What Are Your Fanfiction Nitpicks?

[@lindapenttinen3382]

Misspelling character names when it could be solved by a internet search or reading manga/book if one owns a volume or entire series

[@Orchid_123]

ESPECIALLY IF THE CHARACTER IS FROM A COMIC

[@MMJLEN]

You can even read their name in the tags 😭

[@sinimeg]

I mean, dyslexic people exist 🤷 And while you could argue that they could try harder to not misspell it, at the end of the day it’s a hobby that most people do for fun, so there’s a limit of how much effort and work you want to put on it, specially if you do it to unwind after a stressful day or something like that (yes, I write fanfiction, but no, I’m not dyslexic and my days aren’t that stressful, I’m just pointing out the pov of other people who might have more struggles and difficulties)

[@lindapenttinen3382]

@@sinimeg They do exist. I myself have some difficulties with spelling and such. It just seems weird and funny in a way that rest of the fic could be in perfect grammar and names are nearly always mispelled

[@Heroshii15]

*Alternative romanizations of Japanese have entered the chat*

[@icecreamchats]

Your majesty should only be used for kings and queen, while your highness is for any other royalty. I didn’t know this until a fic writer pointed it out and now I can’t unsee it

[@cheddarcheesewoah]

Red White and Royal Blue vibes

[@shrimpchild]

'Your Imperial Majesty' is used to refer to emperors and empresses and 'Your Imperial Highness' is used for imperial princes and imperial princesses, too! It always ends up the reason I can't pick up royalty au fics

[@storytellernegative1]

I HATE IT WHEN "Highness" IS USED FOR NON ROYALS. maybe if they are someone VERY high in a church of the state, but thats it. Lord is the safe option, even for a duke, but Majesty is for the throne alone, and highness for the royal family. Each has their own way (grace for duke, for example) and a reason for it, but Lord is totally acceptable! especially since peasants to barons is about the gap most people talking to higher nobles would have (barons to counts, counts to dukes, knights/baronets to viscounts, viscounts to marchioness/marching counts/border counts), and even then, really only court nobles (ones that dont have land like Landed Nobles, who coulda guessed) care about those kinds of address.

[@qsd5413]

In fact, every noble title has its own way to address and style it. I spent way too long researching this so I could write at least somewhat accurate nobility

[@GlitchNpc2]

*angrily yoinks*

[@alicethemad1613]

Use of the word “juices” in a sexual context. It always makes me immediately angry. It costs 0 dollars to just not write that.

[@saturnas]

juices is the new moist

[@NekoChanSenpai]

THIS. It just sounds gross

[@queenofqueen-4598]

agreed. I can’t tell you how many times my eyes have had to skip the word just to be able to continue. My character would not use this word!! Nor do I feel comfortable reading it

[@WarPixeler]

but it also costs 0 dollars to add it in 🤔

[@somerandomwindowsguy3725]

Right! Like are we talking about cooking a steak or sexual intimacy?

[@MerzyHasAnOrange]

When the paragraph breaks are GIANT. Why am I getting stranded in snow to find the next sentence? 😔

[@puredemon5926]

Right? Like have these people ever seen a normal book? They're single spaced.

[@diediedice]

Never understood how people BEG for lots and lots of paragraphs. It's so much nicer to read without the constant breaks

[@ceciliaalves4945]

@@diediedice i think what is begged is not lots but some, a wall of text is very hard on the eyes and sometimes the inner narrator gets tired

[@melon_choly]

Worse when there’s giant break between each sentence

[@bogwife7942]

tbf, this is an issue with formatting. happens when someone double spaces their paragraphs in whatever word processor they use to write, and then copy-pastes that text into the posting form. ao3 automatically reformats that text, changing one paragraph break to two paragraph breaks for readability. but if you're already double spacing in your draft, you end up with _four_ paragraph breaks. i can be more forgiving if someone is clearly new to posting, but it irks me when someone has been writing for a long time and still hasn't figured this out. its literally explained in the posting form (for those curious, the easiest fix is just to increase the paragraph spacing in your document, so you get that double spaced look with single spaces)

[@PersonOfNoConsequence]

When the OC has a name that doesn't fit in the setting. If it's anime fanfic and everyone has a Japanese name, your OC from the same culture should probably have a Japanese name too. Nobody wants to see Steve talking to Naruto.

[@charleston1789]

I dunno, now you’ve said it I kinda wanna see Steve talk to Naruto 😆

[@IExistAndMyNameIsKawaiiAngel]

​@@charleston1789Me too

[@Popcornfr]

@@charleston1789Steve vs Naruto who has the better talk-no-jutsu!

[@Averaage_Commenter]

We are from Mexico. Our team is: - Pedro (Team leader) - Juan - Jose - Gustavo - *_jeff._*

[@trianglemoebius]

@@Averaage_Commenter VILLIAN: "Ah... y quién es este tipo?" JEFF: "¡Me llamo Jeff!"

[@kenyastarflight]

Characters smirking when they should be smiling. I don't mind "smirk" when it's used to indicate someone being smug or cocky, but a lot of authors use "smirk" when a character should be expressing genuine joy. "Smirk" is not a synonym for "smile."

[@duckcatthequrugosk5504]

I've seen smirk used so many times that it makes me cringe now

[@bluelfsuma]

I always envisioned "smirk" as meaning a half smile. As in, only one corner of their mouth raises. What if someone is trying to suppress a smile, or sorta absentmindedly smiled? If they huff in response to a small joke when they're not in a very comedic mood? Would "smirk" work there? If not, do you know any other terms that would? Genuinely, I'm curious.

