forum Things You Want LESS Of In Books

Started January 21, 2019 by @HighPockets group

tune

Oh, cool. So do you just separate it by scene?

Yeah, usually. Sometimes even paragraph.

Okay. I thought people hated head jumping.

I think it’s okay in 3rd person, but in first person it really bothers me, especially if the characters lack distinct voices.

I agree with Bec.

Good to know.

Just want to clarify what I meant about my original post regarding multi-POV stories, but they're not inherently bad. It's when you have either too many POVs or POVs that add literally nothing to the story. There's a lot of examples of stories that handle POV changes really, really well (Six of Crows, Onyx and Ivory, Renegades, Scythe, among many many others. Under my Skin by Charles DeLint also does a great job with 1st person POVs).

But I've read stories (again, this seems to be a huge problem on Wattpad for whatever reason) where there's literally like 10 different view points when really only one or two are needed to tell the story. Books like Carry On and Wonder really could have had like 1 or 2 points of view and you'd still have the exact same story (especially with Wonder. The only character I was really interested in was the MC so it was frustrating to have to read from the perspective of his sister's new boyfriend, and her ex best friend like???)
I feel like as a reader, I find myself more often thinking "this story should have had less POVs" rather than "I wish we had more POVs."

Re: head jumping, it's not something that I encounter a whole lot but I'm someone who gets really confused when things move around too much. So, I don't really mind it when it's done sparingly but when things bounce around too much it makes it hard for me to be invested in the story. Unpopular opinion, but I really hated Good Omens for this exact reason.

I thought of a book right away but now I can't remember what it was

Yeah, I totally agree. Too much is too much.
(God, there are so many things I have to read but I can’t bring myself to read at all for some reason)

Ugh the one POV in Wonder where there's like….no grammar gives me nightmares.

I understand that it was intentionally written like that but it's the worst thing ever and I hated it so much so it doesn't exist thank you

I'd keep 85% of the pov to Daniella, but let Silas and Rune plus Nathaniel get some pov time. I think Lucy wouldn't and I'd let her and Noah's scene be seen by Daniella.

Granted I'm super picky about grammatical stuff (like, if I can't figure out how to spell a word in a post on here, I opt not to use it as opposed to misspelling it), and I couldn't read a book by one of my favorite authors because there were no quotation marks when people spoke. I had a hard time reading I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman because it was formatted as only having a single ' instead of " when people spoke, but I powered through because I'm trash for anything by Alice Oseman

Yeah that one POV in Wonder was one of the worst things I've ever read. The fact that it wasn't even wholly relevant to the story (as far as I remember anyways) just made it even worse. I remember having to read the same line like 5 times just to figure out who was talking. It really shouldn't be that hard.

Granted I'm super picky about grammatical stuff (like, if I can't figure out how to spell a word in a post on here, I opt not to use it as opposed to misspelling it), and I couldn't read a book by one of my favorite authors because there were no quotation marks when people spoke. I had a hard time reading I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman because it was formatted as only having a single ' instead of " when people spoke, but I powered through because I'm trash for anything by Alice Oseman

My lit class uses a really old edition (thanks expensive college textbooks) where the translations
-talked like this-
-for every break, even if the same person is talking-
or 'like this' for everything. I ended up googling the stuff we're supposed to read and got better translations anyways for free.

I feel like incorrect grammar when a character is talking is actually realist, but in the actual text its annoying.

Maybe? It depends on what the context is. A child who hasn't learned proper grammar yet? Sure. Just make sure you make actual mistakes a kid would make, by studying language development in kids. For writing dialects and accents? Eh, maybe. But you really have to be careful to be respectful, correct, and still readable. And most people can't do it right, from my experience reading.

Having characters use run on sentences and informal speech- realistic
Using ' ' as quotation marks- disgusten

For writing dialects and accents? Eh, maybe. But you really have to be careful to be respectful, correct, and still readable. And most people can't do it right, from my experience reading.

Personally, I'm of the belief that people should just not do this. I haven't seen many people get it right either, and a lot of the time it's really hard to read. Like, there's really no winning unless you're of the 1% who actually manages to do a good job. But like, there's also better ways to remind your readers that characters have accents that don't involve butchering the spelling of every other word.

Exactly! I mean, if they're slight differences like, for example, a character with a Southern accent can say things like "darlin' without making the writing too clunky, but it only works using it sparingly. And I've seen black writers write in like AAVE, but I feel like that has more appeal to black readers, even if done well. And if you're white? Well, you probably shouldn't try it at all.

let us begin.
1: Comic relief characters that are the only ones allowed to make a joke.
2: The princess is sad because she's being cared for, fed 3 times a day, and living a comfortable life.
3: Romantic subplots because every book needs a romantic subplot.
4: Characters randomly getting superpowers.
5: It was just a dream endings.

3: Romantic subplots because every book needs a romantic subplot.

A thousand times yes! I don't care about the three pages describing a magical kiss, get on with the story please! If I want romance shoehorned into a perfecty good plot I'll go read fanfiction.

Exactly! I mean, if they're slight differences like, for example, a character with a Southern accent can say things like "darlin' without making the writing too clunky, but it only works using it sparingly. And I've seen black writers write in like AAVE, but I feel like that has more appeal to black readers, even if done well. And if you're white? Well, you probably shouldn't try it at all.

White authors trying to write with AAVE is like…peak cringe
Especially if they already sound all "how do you do, fellow kids?"