I recently posted this question on my Facebook author page…
“I’m curious! Do any of the following things bug you when reading fiction?
1) Misunderstandings that go on too long. 2) A predictable plot. 3) Unlikely calamities (for example: fire followed by sickness followed by a blizzard). 4) When one honest conversation would really help matters, but the characters avoid having that conversation. 5) Coincidences.
Let me know in the comments! 
If you have a reading pet peeve I didn’t list, go ahead and share that too, please.
p.s. All of the above bother me and so I try not to include them in my books. However, I acknowledge that I might be more sensitive to these than most because I’m a writer who spends a lot of time learning and thinking about the craft.
p.s.s We’re just speaking generally here (not mentioning any particular book, for example, that didn’t work for us) with the understanding that we might have tiny gripes but the bigger picture is that we all really LOVE books and reading.”
The responses were very numerous and fascinating. So much so, I created a bar graph!
The top two reader pet peeves (of those I’d listed) were misunderstandings that go on too long and when an honest conversation would help, but the characters don’t talk. The next most common answer was, “all of these bug me!” Then came unlikely calamities, predictable plots, and coincidences.
Some of the top reader pet peeves that I didn’t list initially, but that were echoed by several readers in the comments of the post were…
Lack of realism (characters who don’t think/act/talk like real people or scenarios that are completely unbelievable).
Details and timelines that don’t add up.
Too much description.
Rushed endings.
A story that drags to the point that readers suspect the author was just trying to add word count.
Characters who fall in love way too fast.
Secret baby plot lines.
Too much repetition and over-explaining.
Grammatical and spelling errors.
Unsympathetic characters (because they’re too naive, lack intelligence, or are whiny, weepy, argumentative, wishy-washy, cheesy, or lie repeatedly).
And, to wrap things up, a few that made me laugh…
When the reader can’t figure out how in the world to pronounce a character’s name.
Male characters who read like females.
When the characters use each other’s names a lot. “I’m glad I wrote this post, Susan.” “I’m glad you did, too, Becky.” “My pleasure, Susan.”
Characters who have a dead cell phone in a life-threatening situation or (if they do have a working cell phone) don’t use it to call the police.
Here are my take-aways! Readers are smart and discerning. And writing is difficult because there are about a million traps an author can fall into with any given book.
What are your thoughts?
Becky Wade
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When the solution to a problem is easy and obvious and none of the characters think of that.
When the villain is too stupid and his/her downfall is mostly due to a mistake the villain made rather than something the hero/heroine does.
The rest you mentioned are annoying to me too.
Yes! In fact, I love very quick, witty, smart characters who come up with solutions that make great sense but that I hadn’t even thought of. And I also love it when the villain is brought down by the hero/heroine’s actions and not by his own misstep.
Grammar errors really annoy me!!! It seems like they are in every book I read. The misuse of myself when it should be me, may when it should be might, further when it should be farther, use of nominative case when it should be objective case, etc., are among my biggest peeves.
I read a NYT bestseller where there were a lot of coincidences. I was aware of them as I read. A time or two, I even thought, “Well, that was convenient.” At the same time, the story was so good and the writing so wonderful that I could forgive and suspend disbelief. I consider myself fortunate that I am able to see some of those pet peeves and yet still enjoy the book.
You raise a good point! The pet peeves we’ve listed can be considered “things not to do when writing novels”. However! If an author is doing a lot of things tremendously well, she can probably get away with doing some of the things on this list and readers will still love her story.
Romantic suspense is my favorite genre, but it drives me NUTS when heroines with the attitude of ‘I-can-take-care-of-myself-and-don’t-need-anyone’s-help’ get themselves (or others) in trouble (sometimes numerous times) and then are angry when the hero comes to their rescue. UGH!!! Take the help and be thankful for it!!!
I also agree with several of the other pet peeves you mentioned. Very interesting topic and enjoyed seeing all various ones listed.
“it drives me NUTS when heroines with the attitude of ‘I-can-take-care-of-myself-and-don’t-need-anyone’s-help’ get themselves (or others) in trouble (sometimes numerous times)” YES! 100% I actually stopped watching a TV series once for this exact reason.
I totally agree with this! I read a ton of romantic suspense and it drives me nuts when the heroine purposely puts herself in danger because she thinks she knows better and then the villain about kills her and when she’s saved by the hero, she gets mad at him! UGH!
The top two in your poll are the ones I voted for. Of the new ones listed here, I think rushed endings are my biggest peeve. It is really distressing after spending considerable time on an interesting book, to see what I sometimes call “a sudden ending.”
Thanks for the time you spend in avoiding these pitfalls in your books! Happy writing!
