[ SECRET POST #2437 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2437 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 024 secrets from Secret Submission Post #348.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Inspired by #10

[kaijinscendre]

What are some little fanfic things you hate?

I hate writers who put filler words when writing the dailogue of people who don't use them. Sherlock is not going to be saying "Ummm, Uhhhh" when speaking.



What are some of the little things you hate that are not secret worthy?

Re: Inspired by #10

[nan]

Aaaauuugh, I hate when authors make casual, modern teenagers speak overly proper. :| Or when they overly badass-ify/jerkify a character.

Re: Inspired by #10

[souljelly]

Really long, rambly author's notes.

Re: Inspired by #10

[(Anonymous)]

Overuse of the word "hummed".

Re: Inspired by #10

[(Anonymous)]

Authors who use strange or distracting page breaks. If I see another row of freaking &&&&OOOOOOoooooooXXXXXXXXxxxxxx&&&&, I'm going to quit fanfiction, I swear to God.

Authors who don't spellcheck their summaries/titles. I'm pretty forgiving of SPAG errors in an actual story (if I like it enough, I usually save it to a word doc and fix them myself) but in the very first glimpse? No thanks.

Re: Inspired by #10

[(Anonymous)]

Rating it adults only/explicit, then there's next to no porn or violence. Why is it rated so high if there's nothing worthy of the rating?! WHERE IS MY PORN

Re: Inspired by #10

[(Anonymous)]

People who use rows of ~*~*~*~*~*~ to mark a section break. Just use transitional words and your readers will be able to follow it. If you really really have to use some kind of symbol, just use ---- but if you have any skill at writing at all, you should be able to create a clear transition with your WORDS.

Re: Inspired by #10

[(Anonymous)]

Inconsistent capitalization in titles. If you're put the whole title in lowercase for ~*artistic*~ reasons, I can grudgingly tolerate that, but otherwise there's no excuse.

"A Story About Batman Drinking Tea" is the best way to go.

"a story about batman drinking tea" is somewhat pretentious, but acceptable.

"A story about Batman drinking Tea" is NOT acceptable.

Re: Inspired by #10

[(Anonymous)]

When people try to use a standard tag on AO3, then somehow manage to put the standard tag in as a freeform tag. Arrrgggghhhh.

Re: Inspired by #10

[fingalsanteater]

Maybe not so little, but casual misogyny. I don't know if I'm being over sensitive or what, but too much of the "girls who like to dress nicely are shallow, stupid bitches" and "move bitch, get out the way of my dick/dick otp" sentiment and I'll hit the back button. I just want to read about Tony loving Steve or whatever, not random OFCs getting slut-shamed.

Also, I hate when authors find a good word and then overuse the hell out it. Find a new way to phrase things or check out a thesaurus.

Re: Inspired by #10

[(Anonymous)]

Epithets. "Fucking epithets," said the tall policeman to his diminutive brown haired wife.

"I agree," replied the buxom blonde who had been eavesdropping on the long-married couple's conversation.

Re: Inspired by #10

[(Anonymous)]

Running a one-off canon joke into the ground. For instance: Budapest, "his first name is Agent" in the MCU.

Re: Inspired by #10

[queerwolf]

Characters saying things they would never say in canon, i.e. different speech patterns or sounding British when they're American or vice versa

Re: Inspired by #10

[shortysc22]

I hate how one little thing will get adopted by fandom and then overused.

For example, I have read way too many Harry Potter stories where one of the Weasleys will yell "Mal-ferret" to Draco. No, I don't find this cute or funny or endearing at all. Please stop.

Or describing someone by looks when you could just say their name.

Re: Inspired by #10

[pkbitchgirl]

People who refer to grown ass characters as having 'puppy dog' eyes, they're adults not fucking children

Re: Inspired by #10

[(Anonymous)]

"the other man" "the taller said" "the younger/older/dark haired/etc" Just use the name. Or "they said". It will be clear, I promise. And honestly, repetetive name usage is much less noticeable than all these extra wordy ways of referring/describing.

Re: Inspired by #10

[(Anonymous)]

When someone is essentially re-writing a canon scene - say, it's an AU or their describing a character's thoughts during that moment - and the author transcribes all the dialogue for the entire scene in the fic. Even worse if they describe everyone's actions and expressions in detail.

I get that it's supposed to be the same moment with the same things happening (but with an AU twist or an inner monologue) but reading a scene transcription is boring and the extra stuff added in (if there even is much added) may not be enough to make up for it. Find a creative way to show that the moment still happened - maybe re-create a tiny piece of it or use just one or two memorable lines or something - but please do not just re-tell the entire thing. I saw/read the original, I don't need you to type it out for me.

Re: Inspired by #10

[(Anonymous)]

Unclear referents. Too much 'the taller man said' is ridic, but even more ridic is scenes and scenes of three dudes talking to each other where the only referent used is 'he said' and I can't track which 'he' is saying it.

'Sobbed'. It gets waaay overused, there are better ways to describe someone crying, especially since 'sobbed' is often more intense than I see the character doing.

Re: Inspired by #10

[(Anonymous)]

Giving characters mental/abuse issues they do not have in canon (cutting, drug addiction, parental abuse etc.), changing their personality completely with the "future fic" excuse, and of course chapters that are <300 words or without paragraph breaks.

Re: Inspired by #10

[aubry]

'Feeling like a schoolgirl'

I hate it. I'm inside the head of a grown-ass woman enjoying a good shippy story and bam - there she is again "feeling like a schoolgirl" or "giddy as a schoolgirl" or "giggling like a schoolgirl again".

The women I like to read about include a Starfleet doctor, a Victorian housekeeper, several senior-ranking police and military types, a surgeon, the HBIC of Gryffindor, a witch who has never giggled in her life and various other po-faced martinets. And yet I've caught everyone of them feeling giddy as a schoolgirl in multiple fics. Rage.

And once you've noticed one instance, you'll see the phrase everywhere. Like when a spider's egg sac has hatched in your room.

Also badly Google-translated scraps of language in dialogue. For some reason my native language is particularly susceptible to being used for doggerel during sex...

Re: Inspired by #10

[(Anonymous)]

Using relative heights or ages to describe characters. I get that english pronoun limitations are a problem. I really do. But "she ran her hands through the older woman's hair" makes no sense when the characters are thirty-five and thirty-six respectively.

Re: Inspired by #10

[al28894]

Several weeks back, I wrote a chapter of my testing-myself fic that uses a lot of the "The taller one said" or "The blonde one said" shtick.

About a week back I wrote another chapter that expanded the setting and I realized... just how shitty I wrote that chapter.

I've been trying to correct my mistakes ever since. Lesson learned.

Re: Inspired by #10

[(Anonymous)]

Military officers, especially high ranking ones in their 30s or older, giggling and talking like teenagers. Either gender.

Re: Inspired by #10

[nightscale]

Modern slang or phrases that don't fit the setting of the canon material, it doesn't happen too often but when it does it pulls me out of the fic pretty quick.

Re: Inspired by #10

[tabaqui]

A specific Buffy-ism. On Buffy, the 'Clumsy, much?' or 'Jealous, much?' way of speaking was a thing. Sam and Dean? Do not say that. John and Rodney on Atlantis? Do not say that. The Criminal Minds people don't say that, either, and for the love of FUCK, Harry Potter does not say that. Stoppit.

And when writing RPF? Stop making everyone 'terrified' of 'tiny' Danneel and Genevieve. Please, just stop.