Once I start reading a book beyond the Look Inside feature at Amazon, it’s rare for me to DNF (did not finish) a story. If I DNF a book later in the story, it’s usually because something pushed it into a “hate read” category.

In other words, for me to give up on a book, I have to actively be rooting against the ending I know is coming. I’ve been known to root against a massively too-stupid-to-live character, but more commonly, the issue is a main character who behaved in unforgivable ways.

However, as I said, a DNF is rare for me—but that doesn’t mean I like all the other books I finish. I’m a completionist, so I tend to finish books even if I’m aggressively “meh” about them. These meh books are ones where the writing is poor and the craft is marginal.

One topic that hit me over the head (again and again and again) recently was the problem of repetition and redundancy in our writing, which made me consider how we can avoid the issue. Given how much time I don’t have, I should DNF more often. But at least I’ve learned to turn my completionist nature into lessons of how we can improve our writing and craft.