One can search articles about why readers find a book boring and come away with a hundred different answers. My personal reason would be that nothing happens. Now, personally I don't know why someone would want to write a book in which nothing happens ~ a journal entry, sure, but a book?
One writer conducted a poll of readers to find out what bores them the most, and I wonder if I might be guilty of a few of these with my current novel in progress. I'm only going to list the top six because the numbers begin to trail off dramatically after those. The sample size was large, about 15,000 people, so these six reasons basically form a consensus.
1. Poor/weak characterization
I've consistently struggled with my main characters. Maybe choosing to write in first person plays a role in that, but there is likely more to it. I find it difficult to advance a plot if my main character needs to stop and ruminate all the time; you know, explore her inner thoughts and feelings. I suppose I should be able to reveal her personality through her actions, but the fact is, my main characters just aren't assertive people. I'm aware that things tend to happen to them; they rarely make things happen. That's an issue and one I'm striving to overcome.
On the other hand, my secondary characters are great; truly great. Full of personality, and the reason for that is simple ~ they don't have to carry the story. They can pop in, splatter their personalities across a few scenes here and there, then disappear for a while.
2. Confusing or unclear plot
My plots are pretty straight-forward, maybe too much so, but they're not unclear. Granted, as a discovery writer I never know where the plot is going, but once I find out, it forges ahead quite seamlessly.
3. Too much info-dumping
Face it, some info-dumping is necessary. I don't begin my novels when my main character is five years old, so certain blanks are going to need to be filled in. When I have to "dump info", I try to do it in an interesting way. With my current manuscript, it's important to know how the main character found herself in a life of performing music and why she possesses no life skills. A natural singing talent, her mother recognized that early on and pushed her, mostly as a way of giving her own life meaning after her husband died.
There are other ways to info-dump, too. Part 1 of this novel (this will clearly be divided into two parts) catalogs the indignities the main character's band suffers, which leads her to ultimately quitting. I am worried that I may have taken that too far, though. These are the genesis of the plot, but not necessarily integral. Yes, some of these incidents need to be spelled out in order to justify her quitting, but when I began the story I had no idea where it would go, so those scenes felt right at the time. Some evaluation is going to be needed.
4. Unedited manuscript
I can't relate to this. If the respondents mean lack of developmental editing, I'm quite aware of the importance of pacing and flow and I like to think I handle these components well. If they mean copy editing, well, damn, who publishes a book with a bunch of grammar and spelling errors? That's just lazy.
5. Slow plot/nothing to keep you invested
Ding! Ding! Ding! Second Chance is going to be slow, and it's going to be slow deliberately. As you know, the main critique of my work is that it's too rushed, so I'm doing a 180. (And it's killing me.) Still, I don't know that I would characterize it so much as "slow", but instead, "long", just like a novel should be. I hope that it does keep the reader invested, since I try to make every scene count in some way. They're not there just to be there. I'd be bored to death writing scenes like that. Even a tiny spark embedded in a scene is enough to keep the plot moving ahead. As long as I'm not just spilling words on a page simply to spill, I'm okay with how it's going.
6. Poor grammar/spelling; bad sentence structure
I think this was covered in #4. I suppose a writer can be bad at those things, but I don't know how. Why are you even writing if you can't do the basics? Sure, I don't know how to spell every word, but it's not as if Word or whatever program you use won't red-flag a misspelling. And grammar should have been drilled into you by your teachers, although I have no idea what's being taught in schools now, so possibly not. With sentence structure, it's hard to go wrong with "subject/verb". Good grief.
The times when I don't write according to a teacher's ruler-slapping demands, it's done purposefully. I sometimes begin a sentence with "And" for emphasis. I hate your shoes. And your pants. (okay, just a dumb example). I hate your shoes and your pants. See the difference?
And I've been known to make up my own words. Sometimes something just sounds right, whether it technically is or not. Word always flags me on them, but I tell it to F off.
I also use poor grammar when certain characters speak. I sometimes use poor grammar when I speak, even though I know I'm doing it. English was my dad's second language, so growing up, I heard a lot of quirky things come out of his mouth, and they're still hanging around inside my brain. If every character spoke The Queen's English it would be creepy. People talk the way they talk.
The good news is, all these things are fixable. Right now, #1 and #3 are my challenges.
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