Reading/Book Pet Peeves

[cwm]

Fanfic that loses it part of the way through.  I was reading a really good Thor/Avengers fic - it was great, lots of plot twists, good fleshing out of characters, lovely PWP's thrown in for flavor, and the author either lost interest or gave up or something, because after 3 hours of reading I slam into "And Odin became cool, everyone is friends, they all lived HEA."

Whut?  So all of a sudden Odin is a great dad (yeah, no - a lifetime of lies, favoritism, and teaching your kid to hate his own species, and it's suddenly rainbows and kitties and unicorns farting strawberry glitter? Uh, no), Loki's head is no longer a bag of cats, his banished kids are fine and well adjusted, earth forgives him for invading a major city, and every should go home and have cake.

On one hand, I can see where the author's coming from. Sometimes I just want the story to END RIGHT NOW! But then again, that's why most of what I've written will never be shared on the internet.

[alkira6]

Fanfic that loses it part of the way through.  I was reading a really good Thor/Avengers fic - it was great, lots of plot twists, good fleshing out of characters, lovely PWP's thrown in for flavor, and the author either lost interest or gave up or something, because after 3 hours of reading I slam into "And Odin became cool, everyone is friends, they all lived HEA."

Whut?  So all of a sudden Odin is a great dad (yeah, no - a lifetime of lies, favoritism, and teaching your kid to hate his own species, and it's suddenly rainbows and kitties and unicorns farting strawberry glitter? Uh, no), Loki's head is no longer a bag of cats, his banished kids are fine and well adjusted, earth forgives him for invading a major city, and every should go home and have cake.

On one hand, I can see where the author's coming from. Sometimes I just want the story to END RIGHT NOW! But then again, that's why most of what I've written will never be shared on the internet.

I understand it too, which is why I don't post anything until it's finished and then parcel it out on a serial basis. Some of my fics have gotten up to the 700 page range in Word and then I hit a brick wall and they die.

[rose red]

Speaking of fanfics, I was reading an interesting one except the author keep making the same spelling mistakes.  That's fine.  It happens.  She's not a professional.  Except readers nicely inform her about them, but she keep ignoring our advice and keep spelling the same words the same incorrect way.  I know she read the reviews since she comments on them.  I stopped reading because if you don't care or listen or respect your readers, why should we care about you?

[Elfmama]

When the author has established a fantasy culture and breaks their own naming rules.  If your other people are named D'Jarr and Ylfana and Grignr, another person from that same culture should not be named Mary Elizabeth.

[Lynn2000]

Fanfic is a whole 'nother kettle of fish... I have found that, even if the story is not what one would call well done in a technical sense, I can still enjoy it if there are new, creative ideas bubbling underneath. But I can't handle really bad formatting, like where the paragraphs all run together; and one thing that drives me crazy is having the comma on the wrong side of the quotation mark.

"Let's go to the library", Joe said.

Someone tried to tell me once that was the proper way to do things in the UK...?

[Mel the Redcap]

When the author has established a fantasy culture and breaks their own naming rules.  If your other people are named D'Jarr and Ylfana and Grignr, another person from that same culture should not be named Mary Elizabeth.

Grignr! *falls over laughing* I know where that's from! Some friends and I used to hold competitive readings of the MST3K version at role playing conventions. ("--his heaving mount--" "Kilimanjaro!")

And yes, if you've established a convention for a culture, whether it's naming or customs or clothing, there'd better be a reason for breaking it.

[Elfmama]

When the author has established a fantasy culture and breaks their own naming rules.  If your other people are named D'Jarr and Ylfana and Grignr, another person from that same culture should not be named Mary Elizabeth.

Grignr! *falls over laughing* I know where that's from! Some friends and I used to hold competitive readings of the MST3K version at role playing conventions. ("--his heaving mount--" "Kilimanjaro!")

And yes, if you've established a convention for a culture, whether it's naming or customs or clothing, there'd better be a reason for breaking it.

I would love to be able to get into a reading of The Eye of Argon, with its scarlet emeralds and lithe noses.

[starry diadem]

Fanfic is a whole 'nother kettle of fish... I have found that, even if the story is not what one would call well done in a technical sense, I can still enjoy it if there are new, creative ideas bubbling underneath. But I can't handle really bad formatting, like where the paragraphs all run together; and one thing that drives me crazy is having the comma on the wrong side of the quotation mark.

"Let's go to the library", Joe said.

Someone tried to tell me once that was the proper way to do things in the UK...?

No, that's nonsense - in that particular circumstance. That's someone who can't punctuate dialogue. For direct speech, the comma should be within the speechmarks.

The difference between UK and US usage is where there's a quote within a sentence. We in the UK do not put commas and full stops (periods) inside the quote marks unless the punctuation is a part of the original text being quoted. 

I found this example online to illustrate the difference :

US usage: The names given to the characters were “Anabelle,” “Zach,” and “Cody.”

UK usage: The names given to the characters were “Anabelle”, “Zach”, and “Cody”.

[Diane AKA Traska]

Fanfic is a whole 'nother kettle of fish... I have found that, even if the story is not what one would call well done in a technical sense, I can still enjoy it if there are new, creative ideas bubbling underneath. But I can't handle really bad formatting, like where the paragraphs all run together; and one thing that drives me crazy is having the comma on the wrong side of the quotation mark.

