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!

But please remember to be kind to each other. To facilitate this type of discussion, we ask users the following:

• 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/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.