I’m back from RWA and have time for this! Inspired by the 20-min talk (poorly attended, alas) on writing for readers with communication issues. My POV: I'm a slow reader and assume this is somehow related to executive function or concentration issues caused by my depression? 1/ https://twitter.com/JackieLauBooks/status/1154868188473102337

Basically, I have no trouble reading individual words and my vocabulary is pretty decent…however, reading is so much effort for me because I am often struggling to comprehend what is happening. 2/

And it was nice to see Julia Day talk about this sort of thing, because nobody ever does, and I felt “seen”. 3/

So! Some things writers do that make it hard for me to understand what is going on. Unfortunately, as I said, many common pieces of advice are the exact opposite of what I need. 4/

First of all, dialogue tags. Some authors try to get away with as few tags as possible, and this is confusing for me. I often have to reread and use my fingers to figure out who was talking.

Some writers use tags and paragraphing in strange ways, too. 5/

And I want to be clear, it doesn’t matter if the content of the dialogue or manner of speaking supposedly makes it very obvious who is talking. THAT DOES NOT MATTER. It’s not obvious TO ME. 6/

I’m not saying I prefer when every line of dialogue is tagged. I don’t need it every line, and I don’t do this as a writer. But some writers try to do the absolute minimum, and this is frustrating. 7/

Also, if the dialogue is just tagged “he said” or “she said” (or with similar action tags) when there are multiple hes or shes in the conversation. I think the writer assumes it’s obvious who the he or she is…but again, it’s not obvious to me. 8/

The main issues, really, is clarity. Poorly-edited books are a nightmare for me because I simply can’t understand them.

I think writers are told often that we should resist the urge to explain because the reader is smart enough to understand what is not being said explicitly 9/

This is frustrating to me. I know I’m not stupid, but I sure feel stupid when reading sometimes. I simply don’t always understand what is shown and never told. I mean, I think I usually do, but not always. 10/

And sometimes adverbs or adjectives can add clarity that I wouldn’t otherwise have.

A little repetition is good for me, too, because I am terrible at remembering what I read in my last reading session. 11/

Shorter paragraphs are also good. Long paragraphs are more likely to be intimidating and confusing. (I think this is one case, however, where the trends match what I need…short paragraphs seem pretty common these days.) 12/

Another thing that really bothers me is when an author starts a point in one paragraph…and takes various digressions and doesn’t finish the point until many paragraphs later. 13/

If you’re a fast reader, maybe it only takes 15 seconds to get to the end of the point, but if you’re like me, it’s just confusing, and I have to go back and reread. 14/

Sometimes there are also long sentences that perhaps if said quickly, it’s obvious what is meant, but if you look at the sentence carefully, there’s actually some ambiguity? It’s hard to explain, but then I get caught up with one sentence and have to read it over and over. 15/

Another issue, which I'm struggling to explain, is when there is a bigger "gap" between sentences...like, it's not entirely clear to me how one sentence relates to the previous one. 16/

I also don’t like when absolutely nothing is explained upfront and the book is set in an unfamiliar world. I don’t read SFF, and historicals outside of Regency/Victorian England often take more effort for me. 17/

I LOVE the idea of historicals set it different times and places, and I want there to be more of them, but for most authors, this unfortunately just makes it hard for me to read. 18/

The Moon in the Palace was an exception here…I was not familiar with the time period, but had no trouble. I can’t tell you what Weina Dai Randel’s secret was, though. 19/

But anyway, I like a little more (just a little) info upfront and scene setting than I think other readers need. I also prefer to be eased into the story, and tons of important stuff happening in the first 10 pages is disorienting to me. 20/

I actually prefer if the MCs in a romance DON'T meet in the first few pages. 21/

Anyway, those are just some thoughts and examples, and I feel like I can't expect any writers to care what reading is like for me because maybe I'm just weird. 22/

I've missed a lot of stuff, because it's hard to articulate.

Alas, there are some authors whose books I love, but I keep putting off reading them because their writing just isn't accessible to me. 23/

And there are other authors whose books I just can't get into at all b/c they're so hard for me to understand, and I feel guilty about it, b/c sometimes these are ppl I love on social media. 24/

It's also interesting that some reviews of my books critique things that I think I do as a writer b/c it would help me as a reader. (My showing/telling balance is one example) 25/

So...just some thoughts, and I don't expect anyone to change how they write, though I think some authors could really benefit from caring more about clarity 26/

I really wish I was better at reading, but unfortunately my mental health issues seem to make it a chore.

And thank you to @AuthorJuliaDay for talking about this in her session 27/27