readers Readers, What Do You Skip?

[Timothy M.]

28 minutes ago, BlindAmbition said:

There’s also a trend I’ve been seeing. Absolutely drives me crazy. Having characters from one story of the author, visit another story of the author. One scene, or chapter is fine. Don’t keep doing it. It shows an author is out of ideas. Maybe author needs to step back and reevaluate the course of the story.

 

If the story is new for both sets of authors, I think it's fine. Like @Parker Owens and skinnydragon's characters meeting in a joint effort.

[CassieQ]

32 minutes ago, BlindAmbition said:

There’s also a trend I’ve been seeing. Absolutely drives me crazy. Having characters from one story of the author, visit another story of the author. One scene, or chapter is fine. Don’t keep doing it. It shows an author is out of ideas. Maybe author needs to step back and reevaluate the course of the story.

I had no idea this was a thing.  How does that even work?

[FormerMember4]

3 minutes ago, Timothy M. said:

 

If the story is new for both sets of authors, I think it's fine. Like @Parker Owens and skinnydragon's characters meeting in a joint effort.

That’s fine! I’m talking a single author.

[MacGreg]

34 minutes ago, BlindAmbition said:

There’s also a trend I’ve been seeing. Absolutely drives me crazy. Having characters from one story of the author, visit another story of the author. One scene, or chapter is fine. Don’t keep doing it. It shows an author is out of ideas. Maybe author needs to step back and reevaluate the course of the story.

I've noticed this trend, too. If multiple stories contain the same characters, the author should connect them together as one story, not post them as individual pieces.

[FormerMember4]

3 minutes ago, CassieQ said:

I had no idea this was a thing.  How does that even work?

They’ll take one or two popular characters from one of their stories and drop into a scenario with popular characters of another of their stories.

[FormerMember4]

3 minutes ago, MacGreg said:

I've noticed this trend, too. If multiple stories contain the same characters, the author should connect them together as one story, not post them as individual pieces.

Yes Sir. We are of the same mind on this.

[MacGreg]

3 minutes ago, BlindAmbition said:

Yes Sir. We are of the same mind on this.

If an author writes several stories that present one cohesive series, I think that's great. But it has to be done for that purpose, not just different stories written with the same characters.  

[FormerMember4]

38 minutes ago, Valkyrie said:

I like detail, but not overly-long, drawn out, technical info dumps.  Sometimes technical information is necessary for a story, but paragraphs of it will usually cause me to skip.  

 

Like Graeme, I also tend to skip a lot of sex scenes.  I don't need to know every little detail of what happened, especially if every single time the characters have sex is described to the minute detail.  Sometimes less is more.  

 

Bad editing will usually cause me to skip the story altogether, especially if the story description itself is riddled with typos and grammatical errors.  If the author can't get the story description right, then I don't hold much hope for the story being any better.  Writing is a craft and part of that craft is knowing proper punctuation, spelling, and language usage.  

 

 

Also, if using sex... there’s way more than two positions. Don’t recycle same scene over and over.

[Carlos Hazday]

42 minutes ago, CassieQ said:

I had no idea this was a thing.  How does that even work?

 

I've borrowed characters from other authors a couple of times with their permission. My way of paying homage to a well-written story or an author I enjoy reading.

 

During a trip to Australia, I had the lead in a series of mine attend a concert. The performer was the main character in Marcus McNally's Love on the Rocks. Marc was supportive and approved my use of Tyson Hill. He read the scene ahead of time and even offered me his characters to use again. I've shamelessly plugged a couple of Mann Rambling stories too by having a character mention he was reading them. It was fun to do and reader reaction was enthusiastic. I've also named characters in honor of a few fans and was honored when @Parker Owens named a character after my MC. Hopefully he'll be happy with how I used his own characters in an upcoming chapter.

 

I turned down somebody who wanted to write a fan-fic story using my characters but mentioned I'd be happy to allow their appearance in a guest role as long as I got to see the story before it was published.

 

Finally, I have two separate series where the two characters from one make frequent appearances in the other one. I think of it as a spin-off type thing even though it wasn't the original plan. In a way it's good marketing. I get to plug my own stories! LOL

[Carlos Hazday]

1 hour ago, Valkyrie said:

Bad editing will usually cause me to skip the story altogether, especially if the story description itself is riddled with typos and grammatical errors.  If the author can't get the story description right, then I don't hold much hope for the story being any better.  Writing is a craft and part of that craft is knowing proper punctuation, spelling, and language usage.  

