This is a major issue for me as a non-native English speaker (it even happens in my own language, but the effect is not as bad). Why do some authors go out of their way to make their books very convoluted? Like they make it so hard for you to connect the dots from different chapters or even the same chapter. What’s the point? Do some readers actually enjoy this? Or is it the author trying to show off/feel superior? (This is not meant as an insult, just an assumption/opinion?). I’ve read several Stephen King books and they’re mostly easy to understand, but sometimes he’d go on tangents where shit doesn’t make any sense. I just skip all that “filling”, as a I call it. Like who’s whom, and what’s just happened? Where did this come from? And so on. Tried with the Malazan book of the fallen, and holy shit. The beginning of the first book was a major pain to understand, so I stopped and I’ve been reading more English books so I can get better then go back to it. On the other hand, my wife has introduced me to this writer, Freida McFadden. The lady has the most straight forward books I’ve ever read. You read and you understand everything from start to end. I don’t even find myself getting distracted like I do with the books that I have a hard time understanding. Her books are very clear and the English she uses is very simple in terms of vocabulary. Vocabulary… That’s another can of worms that I don’t want to open.
Thanks for reading my rant.

  • SattaRIPEnglish
    2·
    6 days ago

    I’m an indie author. Idk how common my experience is, but here goes.

    I’ve self published one book, but I want to go back and make a 2nd edition, after I finish book 2. My primary goal in writing was to get anyone to enjoy it. I realized onky after publishing that accessibility is important, and I’ve adapted my writing style. How I realized was that my relative who have English as their second or third language couldn’t understand my writing.

    The only people who managed to finish my book were all writers, I believe. In order to get through m book they needed to accept that sometimes my writing didn’t make sense to them, so they continued regardless.

    • penquin@lemm.eeOP
      1·
      6 days ago

      Man, this is great. It’s good to think diversely when you write. Aim to reach all backgrounds, not only native English speakers. I promise you that I won’t think less of you if you make your book easy to understand. To me, it’s the story itself. The plot. How attractive it is and how immersed It’s going to make me into it, not how badass your vocabulary are (is?). Not how complicated your novel is. I’m that guy who leaves a book when it is hard to understand and hard to make sense of (I have recently dropped a book by a great author, Ursula Guin, because it was insanely hard to follow). I’m not in it to test my IQ, I’m in it to entertain myself when I have a minute. We are all constrained on time, and the few hours we have daily, shouldn’t be wasted on something that hardly makes any sense. That’s at least how I look at it.