Every day, more and more novels become available for our reading pleasure. But sometimes, in the rush to get a novel written and published, things get overlooked. We all have noticed the spelling errors, the missing or extra word, or the incorrect verb tense. But I wanted to take a deeper dive and discover our Lanterns’ pet peeves when reading a novel, the ones that make them want to tear their hair out.

For Pamela Nowak, author of NECESSARY DECEPTIONS, it’s weak character development.

“Weak character development always needles me because that impacts so much. A poorly developed character lacks goals and motivations and flaws. Well-developed flaws and motivations allow the reader to connect with the character. The character’s goals are based on these and goals should drive action and lead to conflict—the essence of great scenes. When a character is not well-developed, the story often seems to meander with random things happening to the character. I love to see characters strive for something that leads to conflict so they have to grow. A character who is nothing more than a victim is seldom one I care about or identify with.”

Jill Hamilton, author of THE SPIRITED MRS. PRINGLE, has a beef with “Show, don’t tell”

“Authors are told this on repeat; it is one of the most important things a writer needs to know. But some authors take this rule way, way too far.

“As far as writing rules are concerned, you are almost always better showing than telling. However, I prefer fast-paced novels—I’ve got things to do! I definitely don’t need to know the color, texture, and smell of every single blade of grass that can be found in the character’s front yard. I don’t need to know about every framed photo in their grandmother’s hallway. Unless the tiny, insignificant details communicate something about a character or hint at who the murderer in a mystery might be, they probably don’t need to be in the book.”

Linda Ulleseit, author of THE ALOHA SPIRIT, has several.

“I cannot even continue reading a book with errors in grammar, punctuation and/or spelling. That’s a pretty common pet peeve among authors, though. I also hate anachronistic behavior of women in historical fiction. As much as I might appreciate an independent woman, her path to independence will look very different in the 19th century than it did in the 13th. My number one pet peeve, however, is too much backstory all at once, especially in the beginning of the book. I don’t want to have to lose the thread of the story, the momentum, by stopping to be filled in on events previous to the current action. It’s like watching a movie with someone who’s seen it before or read the book, and they keep giving you details. I hate that.”

C.V. Lee, author of TOKEN OF BETRAYAL, takes on what she sees as disturbing trends.

“There are a couple of things that I find very annoying. The first is when an author makes the same point over and over and over again. Maybe the author thinks we didn’t get the importance the first time, and wants to reinforce it to makes sure the reader doesn’t forget. But when it is repeated a fifth, sixth, and even the nth time, it makes me wonder if the writer needs a certain word count, but the plot and narrative is too weak to warrant the number of words to get their manuscript to the desired length.

“My other pet peeve is when the main character is portrayed as having a calm demeanor at all times, as if nothing irritates them and they are above all the rest of us psycho humans that actually show our feelings. Not only does the character come across as a robot, but you have to wonder who the true person is hidden behind that mask of perfection. As Ann Elliott, in Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion, thinks, “…she could so much more depend upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped.”

Jonathan Posner, author of THE WITCHFINDER’S WELL CHRONICLES, is certain he is the only person on the planet with his particular pet peeve.

“With apologies in advance to all the people I am going to upset by this – my pet peeve is chapters that start with dialogue. If the first thing I see in a chapter is a speech mark, my teeth grind and steam comes out of my ears! The reason? It’s because there’s no context for the speech. All I know is that someone has said something – it annoys me that I now have to read on to find out who and why. It’s the wrong way round! Why not simply start with the context, so I know what’s happening, then give me the speech? And if the dialogue introduces a new character, I get doubly mad! I don’t even know who this character is or anything about them (name? age? gender?) – but they have said something. GIVE ME THE CONTEXT!

Rant over. Thank you.”

Michal Strutin, author of JUDGING NOA, gets down to the nitty gritty.

“Pet peeves in a novel? Here’s where I get nit-picky, down to the word-choice level. Then, I’ll get even more nit-picky, bottoming out at certain punctuation marks. Word choice: diplomats need the deniability of passive verb forms. Criminals do, too, but theirs are usually one-shot—so to speak—events. Diplomats wield passive-voice like a shield, in their every-day language. “Immigration legal decisions were made by EOIR’s (Executive Office for Immigration Review) immigration law judges.” Passive voice takes all the air out of the action. A great dodge if you’re trying to deflect blame, responsibility, or any other culpability. In fiction, action moves the story forward. Action points to the temperament of your characters and offers clues to how they will behave in the future. Active verbs energize a story.
 
”My high-school English teacher advised that overuse has bleached certain words to meaninglessness. Here’s two of them: “beautiful” and “very.” Very seldom do I use either one. Now for the punctuation mark: exclamation points! Elmore Leonard, in his Ten Rules for Good Writing: Rule Number Five specifies the number of exclamation points per… well, have a look. My favorite of Leonard’s ten rules is Number Ten.”
 

We would love to hear your pet peeves!

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