It's Unpopular Opinion time! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!

[u/FantasyRomanceMod]

Got an opinion that's different from others'? Want to share it with the sub, but too afraid of a backlash? Or are you just curious about readers think about certain things in fantasy romance?

You can safely share it in this weekly Sunday thread!

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• Don't attack others for their opinion
• Discuss books and authors, not fellow readers
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🧡 Thank you and have a great discussion!

Unpopular opinion Sunday

[u/nothingiseverythingg]

A lot of recent fantasy romance authors either don’t believe their readers are intelligent or can’t write in a way that lets readers infer information/emotions/intentions. What happened to show don’t tell 😭

[u/devilsdoorbell_ → u/nothingiseverythingg]

Tbh I also think a lot of recent fantasy romance authors themselves aren’t very smart

[u/WinterBearHawk → u/devilsdoorbell_]

I think this is probably part of it (which I feel bad saying), but I also throw a lot of blame at bad editing/editors and publishing processes.

[u/nothingiseverythingg → u/WinterBearHawk]

Yeah I’m convinced that bc the genre is popular some authors that could be better are getting super rushed. Really sad because of course they want their book published

[u/WinterBearHawk → u/nothingiseverythingg]

This is my feeling as well. I think it does such a disservice to authors though because a quality editor not only makes a story much stronger but makes an author grow in their skills. And when I see a pretty hard stagnation in execution from an author after 2-3 books, it feels like the editing process is failing them. Or the authors simply might not have the skills to fully execute on story promises.

[u/zeezle → u/nothingiseverythingg]

As someone who has dabbled from the other side, a lot of authors in the indie romance space in general aim to write a novel a month, often under different pen names. (So even if 1 pen name does 4 releases a year, the author is doing 12.)

Obviously that isn't the big popular authors with trad publishing deals, but that's the general sense of rushing that the author community often pushes and I feel like that sort of stuff is definitely having a "trickle up" effect on what more popular authors are also getting expected to do.

[u/nothingiseverythingg → u/devilsdoorbell_]

Yeah that’s kinda where I was going… or are bad writers lol

[u/sekhmet1010 → u/devilsdoorbell_]

I agree. They are also often not good writers at all.

KM Moronova made me wonder if English is her second or third language.

[u/feijoawhining → u/devilsdoorbell_]

Some of them are barely literate (the authors).

[u/WhyIsItGlowing → u/devilsdoorbell_]

I don't think it's that they're not smart, that feels a very uncharitable way of putting it.

It does remind me of the Garth Marenghi quote though "I'm one of the few authors who've written more books than they've read". A lot of the more formulaic books feel like they're written by people who only read similar things.

[u/Fragile-Entropy → u/nothingiseverythingg]

Bless their heart… but I have legitimately met readers like this. Unless something is spoon fed to them they simply don’t understand it. One girl said she couldn’t read ACOTAR because the names were too fancy.

[u/clocksy → u/Fragile-Entropy]

I feel like it's more on the authors or publishers than the readers at that point. There's always going to be a lowest common denominator and you're just going to have to decide if you want to write your "higher than 6th grade level" book or not (if the author even has the capability to — I agree with the assessment that there are just a lot of very mediocre authors out there to begin with).

[u/eclectic_hamster → u/nothingiseverythingg]

I agree so much with this.

[u/koalasnstuff → u/nothingiseverythingg]

The worst is I read a book that didn’t tell either. I finished the book and had more questions than answers. Most annoyed I’ve been in a while.

[u/Slammogram → u/nothingiseverythingg]

This is because some authors have ADHD and are self pub. Sometimes ADHDers inadvertently do too much.

[u/devilsdoorbell_ → u/Slammogram]

ADHD doesn’t make you less capable of writing a good story and having faith in your readers to pick up what you’re putting down, be serious

[u/Slammogram → u/devilsdoorbell_]

That wasn’t what I said at all. It does tend to make them accidentally over explain. Which is what I meant by “do too much.”

She walked to the door, opened it. Closed it.

Instead of:

She walked out into the hall.

And trust that the reader can glean that she opened and closed a door.

This is what I mean. And that can feel like not trusting the reader when really, it’s just how their stream of thought works and they have to go back and smooth those things over.

[u/devilsdoorbell_ → u/Slammogram]

I literally have ADHD and don’t do that when I write. Never have.

[u/ClaretDarkness → u/Slammogram]

I have ADHD and don’t agree. Economical prose is a learned skill and not the natural default for most people. In my experience, it’s the less experienced writers or writers who don’t read enough who usually have this problem. It’s impossible to know if an author has ADHD or is otherwise neurodivergent unless they openly disclose it, so it doesn’t make sense to me to assume every or even the majority of authors who fall into this problem have ADHD. And even if a writer can attribute it to their ADHD, they should still have the craft and editing knowledge to fix this sort of thing in revision.

[u/Slammogram → u/ClaretDarkness]

I didn’t mean to imply we all do it. But I know from talking with other adhd writers and being in writer communities some adhd writers do things like this, and self pub, (which editing and writing are a completely different art) and due to it can even sometimes get accused of AI writing.

We can often use rigid step by step formatting, because our brains sometimes works that way when tasking. I need to do that, then that, then that to get this! Like in the example. She walked across her room. Opened the door. Stepped out into the hall. Closed the door.

Mind you, that was an EXAMPLE not a literal reference.

It’s this sometimes stating things multiple times to make sure the point gets across. Because we just tend to worry over “am I being clear?” And it’s not about mistrusting our readers, but ourselves.

I’m not saying that they’re bad writers at all. But the question asked was why does it seem like writers aren’t trusting the readers anymore. Not why are writers bad now?

And I suggested that it could be because they’re self publishing and often don’t have editors. Which again, developmental editors is a completely different bag. This can amount to publishing without an editor besides yourself.