: Re: Is it expected that a reader will skip parts of what you write? I have given multiple things I have written to a friend of mine, who is something of a writer himself, to get feedback on

@Jamie945

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In my experience, people don't do this for significant part of the writing. It may happen to skip a sentence or two if, either:

the passages are not clear,
the reader is tired,
there is a "wall of text" effect
the narration style is boring, repetitive or dragging

While you can't do anything for point 2, you can somehow fight against 1, 3, and 4.

Of course, your story shouldn't be boring or repetitive. Yet, what one finds boring my be amusing to another. I'm not a fan of flowery descriptions of architectural elements, a friend of mine is. Some stylistic elements may have to be targeted to your audience.

However, we're talking about few sentences each time. I honestly don't know anyone who skips the middle of each paragraph by default, because at that point you're not even reading. It makes much more sense to stop reading altogether.

So, if you are skipping parts consistently, you're doing it to get to the end faster. It seems to me the goal of an annoyed beta-reader, rather than a bored reader.

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