Well, first and foremost, Happy New Years! 2012 has been a busy year already.
Look out for some great interviews coming up, and contests and tips!
So what throws you off about a book? Clearly not everyone judges books too much by covers, right? Well here is a list of some very common thing that we all should avoid so that your reader won't immediately shut your book and throw it at the wall. These things are quite personal, but hey, we all need a list to avoid.
Typos
This one is pretty self explanatory. I found typos in published novel and so have everyone I know living on planet earth. It happens, but to keep your book off the wall I suggest to try to remove as many as you (and your beta) can spot after like a million read overs.
Unlikable Characters
This was actually mentioned often. But it is a toughie. You can't make everyone like your character, can you? Is it really possible? probably not. But some characters which aren't described in a great sense and are very average tend to be disliked by the majority. Especially the perfect kinds.
Boring Set Up
Can differ from one to one. I don't suggest you start every single book with the twin towers being blown but hey, we do want some sort of suspense or an interest pull. Apparently a book always has to have conflict (cough)...
Repetition
It's good here and there. Sometimes. Sometimes. Here and there. Repetition is good. But too much repetition sometimes can make my head reel.
Infodumps
We all know this classic. I didn't at first. I was infodumping badly. No explanation necessary. Won't dump too much info.
So I hope this is a cool list to start off. Do you guys have any suggestions to add? I'm sure we all have more personal ideas. Some more personal annoyances for me tend to be characters that are super super tough and unlikable, characters which are emotionless, too emotional characters, slow starts and prose, and lets just say (I'm being honest) too much prose.
I actually have a couple agents interested in my novel now, and I'm revising so lots of stuff going on but how's it going? Ha, that was terrible. Basically, look out for my next post hopefully tomorrow about too many projects.
