"I don't need a new book, but the book store is on the way back to my car. I'll stop in for a bit, maybe just say hi to the store cat," I said, ever the fool.
I'm not a market expert or anything, but if I have to go through a bizarre multi-step ordeal just to buy socks from a locked case, I'm just gonna buy my socks someplace else.
The thing about prose, as opposed to technical writing, is you're not just conveying information. Feeling, timing and pacing are vital to fiction. Word choice and sentence structure are chosen not just for clarity or correctness, but for the evocation of specific emotions.
Once again, for the evening crowd:
Since it would be suspicious timing to talk about my latest book (which is about a hurricane) I'll instead remind you that I wrote this modern-gothic novelette, which is about the grim and alluring power of grief. ...and also being scared out of your mind by birds. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...
I have an admittedly peevish dislike for calling the creature in the Alien franchise "THE xenomorph," as if it were the name of the species and not a generic term used by an inexperienced, by-the-books lieutenant who didn't want to come out and say their next drop was another bug hunt.