Skimming a story vs fully reading it?

[Tiesto1]

How many people actually read every word of a story vs skimming some parts? This can be a story on here, news article or books.

I find myself struggling with longer works to stay in tune with every detail/nuance so I sometimes skim parts. And focus more on the core points and main topics vs the every detail. Some shows and long stories have too many subplots to keep track of.

An example, watching a show like Friends or Schitt's Creek if you miss a subplot you can miss many of the side jokes or sarcasms. But other shows like The Walking Dead drags on so long that it doesn't feel as important if I miss parts where a smaller character may not fill a significant role to the overarching plot.

Is this just me or is this more common to skim reads and/or tv to get to the main point/plot?

 

[ElectricBlue]

If a story loses my concentrated interest I'll skim, or, if I want to know what happens but don't have the patience to even do that, I'll just jump to the last chapter to find out what happens.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

How many people actually read every word of a story vs skimming some parts? This can be a story on here, news article or books.

I find myself struggling with longer works to stay in tune with every detail/nuance so I sometimes skim parts. And focus more on the core points and main topics vs the every detail. Some shows and long stories have too many subplots to keep track of.

An example, watching a show like Friends or Schitt's Creek if you miss a subplot you can miss many of the side jokes or sarcasms. But other shows like The Walking Dead drags on so long that it doesn't feel as important if I miss parts where a smaller character may not fill a significant role to the overarching plot.

Is this just me or is this more common to skim reads and/or tv to get to the main point/plot?

Depends on the story.

Some authors you have to devour every word as each bit is a tasty morsel, but others you can skim to the parts that are an Orange Magnum.

 

[KeithD]

If I'm going to read it, I don't skim much. I'm not a fast reader.

 

[Brutal_One]

I have the art of skim reading or looked into photo reading too. Your brain can process all the words on a page. For readers who read word for word or even line by line it can take a while. There is also reading for learning or comprehension but again here there are ways to improve your reading rate. Photo reading by Learning Strategies by Paul R Scheel is a revelation. The full course has a speeded up reading of a passage. i mean like maybe a whole book in 5 mins. But it does show the brain is far faster than we give it credit for. And of course like any skill practice improves that skill.

Brutal One

 

[BobbyBrandt]

For me, it depends upon the technical skills of the author.

I can "skim", or speed-read without missing anything if the writing is concise (brief but comprehensive), punctuation is correct (especially things like commas and quotation marks), dialog is clear (who is speaking to whom), and the structure is sound (continuity is maintained and tense remains constant). When one or more of those elements is lacking, I tend to slow down so that I don't miss anything that might be critical. If too many of those elements are missing, you've lost me entirely.

 

[SamScribble]

I often 'skim' when reading news and current affairs - but that's because 90 percent of it is so badly written. When I'm reading for entertainment, I tend to read quite slowly, savouring each word and phrase. And, if there's nothing to savour, I stop reading.

 

[RowanWrites]

I wish I could know what my readers skimmed! That would be very helpful information.

Some stories grip me sentence by sentence, and I read it all. That's a good story, where nothing is going to waste. Where each sentence, each paragraph is purposeful, and enjoyable.

Other stories I will skim to find out what happens. That might still be a good story, but it's definitely "tier 2" in my book.

Other stories I just won't finish.

I would love to be able to view a "heat map" of my stories to see where people quit, and where they skimmed. I don't expect my stories to work for everyone, but the statistics on what works better and what turns people off would be very useful.

 

[Carnevil9]

I never skim. If the writing isn't good enough to read every sentence, I bail and look for a better one.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I'll skim the first page to see if a story is worth reading. If it's generic characters with terrible dialogue and no redeeming plot features, I'll give up. If something about the writing catches my interest, I'll read it properly - though I'm often accused of skim-reading because I read fast, multiple lines at a time. I save actual skim reading for testing stories or for reading reports at work I need to summarise.

 

[DHerbert]

I rarely skim, I'd prefer to head off for something better. The only times I do is where a situation could turn out to be interesting and I want to know how it gets resolved.