 

 

 

 

I've skipped right over many a story when the description was riddled with typos!

[Mikiesboy]

1 hour ago, BlindAmbition said:

They’ll take one or two popular characters from one of their stories and drop into a scenario with popular characters of another of their stories.

Should i have Faris and James drop by Louis and Don's...LOL 

[Reader1810]

4 minutes ago, Mikiesboy said:

Should i have Faris and James drop by Louis and Don's...LOL 

 

  .......

[Mikiesboy]

Just now, Reader1810 said:

 

  .......

LOL.. no Reader, never gonna happen.. sorry.  

[Reader1810]

36 minutes ago, Carlos Hazday said:

Finally, I have two separate series where the two characters from one make frequent appearances in the other one. I think of it as a spin-off type thing even though it wasn't the original plan. In a way it's good marketing. I get to plug my own stories! LOL

That's how I found CJ, so I have to agree with this type of marketing. 

[Parker Owens]

36 minutes ago, Mikiesboy said:

Should i have Faris and James drop by Louis and Don's...LOL 

 

Love this idea. I’m going to be waiting, now. 

[Parker Owens]

1 hour ago, Carlos Hazday said:

Hopefully he'll be happy with how I used his own characters in an upcoming chapter.

 

Ecstatic is more like it. And for the record, I’m humbled you wanted to do so. 

[Mikiesboy]

3 minutes ago, Parker Owens said:

 

Love this idea. I’m going to be waiting, now. 

you're sweet Parker but it is not a good idea.. at least not for me.. please dont hold your breath waiting... 

Edited November 5, 2017 by Mikiesboy

[Headstall]

I love reading, but since I started writing, it has become a treat to be savored. I don't have a lot of time to waste, and I already follow a lot of great authors. My point is, I used to be more forgiving because I had more of that time. I always try to understand what an author is attempting to do, and I don't want to unfairly judge. I am well acquainted with the growing pains of writing. There are a multitude of readers who have different tastes and look for different things.

 

That said, there are some things that turn me off immediately. If I get the feeling a writer is trying to impress me, I lose interest. I don't appreciate arrogance in writing, and I don't want to be beaten over the head with someone's vocabulary. I don't want to spend my time trying to digest wordy, flowery, or pompous sections, and I don't want to be frustrated or confused by the obtuse while reading. Keep it real.

 

Oh, and repetition. If I read 'lake' or 'house' or 'school' four or five times in a short paragraph, I'm on guard, and if it keeps up, it has to be one hell of a story for me to stick with it.. Yes, maybe we use that repetition in life, but it changes when it's on the screen or page. As authors we need to use a little ingenuity. It's the same as seeing every sentence start with 'He' or 'They' or 'This.' It's entirely unnecessary. Sentence structure can be changed. And overuse of names and speech tags. I was soooo guilty of that when I first started writing. I'm surprised my readers could stomach it.

 

I like detail, but only when it is presented cleanly. But, the opposite isn't much better. To me, there can be such a thing as too clean. We write fiction... escape... and I for one want to be moved... I want to feel the scene, and that, to me, means descriptions... ones that add, and don't make my eyes glaze over... but don't leave me wondering or scratching my head. It's the little nuances and shadings that suck me in and keep me reading. Too clean, and an author can sometimes get to the point of the scene or story too soon, and lose something in the process. 

 

Dialogue, yeah. I love great dialogue. If it is stilted, or out of character, or unrealistic, or confusing, I usually close the story. We all talk. We should spend as much time listening to how people converse and express themselves. Bad dialogue... bad!

 

But the thing that will make me skip the most, stories or sections, is when it becomes clear an author is refusing to learn and grow. I may skim for a while to see if there is improvement, but if there isn't, I give up. A first or only story can have editing, grammar, punctuation, or plot/research flaws, but not so much the second, and definitely not the third. If an author isn't going to work hard to improve, and shows me they don't respect the craft, no matter how much promise I might see, I'm out of there. To be honest, I will sometimes check to see if the author uses an editor before I even consider opening that second or third story. 

 

Again, I don't expect perfection... I don't presume to know it... but I do know when an author is talented and trying. Cheers.

 

 

Edited November 5, 2017 by Headstall
I didn't run this by my editor.

