Fae Friday is an awesome new weekly post created by Kristy at Caffeinated Fae. I’m super excited to participate in this (and to have been an avid supporter of it from the beginning)! A topic is provided each week, and Kristy is so welcoming to ideas from others. If you have any ideas for topics, reach out to her through her blog or on Twitter (@caffeinatedfae).

Here’s how it works:

• Link back to this page on Caffeinated Fae.
• If the prompt idea comes from another blog, link to that blog as well.
• Use #FaeFriday when posting to social media so we can all find each other!
• Participate when you can and have fun with the prompt!

We all have those little pet peeves and things that instantly ruin or pull us out of a story. That is why today’s prompt is: what is something in a book that instantly pulls you out of the story? 

There’s so many things that can instantly pull me out of a story. When I grew up, if I didn’t know the meaning of a word, my mom would tell me to look it up. So when there’s a term in the book that I’m unfamiliar with, and it’s clear that it’s important, I’ll often stop reading and look it up on my phone. Sometimes, I fall down the rabbit hole of looking more things up. And then I get frustrated that it could have been completely avoided if the author just provided a quick explanation of what they were referring to.

Fortunately, this doesn’t happen often, but if there’s a lot of spelling/grammar issues or inconsistencies in the story, I struggle to stay focused. I’ve read stories where the completely wrong word is overused, and I really have a hard time with that. Or if the character’s eye color changes randomly? It makes it difficult for me to fix an image of them in my head, and I find it so frustrating! 

Other than that, I guess it’s just a matter of being able to connect with the characters or the story. I generally don’t have a difficult time connecting, but occasionally the characters are unlikable, and that pulls me out of the story. If I don’t like the character, I can’t always make myself care about them and what happens to them. 

What about you?