Into the Fire

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Button-pushers

 

      Anger-management
                            
     

Yesterday we discussed our reasons for returning to an author after reading one of their novels. Admittedly, some of us will only partially warm up to one book by an author but enough to make us go back for seconds, to give them another chance to rock our worlds. If they don't manage to score with their second effort, it's likely we'll never return for more.

Now let's examine what bugs us the most. What are your button-pushers in novels? Sometimes they can be the opposite factors of those things which draw us, but for some readers, especially those who are writers, it can be things like ignoring the "rules".

Here are my button-pushers:

1. Protagonists I don't like. And characters in general that I don't like. You won't salvage the story for me if I can't engage with the main character(s).

2. A plot ploy which abrupts the story, doesn't fit with the character(s), is convenient.

3. Writing that is too "clean" and serves all the "rules". It feels like cookie-cutter writing.

4. Formulaic. Predictable.

5. Lacks emotion, passion.

Phew. Who knew I had so many?

God, only you can provide the necessary inspiration, tools, and direction to write compelling stories. Only you. Help me to touch those you have in mind for me. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

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9 responses to “Button-pushers”

  1. BK Jackson Avatar
    BK Jackson

    All that you mentioned. But I think the biggest thing that drives me nuts about a story is when you read something, see great potential story in the characters that the author never even explores, or explores superficially. That makes my teeth grind.

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  2. Brenda Anderson Avatar
    Brenda Anderson

    Juvenile prose will turn me off every time, as will hokey dialogue.
    Storywise, I can’t read formula–I want to be surprised by the story and I want it to take me places I didn’t imagine.
    I don’t care for overused plot lines–i.e. the no-good, cheating, dead-beat husband plot has been used ad nauseum in Christian fiction. Aren’t we more creative than that?
    I don’t mind a protagonist who is unlikable at first as long as I see growth in their character throughout the story. Also, I roll my eyes when the protagonist is perfect: modelesque, Summa Cum Laude, athlete. Give me someone real that I can relate to.
    Oh, I could go on, but I’ll be quiet now.

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  3. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Yeah, characters who are underdeveloped or thrown in without substance is a good one, Brenda.
    Oh Bren, how could I not specifically mention bad dialogue. Yuck indeed. Stilted words you can’t imagine anyone saying unless they’re a foreign exchange student who barely speaks English. Dumb dialogue gets me every time too.
    And cliched characters – which usually falls to the villain but that “wretched, unfaithful husband” is a frequent one too.
    It depends on how much I dislike a character and how he/she manages to change. I’ve read Christian fiction where this despicable character has a sudden defining moment of conversion which works about as well as . . . you get my drift.

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  4. dayle Avatar
    dayle

    Never, ever, ever hurt a dog. I’m surprised everytime a movie or book does this which is not often. You’ve just killed more than half your potential audience.

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  5. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    I agree. Don’t kill the dog! I won’t say which author, who I really like, dared to do in both a dog and a cat in one of his novels. He got a LOT of heat which confused him because he killed off some people who in no way deserved it in the same book. He even did some blog posts about it wondering why people get so much more incensed about animals dying than people. Gotta admit it was my least favorite book of his. Something about the innocence and defenselessness of animals.

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  6. dayle Avatar
    dayle

    A recent movie actually showed a dog being killed in the trailer. I predicted that movie would bomb and it did. Somebody in a suit has to step in and say you can’t do that, we’re trying to make money.

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  7. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Not good.

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  8. BK Jackson Avatar
    BK Jackson

    Maybe the ones killing dogs in stories were thinking “hey, at least I didn’t write about a dead beat husband. And I gave you something different!”
    And just so I don’t confuse anyone, I adore dogs more than most people, but I’m just tossing out the other side of the argument. 😎
    But I do know what you mean.

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  9. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    I think it’s the “type” of killing the dog that incenses people. I don’t know if any of you have seen the Jesse Stone series on TV. Tom Selleck plays Jesse Stone. I haven’t read the author’s novels so I can’t tell you if the TV movies of them stick to the featured storylines. In the first or second episode Jesse’s dog dies. It’s sad and real and of course made me cry, but it was done respectfully. I think it’s when animals are cruelly or unjustly “murdered” that we react.

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