I have this problem too (also with psychiatric-type headcanons, in some fandoms). It's a problem of show v. tell thing that I think trips up a lot of writers, and it definitely makes me lose a bit of interest. So this character has PTSD? Show me you did more than look up the diagnostic criteria on Wikipedia, eh?
Oh, and screeds. Like, there is nothing more annoying than reading a fic and it turns into baby's first soapbox, when Newton Geizler lectures me in a deeply condescending way about gender and consent. Because that is totally why I clicked on this kinky M rated fic. I've seen it with race, gender, and sexuality, though I know there's some with mental illness too. Like, the author saw a really good speech on tumblr and just had to repurpose it for their fic. Because there's nothing I like better than having Kankri randomly show up in anime world, lecturing me on Western ideals of gender while the fucking beach episode is going on in the background.
Its/it's, then/than, there/their/they're, greengrocer's motherfucking apostrophes. "Then" answers "when," "than" accompanies "rather." I can forgive the "it" derivatives, as the possessive is irregular, but aaaaaugh plurals don't have apostrophes stoppit. ... Also, "the larger/smaller/older/younger/purpler/dumber (noun.)" Takes too long, sounds like you don't know who you're talking about. Seriously, use the same name twice in a paragraph, hell, twice in a sentence; it might still look dumb but at least it's dumb and short. Either that or slot words around & shorten sentences til it makes sense without it. Just don't treat your characters like (descriptor) (nouns.) It's tacky.
in the same vein when "of" is substituted for "have" (...i have, however, had to concede that "extant" is apparently a word.)
But it does not mean the same thing as "extent" and therefore one should not be substituted for the other. On that note, "prostrate" is a verb, not a noun. The word I think you are looking for does not have more than one R.
Dom!Cullen in Dragon Age fic. I don't mind BDSM dynamics in themselves, but it's always the Christian Grey type Dom who is all "obey my orders!" and "punish you!" which is a) so creepy on a million levels given the context of the character, b) so out of character
I wish there were more fics that were poetry. It seems to be a weird little niche, sadly. I'm very sad that there's very little work that is like...Epic poetry. Or in-universe examples of religious poetry or anthropology. Also more artsy narrative. I'm talking like some James Joyce type shit. Late Joyce. Your Finnegan's Wake sort of writing. Which leads to a big peeve of mine. As much as I love first person and as much as I love stream of consciousness I am very, very picky about how it is done. Nine times out of ten the fic author cannot do it and I leave in disgust very early on. When these sorts of writing are done even half-way decently they breathe such life into the piece. When not done well it's the most painful thing ever.
Agreed with @Aya-non that villifying a character to justify a ship is very irritating. Also, yes, god, incorrect homonyms aggravate me to no end. Than/then, queue/cue, bare/bear, except/accept, all of those. (Bare skin and bear skin are very different.) "Should of" instead of "should have" is also very annoying; the worst offender is probably incorrect apostrophe usage re: plurals.
Callout to the transformers fandom: not having enough fic for ficcable things that happen in canon, like characters getting stuck in walls.
Yo I'm trying to eventually put together a collection of religious poems for my RWBY universe. And possibly for my original universe. So I'll ping you if you're interested?
Sure! I don't really care for RWBY very much but religious poetry is a hard thing to find in fic...It'd be neat to see!
this is the most petty of pet peeves, but there are a couple random phrasings that i almost only see in fanfic which annoy me every time: -describing dilated pupils as "blown", as in "his pupils were blown wide" and -describing clothing that is scrunched and pushed up as "rucked", as in "his shirt was rucked up his torso" i have no idea why these two words bug me so much, but then again i also have no idea why they're so goddamn prevalent in fic.
I feel like "blown" in regards to pupils is a specific medical term? Like it has an actual meaning and not just dilated pupils. Yes, Google confirms that while it's informal, it refers to a specific condition. Mydriasis. ETA: It seems like things (words, particular phrases, ways of describing something, etc.) experience waves of sudden popularity and use, especially in fanfiction, where people are probably more likely to be influenced by other people's writing and borrow aspects of it. One a bit ago that I remember bothering me was talking about how someone smelled: "like x, y, and just like [Character]". It seemed like it was EVERYWHERE.
knowing that "blown pupils" is jargon for a specific condition makes the "dilated from arousal" usage (because this is fanfic, of course that's what they're talking about) more annoying to me, tbh. but yeah, i think you're right, there are definitely trends that tear through fanfic much faster than any other genre of writing i see. i guess because fanfic has a general climate of informality, that we're all hobbyists here doing a hobby thing together, so picking up influences happens much more readily.
Bonus please, no points for "silveret", "bluenette", etc! I used to read so much Kingdom Hearts fanfic and the amount of fic that managed to combine the improvised hair colour words with general epithet overuse.... It was almost impossible to avoid bluenette Saix, pinkette Marluxia... and shouldn't that be bluenet/pinket if they're dudes anyway? isn't that how it works? i don't know
I can deal with a little clunk, but the terms they use have to be using language that makes sense in-universe and in-character or I'm thrown completely out of the story. Kankri trotting out the latest Tumblr terms? Yes. But Enjolras from Les Miserables isn't going to say that he's homoplatonic demisexual countryromantic; he's more likely to say (or think) that he prefers the company of other men, sees no appeal in laying with someone he's just met, and his love for his country superceeds all else.
a lot of harry/draco fics are like, harry has no idea at all that he is experiencing lust until draco kisses him, and then harry is like 'oh! so that's what's been happening for the last five years! this explains that mysterious warm feeling i've been having when he touches me and smiles at me and sucks on things around me!' there is an OBNOXIOUS amount of fic that writes an adult-age harry potter— or even other adult men in other fandoms— as cluelessly virginal. there's plenty of reasons for adult men to be body shy or frightened of intimacy or just not interested in sex with someone of a particular gender, or at all. but it's very rarely because they have a mysterious void of ignorance where their dick should be.