After sticking with a story through all the ups and downs we readers rightfully want and deserve a thorough ending — because that’s our pay-off. There’s a saying in writing circles…. “A great opening will sell that book. A great ending will sell the author’s next book.”
“A great ending will sell the author’s next book” – totally agree!
Yes to just about all of these! A few more of my pet peeves:
*When the character’s movements don’t make sense. In a book I am reading, a character left her stool to retrieve something. A few paragraphs later, another character’s comments made her jump off the stool. Did she come back to the stool in-between paragraphs? Or did the author forget she was already off the stool? It’s frustrating when a minor detail takes us out of the story.
*When characters’ names are too similar. I read one book containing a Kari and a Kali. Hard to keep them straight. It helps if they don’t even begin with the same letter.
*When a conversation is stopped while the author explains some background or the character is remembering something. A sentence or two is one thing, but several paragraphs of this feels like the conversation is just left hanging while this is going on. Better to introduce background information or important memories or points in other ways.
*When the author says a character’s face is a mix of emotions, like fear and joy and anticipation all at once. We might feel a mix of emotions, but I don’t think I have ever looked at someone and observed several different feelings on their face in one moment. Plus this seems more like telling than showing.
You’ve made excellent points! Thanks for sharing these, Barbara. The overall goal of the writer should be to keep the reader “living” in the scene. When authors do things that bump readers out of the scene, the reading experience is ruptured.
It’s always helpful to hear reader’s thoughts on issues like pet peeves. Some of mine include the “I hate you, now I suddenly love you” trope. The volatility just doesn’t make a happily ever after believable to me. I’m also not a fan of love triangles. I like to have a clear hero and heroine to root for throughout the book.
Outside of tropes, I really dislike when characters inwardly claim they are determined to make the best of a situation then one chapter later are weeping or raging because things aren’t working the way they want.
Thanks for sharing your findings with us, Becky!
UGH!!! Love triangles :-\
Glad I’m not the only one, Amy. 🙂
Mark me down as another who needs to know who to root for in a love triangle. So long as it’s very clear to me who the heroine and hero are, then I’m good with it.
That’s so nice of you to ask us readers what bugs us. I can think of a couple of authors who could benefit from the responses you got!
I don’t need stories to be 100% realistic because, in my life, reality isn’t romantic or fun. I WANT the man and woman to enjoy getting to know each other, be honest, have a few adventurous dates, get to know each other’s families if they don’t already, have tough choices and decisions, and a happy ending. I agree with the top items that others didn’t like. Typos and Wordos bug me a lot, too. And the over-use of words like “literally” and “proverbial” drives me nuts. Oh, one more thing: in historical novels, the characters’ speech including present-day slang and phrases. Thanks again for asking!
“over-use of words like “literally” and “proverbial” drives me nuts. Oh, one more thing: in historical novels, the characters’ speech including present-day slang and phrases” Yes! Others mentioned over-use of words in response to my FB post. And it’s so important that historical novelists keep us in the world of their story by using words that are authentic to the time.
I had high hopes for a recent read because of the setting and promised plot. But I soon grew to dislike both characters. For all they were supposed to fall in love, they kept doing horrible things to each other simply to keep the plot going. I barely got through that book. I also deplore errors in historical fiction that can be easily verified online. Writers who don’t do their best to get the history right lose all credibility with me.
“For all they were supposed to fall in love, they kept doing horrible things to each other simply to keep the plot going” Writers should never sacrifice their character’s likeability for the sake of plot or manufactured drama. Also, when reading romance, we need to believe the characters are good for each other and have fallen in love for the right reasons. If they demonstrate true love through their actions, then we can trust that they’ll stay together over the long haul.
YES! I’ve read several books lately where the heroine treated the hero terribly almost the whole book and the hero just keeps “coming back for more” – then, suddenly he loves her and the next chapter he proposes and she says “yes”! What about all those terrible things she was saying to you constantly and the way she was treating you? In the real world, you would be gone in one day! And proposing? Never!!!!
When a hero/heroine decides they’re in love that really needs to be fully, fully motivated. And a proposal?! Much more so!
thanks for asking and talking about it in a positive way. This is a topic that can get really negative. I think it’s a good thing to consider what things are universally annoying and do our best to avoid those, while keeping in mind we’ll never keep every reader happy. Because the truth is- yeah, we’ll run into things that annoy us in books, but can pick ourselves up and keep going without getting nasty about it.
It’s very true that an author can’t hope to please every reader! At the end of the day, I write my books the way I feel led to write them and the way that I love them. Then I let go of them when I release them so that readers can have their own unique experience with them.
When reading a series and the subsequent books spend half the time recapping what’s happened before – I almost feel like you should only pay half price for them because you already know all that 🙂