1 / 46
Jan 2019

Hello, it's me and another useless topic :smile:

I came across this website which held a survey about factors that make readers stop writing, I do think it is a quite helpful and interesting topic :blush:

Quoted from the site:

There were 34 sub-categories as a result of the survey. Those results were then placed into 5 main categories: Writing, Editing, Proofreading, Taste, and Other, with Writing providing the largest number of sub-categories and results.
68.49% of those responding noted some form of dissatisfaction with Writing as a reason for putting a book down.
26.03% gave Editing.
23.29% gave Proofreading.
17.81% was Taste.
2.74% was Other.

And here are the results:

Do you, as both writer and reader agree with this? Do you think it's important to know this, as so catering and conforming to audience taste? Does your work have some factors mentioned that can make readers drop it (don't worry, I have all of them :laughing:)? Or you have another reasons to drop a novel which is not mentioned? (Like when the writer is a total scumbag)

Please do share :wink:

  • created

    Jan '19
  • last reply

    Jan '19
  • 45

    replies

  • 3.6k

    views

  • 20

    users

  • 124

    likes

  • 5

    links

I agree with a lot of stuff on here but I personally don't think typos and choppy editing really bugs me (unless it's extremely bad) because it's free, lol, what do I expect, and I think readers that read free stuff will somewhat think similarly to me (Like when people whine about readers choosing to read books with bad grammar. I think it just comes down to the fact that they understand the book is free and it's a one person team [AKA just the writer] so they are more forgiving.)

Things I strongly agree with.

  • Too slow paced.
  • Flowery overly detailed and technical writing. (Most people ready at an eight grade level, and if you're wishing for your work to have a wide appeal you'll 'dumb' down your words enough so that a lot of people can read your story. [A lot of people forget that online for instance, many people are bilingual and have English as a second or third language. Making your work harder for them to read isn't a good thing.)
  • Plot holes. I hate when I read a story and I can count the multiple loose strings scattered everywhere. At a point I just might give up on the story.

Dashes? Interesting. sweats because she is an abuser of the em dash.

I think this post is loosing 9.20% of readers.
Just joking :slight_smile:

I agree to with using difficult words, it's difficult for non-native speaker and even more for the non-native writers. Sometimes writer are prioritizing to use beautiful and complex words over what its convey or the meaning, resulting in weird writing (such as fanfiction writer describing eyes as "orbs")

I thought usage of dash is common and more acceptable than semicolons, that I'm a weirdo for almost not having it (because I abused the semicolons) :sweat_smile: Some people hate it it turns out

You stupid lowlife, this whole post is an example :wink:

In a serious note, I feel like something really bad of a writer that even her post in casual forum has too many flaws no one interested to read it :sweat: and my fragile self worth is shattered by harmless joke.

Damn it, how to delete a forum post?

Yup, I usually stop reading a story if it becomes boring or repetitive. I can sit through a 500- page graphic novel but when a story is being uploaded in batches, it becomes exhausting to put an effort into keeping up with the plot so far. Especially when I’m reading 100+ comics at the same time. So when nothing is happening, I drop the series.

I honestly rarely drop a story because I didn’t agree with views or didn’t like a specific pairing, etc. if you can keep my attention, you can keep my sub. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

To be hones, I'm finding these statistics a bit useless at being used as guidelines for writers. I'm not saying it's a useless piece of information in general though. The thing is that I, for example, can watch few 1/2 hour documentaries on korean traditional traditional crafts (true story) in a row, where 90% of the moovie is not narrated and other 10% is in Korean. And I'll be entertained and involved into watching. And I don't even speek Korean. On the other hand, I bet most of people will find it dull and borring. So, as my ex coworker used to say: "As for the taste and colour - all crayons are different" What one person will find being a "Bad dialogue", other find hillarious.

While something perceived as "bad dialogue" is different per person, the problem we can know is still "bad dialogue is disliked" that even we don't know what exactly audience's taste is and we can't completely cater to them we should try our hardest to make our dialogue as good as possible.