[@rossjones8656]

​@@bluelfsuma I guess, 'half smile' or just write what's happening like 'they tried to suppress a laugh.' Lop (maybe spelling error) sided smile is there as well.

[@Devulini]

SO My INTERPrETATION WAS CORRECT I SAW IT BEING USED MANY TIMES LIKE THAT SO I ASSUMED IT WAS CORRECT

[@impishtwink8144]

smirk imo is either very cocky/smug or very mischievous/devious or even playful (its good to specify which way its being used too)

[@Guywithagrilll]

Further vs farther. Farther is used in regard to a physical distance, while further is a metaphorical distance. The farther they walked, the further they find themself falling into madness

[@agnozythehearthead]

"And father is for emotional distance" - that one tumblr thread

[@DelliGaming]

​@@agnozythehearthead Dammit you beat me 😂

[@Guywithagrilll]

@@agnozythehearthead GodDAMN got ‘em

[@davedarkstalker4650]

@@agnozythehearthead "Who hurt you?"

[@bluelfsuma]

Reminds me of apart and a part. I see it in comments all the time and it completely changes the meaning. Drives me nuts.

[@CelesteCampaign]

My oddly specific ick is an oc becoming the main characrer in a fic where there's no oc tag or any implication of them.

[@kyperdorito8569]

This! But especially for me when they don't tag it properly at all. Most authors do the relationships but don't tag something with a 'reader-insert' as a 'reader-insert' and you only have the relationship tags to go off of.

[@storytellernegative1]

This, for some reason, has made me want to write my fan fiction where my OC is the MC and goes against the original MC of the series and proceeds to be dunked 5 ways to sunday in a dennys parking lot, the story ending with the OC MC dying and the OG MC having a happily ever sorta after after my cahracter tried adn failed to do anything

[@Colorsquad_Creator]

​@@storytellernegative1 I'd read that

[@storytellernegative1]

@Colorsquad_Creator aight, guess I am writing that alongside my current one instead of just focusing on my current one. its not like I dont aleady have 4-6 projecst goign at once with one that I primarily keep going whiel the rest cycle out. want me to let you know when its out?

[@Colorsquad_Creator]

@@storytellernegative1 YES. Please

[@hondaaccord736]

One time I read a fanfic that, to this day, I consider to be the best thing I ever read. It was super well written by someone who was clearly educated. There was no clear writing bias or overused words, nor cliche and cringy words. EXCEPT for one time when it said "orbs" instead of "eyes" and I was so taken aback I had to put down my phone and have a glass of water before continuing to read the fic.

[@FizzieWebb]

I have seen people use the term "orbs" for eyes before, and it always comes off as super pretentious.

[@hondaaccord736]

@@FizzieWebb YES. I was actually disappointed when I read it in that story because I KNEW they could do so much better and they're not like that 🤣😭

[@saturnas]

​@@FizzieWebbdark orbs of sight

[@aliciam6145]

did you drink the water greedily?

[@hondaaccord736]

@ I'm a writer myself, so that's the only way I know how.

[@Guywithagrilll]

Elicit vs illicit Elicit means to draw out a reaction. Illicit means illegal. Seeing someone partake in illicit activities may elicit a negative reaction in a character, but swap the words, and it makes no sense

[@gabbithealicorn7327]

Genuinely had no idea “woah” was an incorrect spelling. If I’m honest, I prefer it way more than “whoa”. What the fuck is that?

[@cam4636]

I'm not sure it actually is incorrect. "Whoa" is supposed to mean "stop," like for a horse. "Woah" is an exclamation, like a 1980's surfer dude

[@PatchyDragon]

I had to stop and google this when I saw it come up. Turns out Oxford has both added to its dictionary now, though "woah" is considered the more informal of the two. I feel like some people forget that languages evolve, and many things that weren't correct English before are acceptable now. Like how "whom" has basically fallen out of the vocabulary in most cases, even when it'd be more grammatically correct than "who".

[@comradewindowsill4253]

it's attested in the 1860s, yeah if it's older than my grandparents I don't think anyone living has any right to critique it

[@FizzieWebb]

I see at as "Woah" is the sound, and "Whoa" is the actual word. Like, if you're about to trip or drop something you might go "Woah!" while being in awe of, or excited by something you'd say "Whoa!"

[@user-kw5jl5wt9f]

Waow

[@Im-at-yo-door]

1:41 to be fair, i consume drinks like a dehydrated lunatic despite the fact that I drink the most water out of my entire family

[@thou_narsty_gremlin]

Hello fellow Hydro Homie

[@vanillaextract4135]

Same. I just really love beverages 🤷‍♀️

[@RandomnessExceptBetter]

thanks to this comment + the pfp I'm now imagining him chugging water like a crazy person :)

[@markipliertrash1562]

Water is just good

[@lilylohmann614]

I was about to comment this, lol. I don’t think I ever drink water without chugging it like I’ve been stranded in the desert for a nonspecific period of time

[@cookiesnqueen2625]

8:54 Hilarious concept, this but intentional. The main character's first encounter with the love intrest, their eyes meet by chance across the room, but they keep maintaining eye contact. This goes on for longer than seems reasonable and the other characters become clearly uncomfortaple as they refuse to look away from each other, one of their friends tries to get them to stop only for them to growl through gritted teeth, "No. I need to win," as they continue the impromptu staring contest.

