What are some icks you get when reading a novel?

@jwabeasley Jwa Beasley
Tue, 05 Aug 2025 17:13:50 +0000

@jwabeasley wrote:

Lots of good ones so far.

One that gets me is people expecting that their worldbuilding will be a big draw. Most of the time, if I notice your worldbuilding then it's already failed. Excellent worldbuilding will hit me at the end of a story where I might think, "You know, that's a really interesting way to approach this trope! And there's a lot of thought put into this world that I didn't notice at first!"

Usually I see worldbuilding-as-draw from authors who are otherwise writing utterly average fantasy settings with nothing I haven't seen before.

Writing advice-wise, realize that nobody gives two figs for your worldbuilding unless it is attached to characters we care about.