Howlers

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Aug 7, 2005
Messages
47,985
Reaction score
13,245
I've just read the following in a published book which I checked out from the library this afternoon. For the sake of discretion I won't mention title or author:

She had strong principles. Which didn't suit [male character's name], she claimed, blushing with downcast eyes.

*boggles*

I read some fanfic months ago - yeah, yeah, all right. I just wanted to see if it was as bad as the urban legends would have me believe and yes, it is. I remember burning my brain with something like the following:

She had given birth to a baby with his eyes.

And I really didn't think stuff like that got published. But, as the first quotation above proves, it does.

So. Have you written any howlers you wish to get off your chest or perhaps spotted any in published books? (The published ones make me cry and yet also make me feel better about my own writing in an "if this can make it..." way).
 

writerterri

It's a dorky day!
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 28, 2005
Messages
6,706
Reaction score
3,998
Location
Good'ol Southern California *quakes*
I probably write a lot because I can't seem to get published. My guess is that the phrase was over looked or the person who proof read it was on drugs that day and it really spoke to them.



I wrote.

He quickly got out of the suit of armor and came to my rescue.


I was asked to change it because no one can get out of a suit of armor that quickly yet Powder is able to move things with his eyes. *shrugs*
 

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
29,138
Reaction score
8,563
Location
Toronto
Website
ktcraig.com
I thought it was politically correct to blush with your eyes nowadays.
 

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
43,746
Reaction score
8,652
Location
Los Angeles
Website
www.amazon.com
I'm sure I'll find plenty once I start the rewrite...

But this is a gem from a post here:

I know how to kill, plug, and debone a chicken...

It should forever burn in the flames of infamy.
 

Don

All Living is Local
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 28, 2008
Messages
24,567
Reaction score
4,007
Location
Agorism FTW!
I'm sure I'll find plenty once I start the rewrite...

But this is a gem from a post here:
I know how to kill, plug, and debone a chicken...
It should forever burn in the flames of infamy.
...and this time I was just a few minutes too late... :D
 

Thomas_Anderson

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 17, 2008
Messages
429
Reaction score
22
Location
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
My first attempt at writing a novel. It's still in a notebook, and man is it horrible. Way too many howlers to list. It's like a B Movie, but worse. Tacky and forced dialogue (it was a sci-fi action novel, plenty of one liners and jokes that somehow I thought were amusing), head hopping a plenty, infodumping, and there's plenty of inconsistencies since I kept changing my mind mid-book. There'd be some guy who just got shot to death, and then a paragraph later he's fine and spouting off one-liners because I decided I need him alive.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.