[@thou_narsty_gremlin]

Stare Down fan spotted?! :D

[@squid-123]

i really need to find a way to incorporate this as a huge plot point for one of my ocs

[@comradewindowsill4253]

i think this is what 'eyefucking' means

[@Pipkiablo]

I did something like this, but not romantically. The characters in question are a guy who's essentially a big weenie in canon and someone he's canonically terrified of, so it was basically the one character terrorizing the other one just by staring him down, played for laughs. Also the character he's afraid of is a robot and doesn't blink.

[@howinnocentistheday]

reminds me of that restaurant scene with mac and charlie in always sunny lol

[@L-ghtlessSky]

affect and effect. also, i once read this cannibalism fic, descriptions were so graphic i thought they must be wrong there are VERY FEW mistakes. all organ tastes and textures are ON POINT. a couple little errors here and there, but it surprised me how little they got wrong.

[@saturnas]

So instead of kudos♡, this author deserves Michelin stars ☆

[@ShadowGunR]

You sound like a cannibal that's ecstatic to have accurate representation

[@thou_narsty_gremlin]

@@saturnas LMAOOOOO

[@randomrepairs4676]

i stopped using affect or effect in my writing and i just write around it now. Not because I don't know the difference, but because it's just easier after years of essays. No hate of course lol, the misuse of it bothers me too

[@KeruoKaiJO]

You can't just tell us that you've read a perfectly-written cannibal fic and NOT share it with the rest of the class, have some decency! /sarc

[@YourWaywardDestiny]

If woah isn't considered an alternate of whoa, it has not stopped anyone. We've been doing it consistently, and (in more recent days) deliberately for roughly 30-40 years. Some things you have to let go, some things are no longer a mistake, some things change without your input. Language is one of those things that regularly punches you in the gut for both trying to categorize and and not knowing the categorizations. Spelling whoa as woah doesn't change anything about how pre-shift texts are read, it doesn't lie about its source, it doesn't contradict current spelling conventions. This one is not worth the fight; save that for words that _do_ actually invite massive headaches when someone misuses it. You run into someone using enormity to mean bigness, have at it. Yeah, get miffed, because that word means evilness, and people misusing that one are accidentally causing a miscommunication in other contemporary texts by using it like that.

[@Liggliluff]

And I find the phrase "common misspelling" an oxymoron. Unless it doesn't make any sense to have that spelling. Wiktionary lists Swedish spelling 'resturang' as a common misspelling of 'restaurang' (restaurant) even though the first 'a' isn't pronounced and the alternative spelling makes more sense.

[@YourWaywardDestiny]

@@Liggliluff I don't know Swedish, but I do know that dropping unnecessary letters should never be considered a mistake. What is that _a_ doing there if it's not being used? No need for it in pronunciation, no need for it to be in the text format.

[@Matheronics]

Untagged smut! I’m ace I want to exclude that in my search! But when I do sometimes the top 5 or so results are smut tagged as a more specific description but not smut, drives me crazy every time it happens…

[@EvilSewnit]

This! I’m not even ace but it’s still annoying because I regularly filter out smut but it still leaks through the ao3 system

[@umbreonfan0369]

I like platonic relationships. Same. Hate it when it suddenly turns nsfw. Why do they refuse to tag it nsfw or smut?

[@IExistAndMyNameIsKawaiiAngel]

I recently was going through the oldest Sherlock Holmes fics, and I can confirm a LOT of them had references or ACTUAL FREAKING LINES OF IT without tagging it or tagging it as teen. I just want fluff and crap whyyyy

[@Im-at-yo-door]

I’m not even Ace, but I still don’t wanna be jump scared by smut when I wasn’t looking for it

[@goodloverice9797]

THIS! I'm also ace and not intrested in that stuff and I have stumbled across fics that sound really good and then I read it and all the sudden theres smut even though nowhere in teh tags nor describtion it was mentioned!

[@jennyainley2323]

Doesn’t make me stop reading, but when the characters use each other’s names constantly even when it’s just a one-on-one conversation: “Character A, what do you think we should do about this?” “Well, Character B, I think we should do this thing.” “But Character A, that might not work.” Think about your various one-on-one conversations in real life. How frequently do you actually use the other person’s name when talking to them? Probably not that much. And yet fanfic characters seem to always be in a contest of who can say the other’s name more.

[@comradewindowsill4253]

batman and robin ass dialogue

[@OopisDoopis]

Sometimes the base media is like that too though 😭

[@paulamarina04]

thats actually decently common in some cultures. in japanese you rarely refer to anyone by anything other than their names (besides for family and some other exceptions). though you often do just ommit that part if its clear by context (aka most of the time)

[@LakituAl]

9:14 Me trying my hardest to not become a super villain when I read or hear someone say "should of".💀💀💀

[@le_void_goblin]

Oh my word yes 🫠 I'm willing to put up with some grammatical errors, but I just can't get past the "should of"s

[@thou_narsty_gremlin]

You should have said something (heheh)

[@theunseenanomalyneverseen]

it should be should’ve not should of 😭

[@dolly_doe]

Unfortunately, I'm guilty of this lmao. Thankfully my spell checker can snatch it easily

[@cinnamonrollypoly]

Or "for all intensive purposes". Same energy. (It's "For all intents and purposes")

[@HDrago]

1:00 tbh I didn't know bravo was a gendered word, and just now I realized it's likely not an english word

[@grammy_hnng]

in spanish it either means "congratulations" or "courageous". if its said just because, then its a hooray sort of deal. if its said to describe someone, its calling them brave

[@pikacrafter2903]

I have literally never heard "brava" in my life.

[@maxwellmarques1607]

It comes from Italian. When it's used in English it's usually as a hurrah, so we only use one form, it's natural since English has no grammatical gender.

