Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today:
Sandra Cox http://sandracox.blogspot.com/
Louise - Fundy Blue http://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com/
Ronel Janse van Vuuren http://www.ronelthemythmaker.com/blog/
J Lenni Dorner YOU ARE HERE!!! 😎
Gwen Gardner http://gwengardner.blogspot.com/
Be sure to check out the IWSG feature on Operation Awesome.
https://operationawesome6.blogspot.com/2021/01/oa-recommends-insecure-writers-support.html
January 6 question -
Being a writer, when you're reading someone else's work, what stops you from finishing a book/throws you out of the story/frustrates you the most about other people's books?
What most often stops me is basic spelling errors. There are dozens of free ways to check spelling. Anyone who can figure out how to upload an ebook can figure out how to run a spellcheck. I'll grant you that there are dialect variations of words, homophones trip everyone up from time to time, and typos do happen. But if I've spotted five simple errors in the first two pages, I'm done.
Offensive works are my next big issue. I returned a Kindle book for the first time ever in 2020. I couldn't make it past the first few pages. The way POC were being described made me want to vomit. 🤮 It was a YA book published in the last three years. In a rare move for me, I didn't even leave a review. I probably should have, to warn others, but I didn't. (It was 2020 and I had enough on my plate.)
There's a Steampunk book I actually did enjoy, but not until I found out what Steampunk is. I was thrown out of the book at first because I didn't understand why certain things would co-exist in a world. I'm still not part of the fandom, but once I understood what was going on and why, I was able to enjoy the book.
(I vote yes.)
Check out the IWSG book club on Goodreads!
I'm honored to have written the writing craft book that's being read for Dec/Jan/Feb.
