Thursday, June 1, 2017

Changes In Reading Habits #MFRW Authors #22

Ten years ago, if someone would have asked me what my biggest pet peeve in a book was, I'd have said, "Dry writing; reading older books with lots of description; not enough dialogue."

Now, I notice head-hopping.

Purple Prose.

Spelling/punctuation errors (specifically, those exclamation marks!!!).

Thanks to a Certain Trilogy, there are words I can't stand, as well as someone writing in 1st person-Present tense.

Granted, my old Steele, Roberts, Michaels (Judith, not my own, lol!), and other books I devoured from 1980-2006 are still in storage, so it will probably be several months until I get around to rereading them (I'm hoping to unearth them this fall!).  It will be interesting to see if I can keep my editing hat 'off' while I read them.

What do other authors take issue with in books? Go here to find out:)

So How Was The Race?
Spectacular!  It was routine until lap 54 when Scott Dixon and Jay Howard tangled, sending Dixon's car flying into the infield fence and nearly taking out a cameraman.  I'm amazed Dixon only ended up with an injury to an ankle!  They stopped the race to repair the fence (1st time I'd seen a red flag that wasn't weather-related), and the other amazing thing was this was the 1st year the line to the women's restroom was SHORTER than the men's.

And yes, I was thrilled when Takuma Sato won:)  The only thing I wasn't happy about was, Rookie of the Year went to the rookie who finished 29th, rather than the one who finished 3rd.  What a break in tradition!


Again, forgive me because I'm traveling home this weekend.  I should be able to check in on Saturday!  I didn't realize how tired I'd be last Monday; I read everyone's posts, but just didn't have the energy to sign in and comment.  Guess being stuck in traffic for 2 hours really takes a toll on a person.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been noticing purple prose a lot lately. Is it just me, or has it become more prevalent recently?

Meka James said...

I wonder if we're thinking of the same trilogy when we picked out some of our pet peeves.

The purple prose, I get lost in that. Sometimes I'm a little jealous that I can't make things sound so flowy and romantic, but at the other time I wonder who really thinks/talks like that. I know we have to add in extra to help set a scene, but 2 pages talking about how the wind blew a leaf I think could be a bit much.

And yes 2 hours in traffic can take a heck of a lot out of you.

Linda McLaughlin said...

Excessive head hopping bothers me. I feel like I'm at a tennis match watching the POV being lobbed from character to character.

I saw that accident on TV. Glad it wasn't any worse than it was. And a women's bathroom line shorter than the men's? You witnessed a miracle, my friend. (Please note, no exclamation points. :-)

Anonymous said...

Overblown descriptions are indeed wearisome.

Alina K. Field said...

Head hopping is so annoying, and I always have to stop and figure out what just happened. As an author, I worry so much about getting the emotion into the story without getting too purply.

How fun that you got to go to the Indy 500! I think that's on my husband's bucket list, along with the Kentucky Derby.

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Kenzie Michaels said...

@Coaldancer: The only one I've noticed is in a member of my writer's group. He's in his 70s, so this is what he's grown up reading, lol!

@Meka: Hahaha....I saw that! Possibly:)

@Linda: I took a picture of that line, for history's sake! A miracle, indeed:)

@Ed: That's why description is so hard for me....I don't like to read it, so why would I write it? Oh wait....I have to paint a picture with words.....;)

@Alina: I think it would be fun to attend the Derby!

Thanks for commenting everyone!