[@Y.u.m.e.e]

Well in spanish, bravo is like something you say when congratulating something because you're admiring it, like an amazing performance of anything(people can say it while clapping). Brava in Spanish is not the feminine-gendered of bravo, it means brave and but in she/her pronouns(sorry, if it's a bit confusing ).

[@ghoot]

the person may be wrong. for once, i kinda disagree with nitpicks that you expect high intellectualism and specific academical knowledge from authors when depicting smart characters. like, you can only write with as much information and intelligence as you have. i think it's fine. but english is not my native language and as far as I know "bravo" as in congratulations/stupendous/impressive/etc is always with an o. bravo can also mean either brave or angry depending on the language, and only if so you may gender it to brava when speaking about a woman. tho I know nothing about traditional italian nor old english so maybe there's more to it.

[@angelsartandgaming]

My nitpick is so silly and I shouldn't even take it that seriously (which is why it's a nitpick, isn't it)... But it's also a nitpick I have in general stuff and one of the many reasons why I've not watched Boruto... It's if the author has made kids from a ship and they basically look and/or act like carbon copies of one parent with minimal differences. Same hair style, same personality, dress similarly, etc. Like there's looking like your mom or dad, then there's basically being a clone of your mom or dad. Like I said, it's such a silly nitpick I had and take it with as much grain of salt as possible.

[@chocobear4078]

Yeah no thats reasonable no child acts entirely like their parents

[@saphirestorm7952]

I don't mind it if it's not all of them, but I can't stand when it's every single one. Like how I have a Dialovers au that's "what if everyone had kids?" and Kou's kid acts and looks just like him but that's because he tries to because he looks up to his dad so much, and how Kino's kids act almost exactly like him because that's how he'd raise them, yet every other character is very different, with even Carla's son only looking and acting exactly like him prior to his being an adult because his dad forced him to be a copy of him.

[@angelsartandgaming]

@@saphirestorm7952 Yeah that I can get behind!

[@Konoshy]

At least with Boruto, they try to mix and match for some of the kids. Identical children is really prevalent in a lot in webtoons. It will even go as far as matching the genders (i.e boys look like their dads and girls look like their moms) without mixing in any features from the other parent. Or all the kids look identical to one parent regardless of gender with no features of the other. Some webtoons try to explain this away with the "our genes are super dominant for xyz reason" but come on.

[@tash4951]

omg yess. honestly this isn't just with ship kids but whenever theres any sort of spinoff which has any sort of "new generation" but in reality it's just a dollar store version of the characters we already had it's like what's the point? I rather just see more content of the original characters atp.

[@ravioliis_]

when a character gets an injury but it's never clarified which side of the body it's on. ie they break their arm, but _WHICH ARM_ and then they do direction dependent things like holding someone's hand and i have to reimagine the whole layout of the scene based on where i think the injury is and i don't know if it's better or worse when the position is eventually described in a later chapter. am i happy that i now know how to properly imagine things or am i annoyed because i guessed wrong and everything i imagined previously was wrong

[@comradewindowsill4253]

I'm very glad I don't imagine things visually, if that's the sort of issues you get with it

[@Lilian040210]

Oh! This is such a problem both published and ff! In books it's when the author decides to starts describing someone halfway through a story, in ff it's (horny warning) sex scenes that either don't have enough detail and I have to stumble and reimagine the whole sequence from scratch when the author does specify something, or when it's straight up impossible physically/geometrically

[@Lilian040210]

​@@comradewindowsill4253wdym you don't imagine things visually? What else do you do with it???

[@Molybdenum-Shake]

my biggest pet peeve is breathe/breath getting mixed up. “she couldn’t breath” “his breathe was cold”

[@Ozloz]

I was never bothered by the “voice lowering several octaves” because I always viewed it as hyperbole, just meaning “their voice lowered a lot”, but I have a bad feeling that it will bother me from here on out, cause now all I can imagine is someone’s voice *actually* doing that and I cannot take any scene seriously like that

[@thoriummothman]

i don't even read fanfiction, i just like to know how some people think

[@fffffff575]

same tbh

[@treesgrowuphigh]

I only read very specific fics so I can't even think of any icks and I still wanted to watch this video and nore

[@squid-123]

i like knowing how to improve my writing :]

[@BJGvideos]

I bet you read more fanfiction than you know!

[@genericname2747]

Me

[@DragonbornCanid]

not just in fanfiction, but other forms of media too: adrenaline somehow being a sort of superpower. yes, it CAN make you feel pain less/not at all for a short amount of time, BUT it can also make you feel MORE pain than you should! :'D -sincerely, someone with a chronic pain condition caused by just that... (yes i know its more complicated than that, pls dont come for me i am already in pain /lh 🙏)

[@saphirestorm7952]

You'd like Abigail from Dead By Daylight, all her adrenaline ability does is make her faster when the exit door is open because she's extremely close to not being killed and just has to go through a gate to survive

[@alicepersson9568]

i am very sorry, but that end note got me. thats such a funny sentence. am gonna use that next time someone critiques me (as someone with a real bad sensitive stomach thing).

[@helIooooooooooooo]

adrenaline doesn’t even give me superpowers I just get dizzy then throw up 😔

[@swivel3413]

When reading a "reader insert" story, aka Y/N in place of any other character, and their description gets a full "their brown/blue/black/green/hazel eyes shimmered in the light" and not just e/c (eye color) Same thing with hair color and ive seen it with height and body type also. If youre writing a Y/N story, you should probably know the abbreviations for descriptions.

