Author Habits That Annoy You

[Allyn Gibson]

One issue I ran into about once a year, thanks to Marvel launching and relaunching Avengers, was finding out how many times I could use the word "Avengers" (or "avenge" or "avenging") in a single sentence without it sounding completely stupid. Answer: about three. For example, something like:

"Following Ming the Merciless' defeat of the Cosmic Avengers on Krakadoom, Captain Proton must assemble an all-new spacefaring Avengers team and avenge their fallen comrades in Marvel's new Spaceforce Avengers series this May!"

Hopefully no English majors will ever scour my PREVIEWS work for overarching themes and motifs.

 

[FredH]

I don't know. You can't make it too easy for the future English major looking for overarching themes and motifs in your oeuvre by just using the same key phrases.

Paging Chris Claremont…

 

[FredH]

"Following Ming the Merciless' defeat of the Cosmic Avengers on Krakadoom, Captain Proton must assemble an all-new spacefaring Avengers team and avenge their fallen comrades in Marvel's new Spaceforce Avengers series this May!"

See, now I want to read this…

 

[I am not Herbert]

Hmmm. So, I generally agree with this, though I once binge-read a single-author series...good books, went by quickly...and because I read them rapidly certain idiosyncrasies became apparent that I might not have noticed if I'd read more slowly or interspersed other books. Once I noticed them, every recurrence of them became just a little amusing and/or irritating depending on my mood at the time.

I have found binge-reading any author's books to be a losing proposition, even if language or tropes aren't reused. Diminishing marginal returns. Space it out, keep things fresh.

 

[FredH]

I have found binge-reading any author's books to be a losing proposition, even if language or tropes aren't reused. Diminishing marginal returns. Space it out, keep things fresh.

I find it depends. Robert E. Howard Conan stories, yes, absolutely. Michael Moorcock stuff, I find it always makes me want to go find some more.

 

[Greg Cox]

Paging Chris Claremont…

"Her power was a song within her . . . ."

 

[FredH]

"Her power was a song within her . . . ."

“…body and soul!”

 

[Greg Cox]

“…body and soul!”

To be fair, I believe that was at a point where there was an editorial decree (from Jim Shooter?) that every character's powers had to be explained every issue -- since every issue might be someone's first.

So, yeah, we tended to get boilerplate dialogue and captions explaining the same stuff every issue.

You see this in a lot of vintage pulp series as well. Pretty much every Doc Savage adventure had the same paragraph expositing about the peculiar trill Doc made when he was deep in thought.

 

[Christopher]

To be fair, I believe that was at a point where there was an editorial decree (from Jim Shooter?) that every character's powers had to be explained every issue -- since every issue might be someone's first.

So, yeah, we tended to get boilerplate dialogue and captions explaining the same stuff every issue.

You see this in a lot of vintage pulp series as well. Pretty much every Doc Savage adventure had the same paragraph expositing about the peculiar trill Doc made when he was deep in thought.

I liked it when Marvel started putting guide pages at the start of each issue before the first page, concisely introducing the characters and recapping the previous issue. I think it was when Marvel had the Star Trek license, so I guess it was in the '90s. It's a better way to provide regular exposition/recaps than through awkward dialogue in the story proper.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Back when I was a voracious reader, hooked on certain authors, the most annoying habit was not writing fast enough.

 

[Greg Cox]

I have found binge-reading any author's books to be a losing proposition, even if language or tropes aren't reused. Diminishing marginal returns. Space it out, keep things fresh.

Some authors more than others. I love C. L. Moore and Tanith Lee for their lush, luxuriant prose, but I find it's best not to binge them. It's like eating too much rich dessert in one sitting!

 

[Stevil2001]

My seven-year-old really enjoys Justice League comics on the whole but refuses to read ones from the "satellite era" because it annoys them how every issue repeats the bit about how many miles the JLA satellite is above the Earth.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

My seven-year-old really enjoys Justice League comics on the whole but refuses to read ones from the "satellite era" because it annoys them how every issue repeats the bit about how many miles the JLA satellite is above the Earth.

22,300.

 

[STMSTS]

When the prose/narrative references Kirk as Jim. I think Diane Duane does this and it drives me crazy. Absurd, I know, but it takes me a smidge out of the story.

Also, when Chekov’s (and to a lesser extent Scotty’s) dialogue is written sans accent. Maybe that makes me a lazy reader, but that’s vat I like.

 

[Christopher]

Also, when Chekov’s (and to a lesser extent Scotty’s) dialogue is written sans accent. Maybe that makes me a lazy reader, but that’s vat I like.

As I recall, that was Marco Palmieri's policy when he was the editor, that we should use standard spelling for Scotty's or Chekov's dialogue rather than writing accents phonetically. Maybe it wasn't just his policy, since it seems to have continued after his time. I can see how exoticizing foreign accents that way is kind of ethnocentric, or at least corny.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

It aids the reader; those who might stumble over any accented lines don't have to figure out what the character said, while those who wouldn't can just imagine them saying it with an accent.

The book might even say something like, "'Hello! Can anyone hear me?'" he rasped in a thick _____ accent".

 

[FredH]

As I recall, that was Marco Palmieri's policy when he was the editor, that we should use standard spelling for Scotty's or Chekov's dialogue rather than writing accents phonetically. Maybe it wasn't just his policy, since it seems to have continued after his time. I can see how exoticizing foreign accents that way is kind of ethnocentric, or at least corny.

In some of the older books, the “accent spelling” could occasionally get a little overdone or ridiculous, particularly with Scotty, or at least so my fuzzy memory of the earliest Pocket novels claims.

 

[Christopher]

In some of the older books, the “accent spelling” could occasionally get a little overdone or ridiculous, particularly with Scotty, or at least so my fuzzy memory of the earliest Pocket novels claims.

Yes, and even more so in some of the Bantam novels. Not just spelling, but vernacular, like one book (maybe Spock Must Die!) where Scotty was using words like "mickle" that he never used on TV.

 

[FredH]

Yes, and even more so in some of the Bantam novels. Not just spelling, but vernacular, like one book (maybe Spock Must Die!) where Scotty was using words like "mickle" that he never used on TV.

Or things like “I’ll gae her a try!”, which I don’t know if that’s even accurate or not.

 

[Set Harth]