Meandering on Monday with Janet Lane Walters - What Bugs Me, Progress #MFRAuthor, #amwriting #amreading

Two meanders today and they're things that bother me when I'm reading what others have written. I don't write reviews of books though I might mention a book I really like. I don't mention titles of books I don't like at all. But there are things that in books when I'm reading that scrape along my nerves like chalk on a blackboard or the squeal of a door needing oiled.

It was. I've been asked to write a piece, tongue in cheek, but my sarcastic nature won't ever pull this off. I recently read a book that could have been a good read but I was so turned off by the first few pages that I couldn't continue. It was had become a great drop in page. Gee, the writer used this twice in one sentence. I had to stop and re-write those sentences. Using it was to me is what a lazy writer does. When I'm doing a rough draft, I'm lazy and It was creeps into my writing. But the thing I'm doing is getting the story down. When I go back for re-writes I look for those sentences. The interesting thing is that most of them can be re-written and I do this. Not all but one can go from 30 in three pages to perhaps one or two.  By the time I moved past the It was filled pages, I was so annoyed with the book I almost returned it for money back. I didn't. Just removed it from my Kindle.

Second thing. When there are just two people in a scene, there is no need to have the characters address each other by name. If needed this can be done in the tag lines. Doing it twice can be annoyong. Here's what I mean.

Marie looked at her friend. "Barbara, are we going to lunch?"
Barbara turned. "Marie, I don't know."
"I really wish you would make up your mind, Barbara."
"Why should I, Marie? You are beginning to annoy me." Barbara walked away.

Now this is a bit extreme but  this can ruin an otherwise great book for me.

For myself progress continues on Moonchild 1 and I've come to the conclusion The Goddesses has to be split in two and I need to figure the time line for each part of the book since it takes place over a year. That will happen once I've finished the current draft.