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Welcome To SORMAG's Blog
About Me
- LaShaunda
- I believe in promoting authors and their books. Let me introduce you and your books to online readers.
I'm also a happily married mother of three who's trying to break into the Christian writing field. The writing road can be rocky.
I’m available for:
Online promotion coaching
Lectures
Seminars
Freelancing
Contact me at:lchwriter@gmail.com
16 comments:
Author didn't check their facts, character's not developed - lack of goal, motivation and conflict, too much backstory or narrative, pov switching, lack of description, poor editing. If I don't think an author has read "Self-editing for Fiction Writer's" and applied these basic writing concepts, it hits the wall.
I make a decision about reading a book by the end of Chapter 2. I'm a hard sell.
I tend to give most books a chance. However, by the third or fourth chapter if my interest is not peaked, I put the book down. If a book is so evident in its plot that I can figure out what the ending is going to be then I tend to throw the book aside. If the Hero of the book rambles too much I tend to lose interest quicker. The only time I have thrown a book against a wall is when the ending of the story is bad. Or in other words, it doesn't turn out the way I think it should.
The most common reasons for me "throwing a book against the wall" are poor writing and a "TSTL heroine".
The "TSTL" or "too stupid to live heroine" seems to be a chronic problem in a lot of romance writers' repertoires. I could care less as to what happens to her.
On the flip side, a "macho, over-the-top, Alpha male" hero is a big turn off, too. I'm sorry, but just because they guy has muscles and tons of money in the bank does not automatically make him "attractive" in my eyes. He needs to have a heart and soul... Be sensitive and caring. Ditto for the heroine, too.
And this goes for ALL fiction I read--erotic or otherwise. If I can't get through the poor writing/lack of editing/polish or the main characters are TSTL, I generally put it aside.
I haven't done it but the biggest thing for me would definitely be poor writing. I read a lot (100+ books per year), some by choice, some because I'm asked to review them. I enjoy a wide variety of genres and I try to give every book a fair chance.
But it's really hard when you know the book just shouldn't have been published. Too many plot mistakes, poor grammar on every page, all telling and no showing, continuous head-hopping. Sometimes I wonder how these books make it out of committee. And before someone goes there, they are not all self-published, although more often than not they are, I'm afraid to say.
I'm an author, but reader first.
I've only thrown one book up against the wall and it was because the slang is so thick and relative to the author's hood that I couldn't understand the book.
I like books heavy in dialogue, so books that over narrate and don't keep the story moving are not my favorites.
I've never literally thrown a book against the wall, but I've wanted to. Usually, I'll just put it aside and wait to donate it to someone else.
I give books a chance, but after about 50 pages, if I still can't figure out the plot, or if the characters don't suck me in, or if I just can't get into the story for whatever reason, I give up. I have too many books in my TBR pile to waste time on a book I don't like to read.
I hate it when there is too much descriptive detail. Its not like I don't like detail, but when it drags on I get bored and tend to skip ahead and if I do that, then I usually get bored with the book and put it down.
I like books that make me laugh one moment and cry the next, that make me wish the characters were real.
Have you ever thrown a book against the wall?
I have hidden a book behind a bookshelf to eliminate the possibility of anyone else ever reading it.
What do you hate to see in a heroine or hero?
In the heroine I detest their lack of fire and a need for some man to rescue them. In the hero, I am too through with the alpha male. I want a man who is confident, but has a few flaws, preferably ones that will be dealt with within the story.
Tell us what makes you disappointed in a book?
Baby mama ghetto drama
Lack of research
Lack of a process that leads to a non-feasible ending
Predictability
The story not addressing what it was advertised as
Overdone profanity
Gratuitous sexual scenes
Linda!
www.lindabeed.com www.myspace.com/lindabeed http://lindabeed.blogspot.com
lindaonassignment@yahoo.com
Linda said:
I have hidden a book behind a bookshelf to eliminate the possibility of anyone else ever reading it.
LOL, Linda! Good one. 8^) Very creative.
I've never thrown a book against the wall, but I've stopped reading after a few pages, then tossed it in the "used book store" pile. Sloooowww books get slammed shut. And it's not necessarily the book's or author's fault, just my own personal taste. I recently set a book aside just 2 chapters from the end because at that point I really didn't care what happened. It no longer mattered to me because the characters didn't matter. I just wasn't engaged.
Karen
http://www.karen-duvall.com
http://www.karenduvall.blogspot.com
Linda that's pretty good! I'll have to try that bookshelf thing LOL.
I've never thrown a book against the wall. I'm an author, but very much an avid reader so right off it hurts me to even write in a book! But the only time I came close was when I read a fantasy paperback when I was a teenager and the main character, a female was so cold and apathetic that it annoyed me to no end. I hung in there until the end and boy was it a letdown.
Now I tend to give or take a chapter or two to see if I continue reading all the way through.
Rae Lindley
http://www.raelori.com
I hate when metaphors are used so poorly or cliches that are overused throughout the novel!
I hate books that are page after page of descriptions. Instead of being drawn into the book, I drift of into daydreams of my own.
I'm apt to throw a book against the wall only when the ending doesn't fit with the rest of the book. There is just something frustrating about investing time and emotion into those 300 or so pages only to be jolted out of the story because of a poor ending.
~Amanda~
Thanks to you all for your honest comments, it definitely helps me to know what areas to concentrate on in my own writing.
Poor writing definately irritates me. Also characters who pop up and no explaination is ever given as to who they are or why they're there. The biggest would be an ending that leaves you hanging.
Rudelle
Books with several silly women (can't one be smart?), books that do not end (but set you up for a sequel), or books with overly romantic men (yeah, right). LOL.
Also, books with no dialogue, no growth in the characters or rationale behind their actions, and books where the endings are rushed and/or wrapped up too neatly.
-Tee
I'm like quite a few of you here: I tend to give all books a chance. I firmly believe that you can learn something from every book, even if the lesson is only to never, ever, EVER write like that book is written.
Things that do annoy me while reading are:
-Endings that don't resolve anything and clearly only serve as an opening for a sequel
-A book so filled with problems that it never should have been printed
-Heroes and heroines so perfect that I have to wonder why they're still single (romance)
-Stilted dialogue
I do want to add that if I read a book from an author that I think is a terrible read, I will still give another book by that author a chance. Everybody needs a second chance, and that next book might be the result of having polished up on the craft.
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