[@AlexHoppus]

In one of the fandoms I’m in, people say “xyz/reader” and then it’s fully just their OC. Just say “xyz/original character” please.

[@saturnas]

I feel you, but I lowkey hate the abbreviations 😂 I mean, it's perfectly possible to write without describing most of these aspects like eye/hair color.

[@serenegenerally]

oh yeah I hate that too

[@Rae0814]

It’s so annoying when they tag an OC insert as a reader insert. I’m not here for an oc insert and it automatically makes me lose interest in the oc.

[@swivel3413]

@@saturnas That too!! I've seen it done before and your mind just fills in all the details without the prewritten description, and becomes so easy to read. Its honestly just such a hassle to understand, when you have to pick out of the sentence which one matches with your own description. Really pulls me out as a reader.

[@fluffystuff500]

3:38 Out of character pet names really bother me. I don't even necessarily hate the words, but some writers have every character call every other character "babe" or "baby" or some variation of that, and there are a lot of times where one of those characters only speaks in extremely flowery and verbose ways and would NEVER use a modern slang pet name like "babe" instead of something like "my dearest" or "darling." It goes the other way, too, sometimes, when the author wants the character to be more romantic than they are in canon, but usually it's the babe thing.

[@SheetGhostWithBones]

This with Hannibal fics

[@mintytrash]

Exactly. Like every time I read a fic where, say, Nagito Komaeda, says "babe"? An eyebrow raises. If it happens again in a short time span, I drop. I'm sorry but like 90% of my favorite characters wouldn't say babe. Hell like half of em probably wouldn't use pet names at all!

[@Hewasnumber1]

Or when they make characters use pet names when they just wouldn't. At all.

[@saphirestorm7952]

I saw this once with Rook Hunt and never recovered, he has these huge elaborate French nicknames for everyone and someone's story just had him call someone "babe"

[@thou_narsty_gremlin]

same same! Also with chinese names of endearment like bao bei, ge ge, qing ai de, etc, even if it's used in real life it just feels so out of place for the characters if that's the ONLY time mandarin is incorporated xDDD (also cuz,, normally people use a special and personalized nickname for their s/o or loved ones, rather than a vague but extremely intimate pet name)

[@fandomsnake]

Mine is specifically for crossovers. When you take away one of the main aspects of a character, just to be able to put them in another universe. Sometimes it could make sense, but it is when you change something significant that irks me. For instance, if you're going to put Hannibal Lector in a fic and take away his cannibalism, then you aren't writing Hannibal Lector

[@mirilovesyou2518]

That being said, consider putting Hannibal Lecter as a whole in Tokyo Ghoul

[@fandomsnake]

@mirilovesyou2518 oh, now I need to search that up. If there's no fics for that, I'm making one

[@saphirestorm7952]

Okay but what if Hannibal Lector's cannibalism is removed because the universe he's moving to doesn't have humans? It's not cannibalism if he's not eating a human

[@fandomsnake]

@saphirestorm7952 okay, you raise a fair point, I'll give you that 🤣

[@shuizaffre]

Honestly yeah same. This is part of why I don’t like most AUs. Like taking important aspects of a character just to fit them in a universe usually always bothers me. Especially in things like modern AUs and fantasy AUs.

[@terroroftech]

10:00 i use 'woah' over 'whoa' because it visually makes more sense to me and processes better in my head. i don't care for when i'm reading, but when i write it just makes more sense to me haha

[@orangejuice782]

woah looks a lot more like a variant of wow than whoa does. the spelling of words changes over time all the time, so maybe someday the nitpicker will learn to adjust. perhaps once they find out that the word "an apron" used to be spelled as "a napron"

[@idontneedachannelthanksyou7292]

Whoa and woah are just two valid spellings of the same word for me. Like shop vs shoppe.

[@sokokokoko]

I didn't even remember whoa was an option until I saw u typed that out

[@ViridianForests]

I figure they're pronounced in subtly different ways. "Woah" actually having a 'hhh' sound at the end and "Whoa" just sounding like "wo". I personally write the word as "Whoah" since I never realized this wasn't also a popular spelling hahah

[@storytellernegative1]

I use it depending on which is relevant. I have more modern or sci fi characters use "Woah" because thats how I see it, but I tend to read "Whoa" so my stuff for history or fantasy have "Whoa" instead of "Woah". It actually helped with one of my time travel pieces in identifying who came from when and allowed observant readers (that dont exist because I havent shared it) to realize 2 other characters were time travelling.

[@BixyRandom]

One time I read a one-shot where there was like 8 line breaks between each paragraph, and usually only 1-3 sentences per paragraph, and it really bothered me

[@BixyRandom]

Also religion makes me uncomfortable, especially if it’s at the note saying smth like “god loves you”

[@thiefvanblu1501]

Right? That's one (of several) reasons why whenever I'm posting on AO3 I make it a point to format in plain text instead of rich text; which automatically double spaces all lines like it's a formal paper if you're copy-pasting text from a separate file. It's super annoying. Yes plain text doesn't allow bold, underlined or italics for your font choices but there are work-arounds for that. If I have a noteworthy gap between paragraphs, I want it to be indicative of an awkward pause or a moment for the audience to take a breath and consider the implications in the wake of some heavy revelation IN-story, versus a formatting quirk.

[@forsetimaster0689]

I've read quite a few one-shot compilation fanfictions, and by far my biggest pet peeve with some of them is their inability to tell you what each chapter is about. I hate having to skim through each chapter because they weren't labeled just to find the one pairing I'm reading the story for, and the problem gets way worse when the compilation includes stories with OCs or other fandoms I'm not a part of.