"Let's go to the library", Joe said.

Someone tried to tell me once that was the proper way to do things in the UK...?

No, that's nonsense - in that particular circumstance. That's someone who can't punctuate dialogue. For direct speech, the comma should be within the speechmarks.

The difference between UK and US usage is where there's a quote within a sentence. We in the UK do not put commas and full stops (periods) inside the quote marks unless the punctuation is a part of the original text being quoted. 

I found this example online to illustrate the difference :

US usage: The names given to the characters were “Anabelle,” “Zach,” and “Cody.”

UK usage: The names given to the characters were “Anabelle”, “Zach”, and “Cody”.

Ah.  So the UK method makes sense, whereas the US version does not.  Gotcha.

[Jocelyn]

Fanfic that loses it part of the way through.  I was reading a really good Thor/Avengers fic - it was great, lots of plot twists, good fleshing out of characters, lovely PWP's thrown in for flavor, and the author either lost interest or gave up or something, because after 3 hours of reading I slam into "And Odin became cool, everyone is friends, they all lived HEA."

Whut?  So all of a sudden Odin is a great dad (yeah, no - a lifetime of lies, favoritism, and teaching your kid to hate his own species, and it's suddenly rainbows and kitties and unicorns farting strawberry glitter? Uh, no), Loki's head is no longer a bag of cats, his banished kids are fine and well adjusted, earth forgives him for invading a major city, and every should go home and have cake.

On one hand, I can see where the author's coming from. Sometimes I just want the story to END RIGHT NOW! But then again, that's why most of what I've written will never be shared on the internet.

In one of Roger Zelazny's Amber book, Corwin runs into a guy named Roger who is writing a book. Corwin asks if it ends happily, and Roger replies, 'I'LL be happy.' 

[raininshadows]

For published fiction, my current pet peeve is the Girl Who Hates Femininity. She hates makeup, but she's naturally gorgeous, and she thinks cheerleading is stupid (as opposed to a physically exacting competitive sport; I'm not a cheerleader, but there is no way the things they do don't take effort and practice), and she wouldn't be caught dead in a skirt, and she thinks the popular girls are stupid, and she couldn't care less about boys and anyone who thinks otherwise is stupid. Thinking someone else is "stupid"/"wrong" for thinking differently than you do isn't okay, regardless of what they think.

For fanfiction, I'm annoyed at the people who think that they should tag their story with the pairing of X/Y when the only mention of the pairing that X is Y's ex-girlfriend from years ago, and she was a horrible person, and the story's all about Y/Z. If I wanted Y/Z, I'd be looking for it in its section. At the very least, make it clear from the summary that X/Y isn't the main pairing.

[Two Ravens]

When the author has established a fantasy culture and breaks their own naming rules.  If your other people are named D'Jarr and Ylfana and Grignr, another person from that same culture should not be named Mary Elizabeth.

I would say that you could do this, but you have to make it clear within the culture that "Mary Elizabeth" is a really weird name. Have other people comment on it, be confused and have ol' ME curse her parents on a regular basis. 

[Lynn2000]

Fanfic is a whole 'nother kettle of fish... I have found that, even if the story is not what one would call well done in a technical sense, I can still enjoy it if there are new, creative ideas bubbling underneath. But I can't handle really bad formatting, like where the paragraphs all run together; and one thing that drives me crazy is having the comma on the wrong side of the quotation mark.

"Let's go to the library", Joe said.

Someone tried to tell me once that was the proper way to do things in the UK...?

No, that's nonsense - in that particular circumstance. That's someone who can't punctuate dialogue. For direct speech, the comma should be within the speechmarks.

The difference between UK and US usage is where there's a quote within a sentence. We in the UK do not put commas and full stops (periods) inside the quote marks unless the punctuation is a part of the original text being quoted. 

I found this example online to illustrate the difference :

US usage: The names given to the characters were “Anabelle,” “Zach,” and “Cody.”

UK usage: The names given to the characters were “Anabelle”, “Zach”, and “Cody”.

Awesome! Thank you for clarifying that.

[cwm]

Fanfic where the author doesn't take time to actually stick to their own continuity. For example, if you're writing a Doctor Who story, for example, and uses British spellings and British slang, then throws in about how the Doctor went to the theater and waited in the line with his cell phone and the color was off, it doesn't work. He went to the theatre with his mobile, queued up, and the colour was off.

It is for this reason that whenever I write fanfiction with a UK flair, I will accept any and all corrections from denizens of the UK and make notes as to accurate grammer, usage, and vocabulary. And if I'm unsure on something, I'll either re-write around it or look it up.

[Cherry91]

For published fiction, my current pet peeve is the Girl Who Hates Femininity. She hates makeup, but she's naturally gorgeous, and she thinks cheerleading is stupid (as opposed to a physically exacting competitive sport; I'm not a cheerleader, but there is no way the things they do don't take effort and practice), and she wouldn't be caught dead in a skirt, and she thinks the popular girls are stupid, and she couldn't care less about boys and anyone who thinks otherwise is stupid. Thinking someone else is "stupid"/"wrong" for thinking differently than you do isn't okay, regardless of what they think.

This