#reading pet peeves

[sarahowritesostucky]

🫣Vote and RB for max sample size please! 🥹

[krinklecutreads]

Reading Pet Peeve: If your character typically has an internal monologue like a dude bro, do not have him use words like "tumescent" or "turgid" to describe a dick. It just throws off his whole vibe and takes you out of the story.

[lipstickmarks]

“‘She looked up at him through her lashes’ makes no sense—“

YOU FOOL!! THAT PHRASE IS CLUEING YOU IN ON THE ANGLE OF THE TWO PEOPLE! IT’S DESCRIBING HIS VANTAGE POINT!! IT’S A MORE ROMANTICIZED WAY TO SAY “SHE LOOKED UP AT HIM” HE IS LOOKING DOWN AT HER AND, AS A RESULT, HE TECHNICALLY SEES HER EYELASHES BEFORE HER EYES!!!! YES, YOU COULD TECHNICALLY JUST WRITE “She looked up at him” BUT THE ADDITION OF “through her lashes” ADDS FROSTING FLOWERS TO THIS SHEET CAKE! IT MAKES IT SOUND CUTER! IT CAN ADD ROMANTIC SUBTEXT BECAUSE IT’S ALSO USED AS AN INDICATION THAT SHE IS BATTING HER EYELASHES/HAS LONG EYELASHES/IS ANGLING HER HEAD AT A CERTAIN WAY INTENTIONALLY WHICH EVOKES A RESPONSE FROM HIM!!! IF IT’S WRITTEN FROM HIS POV, THIS PHRASE CAN SEGUE INTO HIM NOTICING HOW PRETTY HER EYELASHES, EYES, GENERAL FEATURES/DEMEANOR ARE!!!!

THIS IS A ROMANTIC PHRASE!!! DON’T STOP USING IT!!!!

EMBRACE POETIC WRITING! DESTROY CRINGE!

[pigeonflavouredcake]

I made a journal page about it so why not post it here as well I know all of us have better stuff to do right now

A list of my book pet peeves

The Author's name is bigger than the title

Slippery dust covers

More than 3 pages dedicated to reviews and praise

'The blank of blank and blank' title schemes

Dog-eared pages

People who say that audiobooks isn't 'real' reading

Real people on the cover

Any kind of sticker, fake or real

Annotations in pen

The heteros

The heteros depicting relationships with vocabulary reserved for animals i.e. 'mate' or 'breed'

Describing something by saying 'it cannot be described'

[easternpine]

If I ever get published (very likely never), I hope no one ever, ever calls my work a "tour de force". Because when everything is a "tour de force", nothing is a "tour de force".

[aworldforastage]

ughhhhh it's yet another book with a premise I really like but like halfway through it goes super hard with autocracy apologism like "the emperor is wise and has a great vision. The problems are with the subjects working for him, who are usually self-serving if not also incompetent. And the solution to all this is more concentrated power for the emperor ..."

which can be a fine plot element in historical court novels. I have enjoyed novels with degrees of this when it's done well. But in this case the author is also trying to make the historical part serious, and it doesn't seem like she has the historical knowledge or a sufficiently interesting ensemble cast to make it work.

I'm going to give this a few more chapters because this story is quite widely recommended, but right now i don't feel too optimistic.

[sugarcoatednightshade]

thinking about how Humans Are Space Orcs stories always talk about how indestructible humans are, our endurance, our ability to withstand common poisons, etc. and thats all well and good, its really fun to read, but it gets repetitive after a while because we aren't all like that.

And that got me thinking about why this trope is so common in the first place, and the conclusion I came to is actually kind of obvious if you think about it. Not everyone is allowed to go into space. This is true now, with the number of physical restrictions placed on astronauts (including height limits), but I imagine it's just as strict in some imaginary future where humans are first coming into contact with alien species. Because in that case there will definitely be military personnel alongside any possible diplomatic parties.

And I imagine that all interactions aliens have ever had up until this point have been with trained personnel. Even basic military troops conform to this standard, to some degree. So aliens meet us and they're shocked and horrified to discover that we have no obvious weaknesses, we're all either crazy smart or crazy strong (still always a little crazy, academia and war will do that to you), and not only that but we like, literally all the same height so there's no way to tell any of us apart.

And Humans Are Death Worlders stories spread throughout the galaxy. Years or decades or centuries of interspecies suspicion and hostilities preventing any alien from setting foot/claw/limb/appendage/etc. on Earth until slowly more beings are allowed to come through. And not just diplomats who keep to government buildings, but tourists. Exchange students. Temporary visitors granted permission to go wherever they please, so they go out in search of 'real terran culture' and what do they find?