[@TheBritishDragong]

THANK YOU, I hate this so much. Especially when it’s a multifandom oneshot book, and they don’t even specify what FANDOM each oneshot is for. This is why I don’t write or read oneshot books anymore.

[@forsetimaster0689]

@TheBritishDragongPreach. It's such a shame, too, since one shots are some of my favorite fanfictions due to not requiring a ton of time to get into.

[@storytellernegative1]

I misread what you were complaining about and was like "I aint giving you a damn summary, there are plot twists and secrets for teh story being revealed that I cant just-" **rereads comment** "Oh... one shots, not full story chapters... right"

[@Konoshy]

I really applaud the authors that also have this nitpick or are aware of it and either make a table of context as their first chapter or label each chapter well enough that the built in table of context feature on a site is usable to jump to what their reader is looking for. I've seen a few of these and are especially thankful for them when trying to avoid/find certain kinks in smut compilations.

[@jaymartin505]

Yes! This! And it's very easy to fix too! Just put the fandom or ship tag either in the chapter line or at the top of the fic

[@ivanhunter6492]

When a character are written as Out of Character

[@dewmilk17]

At that point just make an oc

[@Furbtastic817]

unless its an au i hate when a character says/dose something they would NEVER do in cannon

[@percyyval]

i can see why people hate this, personally i only hate it if someone says "characters ARE in character" or "tried to keep it in character" and they arent at all in character lol

[@batteryaciddrinker1697]

I don’t feel like this one is all that specific. I doubt most people would prefer characters to be out of character. People tend to notice when characters are acting differently than usual.

[@lindapenttinen3382]

Me. No matter how I try I end up making character out of character. That's why I specialize in au-stories

[@Lexthefazworker]

There was a fic I read that was so deathly terrifed of actually saying the name of the character multiple times, so they would use various descriptions. I get not wanting to sound repetitive, but I could hardly stand continuously reading “the brown haired boy” or “the excited tween” when talking about the PROTAGONIST!

[@ranting2damax]

“that man” from Ace Attorney Miles Edgeworth investigations.

[@wildbirbs9797]

Even worse when they only use hair colour description and they spam that

[@raelogan]

There was some Sonic light smut ((very light, I'm talking Lime on the Citrus Scale)) I found as a teen once that just kept saying "the black hedgehog" for every part describing him. Just say Shadow, oh my God.

[@BingQilin]

There was a Yuri on ice fic I read that kept on referring to Yuuri as "the raven haired boy" until it eventually devolved into "the raven" and I couldn't finish it without constantly thinking about Edgar Allen Poe

[@yabber-dabber-doo]

​@@BingQilin Quoth the Yuri,

[@thenightranger987]

This is about creepypasta, not fanfiction, but it just came to mind because it happens all the time. Every story seems to end with “Needless to say, X Character never went to X Place (or did X Thing) ever again” and it’s such a stupid and toothless way to end a horror story.

[@thou_narsty_gremlin]

Oh that's normally how I end goofy anecdotes and stupid shennanagins, I've never seen that in a creepypasta, for some reason that categorical whiplash just amuses me so much

[@vanillaextract4135]

Ah, yeah, kinda kills the tension. On a similar note it bugs me when summaries of any kind of work are along the lines “Will [main character] be able to [goal], or will [insert bad outcome]? Will [ship] get together? Read to find out!”

[@Josue_S_6411]

Speaking about creepypastas. I remember when I used to read a creepypasta wiki. One thing that seriously annoyed me was when the creepypasta was in first person, as if written by the protagonist, but then it suddenly changes to being narrated by someone from the police finding te body of the original narrator, with it being all but stated that they commited sue side (censored because KZbin is dumb) with no indication to how the story got even published at all.

[@Devulini]

yep

[@AnthanKrufix]

It's the "And they all lived happily ever after" of horror stories

[@puredemon5926]

When you use videos like these to learn and make your writing/fanfic writing better. For me, using the word sneer if it's out of character. Like I just can't picture Harry Potter _sneering._ He'd glare or frown. Draco though, Draco would probably sneer.

[@sociallyawkwardbutterfly9764]

Draco would definitely sneer

[@soluna4784]

He does

[@puredemon5926]

@ Which one?

[@AManwithaB0x]

8:00 There's a specific reason I feel this is prevalent... localization. There are way too many US-release manga where the translators felt their readers wouldn't know what a "yen" is and so converted everything to dollars despite the fact it's a Japanese-written story set in a Japanese location with Japanese characters. Same with replacing metric with imperial units (feet and inches rather than centimeters and pounds over kilograms). The Komi Can't Communicate manga was *terrible* with this.

[@grammy_hnng]

the Komi manga was terrible in so many ways and i cant believe i never noticed this was one of them... now i can never unsee this :(

[@storytellernegative1]

why do so many Isekai translate gold to yen 1:1 or have some kidn of direct exchange as though they have the same needs we do? on that note, i am writing a thing where a character is goign to try and do that and fail miserably since a sword will cost SIGNIFICANTLY MORE AND BREAD SIGNIFCANTLY MORE than they thought but wild plants and stuff arent worth quite as much as they hoped. as for the imperial units, one character is going to do that, and thats because they wont get used to the in world units of measurement (there are 4 of them based on the 4 major areas) and it will get them in trouble often.

