Things You Want LESS Of In Books

Granted I'm super picky about grammatical stuff (like, if I can't figure out how to spell a word in a post on here, I opt not to use it as opposed to misspelling it), and I couldn't read a book by one of my favorite authors because there were no quotation marks when people spoke. I had a hard time reading I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman because it was formatted as only having a single ' instead of " when people spoke, but I powered through because I'm trash for anything by Alice Oseman

Yeah that one POV in Wonder was one of the worst things I've ever read. The fact that it wasn't even wholly relevant to the story (as far as I remember anyways) just made it even worse. I remember having to read the same line like 5 times just to figure out who was talking. It really shouldn't be that hard.

Granted I'm super picky about grammatical stuff (like, if I can't figure out how to spell a word in a post on here, I opt not to use it as opposed to misspelling it), and I couldn't read a book by one of my favorite authors because there were no quotation marks when people spoke. I had a hard time reading I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman because it was formatted as only having a single ' instead of " when people spoke, but I powered through because I'm trash for anything by Alice Oseman

My lit class uses a really old edition (thanks expensive college textbooks) where the translations
-talked like this-
-for every break, even if the same person is talking-
or 'like this' for everything. I ended up googling the stuff we're supposed to read and got better translations anyways for free.

Maybe? It depends on what the context is. A child who hasn't learned proper grammar yet? Sure. Just make sure you make actual mistakes a kid would make, by studying language development in kids. For writing dialects and accents? Eh, maybe. But you really have to be careful to be respectful, correct, and still readable. And most people can't do it right, from my experience reading.

Having characters use run on sentences and informal speech- realistic
Using ' ' as quotation marks- disgusten

For writing dialects and accents? Eh, maybe. But you really have to be careful to be respectful, correct, and still readable. And most people can't do it right, from my experience reading.

Personally, I'm of the belief that people should just not do this. I haven't seen many people get it right either, and a lot of the time it's really hard to read. Like, there's really no winning unless you're of the 1% who actually manages to do a good job. But like, there's also better ways to remind your readers that characters have accents that don't involve butchering the spelling of every other word.

Exactly! I mean, if they're slight differences like, for example, a character with a Southern accent can say things like "darlin' without making the writing too clunky, but it only works using it sparingly. And I've seen black writers write in like AAVE, but I feel like that has more appeal to black readers, even if done well. And if you're white? Well, you probably shouldn't try it at all.

3: Romantic subplots because every book needs a romantic subplot.

A thousand times yes! I don't care about the three pages describing a magical kiss, get on with the story please! If I want romance shoehorned into a perfecty good plot I'll go read fanfiction.

Exactly! I mean, if they're slight differences like, for example, a character with a Southern accent can say things like "darlin' without making the writing too clunky, but it only works using it sparingly. And I've seen black writers write in like AAVE, but I feel like that has more appeal to black readers, even if done well. And if you're white? Well, you probably shouldn't try it at all.

White authors trying to write with AAVE is like…peak cringe
Especially if they already sound all "how do you do, fellow kids?"

Maybe? It depends on what the context is. A child who hasn't learned proper grammar yet? Sure. Just make sure you make actual mistakes a kid would make, by studying language development in kids. For writing dialects and accents? Eh, maybe. But you really have to be careful to be respectful, correct, and still readable. And most people can't do it right, from my experience reading.

Commenting is on.

In which vid?

H.P. Lovecraft

African American Vernacular English, which is really often (offensively) misconstrued by white writers.

^Any time that stuff like mental health is used to make someone Extra Evil
Same with characters' genders or sexualities being used to make them Extra Evil, which is a Thing in a lot of older movies where the villain will be a transgender woman and the only queer character in the movie

That could work, simply because there’s no misconception that ADHD=evil
Also ADHD heroes exist so