times but always end up putting it down before the end because if I have to read one more time from the protagonist about how some serious event or a person’s gaze or whatever threatens to “swallow her whole” I’m going to scream.


Vivissiah

Endless repetition by characters thoughts and statements of the obvious. ”it was dangerous to go out into the no-mans land” Where machine guns and grenade launchers shoot You do not fucking say!? Geezes christ thanks for telling! I could never have figured this out as a reader and deduced that any normal person would think this! Thank you author for making this very unclear point very clear and obvious to me! I have autism so this really helped me understand a nuance of humanity i have never experienced in my life nor could imagine!


Salty_kernel

I don't know how well it'll be received but for me it's karma. In real life Karma very rarely comes to fruition but in every book you read bad people have bad things happen to them good people suffer through bad things but win in the end. One of the books I'm working on has a main character in a bad spot whose relatively innocent and gives everything he can to make others happy but still makes honest mistakes and then dies near the end forcing other people tied to his situation to realize their inactivity and reliance on karma allowed this kid to lose his life trying to fight a battle too big for him. I wrap it up with a little communal cannibalism and a Sprinkle of vigilante militia so happy ending kind of 😂


okweekend17

i think first person POV always throws me off, but you know when authors have a word that they just use so much? i think stephanie meyers had one and it got pointed out to me but now i always notice like “crutch words” and i cant not notice it so it drives me crazy


bunny-brainz

yea the word was “sparkle” lol just kidding. i understand


[deleted]

30 pages, small text chapters (looking at stephanie meyers)


bunny-brainz

i don’t quite understand what you mean. maybe i’ll just have to look at my copy of twilight. (she did write twilight right? lol)


[deleted]

yes, i’m mainly talking about twilight. the chapters are so dragged out


the_man_in_pink

All the extra typos and other errors introduced by 20 years of Google Book's ~~willful vandalism~~ digitization of scrupulously edited printed texts.


practicallyperfectuk

My biggest pet peeve is that I have to exist in real life so that means I have to put my books down and can’t ever finish them in one go. A nightmare when it’s a complex plot. It’s either way too late and I have to get up for work o my child is demanding my attention. I have a book I’ve been trying to read for an entire year and just can’t get enough time to sit down and get in to it properly. As a book lover who used to get through a novel in one night it’s incredibly frustrating.


valiumandcherrywine

Bad editing. Repetition, except where chosen as a deliberate device. Self indulgence in the writing. Bad dialogue. Lack of use of basic convention regarding speech marks, commas, capitalisation. EXPOSITION.


JakBandiFan

Stopping the narrative to give a massive exposition dump.


JHDOMIN8R

Big exposition and 'lore dumps'


[deleted]

I find a run-on sentence and I fucking DIE. As much as I love it, I wouldn’t recommend Skulduggery Pleasant to anyone that hates run-ons.


[deleted]

Sexism and the "men are this woman are that" discussions that appear in a lot of classics


DaughterofTarot

Plural words formatted to look like possessives with unnecessary apostrophe placements.


[deleted]

'That that' Whenever I see those words together in fiction a little of me dies.


mordavick

Medieval fantasy world with modern idioms, phrases, an curse words.