[@electricangel1001]

I feel like this can be good if the author writes it like “1000 yen ($10 usd)

[@Liggliluff]

As a European person who tried to watch anime in Japanese with subtitles ... I have to go through the subtitles and search for Imperial units, try to figure out what the original units were and fix the subtitles. Same thing when they replace actual ages with which year they go to in the US school system. I have to convert these subtitles from being very US-centric to be more international. This thing doesn't happen often, but it has happened.

[@x_st4rburst_x]

The rouge vs rogue thing happens all the time in the X-Men fandom I see it too much 😭

[@icecreamchats]

Same in the moulin rouge fandom 😭

[@saturnas]

I'm not even in the x men fandom and i feel this. my nitpick is messed up characters names.

[@orangetreestudiosII]

It happens a lot in the Warrior Cats fandom too

[@LakituAl]

Happens in the Sonic fandom too.

[@Im-at-yo-door]

Same in Warriors 😭

[@fabianzimmermann5495]

When character's always roar, instead of yell. They don't yell at someone, they roar at someone. Even worse when the character that does this is a kid.

[@WellThinkOfATitle]

have you read My Immortal

[@WellThinkOfATitle]

«"yeah!" i roared.» - tara "my immortal" gilesbie

[@Im-at-yo-door]

I feel like roar should be used for a large group, like “‘Yeah!’ The crowd *roared* as he shot another goal.” Or something like that.

[@az1202]

@WellThinkOfATitle "Thou must kill Vampire Potter!"

[@saphirestorm7952]

I get when they're an animal that roars but otherwise that sounds confusing, like how my oc Gesi would be described as roaring alot because he's a lion beastman yet my oc Rovdyr who's a tiger shark merman wouldn't ever be described as roaring

[@feuerling]

3:07 Solution: one character has allergies, and the other has a chronic sinus infection, so neither can properly breathe through their nose.

[@SeveralGnomes]

Another solution: Both of them are bad at kissing.

[@Taekaleaf]

Alternative solution: one character has athsma. I don't know how it works but I have athsma and I am the mouthiest mouthbreather to ever mouth Alternate alternative solution: they're trying to act out their favourite fanfiction, but failing

[@genericname2747]

Other solution: Their noses got stolen by the nose stealing wizard

[@denkisupremacy]

​@@genericname2747Furthher solution (building on this): one of them is Voldemort?

[@genericname2747]

@@denkisupremacy brilliant

[@ooof4989]

biologically impossible things. Common with Tim Drake (DCU) fics. Honest to god seen fics where he apparently didn’t sleep a single full night for 8 months (which I get, he’d still be absolutely awful but a “full night” is vague enough) but then ALSO not sleep at all for at least a week or something. Or not sleeping for two months, go to work during the day as a CEO, not eat for a week, drink only coffee, train and go do vigilante stuff. Congrats! He’d be dead! Even if not because of those habits but enough sleep deprivation makes you nauseous, you’d have a headache, you’d feel delirious and could likely not string together a single sentence. Not with two months without sleep. And daily exercise for like 8h. Either an accident happens or he’d just pass out?? Stumble around?? Yeah you can push your body but damn, this is a 17 year old usually. He’d be dead!!

[@ceciliaalves4945]

omg so true, i can imagine no problems 48 hours but more than that is too much, or making him not have a spleen and that not being a problem and him eating tons of fast food and not getting sick even after something that a healthy person would absolutely be bedridden for

[@michdie1046]

Fr I’ve struggled with chronic insomnia so I know you can do about two or three days without sleep and you’ll want to actually die. I always shake my head and chuckle when I read it in a fic like bro you’d be dead already

[@ooof4989]

​@@ceciliaalves4945yeah exactly! I get that comics are also unrealistic with how much a body can actually deal with but a lot of times fics try to be realistic and then Tim basically turns immortal with what he can survive

[@ooof4989]

​@@michdie1046Same here! Like yeah, a few days I can get. Maybe even a week or two if they say he only slept a couple of hours every night - but he would still feel like shit?? And he'd still maybe fall asleep during the day or look like he is about to

[@comradewindowsill4253]

i wonder if the writer has ever skipped a night of sleep before.

[@tineboes2726]

I once stopped reading a fic where an abused child was adopted by another character because ‘this is not trauma-informed parenting. This author has no idea how such treatment would actually pan out. Why are they portraying this is the right thing to do in this situation?!’

[@nevergonnagiveyouup1180]

I’m confused on what you mean by this. I’m just kind of stupid that’s all it’s not because you worded it wrong But are you saying the kid being adopted by another character was the bad thing? I’m not like disagreeing or trying to be condescending I just am confused on what you mean. Sorry

[@sylvie5208]

@@nevergonnagiveyouup1180I think they’re saying that the way the other character is parenting is a poor example, not that traumatized character got adopted.

[@tineboes2726]

@ it’s fine, I might not have explained it properly. The adoption was not the problem, in fact I’d been looking for fics like that. However the way the adopted parent treated the kid was not the prescribed way of treating a traumatised child. He was sarcastic, overly-strict, and forced him to recount and relive his trauma in a not-nice way, let’s just say. And all of this was very much treated as the right thing to do. If there was a conflict, it was always the child’s fault. He needed ‘a stern upbringing’. It was those kinds of things.

[@varia2354]

@tineboes2726 Yeah… fuck no. Agreed.

[@rossjones8656]

​@tineboes2726 Who wrote that?

[@AmphibianWitch]

I have never heard anyone say "brava" in my entire life outside of media from the States. In my spanish speaking country no one says that, nor would I say it, because saying "bravo" is like a cheer, it's not meant to be a descriptor for the person in question. It's like saying "olé" or "viva".

[@BJGvideos]

From the States, really? We don't even really say it here!

