What are your fanfic pet peeves that are about language, spelling, and grammar?
If you read fanfic, you’ve probably read enough to have a few pet peeves of your own. There are entire books that could be filled with fanfic pet peeves based on plot (“Three chapters ago you said she was allergic to peanuts, now she’s eating a PBJ!”), character (“Fuck you and die, Mary Sue!”), canon (“Since when was Angelina Johnson pale?”), etc. But this one isn’t about those sorts of pet peeves. This is about the way fanfic writers use language and includes things like spelling, grammar, vocabulary, font, and so on.
Of course, it goes without saying that we all know that most fanfic authors are not writing for publication. This is just something fun they do with something they love. But when it comes to sharing that love with a wider audience, there are things that sometimes get in the way. From spelling errors to grammatically confused sentences, there are things that fanfic authors do that take us out of the story rather than draw us in.
So here is our chance to share some of those things so that fanfic authors and beta readers can keep them in mind as they get their stuff ready for the fandom at large. But for every pet peeve, we can list a suggestion to fix or improve it.
GRAMMAR PET PEEVE
Pet Peeve: Their vs. they’re vs. there.
Explanation: I see this one in a lot of fic. So many authors use “their” (possessive of “they”) when they mean “they’re” (conjunction of “they are”) and/or “there” (adverb for this or that place) when they mean “their” (possessive of “they”). In a lot of cases, it can throw you off because it turns a sentence into nonsense, which requires you to read over the sentence again to fully understand the meaning. As someone who likes fluidity in language, this is very jarring and can get irritating when done too many times.
Suggestion: Beta reader who is VERY good with grammar, someone who is good enough with it to explain it to you. Acquaint yourself with a grammar primer or textbook.
VOCABULARY PET PEEVE
Pet Peeve: Replacing a character’s name or a simple pronoun with a single physical attribute (for example: “the blonde,” or “the older woman,” or “the elf maiden”).
Explanation: As you may have guessed from this post, I’m none too fond of using a physical attribute by itself to define a character. Aside from the fact that it reflects some problematic ideas about what is normal, beautiful, etc., it’s just dull and repetitive. It’s especially noticeable in a story that has otherwise beautiful language and is doing something incredible with the plot or the characters.
Suggestions: Read, read, read! Read stuff that isn’t fanfic. Read lots of different kinds of literature, not just stuff within a certain genre or by a certain author. Read fiction, read non-fiction, read poetry, read drama. Go outside the mainstream. Make note of particular phrases, sentences, and passages that really grab your attention. Make friends with language. Also, question what you take for granted when it comes to the use of language in fanfic. Break at least one habit with every fic that you write.
FONT PET PEEVE
Pet Peeve: Using bold, italics, or underlining for spoken dialogue.
Explanation: There is already something you do for that. They’re called punctuation marks. In particular, quotation marks (on your keyboard, it’s usually the one right after the key that has the colon and semi-colon). Aside from the fact that there’s already an established method for setting dialogue apart from the rest of the text, there’s also the fact that it’s visually distracting. Bold and italics are meant to draw your attention, to separate the bolded and italicized text from the rest. By putting dialogue in bold or italics, you draw the eye away from everything else that you’re saying.
Suggestions: Just use quotation marks. Use bold, italics, and underlining sparingly and only in cases when drawing attention to that part of dialogue is absolutely necessary. How do I define absolutely necessary? If the story would not make any sense without it, go ahead and use it.
YOUR PET PEEVES
[Insert yours here]
You have hit my main ones that will make me hit the back button in a hot second. I absolutely LOATHE when a character is reduced to a single descriptor, with ‘the [hair colour]’ and ‘the older/younger woman’ being the absolute worst. I hate them so much I would rather overuse names rather than use the term even once. There are a ton of descriptive ways around it that it just smacks of laziness.
I understand that people make mistakes but honestly if I say aloud to myself more than once in a single fic, “that word doesn’t mean that, you meant X word that sounds similar” then it is highly unlikely that I would ever read anything by that person again. It’s a pet peeve because it means the person didn’t know what the word meant and didn’t bother to look it up, didn’t have a beta or didn’t bother to edit their own work.
I know heartsways touched on this today by asking people but I honestly hate sexual euphemisms SO FUCKING MUCH. Even the best authors use them and it makes me eyeroll so hard I get second hand embarrassment.
A REQUIEM FOR VILLAINOUS QUEENS
lady macbeth
you say this is a game so take your place, then you set the mask upon your face, my silhouette in the air you trace, and the dagger performs with a start
mirah / the knife throwerevil queen of snow white
she learned it from a book, suitors approach, receive dirty looks. calling on her for good or grief. these types of fool who beg and never read
horse feathers / rude to rilemorgan le fay
“what say you good people?” (guilty, guilty, guilty) “i am responsible for your actions.” “wake the witch.”
kate bush / waking the witchcersei lannister
beautiful, alone with my enemy, and share a bitter cup of poisoning, my countenance, to see his face in mine, and follow every line back to my enemy
jesca hoop / enemymarisa coulter
she damned if she do, she damned if she don’t, if history hang hang hangs her well, her memory won’t…and i am no stranger to the strange, and all his ways, what could be stranger, than to be stuck outside your cage
the kills / damned if she domarguerite d’anjou
is your armour thin again? do i want to wear it down? am i worthy to come in? do you want to be found?
charlotte martin / your armourattolia irene
there is a light in my lady’s house, and there’s none but some falling rain, this like a spoken word, she is more than her thousand names. no hands are half as gentle, or as firm as they like to be, thank god you see me the way you do, strange as you are to me.
iron & wine / my lady’s houseatia of the julii
know myself, well oh hell, prissy queen, iron bars, iron heart, everything…more alive than you’ve ever been
yeah yeah yeahs / dull lifelucrezia borgia
read to me again, about the king who took his daughter to the feast. tell me how she lifted up her veils and laid them at his feet. execution in her eyes, she pointed to her prize, and said, “i want him to be mine.” and everyone knew the man was going to lose his head tonight.
emmy the great / bad things coming, we are saferegina mills
i could tell you stories like the past was dead and gone, but i know nothing changes in this world, everyday the muezzin calls, sun comes up and baghdad falls.
anais mitchell / before the eyes of storytelling girlsbastard guinevere
the day i go to war, i won’t be there tomorrow, the days i go to war, i won’t be there, i won’t be there, story of the night shows itself, go to sleep, they are not to see this.
zola jesus / shiversThe feather shirt alone made me eyegasm.
(Source: sunneinsplendour)
(Source: vargesz, via evil-queens)
(via awesomecanadianthings)
women flawless enough for me to call them ‘my queen’:
- Sansa Stark
- Amy Gardner
- Regina Mills
- Martha Jones
End of list.
you were the only thing we ever disagreed about
(via five-items)