That's just different interpretation of it though!

Well, thank you for your input :smile:

Don't give up so soon! I think you should give the topic at least a day before you decide it was a failed venture.
And even if it doesn't spark a conversation, it's not your fault. Sometimes that's just how the cookie crumbles.

I feel like I resonate with the pie charts a bit.

I've dropped many novels on Tapas immediately after the first paragraph. Most of the time it's due to poor sentence structure or dropping me into the deep end of the pool, not giving me a damn floaty until we're like three chapters in.

As a reader, off the top of my head:

-Don't use the same word five times between three sentences. It's like, listening to someone who like, says "like" too much.

-Don't expect me to follow along with your story if you drop multiple plot-specific nouns that are obviously important to the character(s) but just make me feel like I'm reading a language I don't know. Mentioning key figures or places or things within the context of their importance or even a tiny suggestion of what they could be is important.

-Don't sound like a complaining child if you write in first-person.

-Don't, for fuck sake, introduce someone without describing them and then several episodes later DESCRIBE THEM AND RUIN MY VISION OF THE CHARACTER THUS FAR.

-Don't assume everyone wants to read the detailed historical archives of the world you've made. Early information of your vision needs to be easy to digest. Once the reader is invested, they'll appreciate a long-ass history lesson because they like your world.

-Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I am a rambling idiot with no credentials.

Hahaha I really feel the fourth one! :laughing: sometimes it also break the immersion, that you recheck it to when the character is introduced to confirm. When reading in my native language the surprise is sometimes the gender of the character, because we don't use gender-specific pronoun (a character I thought was a girl, is a guy all along).

Besides that I resonate with all your points, interesting thought :smile:

Tragic ending sounds like a strange reason to drop a story as it kind of implies you've read to the end. :thinking:

Interesting how profanity is a larger concern than violent and racism (and... uh... weak story. Makes sense I suppose. :neutral_face:) I'm surprised racism is only 1.15% because I can understand that being a clear reason to drop a story even if the writing and characters are good.

Me personally, my main reason for reading on or dropping a story right from the start is not whether the beginning is slow but whether it is interesting. If in the first chapter or two the author shows they have a good sense of humor, a lot of imagination, unique characters or just a really interesting idea, then I'll be interested to carry on reading.

I thought that was weird too, but I think the contributors might have been taking historical/classical literature into consideration (there are lots of amazing stories written decades to centuries ago, that are, sadly, racist as hell). ^^;

Indeed, not only racism but sometimes value or morality dissonance in general :smile: It's sometimes weird to see people mannerism in the past, or how they casually whip their children for small mistake.

Some older stories have attitude towards women that they are just a character inserted for romance or soap opera factor and nothing more, or the preachy notion about what "ideal women" should be that we think it's outdated (e.g. must be a good mother that bears many children, always obey husband, etc.), or reinforcing the idea that they're dependent and can't do anything.

Not to mention their treatment about LGBT+ people or disabled characters, mostly they don't exist or just be there as "bad example."

It is... :no_mouth:

But I don't know the "racism" they meant is racism as theme or rather the attitude author implied along the story. I can see how racism even as theme can be upsetting, or maybe it scored low because people think of the racism as theme of the story rather than an issue. I don't know.

Perhaps they dropped it when they sense it would be a tragic ending like in the story that is always feel there's no hope left you jump into angst fest with the character. Maybe the tragic ending of first installation of a franchise can make a reader drop the franchise altogether... I don't know.

Wow, I'm surprised at the number opposed to profanity. What prudes.
LOL

Unless they're like racial slurs or epithets targeted at specific people, then I can see how it would turn off readers.
But all in all I agree with the list.

Agree! :smile: Unless it is aimed at younger audience, I think profanities are minor nuisance especially for works tagged mature. I meant I find it more off putting when I see censored f*cking profanities in works that meant for teens or adult.