06-06-2015, 07:59 AM
I might be getting too picky for my own good, with books. I haaaate flowery language or large amounts of description, and this makes me get bored quickly. If a book opens with a description of the weather or the landscape, that's Strike One, from me. This is why I have a problem with epic fantasy, even though I like it in theory.
Take a gander at this book: http://www.amazon.com/Better-Dead-Lily-H...B00C17RE3G
If it were up to me, I would cut the first three or four paragraphs. Where is the mothertrucking PLOT? Show me the plot. For the love of god, somebody rec me a fantasy or urban-fantasy or vaguely paranormal-themed novel that doesn't spend whole paragraphs blathering about the rain, the mountains, the sunlight, the shadows, or the sound of the heroine's heartbeat, or the way her breath feels inside her lungs.
"I turned up my collar against the rain as the skies darkened..." Noooooo, get to the point!!! The POINT, I tell you!!!! *screaming* Imagine zombies moaning "pllllooootttt" instead of "braaaainnss", and that's me, right now. "I could see my own breath against the windowpane..." "The evening sun fell across the floorboards..." Shut uppppp, who caaaaares, make something HAPPEN.
![[Image: 20r4c35.png]](http://i59.tinypic.com/20r4c35.png)
ETA: I know this post sounds pretty unhinged, so just to clarify, it's not *exposition* that I object to. I'm actually very patient with exposition, I actually enjoy it. What I dislike is *scenery* and set-dressing that does nothing to advance plot or characterization, and the type of tight first-person-limited POV in which everything is sensory description instead of information.
Take a gander at this book: http://www.amazon.com/Better-Dead-Lily-H...B00C17RE3G
If it were up to me, I would cut the first three or four paragraphs. Where is the mothertrucking PLOT? Show me the plot. For the love of god, somebody rec me a fantasy or urban-fantasy or vaguely paranormal-themed novel that doesn't spend whole paragraphs blathering about the rain, the mountains, the sunlight, the shadows, or the sound of the heroine's heartbeat, or the way her breath feels inside her lungs.
"I turned up my collar against the rain as the skies darkened..." Noooooo, get to the point!!! The POINT, I tell you!!!! *screaming* Imagine zombies moaning "pllllooootttt" instead of "braaaainnss", and that's me, right now. "I could see my own breath against the windowpane..." "The evening sun fell across the floorboards..." Shut uppppp, who caaaaares, make something HAPPEN.
ETA: I know this post sounds pretty unhinged, so just to clarify, it's not *exposition* that I object to. I'm actually very patient with exposition, I actually enjoy it. What I dislike is *scenery* and set-dressing that does nothing to advance plot or characterization, and the type of tight first-person-limited POV in which everything is sensory description instead of information.