Via Natalie Mootz. No huge surprises here, but the number one reason people stop reading is that the book is dull.
Originally shared by Ward Plunet
WHY READERS STOP READING A BOOK
The story being Dull was the most frequently mentioned problem with 25.29% of the mentions of the Category. Followed by actual Bad Writing, then Dull or Unbelievable Characters, Info Dump, and uses of Profanity.
What is Head Hopping?
What is Head Hopping?
Where you jump between points of view in the middle of a scene.
Where you jump between points of view in the middle of a scene.
Not to be confused with 20th century gossip columnist Hedda Hopper… 😛
Not to be confused with 20th century gossip columnist Hedda Hopper… 😛
Doesn’t have to be in the middle of the scene though. Jumping between points of view at any point can be head hopping – although the term is more likely used if it’s happening very frequently.
Doesn’t have to be in the middle of the scene though. Jumping between points of view at any point can be head hopping – although the term is more likely used if it’s happening very frequently.
I said “in the middle of a scene” to distinguish from when you switch at a scene break, which is legit. Should probably have said “during a scene”.
I said “in the middle of a scene” to distinguish from when you switch at a scene break, which is legit. Should probably have said “during a scene”.
Usually, I give fifty pages chance all books. But sometimes the book drags on.
Usually, I give fifty pages chance all books. But sometimes the book drags on.
That makes sense to me Mike Reeves-McMillan. However I will still tend to call it head hopping (and not like it very much) if there are very short scenes with a pov switch at each scene break. Maybe it’s just that I lack a term for that – jumping from character to character at the end of each short scene. For me it’s a problem of frequency as well as of unresolved action. I really don’t like it if we switch pov before the action of the scene is resolved, which it sounds like is your definition of head hopping. But I also don’t like it if I get a whole slew of mini scenes with a new pov for each.
This is to some extent a personal thing, I know other people who don’t mind it as much as I do. I like to settle in and get to know a character for awhile. Genres with a lot of pov switching tend to be genres I don’t much enjoy. But as I said on another share of this – I think a whole lot of these criticisms are really matters of taste. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with changing pov characters, and it can be done well, I just don’t happen to enjoy it. So it has to be done VERY well not to turn me off. But someone else may feel differently.
That makes sense to me Mike Reeves-McMillan. However I will still tend to call it head hopping (and not like it very much) if there are very short scenes with a pov switch at each scene break. Maybe it’s just that I lack a term for that – jumping from character to character at the end of each short scene. For me it’s a problem of frequency as well as of unresolved action. I really don’t like it if we switch pov before the action of the scene is resolved, which it sounds like is your definition of head hopping. But I also don’t like it if I get a whole slew of mini scenes with a new pov for each.
This is to some extent a personal thing, I know other people who don’t mind it as much as I do. I like to settle in and get to know a character for awhile. Genres with a lot of pov switching tend to be genres I don’t much enjoy. But as I said on another share of this – I think a whole lot of these criticisms are really matters of taste. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with changing pov characters, and it can be done well, I just don’t happen to enjoy it. So it has to be done VERY well not to turn me off. But someone else may feel differently.
This discussion js bringing to mind the classic Science Fiction story The Sheep Look Up, by John Brunner, which had many short sections. But at least to my mind that book really worked. A difference might be that it was not switching views on the same action.
This discussion js bringing to mind the classic Science Fiction story The Sheep Look Up, by John Brunner, which had many short sections. But at least to my mind that book really worked. A difference might be that it was not switching views on the same action.
In romance, I believe, you can occasionally get away with switching within a scene, too. But usually it’s considered a fault. (Kristine Katherine Rusch argues that it’s not, that this is just an oft-repeated shibboleth with no real validity. But I, like most people, find it distracting and disorienting.)
In romance, I believe, you can occasionally get away with switching within a scene, too. But usually it’s considered a fault. (Kristine Katherine Rusch argues that it’s not, that this is just an oft-repeated shibboleth with no real validity. But I, like most people, find it distracting and disorienting.)
I am currently reading “Raising Steam”, the second last of Terry Pratchett’s books. Unfortunately it doesn’t as much of the “fun” elements if the others.
I remarked to myself a couple of chapters ago that it looked like, knowing he was going to die soon, that he was name-checking all the major characters, and that sooner or later I would see a reference to Rincewind; and sure enough, I have just come across it. I’m sure it can’t be long before I see the Librarian mentioned; and, of course, DEATH.
Too much is going well in the story… all the species living in harmony(-ish).
It is getting to be the classic “One story too many that degrades the rest”. But of course I will finish it anyhow.
The most notable author whom I felt really went on writing too long, was Arthur C. Clarke. I was pretty disappointed by his final Space Oddessy book, and I was also pretty disappointed by his final RAMA book. For his last few co-written books I felt like he contributed ideas but that the other author carried most of the weight.
Anyhow…
I am currently reading “Raising Steam”, the second last of Terry Pratchett’s books. Unfortunately it doesn’t as much of the “fun” elements if the others.
I remarked to myself a couple of chapters ago that it looked like, knowing he was going to die soon, that he was name-checking all the major characters, and that sooner or later I would see a reference to Rincewind; and sure enough, I have just come across it. I’m sure it can’t be long before I see the Librarian mentioned; and, of course, DEATH.
Too much is going well in the story… all the species living in harmony(-ish).
It is getting to be the classic “One story too many that degrades the rest”. But of course I will finish it anyhow.
The most notable author whom I felt really went on writing too long, was Arthur C. Clarke. I was pretty disappointed by his final Space Oddessy book, and I was also pretty disappointed by his final RAMA book. For his last few co-written books I felt like he contributed ideas but that the other author carried most of the weight.
