Molehills Into Mountains: 5 Things That Will Make Readers Put Your Book Down

I can count on one hand the books I’ve put back on the shelf without making it to the bitter end. I’m no quitter, and I can bet you aren’t either. (I say the same thing when facing down a slice of Cheesecake Factory dessert…I’m no quitter. I will power through to the oh-so-sweet end.)

It’s another story entirely when you find yourself knee-deep in a quagmire of word soup — and you’re only 1/3 of the way into a novel. It gets tough to power through when you’re facing broken plotlines, characters with disjointed personalities, and enough grammatical errors to give your 6th-grade English teacher an apoplectic attack. My Southern politeness used to require me to finish EVEN those books. I have a long enough reading list now, however, that a very select few of those books have ended up serving as drink coasters.

Here’s Why Readers Stop Reading

Hint: It’s not your out-of-the-box ideas or your crazy plot line involving angels and aliens creating a peaceful intergalactic society. (Freaky, but could be cool. I sorta want to see where that goes.)

What turns readers off are the little things. Because the little things turn into BIG things. Remember the tale of The Princess and the Pea? It’s just like that. No matter how many mattresses the princess stacked up, she could still feel that tiny pea niggling, irritating underneath the original mattress — because she KNEW it was there.

Check out 5 easy things you can do to keep readers from getting frustrated while reading your book:

1. Check your facts. It happens to all of us. We’re flying through pages at lighting speed because our muse has had 3 energy drinks, and we’re suddenly stricken with a million ideas at once. That’s great! But after that burst of inspiration, it’s important to go back and scrub your work.

Make sure your protagonist has the same eye color you gave her in the previous chapter. Check to see that the hometown is spelled uniformly. Be sure she has the same kind of car in Chapter 1 as she does in Chapter 10. Our memories are fallible, and these errors happen — especially when we’re writing at the speed of light. But mistakes like these are distracting, and readers have long memories.

2. Watch dialogue attributions. Limit the “he said,” “she said” bits. There are so many more creative ways to attribute dialogue! Additionally, remember, dialogue tags don’t need to be used every time a character speaks. If it’s clear who’s doing the speaking, you can let the conversation carry itself without overt attributions. Using the same technique over and over again gets tiring for readers, and they’ll start skipping over portions of your writing. Try pulling in the emotion of the moment, rather than simply telling the reader what’s being said:

Dominic glowered. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I do what I want.” She pursed her lips at him, arms crossed.

“Not here you don’t.”

Trina spun on a spiked heel. “Fine. I’ll take my business elsewhere. I don’t need this crap.”

“Trina, wait.” He caught the door just before it slammed behind her.

Not a ‘said’ in the mix, but it’s clear who was saying what, and to whom. The idea is to use a good balance of dialogue attribution so that no single method gets tiresome.

3. Control your pacing. What do you do if you realize you’ve finished writing Chapter 20, and you have yet to introduce any sort of conflict or action? First, you’ll need to wake up, because you’re probably sleeping. Your readers will be, too, if you don’t fix this! Establish a good cadence for your story, and have an idea of when, where, and how you want the action to escalate.

It can be a pretty difficult slog for readers if they’re still plodding through the protagonist’s sister’s backstory just before the prologue. Take care in producing pacing that is natural and satisfying. Of course readers want information and backstory — but they also want action! They want the story to progress, and you’re the only one who can make that happen.

4. Strive for balance. An entire book of dialogue would be tough to follow, just as a book with ZERO dialogue would be difficult to get interested in. There aren’t a lot of successful books with no dialogue, unless you count epistolary novels. The middle ground is what’s left, and that means finding a balance by utilizing other forms of narrative, like description, action, interior monologue, and exposition.

When the narrative in your book is balanced, your story will flow more naturally, and readers will stay engaged. Don’t be afraid to shake things up!

5. Don’t skip proofreading and editing. This is a biggie. It might not be the most exciting part of the process, unless you’re the nerdy sort who’s been diagramming sentences since 6th grade (avoids eye contact and shamefully puts down red pen). But it’s SO important!

You’ve seen the “No Regerts” tattoos, right? You do NOT want spelling, editing, and proofreading REGERTS after you’ve put in all this time writing your masterpiece. Take the time to give that baby a full and complete review. As a reader, I’ll spend hours agonizing over the misuse of “stationery” vs. “stationary” — which ends up distracting me for at least the next three or four chapters…meaning I’ll probably miss finding out who the real killer is. All because nobody corrected that little spelling wreck.

The dangers are many, dear writer, but you are creative, smart, and capable. The good news is that all of these pitfalls can be avoided by simply slowing down and taking the time necessary to rethink some of the choices you made in the first draft.

First drafts are supposed to be rough; you’re just not supposed to leave them that way!

As a writer, you know what it feels like to put yourself out there. It’s only slightly less intimidating than giving a public speech in your birthday suit. And no one wants to feel like their birthday-suit speech went over like a lead balloon.

Good writers want to hear what other writers have to say. They want other writers to be successful. I want your birthday-suit speech to be the best damned birthday-suit speech EVER!

So get out there. Shake your words up. Challenge your standard. You’ll be surprised at what you create.

And remember:

If the plot line starts to get dull, it might be time for a plane crash or a murder.