Thoughts on Writing #48: Step Away From the Pen.

[seanan_mcguire]

Welcome to the forty-eighth essay in my fifty-essay series on the art, craft, business, and occasional weirdness that is writing. All fifty of the essays in this series are based around my original fifty thoughts on writing, which means I only have two more essays to go. Almost there! Our thought for today:

Thoughts on Writing #48: Step Away

Comments

[grenacia]

I notice little errors like the wrong word used or bad sentence structure etc., but I don't really hold them against the book. I just think, "eh, the copyediting process always fails in a few places" and move on.

I used to be picky about such things, but I got over that but got more picky about other aspects of bad writing. When the characters feel like cardboard cutouts. When the plot is so predictable that I'm sure there are twists coming, except they don't. When the first 2/3 of a novel is setup that is confusing or boring before it can get good - or when most of the novel is great but the ending feels tacked-on and unworthy of the rest of it. Some of these flaws aren't a big deal if the book excels in other ways, but I sure notice them and count them against a book in ways I wouldn't a typo.

[seanan_mcguire]

Makes sense.

New Year, Same Things - 1 January - 24 January 02015

[livejournal]

User silveradept referenced to your post from New Year, Same Things - 1 January - 24 January 02015 saying: [...] Or to turn the nitpick off long enough to enjoy what is good about a story [...]