Pet Peeve I Developed after becoming a writer

[Dizwikz]

Thank you! It's very real stuff like that that people don't consider. Like sometimes it isn't that something is unrealistic, it's that people can't fathom how strange people act sometimes.

[cherrystark]

I agree. Even if you don't have access to a good beta reader, most writing software has spellcheck and there are programs you can download to help with grammar.

[Dizwikz]

Thank you! It's very real stuff like that that people don't consider. Like sometimes it isn't that something is unrealistic, it's that people can't fathom how strange people act sometimes.

[sweetabsynthium]

I think I saw someone on a forum once complain that they have to use chocolate cause there just aren't any other brown things in the world.

Like what world do you live in?

[foxnflames]

I think I was on that thread if we’re talking about the same one. It was interesting the implicit bias some people have. Could literally come up with various descriptives for other characters but when it came to their black characters: chocolate, caramel, mocha, etc. Like, come on

[sweetabsynthium]

Systemic racism is a helluva drug. It has us all forgetting an entire genre of color.

[foxnflames]

I have the longest time editing because I will stare a word and see another word and the sentence won’t make sense to me. Especially if certain words start with the same letters. And my mind flips letters a lot so w and m, p and b. Also I’ve recently found that I tend to write do instead of go, probably because lowercase d and g

[foxnflames]

That’s why on that thread I opted to be a good noodle and “educate”. I’m not one to do the labor for people but I used up my daily allowance of maturity and provided feedback and links to how to write black/poc characters

[carreonaiwille]

I've also seen a reviewer criticize how bystanders on the subway train in my first chapter reacted with indifference to the conclusion of the fight, which they felt wasn't realistic and that people would be running and screaming and calling for the police.

Just saw a prank where a guy in a mall pretends to be superpowered and people like dunno 20? 30? (who were acckmplices) pretend to collapse as if they're hit by that guy's power. Granted, the premise of the prank was fantastical but most people only stood by watching, some whippin out the phones while a few mothers would yank their children outta there. But mostly people stood.

[indysyew]

This entire thread appears confirmation that we each possess individual likes and dislikes ! Which begs the question whether we have licence to criticise the efforts of others, unless of course invited to do so....?

[Kiweevil]

Run on sentences hurt my head.

[LadyN]

Y E S

20 characters smh

[NickRowler]

I always struggled in school because the tips they gave were not helpful. They kept pushing concepts like word parts and sounding it out. My dyslexia also effect my hearing so my brain would not process words right. It just made my spelling worse. The way I read, is that I see words like shapes, not a series of letters. I was told by reading tutors not to do this even tho it was the technique which has helped the most.

[foxnflames]

When I write I either skip letters or write them upside down accidentally. My nephew has dyslexia and his mom was showing me how she helps him sound out letters and he also sees the letters as shapes. I told her that I have to remember letters as shapes sometimes because my mind will go blank when I’m writing or typing and I have to visualize the shape of the letter to remember it.
Mind you, I’ve never had an actual diagnosis and have been dealing with this since 1st grade. My mom always told me to slow down when reading or I was making simple mistakes. I’m glad on the site we can have dark mode and spaced out text at least.

[MeltingCORE]

Kind of a funny pet peeve of mine but if I see "the" used too many times, it annoys me.

[LadyN]

@MeltingCORE

The sea urchin from the sea swam up from the water and onto the shore to meet the humans that stood on the ground.

You’re welcome

[MeltingCORE]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[HGohwell]

In people responding to my work so much yes to people who can't wait for five seconds to get all the answers. I've literally written characters going "we can't figure out the bad guy's plot, the pieces we have don't make sense, we're missing something", and then in the comments will have people going "yeah but the bad guy's plot still doesn't make sense you're not telling us enough to work it out" and not in the "wow this is great I'm trying to figre it out omg what's going on" kinda way but the genuinely offended kinda way. And I'm there like wow you think. That's completely the point. That's why I pointed it out. You're not supposed to know! Or when you're writing from limited 3rd or 1st pov and people get annoyed that they only know what the character knows. That's the point! You're confused because the character is confused!

In other people's work revenette! Bluette! Pinkette! Stop it! You can't just stick -ette on the end of a colour and make it a hair colour. That's not how it works. I even saw a blondette and I just got so confused and second hand embarrassed and like that's not how it works people stop. And then they go even further and palette and darkette and what are you doing?

[Niharika]

My pet peeve has to be when the author describes an obviously beautiful girl and then tells us she's a plain Jane. And this isn't restricted to web fiction, either. I remember watching one booktuber's review of a fantasy YA novel (readwithcindy's review of Nevernight) where the main character is described as having sharp features, extremely, extremely pale skin, being very, very thin, etc. And we are told she is not beautiful. After describing a high fashion waif model, the author expects us to believe that the character's not pretty.

First of all, I don't see why tough female leads are somehow seen as tougher if they're not pretty. Second, I don't think there's any one kind of beauty, or that all deviations from that mould automatically are excluded from the adjective "beautiful". If I'm making sense?

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Other writers basically 'anxiety gatekeeping' amateurs by setting up all these arbitrary rules about what can and can't be good writing, like how many drafts you should have, how long you should spend on each chapter, how many words you should write, how much dialogue you should have, etc, etc.

If I listened to all the advice I heard along these lines (including decent, well-intentioned advice) I'd never finish anything. =/

I understand that good writing takes real, hard work, but there's got to be a better way to express that than making a book seem like a jail sentence, where you're not "really" done until it's taken up some significant portion of your life.

My advice would be, if a book seems easy to write, let it be easy. If you feel like showing it off after just the first draft, go ahead. If you don't want to edit anymore, stop. If you can't make it to 100K words, don't force yourself to.
Let your writing stand or fall on its own merits, on what you think is best for the story, not on other people's one-size-fits-all ideas of what the writing process should be.