velocity

I really hate it when an author uses a work of fiction as a soap box from which to preach their own views. I've read six books by a certain author and loved every single one of them, but I've just spent three weeks forcing myself through the first twenty-five pages of the seventh book. Why? Because he chose to use the first twenty-five pages to go on a vitriolic diatribe about everything that's wrong with everything, his own opinions thinly veiled behind a vague and anonymous narrator.

When I got to the end of it, I said, "Okay, I can see why you did that, but did it have to be first and did it have to be so long?" At least, now that I've gotten through that, I'll probably love the rest of the book.

So here's a tip to those of you writing novels you may one day want me to read: let your characters speak for themselves. Don't use them as a bullhorn for your own criticism of the world. It's really irritating.