Things That Irritate Me in Writing--Magic for Liars

I said I'd offer writing tips. Here's my pet peeve when it comes to other people's writing. Lately, every other book I've read has characters biting their lips to show fear, anxiety, anger, happiness, arousal, and every other emotion you can think of. At some point, in every book, a character will bite their lip until it bleeds. In every damn book, the same thing happens!

This is nothing but lazy writing. A writer sees it in half of the books, so the lazy writer thinks, "Hey, I'll show every emotion the same way. Plus, the obligatory biting the lip until it bleeds."

Besides being a lazy way to show emotion, it's also unrealistic. Very few people want to hurt themselves. Few people show the thought process by biting themselves until they bleed. How often do you see people in real life biting their lips? Let me say it again--it's a lazy way to write.

That is why I disliked Magic for Liars. It's one of the reasons I disliked it. Every character in the book, female, male, adult, teenager, managed to bite their own lips instead of showing emotion. Every one of them!

It's used so often, in this book and others, that it's become dull. Why bother to write a book if you don't plan on using your imagination?

My other dislike of this book (among others) was that 99% of the characters have magical abilities, some have a lot of power, and they use it to make their eyes prettier, their hair shiny, and to harass other high school kids. All the problems in the world and these students and teachers use their magic to stack papers and make their hair glossy. Geez, people.

Oh, and the protagonist stays drunk or hungover for the entire book. I know people can have a problem with alcohol and still manage to work. There are novels where the protagonists overcome their problems. But, Liars' detective whines about being drunk and miserable and stays drunk and miserable. Just like biting lips, her constant misery got dull.

My writing tip is this. If you are going to write, don't copy what you see in other novels. Just because everybody bites their lips, smirks, and rolls their eyes in 50% of the books doesn't mean your characters have to do the same thing. For the love of all things worth reading, be original.