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I’m about three days away from turning in book. This is the stage I love and hate. On one hand, it’s usually the first time after months of work that I can actually imagine that this thing I’ve been slaving over might someday be a real book. So, that’s uplifting, right?
On the other hand, I hate my books at this stage. I mean. Hate. Them.
I write my rough drafts very fast. And I never go back and edit or correct as I write. So sometimes I end up with … well, real crap. Don’t believe me? In my book that will be out in August, when I reread the rough draft I realized that every time I introduced a character, I compared them to a dog. There were pekinese, poodles, angry packs of alsatians. Okay, so there were no alsatians. But there were a lot of other dogs. Dozens.
In this book, it’s trot. People trot out examples. They trot out their emotions. Most of them even trot from place to place. It’s like a book about horses. On the bright side, it would make a great drinking game for college students.
Here’s the bad thing, I remember back in my days of unpublished-dommed, I remember reading a published novel from an author that I loved (still love in fact) and being irritated because everyone looped every where.
Now, I should add that I do extensive revisions before I even send my books to the editor. So theoretically I have time to fix all of these things. However I live in fear that I’m going to be rushed and leave in one too many dog metaphors or overly descriptive verbs. So here’s my question. As a reader, how much does that kind of thing bother you? I don’t want names or anything, but has that kind of ever ruined an otherwise decent book for you?
And don’t forget, everyone who comments will be eligible to win the Sony ereader!
Filed in: Jaunty Post
Jun 29th
2010
6:35 am
Laura Said:
Yes, it is something that is annoying to me when reading a book. I read a book a while back where the author used something to be humorous. Unfortunately the author didn’t seem to know how to use anything else as humor. It was funny the first time but it was so overdone by the end of the book that the author was placed on my “do not buy” list.
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Jun 29th
2010
7:37 am
donna ann Said:
occasionally a repetive item can be a little annoying but if the story is good otherwise i’ll still enjoy the book (if it’s not good, it just gets that much worse). read a book just recently that used a specific phrase (by both h/h) to discribe the heroine and her attitude toward marriage and the hero often referred to her in his pov thoughts as his xxx (insert phrase). I undertood the reference; understood and agreed in the underlaying attitude that it was meant to describe. It got a little tiring somewhere between half way – 75% way through the book and I’d find myself rolling my eyes and commenting to myself that it wasn’t an accurate reference to describe her in whole. I still really enjoyed the book as it was otherwise fabulous, but I remember being happy when i finished it, being briefly relieved that i wouldn’t have to encouner that description anymore.
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Jun 29th
2010
8:09 am
Catherine Kean Said:
Emily, I can so relate the stage of hating a book. I get to that point, too, especially when I’m close to being finished. In terms of things that irritate me in books, I read one novel where the hero raised his eyebrows on almost every page. As I read, I found myself waiting for him to to that, and it took me out of the story. It was a shame, because minor editing could have fixed the repetition issue very easily.
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Jun 29th
2010
8:50 am
kris Said:
yes!! it is irksome to have a word or phrase repeated that doesn’t fit with the character or story (I’ve also noticed a few by the same author using repetitive words/phrases). also, when the hero has dialogue and I think to myself “what guy would ever say that??”. but, if the story is good enough, I will still enjoy the book.
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Jun 29th
2010
9:06 am
eap Said:
Yes, it is annoying to catch bassic grammer mistakes in a book. I catch them most in books that have been converted from e-books but they are common to all the bigger publishers. It can pull me out of the story.
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Jun 29th
2010
9:19 am
Karen H in NC Said:
Recently I was looking over some old reviews I wrote for my blog at MySpace. I ran across a not-so-flattering review I wrote in Nov ’07 about a debut novel of a now rather famous author. The author’s use of unfamiliar words caused my train of thought to crash. I have a pretty good vocabulary, but just because a word is in the dictionary doesn’t mean it needs to be used when a more ordinary, commonplace word would suffice. One Amazon reader’s review said it seemed as though the author was hitting the thesaurus button every other paragraph just to find a large or appealing word just to make it seem she was a better writer. I have to agree with that assessment; the author’s use of these words threw me off the story to the point where I had to stop, get my dictionary to look up the meaning.
I haven’t given up entirely on this author since I do have her other works on my TBR shelves. I hope she has gotten over the ‘big word’ syndrome and is back on earth with the rest of us mortals. I really hate to give up on her because her work sounds good, but it remains to be seen if I’ll actually read the books I have or get rid of them.
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Jun 29th
2010
10:21 am
Quilt Lady Said:
Sometimes it can be a little annoying but it the book is good it doesn’t matter that much. I still enjoy the book!
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Jun 29th
2010
11:01 am
Linda Henderson Said:
I don’t get upset too easy when reading a book, but sometimes overuse of particular words or phrases can get old fast. I don’t like having to drag my dictionary out to understand one either.
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Jun 29th
2010
12:20 pm
Lulu Said:
When an author overuses a phrase or a “word of the day” it gets tiresome. I end up rolling my eyes and skimming from the third repeated phrase on. I have tried to go back and read more works from these authors, hoping that they would improve their writing technique. Usually they don’t so I make a mental note not to read that author’s works again.
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Jun 29th
2010
12:40 pm
runner10 Said:
I don’t like too many adjectives. I don’t want to feel like the author is dragging the book along–just to get word count.
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Jun 29th
2010
1:28 pm
chey Said:
I find it annoying when the continuity isn’t there. Names and events are changed for no apparent reason.
