McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
When writing, you know you are in trouble when...
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Compass Rose on August 18, 2011, 02:47:18 PM ---As Kathrine Rusch writes in one of her recent blogs, writers need to be storytellers first. If your story is boring, no one will read it beyond a few pages, no matter how finely crafted the words on the paper are... (admittedly, I stop reading even interesting stories if the spelling, grammar, etc. Is really very bad, but if the technical aspect of the writing is average, I'll put up with a certain amount of errors if the story keeps me interested.)
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The problem with that is that boring is different for different people.
Me, I get bored with romance. I very easily get bored with action scenes. I get incredibly bored with unresolved sexual tension, very fast indeed. What fascinates me, in books as in real life, is people sitting down for long focused chewy discussions of complicated ideas. It's become clear to me that I do have to compromise somewhat on what bores and what interests me personally in order to write books that will appeal to more than about a dozen people.
(Also, any scene can become boring when you have had enough edit passes through it. When you can recite it by heart standing on your head while juggling knives and flaming torches, singing "Famous Blue Raincoat", and solving simultaneous equations.)
Figging Mint:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on July 08, 2011, 02:56:00 AM ---You know you are in trouble when you get two-thirds of the way through writing a movie review and then realise which of your characters is writing it and how much you disagree with him.
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*laughs*
--- Quote ---And then spend the rest of the day fretting about whether he's done that with work stuff and you missed it.
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*dies*
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meg_evonne:
--- Quote from: Compass Rose on August 18, 2011, 02:47:18 PM ---As Kathrine Rusch writes in one of her recent blogs, writers need to be storytellers first. If your story is boring, no one will read it beyond a few pages, no matter how finely crafted the words on the paper are... (admittedly, I stop reading even interesting stories if the spelling, grammar, etc. Is really very bad, but if the technical aspect of the writing is average, I'll put up with a certain amount of errors if the story keeps me interested.)
--- End quote ---
I can take heart then, but it's still better that I keep working on my grammar skills. *sigh*
Quantus:
--- Quote from: Compass Rose on August 18, 2011, 02:47:18 PM ---As Kathrine Rusch writes in one of her recent blogs, writers need to be storytellers first. If your story is boring, no one will read it beyond a few pages, no matter how finely crafted the words on the paper are... (admittedly, I stop reading even interesting stories if the spelling, grammar, etc. Is really very bad, but if the technical aspect of the writing is average, I'll put up with a certain amount of errors if the story keeps me interested.)
--- End quote ---
For me I can dont really mind the minor errors in and of themselves, but if they are glaring, or are legitimately making it difficult to read or interpret, it will destroy the rhythm of my read enough to turn me off the book. If it engaging enough and I can still decipher the text without significant extra effort, I can forgive quite a bit of spelling/grammar as just a stylistic quirk of the author. But if Im constantly having to stop and reread the sentence to figure out what exactly its trying to convey, it knocks me out of the story head space, like a loudmouth at a movie theater.
Bearracuda:
--- Quote from: Quantus on August 19, 2011, 04:00:53 PM ---like a loudmouth at a movie theater.
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"He's BEHIND you. He's BEHIND you. Oh, that's just ridiculous. They just shot HOW many bullets at that guy and he didn't get hit? WAIT, GUYS! I THINK THAT'S DANE COOK!!"
I wanna reach over and smack the guy across the head. XD
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