The dialogue is hackneyed in the way that dialogue in superhero cartoons is hackneyed. You know, stuff like, "I will have vengeance! Let the land be washed in the blood of humanity for the crimes it has committed." I paraphrase, but you get the idea. Normally, I don't mind stuff like that, if there's something I can like about the story. But it was trying really hard to be earnest, and that didn't work so well for me.
I have been a lurker on this list for some time. School and life mean I don't proofread as much as I'd like to, but lately most of what I've been reading has come from Bookshare so I thought I'd get a bit more serious about it.
And feel free to schmooze offlist. :) Shannon At 12:28 PM 2/17/2010, Kim Friedman wrote:
Hi, Shannon, I'm thinking if the book makes you cringe, then it's better you give it to somebody who has a stronger stomach. How bad is the dialog? I've read books which had an overuse of adverbs and a lot of purple prose in the sex scenes and I read the story because I ordered the thing and chose to finish it, but those purple passages made me say something like: "Oh, come on! It can't be like that! Seeing eternity, my eye! Oh, I grant you they liked it a lot, but really!" You get the drift? I've read stuff by David Eddings and he is a great storyteller, but I have issues with how he makes his characters speak to each other. I'm picky. If you've read Agatha Christie, I hate her dialog and prefer the dialog written by Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, Dorothy L. Sayers (even though Lord Peter Wimsey sounds affected which I think was the fashion at the time), and Josephine Tey. I hope you like your next book. I haven't read messages from you before, so if you're knew to this list, it's very nice to meet you. Would you consider writing me off list? I'm a semi-green proofreader and it would be nice to do general schmoozing or talk shop. Regards, Kim Friedman. -----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Shannon Curry Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 9:09 PM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Validating books you hate Hi, all, Not owning a scanner, I've been dipping into validating books. Thankfully, the ones I've picked so far have been good scans and generally easy to work with. However, recently I checked out a book that had been awaiting validation since early December. All was going well--the scan looked awesome and I was able to fix a few formatting issues. But I couldn't stand it. The writing was awful, the dialogue contrived, and after stopping and starting it three times, I finally gave up in despair and released it for someone else. Does anyone else ever have this problem? And now I have awful validator guilt. I mean, it's been up since early December, and the poor submitter probably really wants his/her credits since s/he worked really hard at scanning the book. So I guess my question is... how long do books sit unloved and unvalidated before someone from Bookshare does it or the system automatically rejects them? And am I the only one that suffers from this insane guilt? (OK... probably I am, but hey, what's the Internet for if not for airing our neuroses in public?) Shannon Who is off to find a book she will hopefully like more To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line. __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4872 (20100216) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4875 (20100217) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
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