Monday, March 5, 2012

Turning off the critical eye

Last week I finished a YA book which I really enjoyed (overall). The only problem was, it was plagued by a serious case of unnecessary "that"s. And I noticed. And no, I won't tell you which book it was (although if you are of a mind to know, you could always check my goodreads profile).

I'm not cool and I know it, Sean Landers
Normally, I am able to turn off my critical eye. I still notice gaping plot holes or poor writing with my critical eye off, but those are issues I notice as a reader. It's the nitpicky things I don't like to notice when I read for pleasure - overusage of "that" (or any other word, take "just" for example), a repeated/missing word, a small typo, overly-exotic dialogue tags (she ululated), a point of view slip.

But lately, I've been reading a whole lot of unpublished chapters critically, and my critting mindset is spilling over into my pleasure reading. This isn't always as bad as it sounds - sometimes I purposefully read a book critically, but only when it's a book I loved and I'm reading it for a second time to see how the author did something.

So now I'm thinking I might need a sort of break between critting and pleasure reading in order to really experience the book as a reader and not as a critical writer. Maybe I won't crit at all while I'm reading a book, not until it's done.

Do you have the same issue? How do you deal with it?

12 comments:

  1. I think I have always been a critical reader, but it never really lessens my enjoyment of a book - unless the issues are REALLY bad. I can put up with a lot lol!

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    1. I've always been a critical reader too, but when I get on a critting roll I can tend toward the over-critical. I know what you mean about putting up with a lot sometimes, haha - I'm definitely willing to ignore not-quite-yet-there writing for an amazing story :)

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  2. I think whether you beta or not, just being a writer means you have your 'writer's head' on all the time. I had to put down a book because all the main characters (who were 17-yr-old macho, tough guys) kept saying 'like' All. The. Time. As in, "Let's, like, go down and shoot up some, like, police cars. It'll be, like, totally cool.'
    I'm a teenager, and NO boys I know speak like that.

    I'm okay with poor writing if it's funny, though!

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    1. "like" over-usage is annoying enough in real-life so I can only imagine how awful that must have been to read!

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  3. To put it bluntly, I don't read for pleasure very often. Oh, it's annoying, considering I've been an avid reader for years, but once I really got knee deep in editing, writing and proofing, it became impossible.

    Unlike you, I find it next to impossible to turn off that critical eye. :(

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    1. Oh no :( I hope you'll find a way to enjoy reading again soon - there are so many great stories out there waiting to be discovered!

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  4. I've definitely had problems turning off my critical eye while reading since learning to turn it on for editing and critting. There are some times when I can read and just enjoy the story, but some times I just nitpick every little thing.

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    1. Sometimes I find I can appreciate a particular sentence in a way I might have missed if I wasn't in crit mode - I guess there is a positive side to everything - but ya, sometimes it would be great to be able to just sit back and enjoy the story ,right? :)

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  5. I've definitely had the same issue. It's frustrating to pick up a book to take a break from betaing only to find myself critting everything in the book as well! I haven't tried the separation in time between betaing and reading for pleasure, but that's a very good thought. It sounds like it just might work!

    One thing I have been doing is listening to more audiobooks. I find it easier to turn off the critical eye that way, because I'm using a totally different sense to experience the book. I couldn't possibly jot notes in the margins when it's not there in front of me visually! However, audiobooks do drive me a bit bonkers in that they're so much slower. And I also wonder how much the way the reader reads aloud is influencing my opinion of the book. I find myself wanting to re-read some of these on paper (well, Kindle really) to see if my opinion changes.

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    1. Audiobooks are something I haven't tried yet - I've been worried they would be too slow though, like you say. And true, the reader might emphasize certain words which I wouldn't while reading and give the sentence new meaning. Maybe it's worth trying though :)

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  6. My critical third eye is usual wide open (but loses clarity when trying to critique my own work, of course).

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    1. haha, yeah - crazy how that works sometimes - it's so much easier to see the mistakes everywhere but in my own MS ;)

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