forum Things You Want LESS Of In Books

Started January 21, 2019 by @HighPockets group

tune

honestly the only reason i ever think abt my chest is bc i'm trans and it's always There and it makes me very uncomfortable

Sucks.

This is such a random complaint but can we get less stories that are set in like… 2 places? Like I get it, London's cool, New York is cool, but that doesn't mean that every character ever has to live there

I agree, I live in Wisconsin and I can think of like 2 books that take place there (Hope Was Here and The Westing Game)

And the thing is that I get so much joy from reading books set in different places? I once read a few books set in Wales and parts of rural England and I barely remember the plot but I still remember the feel of the places and how much fun I had imagining them.
It's like taking a small vacation there for a few hours and I wish it happened more often

Yes, agreed. I want books that take place in the southern US that aren’t historical fiction.

But not California's beaches, I get it we're known for them but it takes up such a small part of the state, like have one take place in the mountains we have cool mountains here made out of rocks.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ We have an entire mountain range homies. It's very nice too

My sister is obsessed with the Little House on the Prairie tv show and the mountains of California are always visible in the background, despite the story taking place in Minnesota.

When authors use words that they don't understand. Like, if you don't know anything about music, don't write about a character that likes music. Or learn so you don't grossly misuse terms. PLEASE

Dogberry has entered the chat

wheezes

How do people recover from being sick so fast? Like, even having a cold, I don't wanna do anything for like, a week after. Or maybe I'm just lazy. But why are people fighting their enemies with the flu

THIS.
It's my biggest pet peeve in fiction, or just in general people who heal or recover unnaturally fast. Unless there's supernatural strength or endurance involved, characters should not be getting tossed against rocks and just getting up to continue, or nearly dying of pneumonia and fighting in a grand battle involving the forces of good and evil three days later. Healing takes time, recovery takes longer, and in some cases there should be some training involved before they're back at or even near their former level.
Like… I'm willing to suspend some disbelief but if a character casually shrugs off big injuries/illnesses like broken bones, burns, or anything like that, I will cringe

I AGREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

god, those ones are just so cringy i want to bite a desk
one does not just insta-recover from a grave injury like a Genji with a health pack
Books are not games
This problem most likely exists because the author is too eager to move on with the action and doesn't have the patience to write the recovery period

Well analyzed.

How do people recover from being sick so fast? Like, even having a cold, I don't wanna do anything for like, a week after. Or maybe I'm just lazy. But why are people fighting their enemies with the flu

Yeah. If I have the flu the fate of the world can wait.

Yeah, that’s definitely an issue. I think that’s when it’s appropriate to add in a timeskip if you’re anxious to get on with the action. But still, if it’s an injury, it’s going to alter someone’s abilities in battle, for example.

You should include the amount of time skipped, in a time skip. The reader should never just assume.

Yeah, for sure. Because if people are adding in time skips for those kinds of things, I sure can’t tell!

I agree, either commit to the injury or don't have it

Okay, I don't know if this is a problem in actually written books but I see a lot of OCs on the internet with this issue so I'm just gonna make it very clear:

DEPRESSION IS NOT A PERSONALITY TRAIT

A M E N

To be fair, it can affect different parts of your personality

Too true. I get that depression is difficult to write when you haven’t experienced it yourself or watched someone you love go through it, but it sure doesn’t take an expert to know it’s not a whole personality.