{ ＩＮＫＬＩＮＧＳ v.4 } A Thread For Writers

[peachycupcake525]

What bothers you most when reading something?

Grammar and spelling errors and stuff like that. In Animorphs when you're in morph you have to speak in thought-speech, which is indicated by <>, but often when they aren't in morph they put <> around the words or "" around words when in morph. Also in warrior cats sometimes they call a character by their apprentice name instead of their warrior/medicine cat name they just got, or put a dash between the two parts when they don't normally do that. (Leaf-pool, for example, instead of Leafpool like it normally is) Also really any mistakes at all, even minor ones.

[The Worst Username]

What bothers you most when reading something?
Inconsistent character traits/motives, worldbuilding that's barely there, and stupid plot devices such as deus ex machinas. Really, anything that makes you think the author only wrote their novel for money and fame.

[cocoa]

What bothers you most when reading something?
Missing commas is one of the most glaring grammatical mistakes I tend to notice. Other things that bother me that isn't grammatical is typically bad characterization, like the character is way too out of character or just written poorly (does, says things that they shouldn't realistically do). Also, even if technically by writing standards it isn't bad, I really can't stand it / I cringe far too much when I can see the character about to make a really bad mistake / the drama escalates to im-cringing-oh-god-no-dont-do-that levels. Sometimes I just can't take it and have to stop reading (and sometimes I never come back to the book) or I like constantly shift out of the tab I'm reading on and do other things and occasionally peek back. Sometimes just reading it in minimized view helps too, lmao.

[Silverhart]

What bothers you most when reading something?

People talking at me when I'm trying to read. XP I mean, they can clearly see I'm engrossed in my book. If I wanted to have a conversation I wouldn't have brought out my book. Unless something is on fire I really don't want to be bothered when reading.

Unless you mean if something about the writing bothers me. XP Repeating words or sentence structure is my number one pet peeve in that case. Especially with words like 'said'. Recently I've been reading a book with way too many 'said's, but since the book is about 98% witty banter I don't mind as much as I thought I would. At this point, I no longer even read the word 'said'. My brain just skips over it.

Other than that I'm pretty easy-going. Unless the story itself is just plain bad or it's completely illegible, there's very little that would have me give up on a book completely.

[Nitro Indigo]

Did no-one notice my previous post? I once got in trouble for not responding to someone...

What bothers you most when reading something?

• Those reviews on Fanfiction.net condescending people for capitalising Pokémon names.
• "I can't believe the amount of times I've seen speech formatted incorrectly." Nitro Indigo demonstrated.
• Crossovers on Fimfiction with the bare minimum of My Little Pony in them to be posted on that site, though I can't really blame those people, since Fimfiction is the most user-friendly writing site out there.
• Disclaimers.
• Long authors notes apologising for not updating, since they're not going to mean anything to people reading the story after the fact.

[The Worst Username]

Code: Select all

[b]Do you think that a story/novel/book needs to have a theme?[/b]

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Do you think that a story/novel/book needs to have a theme?
It's a good thing to have. It adds depth and usually is what makes a book a 'classic' though honestly after reading the classics, it felt like the only thing there was a moral or theme and not a good story. I think in many cases a good story will have a theme, if you focus on having consistency, it's probably difficult to avoid a theme. But it should be something woven into the fabric of the story while your writing it, not icing on the top. So no, it doesn't need to have a theme, but it does add another dimension to the story if there is one in there. If it's well done it'll leave a larger impression on your audience.

[Megaguirus]

What bothers you most when reading something?

I would say punctuation bothers me, but since I'm not good at it, it can be pretty easily ignored. Plot holes are frustrating, or things that were introduced but never expanded on. I once heard a quote from someone saying something like "If you mention the gun on the wall in the first chapter, it better be used in the second chapter, or else it shouldn't be there at all". I know I've butchered it, but that's the gist I got. And I have to agree.

Also, characters that just. Won't. Die. I haven't encountered many in my readings, but in movies or shows, it irritates me to no end. Look, when you kill off a character, leave them dead! The character who loved them grew from the experience, so if you just bring him back for no reason except "but the fans will be angry", then it's a disgrace to all that the character died for. I'm still salty for what Once Upon a Time did to Hook, and forever will be. Yes, I love the pirate, but when he sacrificed himself, let the sacrifice stay! He's not Jesus!

Anyway, sorry, mini-rant. The only show that I've seen do that that I've forgiven was Fringe, because that story was freaky and convoluted anyway, so "erasing" Peter and then bringing him back was no biggie at all.

That's why I'm careful about what situations my characters get in, and when I ax them off. Because once they're gone, they're gone, end of story.

Do you think that a story/novel/book needs to have a theme?

I agree with Song, having it tacked on at the end feels wrong, like it's some simple lesson to be learned. Weaving it in is the say to go, because that's how life is. Certain points of someone's life can feel like it has a theme to it, so I just do the same for my stories. In fact, since I see it like that, my books will often have many themes sprinkled throughout, depending on how the characters grow. Most of the time I don't even write with the intention of a theme, but then when I'm reading later, I can point out a couple of pretty obvious ones I wasn't even aware of.

Sometimes a theme will write itself, just like one can look back on certain points in their lives and find a theme.

[Silverhart]

Do you think that a story/novel/book needs to have a theme?

I don't think it's possible to write a story without some sort of theme. You can tell a story without a message or moral for entertainment's sake, but it will still have certain themes. If you write about two or more friends, chances are there will be themes of friendship. If there is a love interest, then you have a theme of love. If you wrote a story with a villain then you have a theme of good vs. evil. If your story has a war, then that's also a theme. I don't think it's possible for any storyteller to write about subjects like friendship, love, good and evil, and war without having some sort of opinion on it and presenting that opinion.

[Nitro Indigo]

Also, characters that just. Won't. Die. I haven't encountered many in my readings, but in movies or shows, it irritates me to no end. Look, when you kill off a character, leave them dead! The character who loved them grew from the experience, so if you just bring him back for no reason except "but the fans will be angry", then it's a disgrace to all that the character died for. I'm still salty for what Once Upon a Time did to Hook, and forever will be. Yes, I love the pirate, but when he sacrificed himself, let the sacrifice stay! He's not Jesus!

This. I always get annoyed by people wanting to retcon a character's death, especially when it's the part that makes the work of fiction memorable to those same people. I once saw a video about how someone hated resurrections in stories, particularly anime, which was good until the person randomly decided to bash FMA03 even though it had nothing to do with the point she was trying to make.