Throw Away Lines

I've often told one of my friends that she is too smart. Her knowledge handicaps her in some ways. My goal as her friend has always been to loosen her up. When it comes to writing, I've been soaking up as much information as I can. I'm driving myself to learn more, read more, observe more. I fear this is hindering my level of enthusiasm for reading.

I started a new book the other day. The first few chapters had what I call throw away lines. Information that you need that may or may not be pertinent to the story later down the line, but they appear to be three or four lines that could have been thrown away. Character introductions that include a paragraph of how the person relates to the main character from previous books.

They annoy the crap out of me. First I find that a few lines can't cover an entire book's worth of history. Second this particular author presented most of the information as factual with no emotional connection. It caused me to not care and also to think the editing of the book was poor. Mostly though the flow of the story came to a halt. The book took on a technical feel instead of an emotional connection. I didn't care about the main character or the people in her life because she didn't appear to care.

"Ms. Smith had grown closer to John Doe a few months ago when they'd gone through a traumatic time together. They'd remained in touch despite going their separate ways."

I'd have probably written it this way.

Ms. Smith smiled at John Doe. Her gratitude for him hadn't lessened as the days passed since the trauma they'd endured together."

I'm struggling to finish this book because I just don't care about the characters. I'm doing my best not to just skip to the last chapter to see how it all ends. Although I have no doubt that it has a happy ending, I'm just not sure I'll be invested enough to care.