Writing Style Pet Peeves

After reading a couple, to a couple hundred books, I decided to write a post about certain writing styles that authors use that really annoy me.

• Italics: Even if it's spaced out, I never understood why authors use italics. I especially hate when authors write multiple pages in italics as well. I don't know, it's something about the italics that make me want to skip over everything back to the actual writing of the story line. I know that authors use italics for things like flashbacks, thinking, and memories/dreams, but is there really no other way to describe them? Italics makes me fall asleep! 

• No time setting: I've been seeing this in more recent books, where there are hints of the scene being set in the past, ie usage of wagons, bow and arrows, but the characters speak in a modern day language. Yes, it makes it easier to follow along which I love, but it would also be nice to read what century the novel is set under.

• Forced love triangles: I've been reading about these in novels more recently as well. What is it about love triangles that appeals to readers so much? And if it's forced, I always feel so sorry for the poor schmuck that gets left out when you obviously know that there's a mutual attraction to two of the characters, but the other remains clueless. What ever happened to monogamous relationships? I love reading about novels where the main character has a mutual attraction with another character without a third party involved.

• Not enough background info on certain issues in the story: I think that sentence explains it all. Sometimes I love a story and its main story, but when an author introduces another minor situation of the story and completely leaves it alone, but is still a major part of the story, I sometimes wish that the author elaborated a bit more and at least gave a little background info on why it came to be. 

• Characters with no flaws: It says it all. People are not perfect. We make mistakes. If you write a novel with a character who has no flaws, it doesn't make it at all realistic and to me, it just gets boring fast. 

• Certain endings on stories: This is a rather broad subject, but I really dislike some endings when it comes to series and stand alone novels. I really hate especially when authors end certain series to try to give suspense to the readers and make them wait for the next one. I've also read some novels where the author just stops writing, and at the end of the novel you go, "That's it?" And on certain stand alone novels, if there's a lot of unanswered questions or the author keeps you guessing on what happens next in the main character's relationships, I really hate that because it's only one novel and you can't keep reading what happens next. 

These are just some main writing style pet peeves that I've come across while constantly reading books. I'd love to see what other people's pet peeves on writing styles as well, and if you agree with my opinions.