Why do authors feel like they need to shock you?

Question

Especially in memoirs - one is about a woman who is on a diet. In three chapters, there is a break-in in her apartment, she is almost killed, she almost kills someone, and she nearly veers off the Long Island Expressway.

The book would be more interesting if it rung more "true", rather than trying desperately to keep the reader riveted with extreme events and abstract analogies.

Do you prefer

A). Books that are written in a stark, barebones manner

or

B). Books in which every chapter contains 'excitement' (ie events so frequent that they border on unbelievability)

Answer 1

This does not really answer your details as much as just the basic question-sorry.

Authors try to shock us because they think that is what we want and what is expected. When they don't, they get blasted for it.

Look at Stephenie Meyer: she ended her saga with a battle of wits instead of a physical battle and her fans obliterated the ending.  She gave the happily-ever-after that is so missing from literature today and the readers were in an outrage.

Shock value is expected and authors who don't use it get torn apart for not.

Answer 2

i totally agree!!!some authors just suck at writing that kinda books, like nancy drew n hardy boys.theyre pretty famous bt i think theyre jst desperately trying to grab the readers attention n well..fail to do so. bt even these r better than ur category A,take twilight for example..it jst bores me 2 death

Answer 3

Lots of authors feel like they need a shock factor, or else no one will be interested in reading their book. I'm sorry to say that sometimes the author is right about that. I can't tell you how many realistic books I've read and loved while my friends pass it off as "boring". The truth is, people have very short attention spans. A lot of them WANT the extra excitement, even if it's unrealistic.

I love excitement in books, but not when it sounds unrealistic and stupid. I can read a book that doesn't have near-death scenes in every other chapter and still love it.

Answer 4

It depends. If it's a sci-fi or fantasy story, bring on the excitement! If it's a memoir or something like that... well, I don't really read memoirs, but I think the point is to show the author's life from her point of view, so I think just writing it as she saw it. And hey, you never know, stuff like that could really have happened in such a short period in someone's life (getting my stuff stolen, some way or another, nearly getting killed b/c of doing stupid things, and nearly running off a road all happen to me often enough) so it really can vary from one book to another.