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As a writer you start to notice things in novels that you otherwise wouldn't have, eg
how an author handled a flashback, or how dialogue tags were used.

Is there a novel or author you found helpful, or any tips you picked up from your general reading?

watercolour! You made it!

As a writer, I notice things writers got wrong.

Seriously--one too many mess-ups, and I'm gone. I can't read bad writing anymore unless I'm critiquing it, and then it's REALLY hard to read it all before I comment.

The good writers still suck me in so I forget to pay attention to HOW they did something. ^_^;

LOL that's my problem, too.

I tend to notice my problems in others' work. E.g. I'm too brief on description. I try to write lean, but by doing so I shave off all the good fat that makes a scene so tasty! Now that I'm aware of it in my own writing, I pay particular attention to it in other passages, and try to figure out how it could have been improved. (As a learning technique, not to just be picky... )

I agree with what both Reba and KD said.

For the past several months I have been reading older books that have come into the public domain because their copyrights have expired. Now I understand why early selections I turned into my writers group received many comments that disappointed me. I was writing in the old school. Those writers wrote for people with time to read a book, people who never knew TV or modern movies with their hectic pace. Even modern books rush through descriptions. I have to admit that several pages of monologue that's supposed to pass for a conversation is way too much. Even three pages by Zane Grey describing sunrise over mountains clothed with aspens colored gold in autumn is more than I want. But their stories are really stories, often with complicated plots sharing the book with different philosophies. In summary, I think modern books have lost much by striving to move faster in keeping with our modern lifestyles.

I recently read a self published novel from Amazon. I don't know who published it. Everything was spelled correctly and the grammar was fine, but the two characters had no personality and sounded exactly alike. The writer assumed all his readers have played a multitude of video games. I haven't, so he explained very little. I skimmed all the way to the end, hoping a story would develop. Just as one began to take shape and got me interested, the writer ended the book. What a waste of time!

What do self-publishing houses require from their authors? Perfect grammar and spelling and little else?

Self-publishing requires nothing at all. They don't even look at the manuscript, Dave. That's why I have such a bias to overcome with my self-published works: there is SO MUCH GARBAGE out there, because self-publishing has no filter at all.

All I can do is keep putting out the best stuff I can, and hope to attract and hold an audience who knows that I don't publish garbage.

That first part also applies to novels that come via the publishing houses. We've all come across them. The ones that leave you thinking, did the office cleaner pick this manuscript off the floor and put it on the 'publish' pile while all the editors were on holiday?

And I wish more best-selling authors could hold to their own standards further down the line when they have readers waiting for their next novel and the publisher puts them under pressure to churn out another book -any book.

Mr Grumpy

Man, I am so with you on that. I hate when my favorite authors jump the shark!

I just finished rereading a book that I absolutely fell in love with last year. Since then, I've become more serious with my own writing, and the book lost its luster. I noticed how it was full of passive verbs and flat characters the author tried to flesh out by giving them a few quirks.
I guess since I've been paying so much attention to both of those things, it was easier to see it in another person's work.

I have old favorites on my shelf I will probably never re-read for fear of exactly that happening.

On the other hand there are some 'old favourites' which still refresh my flagging spirits, engage me in the story, and remind me why it is I wanted to write a novel in the first place.

Those ones are special.

I must admit to not reading books by authors I used to like since taking several writing courses. One author in particular wrote some books I loved and some I never got into and abandoned long before finishing. I just spent several hours attempting a new book by that author. Mostly passive verbs and much telling rather than showing for fifty-plus pages! I don't believe the author's thrilling battles that involved magic could possibly have been written without active verbs and showing everything. I think that's why some books I enjoy greatly and others are ho-hum to the point of quitting.