Top Ten : Reader Edition

In no particular order…

– Overly detailed explanations of scenery/clothing.  I simply don’t care and want to use my own imagination. (Hmm… Outlander Series)

– Pages and pages of historical crap. Again, don’t care. If it’s crucial to the story, just put in the least amount needed. (Gee… Outlander Series)

– Not enough historical crap. LOL don’t assume I know as much about history as you, but also don’t go overboard. (Again… Outlander Series)

– Multiple main characters whose names all start with the same letter. I can’t read a conversation between a John, Joe, Jeremy and Jacob unless you’ve done one hell of a job making the characters all unique. (I’m sure this happens in the Outlander Series LOL)

– Referring to one character by too many nicknames. (Ahem… Outlander Series! Jack, Jonathan, Captain Jack, Jack Randall are all the same person.)

– Drawing an event out over half of the book and then rushing the ending. (One guess… Outlannnnnderrr Seriessss)

– Spelling out accents/speaking in a foreign language but not telling us what it means in English. I can take a few words spelled out in an accent, but not every bit of dialogue. (Yep… Outlander Series)

– Be an asshole online to readers. (Diana G of… the Outlander Series. Bonus: Anne Rice who was a jerk to my Jenny and I don’t like it!)

– Overly stereotypical characters. We all do it at times, but I’m talking about those horribly stereotypes that are just uncomfortable to read. (Kind of like Mr. Cho in the Outlander Series)

– Overuse of catch phrases. (“Jesus H Roosevelt Christ!” said Clare six-hundred-eleventy-thousand times in… The Outlander Series)

Okay, to be honest, I don’t hate the Outlander books. I actually enjoy them for the most part and the reason I even bother continuing to read them is because she hooked me in the first two books with some really creative stuff.  I’ve been stuck on Drums of Autumn (#4) for a while now and it’s mostly because of all of the things mentioned above.  Once I get back into it I’m sure I’ll be fine, but I think it’s important to remember especially when writing a series that if you continue to do all of the same annoying things in each book, you’re going to eventually lose readers. (Laurel K Hamilton, anyone?!)

And that, my dears, is my top ten list. Now, go check out what the rest of the gang has on their lists! 

Bronwyn | Jessica | Kris | Deelylah | Gwendolyn