Anyhow…
This evening I went through the first 75 pages of listings of free SF&F ebooks on amazon (so about 1200 books listed.) With them being free, I purchased a number of them that I’m not sure I will ever read, but at least now I have the option if the mood strikes me.
One point that I became aware of was with so many free books, and my only needing to click once to buy and have them auto-downloaded, that the individual books started to take on little worth to me. $5 / $10 / $20 for a book is a real cost, and having paid that cost I am more likely to spend time “getting my money’s worth” out of the book. But with literally thousands of books for free, it becomes like flicking through cable TV: if you don’t grab my attention for my mood right then in the first 10-15 seconds, then I’m probably going to pass on and might never come back.
And format matters, at least to me. I grew up in a house with a good supply of physical books, and we went to the library often and I borrowed many books when I was young, and I continue to buy physical books. I am of an age where having a physical book in hand is a very different feeling than an ebook. Words in an ebook seem.. more remote, less well written, more trite, less important.
I do not get the “good feelings” reading a book on my small smartphone screen that I do with a physical book. I do have an iPad2 which would probably be better for reading, except that it turns out that holding up an iPad2 for hours at a time is really really hard on my shoulder, and the beveled edge digs into my chest painfully if I rest it on my chest. I used the iPad2 in bed for an evening a couple of months ago and I am literally still going through physiotherapy and massage to recover.
The physical discomfort of using the iPad2, the too-small screen of the smartphone: those in turn present impediments to reading ebooks. Not prevention, but discouragements.
It’s sort of like this: my house-mate prefers to store many of the cleaning supplies in the basement because they are “ugly”. I don’t even know where the toilet-bowl cleaner has got to this time. I glance and see the dirty toilet-bowl and I think how I “should” clean it, but I would have to take a break from what I am doing to go hunt around for the cleaner through a couple of floors, fetch it, clean, and replace it. Whereas when instead if I glance down at the dirty toilet-bowl and the cleaner is right there in easy reach, then grabbing it and using it barely interrupts my train of thought. Each additional step of thought or action is an impediment making it less likely that something will get done.
I am sure that there are many people these days for whom their smartphone is always in reach and having to go find a physical book would be the impediment to reading. I’m too old-school for that, I guess.
Then too there is the factor that my smartphone has too much opportunity for distraction: there is Facebook to check, email coming in, G+, xkcd, things to google… to me, a physical book is an opportunity to put those distractions aside and do something a bit more dedicated. Steadying. Those distractions can be like noise, individually bearable, but wearing, and reading the physical book can be like turning the noise off.
So although I may have picked up a dozen ebooks this evening, I don’t know if I am going to end up reading more than a couple of them. 🙁
This evening I went through the first 75 pages of listings of free SF&F ebooks on amazon (so about 1200 books listed.) With them being free, I purchased a number of them that I’m not sure I will ever read, but at least now I have the option if the mood strikes me.
One point that I became aware of was with so many free books, and my only needing to click once to buy and have them auto-downloaded, that the individual books started to take on little worth to me. $5 / $10 / $20 for a book is a real cost, and having paid that cost I am more likely to spend time “getting my money’s worth” out of the book. But with literally thousands of books for free, it becomes like flicking through cable TV: if you don’t grab my attention for my mood right then in the first 10-15 seconds, then I’m probably going to pass on and might never come back.
And format matters, at least to me. I grew up in a house with a good supply of physical books, and we went to the library often and I borrowed many books when I was young, and I continue to buy physical books. I am of an age where having a physical book in hand is a very different feeling than an ebook. Words in an ebook seem.. more remote, less well written, more trite, less important.
I do not get the “good feelings” reading a book on my small smartphone screen that I do with a physical book. I do have an iPad2 which would probably be better for reading, except that it turns out that holding up an iPad2 for hours at a time is really really hard on my shoulder, and the beveled edge digs into my chest painfully if I rest it on my chest. I used the iPad2 in bed for an evening a couple of months ago and I am literally still going through physiotherapy and massage to recover.
The physical discomfort of using the iPad2, the too-small screen of the smartphone: those in turn present impediments to reading ebooks. Not prevention, but discouragements.
It’s sort of like this: my house-mate prefers to store many of the cleaning supplies in the basement because they are “ugly”. I don’t even know where the toilet-bowl cleaner has got to this time. I glance and see the dirty toilet-bowl and I think how I “should” clean it, but I would have to take a break from what I am doing to go hunt around for the cleaner through a couple of floors, fetch it, clean, and replace it. Whereas when instead if I glance down at the dirty toilet-bowl and the cleaner is right there in easy reach, then grabbing it and using it barely interrupts my train of thought. Each additional step of thought or action is an impediment making it less likely that something will get done.
I am sure that there are many people these days for whom their smartphone is always in reach and having to go find a physical book would be the impediment to reading. I’m too old-school for that, I guess.
Then too there is the factor that my smartphone has too much opportunity for distraction: there is Facebook to check, email coming in, G+, xkcd, things to google… to me, a physical book is an opportunity to put those distractions aside and do something a bit more dedicated. Steadying. Those distractions can be like noise, individually bearable, but wearing, and reading the physical book can be like turning the noise off.
So although I may have picked up a dozen ebooks this evening, I don’t know if I am going to end up reading more than a couple of them. 🙁
Walter Roberson, that’s why I have a dedicated e-ink Kindle just for reading. It also lets me adjust the font size, which is becoming important.
I know what you mean about the free books, though.
Walter Roberson, that’s why I have a dedicated e-ink Kindle just for reading. It also lets me adjust the font size, which is becoming important.
I know what you mean about the free books, though.