BILLING - FANTASY WRITERS HANDBOOK, A

Its here we begin the journeya critical look at the things that make us grimace and discard a book to the shelves to gather dust for years before donating it to the charity shop. Why, you may ask? As well come to see, theres no right way to go about writing, so perhaps a more helpful approach is to look at where it can go wrong.

Sometimes its hard to pinpoint what we like about a book. More often than not, when we dont like a book we can find the words to say why. I decided to carry out some research into this, and the results, I think, provide a nice structure for the rest of this book.

I wrote to book reviewers and undertook polls on a number of Facebook writing groups: AmWritingFantasy (693 members), Fantasy Writers Support Group (5,447 members), The Phoenix Quill (846 members), and Writing Bad (8,000 members).

The results give some suggestion as to what readers value most in stories, as well as providing an insight into what they dislike. Lets delve deeper.

The book reviewers

A thousand thank yous to the bloggers who kindly responded to my query. In taking the time to get involved youve helped the credibility of this research. This is the question I asked them:

What makes you put a book down and banish it to the pits of hell?

Here are their answers

Charlotte Annelise

Website: https://charlotteannelise.wordpress.com/

Twitter: @charannelise

What really makes me want to throw a book Im reading out the window is when the pacing is slow. Books need action to draw the readers in and make them invested in the story. When the plot is so boring that, I cannot even read for longer than a page, that is when I really feel like returning the book to my bookshelf where it will likely collect dust and never be thought of again. I recently DNFd a book that had a scattered plot without a clear focus. This also attributes to the plot being mind-numbing and difficult to read. While a books plot does not need to be carved in stone, it helps if it includes interesting plot points that the readers know will be solved later in the story. If all the protagonist is doing is their normal day-to-day activities, it is hard for me to find a reason to keep reading. Thankfully, I rarely find books to be so boring that I want to DNF it, so I think most authors are able to make their stories thrilling enough for me to keep reading.

B.B. Morgan

Website: https://bbmorganblog.wordpress.com/

Twitter: @ BBMorgan_W

The number one reason why I stop reading a book is the writing. I can read anything that's well written, be it nonfiction about Nebraska or a YA romantic fantasy. The writing needs to be engaging. I'm not just talking about having A+ grammar and punctuation, I'm talking style. I'll give you the short version (bullet points!) of my turn-offs when it comes to writing: 1) stupid dialogue 2) stage-direction narration 3) boring, repetitive sentence structure 4) purple prose that doesn't go anywhere or adds anything 5) using big words where smaller words would have sufficed and 6) telling, not showing.

Kerry Parsons

Website: https://chataboutbooks.wordpress.com/

Twitter: @bellaboobos11

Thankfully I haven't had to give up on many books. Some are obviously more memorable than others, but I generally enjoy them at the time. Books I haven't got on with tend not to flow well for me. If it's too much like hard work trying to keep track of everything and everyone I will lose interest. I always worry that there's something I'm missing though, especially if it's a book most people have loved. Characters can sometimes be a turn off too. Not necessarily unlikeable characters, because they can be interesting, but characters I just don't gel with at all for whatever reason. If they irritate me I might not care what happens to them and lose interest in their story. Then again, some get under your skin, however irritating, and make their stories all the more compelling. It really does vary. Character and place names which are hard to pronounce can be off-putting too, sometimes. If I find myself not really bothered about reading that next chapter then I know a book isn't working for me and sometimes it's hard to pinpoint why. Life is too short though and my TBR list is way too long to spend time reading something I'm not enjoying. There's always an element of guilt though as I know how much hard work goes into writing, but it would be a boring world if we all loved the same things.

TheGirlOnTheGo

Website: https://wordscantfathom.wordpress.com/

Twitter: @TheGirlOnTheGo8

Books provide me a secret escapade when I really need a break from reality. But that was before. Now, I can't go without a book even for a day. And sleeping with a book by my bedside is a must, it doesn't matter if I don't read, it just has to be there.