Barbara’s Comments (group member since Nov 15, 2015)

Barbara’s comments from the Improving Your Craft group.

I don't think I'm the only reader who wants to be surprised. It is quite boring to know after a few pages how the story will end.

As I told you before the problem with Preferred Rewards lies in the cover conjuring the stereotype expectation of romance as you described it. Yes, there are a lot of readers for the hot alpha-male who'll save her, who want to get aroused reading and dream of their own knight in shining armor. They'll feel deceived.

But that's not your readership. You want your readers to think not to dream.

If you want to brake the rules or invent your own style you have to be consistent.

There are authors who never use quotation marks, others use primarily half-sentences....some invent a totally new language.

There is room for poetic creativity.

You're so right! These things are not only distracting but often annoying.

I can eaily overlook punctuation errors, even spelling errors may happen, nobody is perfect, but there are some errors authors writing in English make I just can't understand. I'm no native speaker, I learned English at school. When beta-reading I use a dictionary to verify the spelling whenever I'm not sure, but I would never write "their" instead of "there" or "they're", "your" instead of "you're", "its" instead of "it's"...

I just don't get it. How is this possible? I doubt a style guide will help in those cases.

I never noticed (that) "that" is a problem in your novels, it sure isn't the reason for the lack of reviews.

Most people just don't write reviews at all. I didn't until 2 years ago.

My sister thinks (that) she's not eloquent enough to do so. Others see no need for reviews because it's the publishers' job to do the advertising. Still others won't ever find a self-published jewel, because they think (that) if a book is good it'll find its way to a publisher who is going to place it on the market.

I've read a lot of books (that) are found on bestselling lists (that) have thousands of reviews (that) I wouldn't call "good" books.

Don't ever start believing your books aren't good because of the lack of reviews. They just haven't been found by the reviewer crowd.

Some people enjoy writing "bad" reviews, perhaps because they got the feeling of having wasted their time. Others of course want to give praise if something was extraordinarily good. The less likely are reviews for "average" books. Why write a review if nothing stood out?

I only hesitate to write a "bad" review when I had personal contact with the author. I prefer to tell them what I didn't like and why.

My favorite: #12

It does brake the flow, but unlike your door-example it provides the information how she lives.

I don't know what you're trying to get at...but I definitely prefer version 2
(Still trying to read a book that is all like version 3)

5) Put some humor in. Even when you're writing a horror story, a sad story or a story about mental illness. There's no need to make the reader depressive. The best books make you feel all sorts of emotions, make you cry and laugh.

6) Stick mainly to the one story you want to tell. You may put some background about all your characters but focus on the main story.
Since two months I'm trying to finish a book (I promised a review and will write one). The author's good writing style and his capacity to describe people drew me in immediately, but he's gliding from one story to an other, never coming back to the characters he started the novel with, I still have no idea if there even is something like a plot. I've lost interest.

7) Trust starts before actually reading: Title, cover and blurb are what will make a reader choose your book. I keep telling my daughter "Don't judge a book by it's cover", but it doesn't work. The first impression is crucial.

A story told from different POVs is like looking on the life of others from the outside. This can be very interesting.

But it's much easier to relate with a character when the story is told from one POV, because it reflects real life in a more realistic way.

When you meet somebody (to stay with romance) you don't know what he or she thinks and feels. You only know what they tell and show you. You have no idea what they do when you're not around, what their goals are, how they see you.