Humans with innate heart defects that prevent them from drinking caffeine. Humans with chronic pain and chronic fatigue who lack the boundless endurance humans are supposedly famous for. Humans too tall or too short or too fat to be allowed into space. Humans who are so scared of the world they need to take pills just to function. Humans with IBS who can't stand spicy foods, capsaicin really is poison to them. Lactose intolerance and celiac disease, my god all the autoimmune disorders out there, humans who struggle to function because their own bodies fight them. Humans who bruise easily and take too long to heal. Humans who sustained one too many concussions and now struggle to talk and read and write. Humans who've had strokes. Humans who were born unable to talk or hear or speak, and humans who through some accident lost that ability later.

Aliens visit Earth, and do you know what they find? Humanity, in all its wholeness.

[incandescent-creativity]

I don’t post writing tips myself very much anymore, but a very easy manuscript polishing tip is to do a search for the -ness suffix, and then replace the word with a more appropriate noun.

Quickness? Switch it to “speed.”

Tenseness? Try “tension.”

Easiness? I think you mean “ease.”

Even words like sadness can sometimes be traded for something more precise. Like what kind of sadness? Would disappointment be better? Melancholy? Even just “emotion,” and then add in another detail that helps the reader understand they’re sad?

[gilly-moon]

I am BEGGING society to start using the oxford comma again. I have misunderstood too many sentences in recent memory all because someone couldn't put ONE extra comma in.

[mamawasatesttube]

no more "kon got his piercing by asking tim to use a kryptonite needle" (lies, straight up wrong, ignores the significance of kon's earring as a reclamation of his own bodily autonomy after being dehumanized to the point of being tagged like a lab mouse).

instead, if you want something about timkon and intimacy, listen. just picture tim "overthinker" drake in the jewelry store staring at two nearly-identical pairs of simple studs for a full 30 minutes as he tries to determine which would make a better gift for kon (he got overwhelmed by the novelty earrings rack. too many options). he knows why kon wears an earring instead of letting the piercing close up (kon likes the look, but moreover, it's about the fact that it's his body to do with as he likes). so picking the one kon would like best is important!!! he has to get it right!!! he needs to make sure kon has that special little smile on his face when he opens the gift box and understands how much thought tim put into it!!!

(coda: tim sees kon actually wearing an earring he bought him and runs into a mental blue screen of death, realizes he's staring, and then immediately climbs out the window.)

[batsydoodle]

little thing i actually love about superbat is that, since Bruce and Clark both have dark hair and blue eyes, fic authors can't just go ''the blue eyed one'' or ''the dark haired one'' the whole fic. It's more effort to come up with distinct descriptors, sure, but also so refreshing to not have to read a whole fic where a character is kinda named the bitch with blue eyes the whole time

[sarahowritesostucky]

Writer Things: "y/n" vs. OFC

A response to this post, and my thoughts on y/n fics

I personally cannot fully enjoy a "y/n" fic, no matter how well-written it is.

I have to force myself to read y/n as "Yin" and pretend that's the pet/nickname of the female character, because otherwise it's just a massive, unpleasant interruption.

I think OP is right: there's this expectation built up that anything with y/n is much more likely to be poorly written. That's because a lot of new authors choose this format. But I must admit that I've seen a few good authors on Tumblr who sometimes utilize the y/n format.

For me, I will NEVER write y/n, just because I hate reading it so much. But I've enjoyed playing around with "you" but basically as an OC -- so no name is ever used, only nicknames; and sometimes the person isn't very described physically, but they are a real, fleshed out character and not a completely blank reader insert slate.

And this part I disagree with:

Yes, this does include if the reader doesn't have an explicit description but is given a nickname. Yes, this does include if the reader is given a description but not a name.

I think reader insert format exists on a spectrum, and that fics with pet names or physical descriptors fall more towards the OC end of the spectrum than y/n does, for sure, but they're still versions of reader insert.

That said, I have definitely been guilty of tagging OC fics as both OFC and as Reader/You on Tumblr, to increase the reach. I'd never heard of anybody being annoyed about that (and certainly not blocking someone over it, jeez), but now I will stop tagging my Temporary Custody fic, for example, as anything but Stucky x OFC.

[krinklecutreads]

The book I'm currently reading used "miniature detail" instead of "minute detail" and I've now realized that's a pet peeve of mine...

[skadoodle-with-extra-ification]

Tango from @watcheraurora's fic: King's Tide!

HIGHLY recommend this fic!!! Honestly WatcherAurora is one of my favorite ranchers writers EVER!!!

Tango's showing off his amazing swimming skills for his pretty human lol wheeee backflips!

[leons-lady]

I'm gonna hold yalls hand when I say this again

if you're gonna name the reader that isn't Y/N or (your name), or the character saying their name without those two I mentioned if it bothers you

tag it properly as oc x canon. not x reader. that is NOT my name.

(and yes, I will be blocking, but it's still gonna pop up everywhere so I need at least SOMEONE to try and get me.)

[fantasystar14]

The fact that Max was genuinely invested in Gwen’s story only for him to throw it away immediately once he was told it was plagiarism and Gwen basically used OCs as a self-insert will never not be funny to me.

He was basically mesmerized over a romantic movie script. Never forget that.