[FormerMember4]

50 minutes ago, Mikiesboy said:

Should i have Faris and James drop by Louis and Don's...LOL 

Umm, that would be a very interesting collaboration. They do better separate. 😂

[Mikiesboy]

1 minute ago, BlindAmbition said:

Umm, that would be a very interesting collaboration. They do better separate. 😂

joking, jp,  LOL ... it will never happen

[wildone]

I would say to Cia, that I'm in the same boat as Graeme and Valkyrie. Sex scenes I will skip.

 

Honestly, I don't know if it is because I read Nifty before finding GA and had my lifetime limit of sex scenes fulfilled within a year  or what. 

 

It is interesting, as some people say that every story has been told, just it is told with different characters, personalities and locations, and scenes. I will read stories that are based on this and enjoy each rendition. It is just the sex scenes that I find repetitive and overused in some cases. Some authors use more descriptions, some use less, but it is usually the same. What I do like is an author who plays on my creative imagination and gets my mind to go to one place and let it take over.  Set the scene, have the characters set the mood and then fade out. I'm sure my imagination will be much more interesting than anything the author can put down in words  

 

Another thing about sex scenes is that you may be turning readers away from your story. If you are writing a story in 1st person, and that person is a top, you are writing the sex scene from the position of a top. You may be alienating the bottoms that might be reading. Similar, if someone is not into anal but more oral or touching or feeling, etc., could you be turning those readers away from your story? Size? Some people like big, average or small penises. So by saying in your story, they are X inches, may not be my cup of tea. But by leaving the fine details out and the whole sex scene out, I can make the unwritten sex scene to my preferences in my mind. Trust me, I can do it 

 

I know a lot of authors struggle over sex scenes. I say don't worry about it, less is much better.

 

 

[Drew Espinosa]

What do I skip?

 

Funny story, when I was a boy, I read an abridged illustrated version of Moby Dick, and I loved it. A couple years later, I'm ten or so, and I'm perusing through my school's library... and I come across the actual Moby Dick written by Herman Melville. I was so excited, thinking that I'd get to reread it! Little did I know... lol. So, I go up to the librarian's desk and check it out. For two weeks, the book would be mine to read, although, given how thick the novel was, I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish it. 

 

So, I'm back home, plopped on my bed, and open the book to the first page, and began reading. The smile that was on my face when I began had slowly wilted by the time I reached the end of the first page. By the end of page two... the smile's completely gone. By page three, I realized that I have so far read only huge chunk of texts that were just description- description of sailing ships that a ten-year-old boy living in the 21st century would know nothing about!  

 

I skipped a few pages ahead, hoping that I'd see action and adventure... alas I only stumbled on more way-too-detailed description. At that moment, I closed the book, and returned it to the library the next day.

 

That traumatic experience has left me avoiding overly detailed descriptions in books, and more specifically, anything written by Herman Melville.  

[Cia]

Yes! A lot of this is exactly what I'm talking about. Very specific comments about scene tropes (the get up/look in the mirror start to a story) or the first few pages info dump (often hard to avoid in scifi or historical pieces when authors must set the overall world as different from contemporary), sex scenes and why (too repetitive as exactly the same 1-2-3 me/missionary action in scenes or just too much overall). Editing standards (especially when you expect a new writer to improve) or overly-complicated or unnecessary language, 'writing down' to readers which reads as arrogant, etc... 

 

I very much get and agree with a lot of the comments as a reader, and I think it's great for authors to have a place to see this sort of thing. If you have a story scene, style, or standard that turns you off and makes you skip ahead, keep sharing!  

[Brayon]

Well, as I mentioned earlier I like details. I've actually stopped reading stories, some here on GA, when there is no detail.

 

Example:

Billy Bob, and Joe Blow were walking in a park.

"So what do you want to do today?" Bob asked.

"I don't know..." Jow replied.

*I the reader hits the back button, and rate the story 1 star for lack of detail*

 

What sort of park was it? Are there other people around? What did it look like?  Paint the picture. Tell, don't show.

[Puppilull]

37 minutes ago, BHopper2 said:

Well, as I mentioned earlier I like details. I've actually stopped reading stories, some here on GA, when there is no detail.

 

Example:

Billy Bob, and Joe Blow were walking in a park.

"So what do you want to do today?" Bob asked.

"I don't know..." Jow replied.

*I the reader hits the back button, and rate the story 1 star for lack of detail*

 

What sort of park was it? Are there other people around? What did it look like?  Paint the picture. Tell, don't show.

 

To me, that sort of writing is neither telling nor showing. Just barren words strung together in naked sentences. Not a story.