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Jun 29th
2010
2:17 pm
Penney Wilfort Said:
This sounds real good thanks for the review.
Happy Summer reading
Penney
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Jun 29th
2010
2:21 pm
Mary M Said:
Congratulations on your upcoming book Emily! I read a book where the hero’s name changed on one page …I just thought, Oh No! Who missed that? It was still a beautiful story.
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Jun 29th
2010
2:44 pm
Christy Said:
I try to overlook the little errors in grammer.
There is one or two phrases that I just can’t stand because I’ve heard them so much from people I work with when I come across those in the books I read I flash to the person at work. ugh!
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Jun 29th
2010
3:27 pm
Stephanie Said:
Boring writing and rushing through a pivotal scene bother me. I don’t mind a lot of adverbs or adjectives, or comparing every character to a dog, as long as it’s done well. Of course, it’s really hard to make repetitive writing work! Unless it’s a running joke or part of a bigger theme, I probably wouldn’t like it. In other words, the author has to be aware that they are repeating them self and have a reason for doing it–or, in the case of really descriptive, rich writing, it better be beautiful. Otherwise it just looks sloppy.
One thing I really hate is rushing through a scene. I know this is probably done in rough drafts–saying something like “and then they kissed for the first time” instead of describing it in detail because you are writing so fast–but it sucks the life out of the story. I’ve come across books where the author glosses over scenes that should have the most impact. For example: “He kissed her. It was like no other kiss she’d ever had. She wanted him to do it again.” How was it like no other kiss? How did he even kiss her??? It pains me to see this in romance novels (and I’ve seen it MANY times). For some reason it usually happens with that first kiss, which is something that should be passionate instead of mundane.
Of course, there are exceptions to this. Not every romance novel HAS to have a kiss. Also, I don’t miss the details if the writing around it is really good, or if the kiss didn’t affect the character. Again, if the lack of description seemed like a choice. However, that is usually not the case, and it just seems like the author didn’t feel like explaining herself or was rushing.
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Jun 29th
2010
6:10 pm
Shana Said:
Oh, it bothers me–especially when I do it. Today it was “join.” I joined people together and they joined groups and joined hands, blah, blah, blah. Danielle Steele is so bad about this. I can’t even read her.
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Jun 29th
2010
6:18 pm
Maya M. Said:
my most recent DNF was partially because of things like:
- using an unsual word three times in the first dozen pages (became very noticable)
- going on and on (and on) about how good looking the hero was in same dozen pages (made me think the author thought readers needed to be hit over the head = not flattering)
- having the heroine think a paragraphs’s worth of thoughts about the hero’s eyes – with the next paragraph being about same topic.
It truly felt like the line editor at that publishing house had been fired and the author had no beta readers to point things out to her. Interesting as a story premise may be, I really don’t want to spend good money on something that feels like a first draft
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Jun 29th
2010
7:02 pm
jessica c Said:
I was just noticing this about a book recently. It showed an uncreative streak, but I usually am able to move on, and forget.
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Jun 29th
2010
8:55 pm
elaine Said:
A good story line will carry me over little repetition. If those are more than a few words long then I fill cheated as if the author could not take the time to be innovative and just copy/past. I might go to the end of the book but will not go back to that writer.
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Jun 29th
2010
9:58 pm
Caffey Said:
Hi Catherine and all!! I love your SD’s! I don’t know how to explain what it is, but that’s the series I love to pull out on a Friday early evening and read til the night til its done. I so love how they come together with a sizzling and super satisfying story to read! For me as a reader, your books flow so beautifully together that I don’t see that of what happens to you when you write them. I know that I don’t want to write not just because i want to read them all
but too because I can barely put a sentence together, it is so not me. But too it gives me so much appreciation for what you all do. So glad to find the blog back here again to visit often!
Cathie
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Jun 29th
2010
10:02 pm
Caffey Said:
Hey Emily, so sorry, but now I can see who writes the posts by that area up there! I didn’t see a signature so I took a guess! I just checked out your site and saw all I’m missing. I’m so glad I started to grab more of the SD’s in the store to try more authors there and so looking forward to yours! Great to meet you! Cathie
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Jun 29th
2010
11:26 pm
Mitzi H. Said:
I must say that I do get a little annoyed with a repetitive phrase, word, etc. I love the Skye series but I must admit that the many paragraphs describing the food become repetitive to a point where I just skip them and get on with the story.
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Jun 29th
2010
11:35 pm
Ellen Said:
I don’t get overly bothered by repetitious words….in fact I don’t even really notice them if it is a good fast paced story that keeps my interest. Does this make me strange???
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Jun 30th
2010
12:58 am
Jane Said:
It does bother me, but then I always go and buy the author’s new release even though I know there are going to be the same words and phrases that annoyed me in her previous works.
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Jun 30th
2010
3:30 pm
Nancy Robards Thompson Said:
LOL, Emily! Did you have any trotting dogs? I feel for you, I usually write my first drafts fast, too. Each one always feels like the worst book ever. But once I get in and clean it up, I realize maybe it’s not so bad. Hang in there. I’ll bet your book is fabulous!
I’m usually pretty patient with things like that. Sometimes if the writing style doesn’t grab me, the story will or vice versa. It takes a lot for me to get so irritated that I completely give up on a book.
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Jun 30th
2010
5:11 pm
Danielle Said:
A story can be wonderfully written, but if the end is not well written, it ruins the book. The end is the biggest thing, make it good.
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