I recently experienced the humiliation of throwing away $7 of precious book money on a trashy novelette. I’d been following the author’s life and she was amazing, and I instantly thought her book would be too. I spent 2 hours cringing as I read through it, embarrassed that I even owned it and disappointed that it was so horrible.
After this woeful experience, I’ve been thinking about what makes a book bad, at least for me personally. I often rant about “poorly written books” to my friends and readers, but what exactly do I mean by that?
The following are three things that come to mind that almost guarantee to ruin a book for me.
- Poor writing/repeated words
- On-the-nose dialogue (which often stems from flat characters)
- When the author is being didactic instead of thematic
I once read somewhere that easy writing equates to rocky reading while difficult writing makes the reading experience smooth.
As this quote implies, a ridiculous number of writers have fallen into the trap of presenting the world with easy writing. They let their reader do the work instead of doing it themselves. Can I just say, THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS! If an author is too lazy to do the work for the reader, their book isn’t worth reading.
Along these same lines, it annoys me when words are repeated in a paragraph. For example, “Quickly, she scurried down the hall. The windows cast yellow light on the stone floor, and a slight alcove branched out from another hall.” There are two occurrences of the word “hall” here, which jolts the reader out of the scene and reminds them they’re reading, not racing through castles with the character. We’re speaking English here! Most words have numerous synonyms. Use corridor. Aisle. Passage. Passageway. Even hallway.
Secondly, stay away from on-the-nose dialogue, which is when characters say exactly what they mean. EXACTLY NO HUMAN says precisely what they mean, especially in matters relating to emotions. This isn’t because we’re lying, but because we often don’t know ourselves. When someone is experiencing grief, they reply “yes” to the concerned “are you okay?” of an inquisitive loved one. When a wife is upset with her husband, she rarely comes out and says, “I’m upset because you said my actions were foolish.” She might admit that she is upset with her husband or that he hurt her feelings, but it will probably take time for her to understand amidst her jumbled emotions why this is so.
Beyond this, dialogue serves two purposes. The first is to achieve a goal, and the second is to evade someone else’s goal. The cutthroat businessman isn’t asking about his rival’s mother simply to find out how she is doing, but to assess said rival’s emotional status about the situation. The young, single lady talks about her enjoyment of a romance novel to hide that she is truly feeling blue because she wants to experience romance for herself.
In stories as well as in real life, things are not as they seem. Especially not to the characters involved in the situation.
Now, every once in a while, epiphanies occur and the character might realize exactly how they feel or say exactly what they mean. But every word cannot be like that. The writer has to earn the right to be so pointed.
Earning the right to do something applies to theme as well.
There are few things I hate more than picking up a book for a story and being slammed with a sermon instead. When the characters are puppets for the author to express their morals, WHAT IS THE POINT of writing a story? Just type up an opinion piece and save the time of both writer and reader.
The beauty of theme is that it isn’t explained. It is presented primarily through subtext (another reason on-the-nose dialogue is a no-no). Theme comes through a character’s struggles, discoveries, choices, and a few simple, subtle conversations. I am not interested in being told what the theme of the story is, which is exactly what happens when the characters start preaching at me about value or emotions or beauty, etc. I am smart enough to understand a theme without having it dumbed down for me by the big sister of the grandfather, thence destroying its emotional resonance.
This list of writerly no-nos is by no means exhaustive. There are so many other things I could mention, like “show don’t tell,” or “avoid info dumps,” or “foreshadow.” Still, I consider poor writing, on-the-nose dialogue, and preachiness to be unpardonable literary sins. So please, writers. Avoid them at all costs.
Image credits: Wallpaper Cave
What ruins a perfectly good story for you? Let me know in the comments!
Hi Ella Em! This is great! These negative elements definitely annoy me when I’m reading, and it’s really helpful to know what not to do as I strive to write my second draft well.
I’m so glad!! 💗
I really enjoyed reading this, especially since I feel the same way about “bad” books for basically these same reasons. Thank you for your thoughts, Ella Em!
Aww, thank you! Glad to share them! 🥰
Ha! I love a good rant about utter detrimentality (Is that a word? It is now) of certain books. There’s just so much to rant about sometimes. 😂
Ikr! It drives me crazy, because we SHOULDN’T HAVE to rant over books being bad. IF THE BOOK I READ HAD BEEN BETTER EDITED, WE WOULDN’T BE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION!
Wow Ella Em! This is such an in-depth, great summary of what NOT to do in writing. Super helpful and interesting!
Thank you, Stella! Glad you found it so.