A few weeks ago, one of our members, Gus Li, posted an article on some of the biggest tropes in Fantasy – including my personal favorite, the Weapon Too Big To Carry.
It got me thinking. We all have those things that really bug us as readers – you know, where you just roll your eyes at the writer and say “Really?”
And as writers, many of us have our own nervous tics – little things we go back to again and again although we know we shouldn’t.
I know one of mine – the mirror trick, when you want to sneakily describe your character.
“Trajax looked at himself in the mirror and hated what he was. The third limb that was just a little too green, the droopy antennas, the nose holes that were just a little too large for good taste.”
Been done. Over it.
So my questions today – as a reader, what are the things that, when you read them, make you want to throw the book across the room? And as a writer, what are some of your own literary tics?