@rabbitearsblog: @batkevin74: @fallschirmjager: I've noticed all of your pet peeves, and I agree with some of them, to an extent.
Writing characters out of character - I am familiar with this, given how long I've been writing fan-fics and such. Of course, we all view characters in our own unique ways. I must point out, however, that now that the Comic companies now acknowledge the existence of alternate realities, we can easily accept the 'out of character' problem.
Grammatical, spelling, and formatting mistakes- This is an annoyance in my mind as well, but I also except that they exist. None of us are perfect, and I have spotted in a few books my major authors the occasional 'the the'. Also, some authors include the mistakes to help add to the story. If you ever get the chance to read Terry Pratchett, he includes spelling mistakes to fit in with the characters, to show how they write, at the times they must right. The one that bothers me most is the ones we can't always catch, even with spell checking. You type there, but you mean their. You type effect, and it should be affect. Sometimes even proofreading misses these, and from time to time, I am also guilty of this.
Not voting and lack of comments - This is a slight annoyance to me. I would like to see acknowledgement of my work, however, I admit the for some, they might not have the time to type up a review or comment. At least, thanks to stats on some sights, you can see that things are being read. Over the years, I've only been contacted by a few fans, and fellow writers. Personally, however, I only worry about this when I'm getting depressed, and wonder if I have an impact at all.
OCLove- This is, by far, one of the banes of the writer's existence. In the beginning, an OC ended up being a Mary Sue. Even my own OC, Richard Cale, was initially that. The truth is that when a fan starts writing, their initial idea of a character is themselves. With experience, the OC's become something else. I will be honest, when I first thought up my OC, his purpose was to bring Hollow (at that time Penance, and will always remain Penance to me) into a speaking role, and a more active and normal role. With a power like hers, and a past, you have to think that all she wants is something normal. This is a fact. Besides, the main characters started out as OC's once as well.
Too much story, too little story, and sub plots - This is another bane, and sometimes the sign of a fledgling writer. When you put too much into a story, it ruins the story, and makes it look like a mess. I personally have a fic that has never been posted anywhere but my own website. The reason is the fact that it is a god awful mess. I put so much into it, that after looking back at it, I shake my head thinking, "What was I thinking". Conversely, putting too little in a story makes no sense. Sometimes that is unintentional. We put stuff into a story, and when all is said and done, it doesn't make sense, or it remains unresolved. This can also cover sub-plots. Sometimes a sub-plot, or Story B as some episodes of shows call it, is something that works better over several stories. A sub plot is perfect if you don't plan to write just one story, or you have a possible romantic relationship that needs to form in a story.
Sexscenes - These little things are another bane. If done right, they fit right into a story, as a key story point in character development, and appear tastefully done. BUT IT MUST BE JUST RIGHT. Done right, but not just right, you can just shelve the story as erotica. If characters must have sex, it can be kept off scene. A married couple can have relations, but off scene. If the scene must have effects on others, like a walk in on the act type thing, you don't have to detail the scene. A comic 'whoops', accompanied by a quick exit is fair enough. Ironically enough, when I had to see about adding such a scene in a past work (which remains unpublished due inexperience at the time or writing), I purposefully looked at other works to see if it can be done tastefully or not. Much to my own surprise, even some of those fall into the typos, bad formatting and grammatical errors. It literally hurt to read them, and some were mercifully short, not even 1000 characters, including spaces.
Now I add my own personal pet peeve, and this is not limited to fan fic:
Obscenely short chapters- I hate obscenely short chapters. I can accept these if the chapter is short for a reason, like an interlude, or a point is made that not much is done. If this is done, however, because you have a change in POV, it is annoying. Late author Robert Sheckley seemed to excel at that. I have two books he wrote, and it was page 11, chapter 3, page 12, chapter 4, page 14, chapter 5. Some writers can write in a way that allows one to switch characters paragraph to paragraph. Some write with a slight break to denote a character POV change. Now, if you have short chapters because of a reason, like the POV character dies, that can be fine. But if you write a paragraph or two, change POV, and that means a new chapter, that is not good. You can just put a divider in to denote that the chapter is the same, but in different locations, not write in Obscenely short chapters. You don't write, using ST:TNG as an example, "Data got of the turbolift. When he approached his station on the bridge, he could see there was trouble." Next chapter, "Capt. Picard was thankful when Data reached his station. The current dilemma the Enterprise was facing was catastrophic, and the android would be able to come up with a plan of attack....." I'm sure you understand what I'm getting at.
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