A problem that I'm finding with some stories is that it is dragging on too long. You have to stay on topic. I'm reading a story today that is frustrating me to no end because it literally takes 4 chapters to get through a single conversation. Seriously. Because the characters will start talking about something, and then get off topic for the rest of the chapter. Then it switches POV's before coming back to the conversation, then again, will talk a few lines of the real topic, before going off on some tangent again.
In real life, or in believable life, people don't go off on tangents, with flirty banter and ignorant jokes, in the middle of a serious, life altering conversation. A smart ass remark or flirt here or there is fine. Two chapters of irrelevant banter and switching POVs between a few lines of serious dialog is bullshit.
At this point, I'm swiping through pages reading a few words at the beginning of every third or fourth paragraph, I'm not reading your story. I'm just swiping through it to get to the point. Is that what you want readers to do? No. You want us to actually read your story. But right now, I'm not.
I'm sure I'm missing large chunks of information that is, in fact, relevant to the story, but because I'm trying so damn hard to find the rest of the conversation, I'm skipping the story. And I'm pissed off while I'm doing it. It makes me want to put the book down and start another one.
The part about it that is soooooooooo freaking much more irritating, is that this is a good story. The plot is good, the characters are likable, the grammar and punctuation is amazing. But I'm so pissed off that the characters won't get to the damn point, that I'm missing the story. I'm literally sitting here fuming.
As an author, you want your reader to feel something, but I don't think the emotion you want is your audience being pissed at you and wishing you would just end the damn story so we can be done with the head hopping and pointless banter.
PLEASE COMMENT AND SHARE YOUR OPINIONS.
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Advice from Readers
General FictionI'm a huge fan on Wattpad and other writer platforms, and I am a super-fast reader and I go through a lot of stories so I have a few pointers that I really feel some of you should know about. These are things that really, really, irritate me (and...
