What really annoys me is when in an otherwise good book, the author has a foreign character using random words from their native language, to point out that they are, indeed, foreign. I'm sorry, but anybody who speaks any English knows the word "yes", and doesn't randomly revert to "oui", "ja", "da" or whathaveyou in the middle of a conversation. And if they can use relatively complex English words like, I don't know, "circumnavigate", they're not likely to stumble and use their own language when saying "baby" or "milk" or "car". It feels really unnatural and just really bugs me.

I hate the scifi/fantasy writers who make up words and then ITALICIZE them. As if it somehow makes it more exotic, italicized.

I hate genre fantasy's penchant for inventing Proper Nouns. The Gate, the Key, the Toilet of Doom, etc.

Fah. Language tends to smooth things out.

i hate really blatant foreshadowing. the kind where it's not just foreshadowing, but fore-hit you over the head yelling "look what's going to happen later"ing.

the worst example of this was in Angels and Demons, i believe.

using 'Prophecies'.

*throws book at wall*
of all the lazy, indolent, stupid, thoughtless devices to read, the moment i read 'the chosen one shall return' is when the barometer drops ...

Also, taking Tolkiens characters and tweaking them ever so slightly.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mischief the enigmatic Polarbear,

quote:

Originally posted by ZoneSeek:
the Toilet of Doom

*snicker* i want to read that book!

but seriously i agree with obvious foreshadowing, if you are going to have an event occur that is important later on at least write it into the story, interweave it with another part of the plot, they are even more obvious when they are disconnected or completely random

How about inventing characters only to knock them off two pages later? Apparently because the author is too attached to any of the "real" characters (however minor) to let any of them die?

I've sometimes read books where the poor newly-invented character didn't even last a page.

"Oh," says Character One. "You remember your childhood best friend So-and-so, with whom you spent every summer holiday?"

Ah, yes, thinks Character Two. Old so-and-so ...! (Character Two goes off on an extended reverie about good times with old So-and-so ... )

"Well, he's dead!" says Character One.

Character Two dissolves into misery, which The Reader is clearly meant to share.

>bang!<

(Cho throws book across the room.)

- Cho

Chomiji, have you been reading Dostojewsky?
He's known for writing whole chapters about people you never see again for the entire rest of the book. It's because he was paid per page, I think.

My most annoying literary device:
If you're reading book 4 of a series, and the author is trying to cram in all the information from books 1-3 unobtrusively, for the benefit of new readers.
It bloats the book and annoys tremendously.
Example: The Clan of the Cave Bear-Series by Jean Auel. (And while we're at it: gratuitous sex over and over again is also annoying. If I wanted that, I'd be reading Playboy.)

One think I find a bit irksome is when the hero goes on a journey with a group for some kind of quest and you never hear a peep about the other members of the group unless they have something directly to do with the plot.

(Actually, a lot of this is beginning to remind me of Diana Wynne Jones' Tough Guide to Fantasyland, which is designed to imitate a travel guide but is actually a very funny guide to fantasy story cliches.)

(And someone smack me if I've carried on about the Tough Guide on this board before ... )

- Cho

Characters with magical powers as Deus Ex Machina.
Just when it looks like all is lost, the character reaches out and does this trememdously cool magical thingy that he didn't know he could do, which no one has been able to do for a thousand years, and Oops! He doesn't know how he did it! (until the next time he's about to be killed, anyway Stupid Wheel of Time.

okay i agree with the great examples given already of books that do very irritating things,

and chomiji i have never heard of that book before you are quite safe

AWESOME essay on Plot Devices, Plot Coupons, and other overused fantasy/SF devices, analyzing how to use them to craft a bad story that sells: http://www.ansible.co.uk/Ansible/plotdev.html#answers

an excerpt:

quote:

Well, of course, the Thing in question is the legendary Black Star, as we learn a hundred pages later: "While this Thing rested in the possession of the Divine Dynasty" (ie. the good guys) "the favour of the Gods shone upon Atlantis. No Emperor could hold the throne unless he also held the Black Star...." which means that the wicked Trotskyite rebels that have temporarily overrun the kingdom will be overcome so long as the goodies retain the Black Star. Notice that the only causal connection between possession of the Black Star and victory is that enforced by "the Gods", for whom of course read "the author", and you perhaps begin to see why I like to term this kind of thing Collect-the-Coupons plotting. It would be much too complicated to have three goodies overcome the whole usurping army, or at any rate it would be far beyond the plotting powers of a Lin Carter. So what you do instead is write into the scenario one or more Plot Coupons which happen to be "supernaturally" linked to the outcome of the larger action; and then all your character have to do is save up the tokens till it's time to cash them in.

One thing that Stephen King's been doing lately that bugs me is putting himself (or a thinly veiled version of himself) in the story. Its FINE if you're John Barth. Its great and normal and acceptable if i'm reading Serious Post-Modernist Fiction. Heck, it was okay when Dante did, it, 'cause Dante's old and cool.

But when i'm reading a cheesy genre sci-fi western dark fantasy novel, i don't want the author himself shoing up to have himself saved by the characters. NO.

The usual ones also apply-- "its just a dream!", "it was earth all along!", etc. i'm sure there are more; somebody has a list somewhere.

I remember Neil talking to us in 1602, man, that didn't work at all.

I read Tough Guide to Fantasyland, great stuff. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy refers to it a couple of times.

quote:

Originally posted by parrotslave:
One think I find a bit irksome is when the hero goes on a journey with a group for some kind of quest and you never hear a peep about the other members of the group unless they have something directly to do with the plot.

This is endemic in anime, the story revolves around the (often boring) protagonist, and we only get to see the (often more interesting) peripheral characters in relation to the main guy.

One of the great things about FF6 was that it was a real ensemble cast, but that's an exception.

LoN, Stephen King put himself in that series? As a rescuee?
*g*
I kind of like that.

onions

He also put 'himself' (okay, an artist with a different name) in his reamake of Lars Von Triar's 'Kingdom' (Kingdom Hospital) as a guy who was hit by a van... and lots of his characters tend to be writers.

onions, read the rest of the series and tell me if you still like it. As for me, there's a certain expectation with certain kind of fiction... and while i don't mind 'literary' writers appropriating genre tropes, getting all metafictiony on what was already a huge mass of genre fantasy was a bit annoying.

I don't count stuff like characters saying 'hey, this bit is Mordor from LOTR!' as metafictony, 'cause wandering through multiple universes is a perfectly valid genre trope...

i dunno. decided for yourself, but that did erk me... and apparently King's being doing alot of it lately. sometimes I don't mind, since he and his characters listen to alot of the same music as me so I can hear the soundtrack in my head... but sometimes i just want to yell 'get over your darn auto accident, or at least stop writing about it'

pointless references. i use this in my own writing. not references with a point, but like 'ok, there didn't need to be a Lovecraft reference there'

Actually, I refuse to read any series now until it's finished.
After ploughing through WOT, I decided that this is better for my nerves.

Dark Tower is done. finished.

there might be stories set in the same universe, i guess, but the main plot is done and finished. finnally

Hey! That's news to me. It'll be my next project, aber Thomas Covenant III/1

onions
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