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Do you skim over descriptions/dialogues
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There is only one book I have never skipped atleast one page from. Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets!
Now that doesn't mean I don't like the book. it can mean the opposite. If there are characters in different chapters and I want to know what happens next, I'll skim until I find them again. It doesnt cause me any problems with the story either usually.
The Book police won't arrest you if you do. Alot of people are shocked when I mention how much I skip. Most of the time I skip large sections of description or I say 'boring talky bits' like in movies. I'd skip them too if I could lol.
It changes my writing. I try to keep things fast paced, and keep the reader inside the world for as long as possible. Keep dialogue realistic as I can.
I like short detailed descriptions that make your head spin as you fall in. Don't know if its working yet. Have to see what everyone says when its published :p
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As for movies, I used to skip parts when they were in VHS...not so much in DVDs as I find it harder to navigate, but I was doing it in horror movies only so I wouldn't risk having a heart attack :P Skip till after the scary part.. see what happens, rewind to the beginning of scary part and watch it... That was the only way I could manage to watch them.
I skip description A LOT. When they are talking about being in a general place, then go on and on about the tiniest details... well, I get bored. Give me action and moving story, not just hoards of paragraphs with descriptions and meaningless observation. When I write, I always keep "show not tell" in mind. If the character is surprised, I don't say "she was surprised", I express it with dialog or facial expression. If there's a big rock in the middle of the road, I have the character trip over it (metaphorically or for real). Otherwise, I don't talk about it, because no one cares. If the object doesn't have a purpose in the story line, I see no reason to bring it up.
I get the feeling in a lot of books they were just trying to inflate word count, thus added tons of info that didn't need to be there. So yeah, I skim.
I rarely skim or skip through any parts. There have been a few minor exceptions, such as poorly written novels and a few parts of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I love and admire Tolkien, but holy smokes, does he sometimes go on and on with descriptions.Otherwise, I read everything, and I would never skim over dialogue...unless the book is a real clunker.
I am guilty of this if I get bored with the text. I'll start skimming over things until I get to something that interests me.
Traditionally novels are packed with filling to make them an acceptable length for sale, got to be so many thousand words, this process is a real killer of great talent. I hear so many writers proudly telling one how many words they slash out a day, what a lot of rot and descriptions are a traditional place to add this filler! A story should be to the point concise and beautifully written filler destroys this. I don't skip anything I prefer to throw the book away. One exception was War and Peace and when I finished that my thoughts were that W&P would have made a good book if it was half as long!
I rarely skim or skip. I'm pre-programmed to believe that if I did so I just might happen to miss some vital clue to the plot... I like to figure things out by picking up all those dropped crumbs...That being said... if the book is FILLED with BORING description and mundane dialogue, then, YES... I will skip... and I will give it a lower star rating. I recently read a book where many of the conversations were very mundane indeed. And the dialogue that was meant to be telling me interesting plot stuff didn't interest me either, becaue most of the plot was happening off screen while the book focused on the developing romance that was rather boring, really. And as for the descriptions of the meals the MC ate... I.JUST.DON'T.CARE!
Also, Gormenghast... I think I started to skip description in that. Mervin Peake did have a habit of describing the same landscape from five different angles, though... So, by the forth or fifth iteration I was jumping ahead. I hear GRRM does a little of this, too... (No, I haven't picked up his books, yet... plan to)
Anthony wrote: "Traditionally novels are packed with filling to make them an acceptable length for sale, got to be so many thousand words, this process is a real killer of great talent. I hear so many writers prou..."YES! I still have the belief that QUALITY matters over QUANTITY. It's the main reason I didn't finish NaNo last year... my story was finished, and I added everything I needed to add, but was still 2,000 words short. I didn't care. I wasn't going to fluff it up and cause me grief later in the editing just so I could say I won NaNo. Even the final edited version was under 50,000, but oh well.
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Quality leaves you wanting more, while quantity makes you wanting less!
I don't like the fluff thing either. Go straight to the point unless it's to describe how the characters feel. I do prefer 'show' than 'tell', so more words is in that case is better. However, for the sake of the story, some 'tells' slipped among mostly 'shows' may help prevent a 'quantity' problem. Good judgment must prevail.
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But I guess I rarely skip over parts---I skip over parts of my textbooks, but usually not in literature...
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Oh dear :p
Not usually, though I do sometimes when I read pop novels. Okay, yeah, Twilight, for example.
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Sometimes I skim descriptions if they're drawn out, but mostly because I want to get to the good parts of the story again. I don't do this with dialogue.
I recently skipped over the descriptions to get to the interactions between the characters. The book was about a female firefighter joining a firehouse full of firemen. The paragraphs of descriptions about the firehouse, trucks and equipment showed the author had done her research, but I felt I didn't need to know every detail about the job in order to enjoy the romance between the characters.
Fay - that's exactly the kind of things I skip, both as an author and as a reader. The research might not have made it into the book, but still necessary. Now if the detail would have been spread out in the book or had some sort of purpose (for example, the characters interact with objects around the room), then it would have been fine. But endless setting descriptions... boring! Give me action or give me death (or a mix of both!)
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I recently read Chelsea Fine's series 'The Archers of Avalon'. I enjoyed them, but in the last book, where she gave the history of the characters for chapters on end, I just skipped right over them. It didn't effect the story at all and it was rather boring.
I think we skip much of this material because it's unnecessary. Well-placed adjectives serve as substitutes for paragraphs or even passages.
My mother was a fast reader, however, she cheated. She admitted to dislike descriptions and skimming if not totally skipping them.
I've heard that for some people it was dialogues.
Personally, I don't skim/skip anything. When I like/love a story I want to read every word of it, so if I feel the need to skim over parts, it doesn't bode too well for the book. And if I find myself doing it too often, there is a slight chance I will not finish it.
What about you all? Is there any part of a book you skip? (dialogues, descriptions, prologues, epilogues, whatever...)
Does knowing that alters your writing? I have to admit that I am wary about those two now. So my descriptions are short and to the point but I love dialogues. Keeping them strictly relating to the story is my goal but sometimes they help the readers understand the characters and where they come from.
So for my second question, when you write, what's your view on descriptions and dialogues? (and of course, epilogues and dialogues or any other part of a story.)