What makes you CRAZY in a book?

[xtine]

I'll start:

1) When a woman is described as "attractive." It's probably the flattest, stupidest word to use to describe someone I'm just meeting. It's not that she's "drop dead gorgeous," which would at least give me something to hold on to. No, she's attractive, which mans she's in what? The upper 40% of women in her age group?

2) Men who have temper problems and are defined by them. Boring. Unless the author goes super deep, it's like code for "I had no idea what to do with this character."

3) "I'm attracted to you like I can't believe how much and I have no explanation why, especially because we just met." Shakespeare and Stephanie Meyer got away with this, with mixed results. But again...lazy.

I could go on, but I don't want to hog the best ones.

What makes you crazy?

[nookreader654]

Inconsistencies! If your character likes to wear hats then make sure hats are mentioned. If you go to the trouble of detailing something in one scene don't just totally forget it exists in the rest of the book. Where did that kid go? Why is he no longer driving a car? Stuff like that.

[DeCrescenzo]

Sub Plots that don't advance the central plot.

[morriss003]

Information dumps from sci-fi writers are boring. Totally beautiful people in romance novels are boring. Nora Roberts is consistently guilty of that. One of Jayne Ann Krentz's novels began, "He was the ugliest man in the bar and he had his eye on her. It figured." I like books about common looking people. If the girl is running though the woods, away from somebody, she better not trip. I hate that. I also hate stupid female characters in general. I don't mind them getting themselves into a bad predicament or being overcome by the villain, as long as it does not happen as a result of stupidity.

[jwest]

Information dumps from sci-fi writers are boring. Totally beautiful people in romance novels are boring. Nora Roberts is consistently guilty of that. One of Jayne Ann Krentz's novels began, "He was the ugliest man in the bar and he had his eye on her. It figured." I like books about common looking people. If the girl is running though the woods, away from somebody, she better not trip. I hate that. I also hate stupid female characters in general. I don't mind them getting themselves into a bad predicament or being overcome by the villain, as long as it does not happen as a result of stupidity.

I know this discussion thread isn't necessarily supposed to be funny, but morriss003, you cracked me up!!! When you said a girl running through the woods better not trip, I laughed so hard my soda almost did the painful through the nose thing. And I'm with you, I can't stand it when they trip; everyone always trips!! It's like in horror novels or movies, when people split up to search the scary building. Or one of them says, "Hey you, go check out what made that weird noise down in the dark, creepy cellar by yourself. We'll wait here." And the person goes!!

[Darth VeX]

What annoys me in stories (because this includes movies/television too)??
- Teenage girls who are completely helpless. Do these girls actually exist? I have a younger cousin who is definitely a "girly-girl", but she's not helpless. If a guy with a knife approaches her, she wouldn't just cower and submit, she'd try to run away. If that didn't work, she'd at least try to outsmart him and call for help or something. Now, her older sister ... she'd probably find a way to kill the guy. I'm tired of dramatically helpless teen girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Overly descriptive authors (or in the case of film/tv ... lots of panoramic shots with quiet music. Once or twice is artistic, do it constantly ... you might as well go work for NOVA). I love Lord of the Rings, but seriously Tolkien!? Do I really need five pages on how a muffin tastes!?!? Sci-Fi authors do this a lot, and I think it just goes with the territory, so I give them SOME leniency, cause some things just need explanations in order for the reader to understand them. Just don't go all Tom Clancy on us with the technical details ... only Tom Clancy is allowed to do that and get away with it.
- Every character being a total extreme. She's the beauty queen who everyone loves, he's the ugliest meanest drunk ever, the kid is super smart and knows how everything works, etc. etc. ... one or two characters like this is OK, but when everyone in your story is a total extreme, you have to wonder where all the normal people are.

[jwest]

What annoys me in stories (because this includes movies/television too)??
- Teenage girls who are completely helpless. Do these girls actually exist? I have a younger cousin who is definitely a "girly-girl", but she's not helpless. If a guy with a knife approaches her, she wouldn't just cower and submit, she'd try to run away. If that didn't work, she'd at least try to outsmart him and call for help or something. Now, her older sister ... she'd probably find a way to kill the guy. I'm tired of dramatically helpless teen girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Overly descriptive authors (or in the case of film/tv ... lots of panoramic shots with quiet music. Once or twice is artistic, do it constantly ... you might as well go work for NOVA). I love Lord of the Rings, but seriously Tolkien!? Do I really need five pages on how a muffin tastes!?!? Sci-Fi authors do this a lot, and I think it just goes with the territory, so I give them SOME leniency, cause some things just need explanations in order for the reader to understand them. Just don't go all Tom Clancy on us with the technical details ... only Tom Clancy is allowed to do that and get away with it.
- Every character being a total extreme. She's the beauty queen who everyone loves, he's the ugliest meanest drunk ever, the kid is super smart and knows how everything works, etc. etc. ... one or two characters like this is OK, but when everyone in your story is a total extreme, you have to wonder where all the normal people are.

Exactly! I love Robert Jordan, Tolkien, all those guys, but what is with the pages and pages of the food they are eating and the clothes they are wearing!? I have never got that! A little is okay, so you can get a picture in your mind, but pages of it just bogs the story down for me.

[megthered]

What drives me crazy is 2 page chapters. The one thing I noticed right away when I read the sequels to "Silence of the Lambs" was that Thomas Harris wrote chapters that were only 2 pages long. The earlier books had normal size chapters. It's what made me think that he really didn't want to do sequels and was just trying to make a page quota. But it makes me crazy, if you don't have that much to say, don't write anything, or make it a short story.
Also, helpless women. Makes me crazy.

[jrlt]

I hate it when and author will dumb things down for the reader. I like a book that will challenge me, if I have to look up something then so be it.

Run on dialog. She said this, he said this, he did this, and she did this. I tried to read a book by a local author and it was like that for the whole book.

I know this doesn't really count, but I hate it when the NC will cut off the last one in a sentence on some epubs.

Oh and plots that are so predictable that a two year old could figure out the ending. For example one of the series I read talks about 'soul mates', but I just wish that for once there would be a little bit more suspense, and that I didn't instantly know who the main character is going to end up with at the end.

[Carolyn J. Rose]

Lack of setting description makes me feel like I'm hanging in space with a set of talking heads. And severe logic flaws will make me put a book down every time.