What annoys you most when reading a novel?

[Tatsuo]

Got something else that annoys you which is not listed? Give me your Answer in the commets, I am eager to improve my writing from your answers.

 

[L1aei]

Got something else that annoys you which is not listed? Give me your Answer in the commets, I am eager to improve my writing from your answers.

Lack of believable motivation or character reasoning could be one.

 

[Tatsuo]

Lack of believable motivation or character reasoning could be one.

Thanks I will add it to the list.

 

[Eldoria]

Please include narrative betrayals. For example, the synopsis promises a theme of freedom against structural oppression, but midway through the ending, the story takes a 180-degree turn into a nihilistic, deterministic tale. A well-known example of narrative betrayal is AOT.

 

[L1aei]

Please include narrative betrayals. For example, the synopsis promises a theme of freedom against structural oppression, but midway through the ending, the story takes a 180-degree turn into a nihilistic, deterministic tale. A well-known example of narrative betrayal is AOT.

Oh yeah, that reminded me. Hey, @Reftven ? Do wrong tags count?

 

[CinnaSloth]

incredibly horrid punctuation (Especially, horrible, ugly Ai punctuation). having to reread something three- four times every other sentence kills my motivation to continue.

 

[Tatsuo]

Oh yeah, that reminded me. Hey, @Reftven ? Do wrong tags count?

Yeah.

 

[AliceMoonvale]

The overuse of dialogue.
When I see stories that are like 70% dialogue, I'm like, what is all this yapping?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

What annoys me the most is when a character winds up in two places at the same time (have only seen this a few times, but it completely threw off Jurassic Park for me... then again, the best experience there, AFAICT, is to read the novel right up to the moment the dinos start going wild, then toss the book or take it back to the library, and watch the movie from the point where the dinos first break out.

 

[Abnormals]

Got something else that annoys you which is not listed? Give me your Answer in the commets, I am eager to improve my writing from your answers.

When there is a whole chapter dedicated to a single movement in a
fighting scene

 

[Eldoria]

The overuse of dialogue.
When I see stories that are like 70% dialogue, I'm like, what is all this yapping?

Tell it, don't show it. Lol

 

[Tatsuo]

When there is a whole chapter dedicated to a single movement in a
fighting scene

I didn't know that was possible. Got any examples?

 

[L1aei]

When there is a whole chapter dedicated to a single movement in a
fighting scene

Are we talking about DBZ Syndrome? Where one move gets an entire episode; or in this case, a whole chapter?

 

[JayMark]

Are we talking about DBZ Syndrome? Where one move gets an entire episode; or in this case, a whole chapter?

Your Challenge: Write and entire chapter of the MC going "AHHGGGGHHHH! I'm preparing my attack!" then the side characters reacting and then the villian going "AHHHHHHH! I'm charging my lazer!"

 

[expentio]

I guess for me, it's if I don't like the given rules of a story.
A character can be consistent, if they're a total asshole, then I don't want to root for them. The same is with established rules in a world. Some stories have such a bleak setup that no adventure can ever make it better.
My main example are Xianxia stories. In most, the issue is simply that humans are cattle. They transmit a sense that no being shall rise above their station, or attempt anything beyond. Enemies of a higher tier are invincible. Normal humans lose their weight completely as characters, simply because they cannot matter in comparison to the ever-growing power leeches, called cultivators. Even the MC is simply feeding into a system of oppression by playing like the rules. At some point, it becomes completely contrived how higher tiers are simply immune to any possible action.

Then there was another story, where mankind lost a war vs another dimension and was cursed to not having access to the system. The MC got it beyond all odds, but the story was still so bleak that I lost all interest, as I didn't quite care, since there was no possible outlook for mankind to recover. The rules remained as stated, no chance for other humans to come into power, aside from convoluted ones.

It doesn't always show directly, but this kind of hopelessness and non-existing options kinda ruin stories for me. I want to have the feeling that everything can be possible in a story. It doesn't matter if they actually get better or worse, but there should never be a complete lack of options for the world. There's little gain for me to immerse myself in a dystopia. That just drags one down.

 

[HouseOfUkiro]

Got something else that annoys you which is not listed? Give me your Answer in the commets, I am eager to improve my writing from your answers.

Purple prose. It’s probably what mana depletion feels like.

 

[L1aei]

I guess for me, it's if I don't like the given rules of a story.
A character can be consistent, if they're a total asshole, then I don't want to root for them. The same is with established rules in a world. Some stories have such a bleak setup that no adventure can ever make it better.
My main example are Xianxia stories. In most, the issue is simply that humans are cattle. They transmit a sense that no being shall rise above their station, or attempt anything beyond. Enemies of a higher tier are invincible. Normal humans lose their weight completely as characters, simply because they cannot matter in comparison to the ever-growing power leeches, called cultivators. Even the MC is simply feeding into a system of oppression by playing like the rules. At some point, it becomes completely contrived how higher tiers are simply immune to any possible action.

Then there was another story, where mankind lost a war vs another dimension and was cursed to not having access to the system. The MC got it beyond all odds, but the story was still so bleak that I lost all interest, as I didn't quite care, since there was no possible outlook for mankind to recover. The rules remained as stated, no chance for other humans to come into power, aside from convoluted ones.

It doesn't always show directly, but this kind of hopelessness and non-existing options kinda ruin stories for me. I want to have the feeling that everything can be possible in a story. It doesn't matter if they actually get better or worse, but there should never be a complete lack of options for the world. There's little gain for me to immerse myself in a dystopia. That just drags one down.

Honestly, that's just a strong moral compass; you hate nihilistic worlds where nothing matters, nothing changes, and development is impossible. Nothing wrong with what you've got going on and I support your perspective.

 

[Macha]

The overuse of exposition.
When I see stories that are like 70% exposition, I'm like, what is all this block of text?

 

[Grizzly18]

Plot holes. Bad grammar and punctuation annoys the cr@p out of me. MC getting too strong too quickly. Like a system story where the MC gets really strong really quickly and the author can’t create realistic challenges for the MC to drive the narrative forward.

 

[AliceMoonvale]

The overuse of exposition.
When I see stories that are like 70% exposition, I'm like, what is all this block of text?

Hey, this post looks familiar! ?

We do not need to know how bright the sun is or how green the trees are for 5 paragraphs.