What's Stopping You?

What stops you when you're reading a novel? Fiction writers know that one of the chief  "sins" we can commit is interrupting the fictive dream: jarring the reader out of the story. What interrupts your involvement, your participation in a story? What yanks you out of a novel's "world" and brings you back to reality?

Like most writers, I'm also an avid reader, and there are certain things that will bring me to an abrupt halt when I come across them. Some are more intrusive than others, but any of the following will interrupt my experience of a story:

Author intrusion. This is a bit like the old stage plays where a narrator would come on stage to announce a new act or an intermission or deliver an explanation of the play's events to a captive audience. The author of a novel can do that by inserting his own thoughts or explanations or even pasting in a phrase that simply doesn't work for the time period or the characterization.

Sometimes this takes another tack. The writer is obviously so dizzy with her own literary pretensions, so enamored with a vocabulary that would leave any normal reader gasping for air, that I begin to feel as if I'm being manipulated. And I quickly become unimpressed.

Glaring error. This can be anything from a noticeable typo to an inaccurate piece of information that virtually shouts the fact that the author didn't do his research.

Anachronisms. 21st-century morals, speech, behavior, dress, etc. on an 18th-century character. Or modern weapons used in combat ... during World War I. Or a hymn being sung ... that wasn't composed until half a century later. That sort of thing.

Profanity. Yes, even in general market fiction, this stops me. It's simply a wasted word or phrase. I've been burned more than once for my opinion about this, usually from a writer's perspective. But I feel the same way as a reader. For almost any reason, it's unnecessary and can almost always be attributed to lazy writing. Some authors believe there's a time and place for it. Well, for certain that place isn't in Christian fiction, and it's no more necessary in secular fiction either. Before you start snickering about my being a buttoned-up, pious prude (you're cracking me up), let me assure you that I grew up in the tight-knit community of law enforcement officers (mostly Irish) and I'm familiar with just about any purple word you can throw at me. You won't even make me blink. But I don't want it in my stories, and a writer who uses them just for effect or to raise my eyebrows (won't work) slips a notch on my favorites meter.

Graphic anything: sex, violence, whatever. If a novel shoves disembowelment, decapitation, and other disgusting goings-on down my throat (don't linger on that image too long)--or insists on making me a voyeur of clinical, anatomical sex scenes that stretch the imagination beyond all limits (and physical capability), I lose interest in a hurry. I want story, not gory.

Those are a few of the things that make me go searching for a different book. And usually a change of authors.

For a few of the books I've recently read or am reading that don't rely on any of the above "stuff," check out the sidebar of the blog.

BJ

Comments

[Richard Mabry]

BJ,
Our tastes (and turn-offs) are surprisingly similar. I've learned to skip profanity and graphic sex in the work of authors whose work I otherwise enjoy, but if it's too much trouble, the book goes in the bag to be sold to Half Price Books. And I'm glad to see you including graphic violence. Some Christian books dealing with the crucifixion have turned me off in the same way. I know...it reminds us of the price Christ paid, but some authors apparently feel that "over the top" is the only way to go there.

[BJ]

Carrie,

Speaking as a reader instead of a writer, I have to wish that those who think this is the only way they can tell their story would somehow realize that all they're doing is weakening the *real* story instead of doing the work necessary to bring out its essence in a more creative, imaginative way. But it sounds as if you're learning from his mistakes, and that's a *good* thing.

BJ

[Carrie K.]

I'm taking a creative writing course right now, and one gentleman insists on reading every scene he writes aloud - and they are always sprinkled liberally with strong profanity and sexual references. One of the other ladies in class and I came to the conclusion that he doesn't know how else to get the essence of his character across. Lazy writing, indeed.

[Angie]

Love your book list, BJ. You have many of my favorites on there--but my TBR stack is all over the house!

Angie