My one pet peeve (ha! like there's one) is sloppy writing. By that I don't mean the random misplaced comma or dangling modifier, which, hey, it happens, even with the best of editors. I'm talking about events in a story that could easily be taken care of, had the writer thought for a second about what needed to happen. My most recent example comes not from a book, but from a television show: Battlestar Galactica. On a recent episode (and the following might be spoilers - consider yourself warned), a member of the crew keeps looking up at the hills. Eventually, he walks up the hills and discovers a magic temple that's, like, the answer to all things, or something (I'm a casual watcher at best, can you tell?) So, my complaint is this? Why the hell does this guy keep looking up at the hills? What's up with that? It's just plain sloppy. The situation could have been handled in about, oh, a HUNDRED different ways. Maybe something from the magic temple glinted in
Jay Montville's Blog