Welcome to The Ready Room, where I explore random topics to help you kick off your week.
This week’s topic explores the DNF (the Do Not Finish story). As a child, the thought of stopping a book I’d started was utterly ridiculous. If I started a book, I had to finish it, even if it took a decade. Michael Crichton’s Sphere was like this. Four different times I picked it up trying to chug through the first chapter, which at that time in my life read as dry as the Sahara. When I finally got through it, I braced myself for another long, boring ride. Instead… whoa. I couldn’t put that sucker down.
Fast forward to now, and the DNF has taken on a whole new meaning. As a book reviewer, I hate leaving them. Well, I did at first, until I found this beautiful comment buried in an online article (and I can’t find it again anywhere – I swear I’d bookmarked that sucker). But paraphrasing, the woman stated that she has very obscure tastes in books and prefers reading DNF comments to help her find the books she loves.
Reading books as a writer changes things.
The mindset of “I hate this book, it’s idiotic” simply doesn’t exist anymore. I know how hard it is to write a story, then to write it well. It takes hours upon hours of endless headaches, crafting, editing, nit-picking, crying when the words won’t flow, frustration when you feel a deadline looming you might not meet, and the list goes on. And that’s just to get a polished copy of the story. Never mind all the blood, sweat and tears that come after that to take that sucker all the way to publication.
So, I’ve changed my approach.
Your book and I don’t date well.
That’s really what it comes down to… dating. Each book has a unique relationship with its reader. The deeper I go into the book world, the more I discover that I’m always on the hunt for a particular type of relationship with the stories I read. While I’m still exploring the boundaries of my own personal tastes, I’ve also discovered things I simply don’t dig. Here’s a few of the reasons why I might DNF your book:
- Nothing’s happening.
- The inciting event goes on and on and on and never ends.
- The character ‘sit and talk’, which goes back to number one.
- Your setting is place names and brand names, but not actual detail. (I see this a lot with contemporary)
- I have a severe migraine and the story makes it worse. (weird, I know – but it has happened)
- I want all the characters to explode. (i.e. I’m bored)
Here’s how I DNF your book.
As with all things, this took me awhile to grasp. How to do it and not feel like I’m calling the author a jackass. Because I’m not. The authors I DNF are amazing people. In fact, I DNF’d a short story last week from a woman I greatly admire. Her writing was gorgeous, but I just wanted to punch the characters. I have other books of hers marked ‘to read’ and I can’t wait to dig in. While I don’t write a blog article on books I DNF, I do leave a review with the following:
- At least 2 stars, sometimes more depending on the DNF.
- A compliment on what I did love about the chapters I read.
- The reason I personally didn’t finish and where.
- Readers I think might love this story, even if I didn’t.
The truth is, DNFing a book is heartbreaking. I want to fall in love with every story I pick up. So if I’ve DNF’d your book, it’s not because I wanted to. It’s because I needed a different relationship with the story at the time of reading.
Here are a few books that other readers may love, even if I didn’t connect with them:
If you like this article, be sure to check out The Ready Room for more tips and tricks. You can also subscribe to this blog and be the first to know when new content is delivered.
