So, after some interesting discussions spawned from the insanity of NaNoWriMo, I started to wonder how many of these unique projects are gong to go all the way. As in a NaNo project turning commercially viable. River Rats was a NaNo book for me, took three months to tie it up, another year and a half to get it to ebook. This is the exception, not the rule.Weird things happen when you try to churn out the foundation for a novel in a month. I don't care how rock solid your plan seems, when those creative juices start flowing, the strongest foundations can be swept away. When a writer is in the midst of creating any idea might seem feasible. I'll be honest my WIP is outright bizarre, like Farscape meets Lexx bizarre. There's body swapping, sex for sale and space pirates. It scares the bejeezus out of me, to think that this thing oozed from my obviously diseased seven pounds of gray matter.
It's been fun, especially all the crap I've ignored or put off to give birth to this monstrosity. Will it ever see the light of day or any eyes other than the peepers of my critique partner? Remains to be seen.
But what do the readers think? What is too much, too awful too damned weird for you to deal with in your fiction? Certain things I won't buy, typically the same sorts of things respectable publishers refuse to produce. (Golden showers? Seriously? Ick.)
Personally, the only thing that will make me stop reading is when the author uses the book to further his or her own political/ spiritual beliefs. The way I see it, you're entitled to your opinion, but don't sneak it in to a book I'm buying for escapism in order to convert me. It's a betrayal of trust between writer and reader. It's insulting and sneaky as hell that you think I'm naive enough to swallow your thinly veiled agenda! I've stopped buying some favorite authors due to causiness. And I'm not talking about empassioned beliefs of characters, believe me, there is a difference and nothing can make me send a book airborne into the DNR pile faster.
So that's my hot button. How about you? I know we've talked turkey as far as cussing and heat levels. What subjects do you just not want to see? What will make you walk away from an otherwise engaging book?
And speaking of turkey, hope you all have a terrific holiday. I'm going to be cooking and cleaning like mad to host nine adults, three kids and three dogs. (Wait, why am I cleaning again?) I've got three bottles of Rosa Regale ready to go and I might even share!
4 comments:
I guess anything with an "ick" factor would make me stop reading. You know, those subjects detailed by most romance publishers as not acceptable for submission. Just...ick. Political agendas would irritate me, so I might skim, but they'd have to be pretty darn blatant to make it a DNF. Other than that I think showing sexual abuse of a child would earn an instant DNF. Authors can refer to it as backstory or show snippets through the victim's POV, but I don't want to see it happening in real time on the page. Does that make sense?
I didn't know anyone watched LEXX but me. I loved that show. You know I adored, right? How obvious. Sigh.
Vomit. I hate it when writers push their political agendas. Personally, I hate it when anyone pushes their agenda on me, even if I agree with them.
You know what else will make me stop reading? If any characters are expected to be forgiven all of their sins just because they had a bad childhood. I will throw the book and light it on fire. Backstory? Sure. Their ticket to redemption? Blow me. They have to earn it like everyone else.
I have a few more, but I can't really demonstrate without naming certain books and I don't want to badmouth anyone's work on a public post.
Whether the author's political agenda would turn me off would really depend on how heavy it's presented and how good the book is otherwise. If it's a great book otherwise, and the preaching isn't too heavy, I would probably continue reading.
When you start reading erotic romance, you learn all sorts of things about yourself...namely what turns you on and what turns you off. My turnoffs include sadism. I've read several erotic BDSM novels, but when a character is actually injured, I stop reading. I like menage stories, but when it's a m/m/f and the primary relationship is between the two men, well, there's nothing there for me! I'm not icked out, I'm just not interested.
Boring sex scenes are another turnoff. I'm still trying to figure out how some "erotic romance" authors can take all the heat and passion out of sex...
Lexx!!!! The most awesome series -- loved it.
My pet-hate hot button is pretty tame. I'm reading far too much of this sort of thing:
"I tossed my long blonde hair over my shoulder." Be honest, does anyone ever think of their hair like that? It's just your hair, right? So you toss it over your shoulder. Which kinda suggests it's long, coz otherwise you'd have weird shoulders. And as for the color, I'm happy to imagine it until some other character brings it up, or some realistic scenario mentions it.
Read a great urban fantasy earlier this week, but nearly didn't make it past the first page because the POV character had already managed to describe her hair, her height and the fact that she was stunningly good looking in the first few paragraphs.
Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Eat some pie for me because in NZ we don't celebrate Thanksgiving, so I'm kinda living vicariously through you all, LOL.
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