[@ayoshi5616]

This! I’m from Brazil and I always saw it this way as well. It felt so weird when I heard brava for the first time. But maybe the word was borrowed into English in a different way? ​@@BJGvideos it’s not often, but I also only heard in videos in English. Can’t remember if they’re all American though

[@rainpooper7088]

I've ordered patatas bravas before if that helps lol

[@rmb6037]

It's an Italian phrase

[@arrow_of_ravenclaw5155]

No paragraphs between a new character speaking

[@queenofqueen-4598]

Such a peeve for me, plus starting a new paragraph between speaking characters is basic grammar and writing!

[@storytellernegative1]

I didnt think about that, but I do hate that and I always seperate mine in a way that makes sense to me: 1. new characters speakign get a new paragraph. 2. tags can come before and after, or inbetween spoken dialogue for a character, not both. 3. characters get 1 paragraph to speak and cannot have the following paragraph UNLESS it is a speech or in character monologue such as exposition or recapping what has happened in their own words, in which they get 3-5 sentences (depending on length) and do not get a closing quotation until the final line. The first paragraph must also have a tag that indicates that they are about to talk a LOT with no tags further UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECISSARY (such as picking up or writing something new, like a map or something else) 4. cutting off a character should have the next dialogue cutting them off unless who or what is cutting them off is more important than what is being said, IE "I went to the market-" A lound bang silenced him, his executioner speaking next. OR "But he held it up to my-" Constance then spoke over Terrance, drowning out his words further. What did the executioner say? what was constance saying? not as important as that. Dialogue is very hard to read if you dont make it clear who is speaking, so I do my best to make it make sense like this.

[@Fluff_Noodles]

​@@storytellernegative1 saving this to show my friends how I write

[@UndeadCriptid]

I get to privilege of editing my friend's writing and they do this so much. Half of my edits are just reformatting everything

[@JustaRandomIdk]

THIS. It makes my brain short circuit for a second, I mean I can get by it, but it's still weird for me...

[@salemtargaryen123]

11:26 to be fair, sometimes when cutting off words you have to leave certain letters there to keep the word recognizable, even if you normally wouldn't stop at that point. I've had to do this before, where I had to cut off a word mid-syllable because if I left it longer, it would have just been the entire word, and if I left it shorter, you would have no idea what word it was meant to be. It sucks but sometimes you gotta sacrifice some realism for the sake of comprehension lol

[@Taekaleaf]

Isn't it more realistic that way? When someone is being cut off, the thing doing so isn't going to wait for them to finish.

[@salemtargaryen123]

@Taekaleaf I mean yes but you still want the reader to know what they would have said

[@HarmonyMoonbeam024]

That is so true 😭 I try to be really good about that and rework sentences around to where they don’t have that problem, but sometimes I gotta make that sacrifice ;w;

[@Liggliluff]

This is the problem with English. Just a letter at the end can change the pronunciation. 'no' and 'know' sound the same, but not 'now'. This also makes karaoke annoying, when the first note is "li-" and is pronounced differently if finished with "fe" or "ft".

[@whizzerbrown1349]

The op saying that ‘no monosyllabic words can be cut off’ bothered me a bit too, lol. For a bunch of complicated reasons (v. assimilation, artic. anticipation, etc), there are virtually no limits to where a word can be audibly cut off. Eg.) “Cat”, when spoken, can be pronounced as “cat̚-“ /kæːt̚/ (where the ‘t’ is unreleased but still articulated in the onset). This is distinct from just saying ‘ca’, but doesn’t complete the ‘t’ sound in “cat”. A very similar thing would we found in the “specifical-“ example: even though ‘l’ is more complicated than a plosive (ie. ‘b’, ‘p’, ‘t’, ‘g’), the final ‘a’ vowel would slide into the ‘l’ in anticipation, even if the ‘l’ was not properly pronounced. Someone could very plausibly cut the word off there and it wouldn’t be any more unusual than any other place. Op was just talking goofy.

[@deinoniko]

The y/n is such an interesting one. I'm Brazilian, so I grew up with interactive fanfictions that you actually had pop-ups before the fic to insert your name and other stuff, so when you read the story, your name was actually there. I see that that's not possible with most fanfiction websites, but it's interesting to see.

[@saturnas]

As a fellow brazilian, i only have two words to say: fanfic obssession 😂

[@Konoshy]

I wish this was a thing. Back when I first started reading fanfic and still enjoyed reading y/n fics, if I found one I really liked I would copy the text from the fics into a word document on my computer then do a find and replace for where the abbreviations were used and add the ones that I wanted to use for my character before reading the fic. Now-a-days I just mainly stick to OC fics if I'm not reading a canon character only fic since the abbreviations now take me out of enjoying a fic.

[@nyanko318]

People using bemused as a synonym for amused. Bemused is a synonym for *confused* not amused.

[@MouseBolts]

When reading X readers it kinda peeves me when they describe Y/N. I already know what I look like, and so do most readers. You don’t need to painstakingly write “Their e/c eyes sparkled as their h/c hair flowed in the wind, the sunlight dancing off their s/c skin” when you can just say “their eyes sparkled, their he air flowed in the wind, the sunlight danced off their skin” Also, I HATE first-person X readers, because obviously they’re gonna mischaracterize me and my thought process and it’ll just be annoying. I only third or second person fics.

[@SeveralGnomes]

Every time I read about how the reader-character's hair was done to a beautiful braid or something, I just sit there with my buzz cut like "...uh-huh?". Tbf I never imagine myself in those fics, but it still takes one out of the story when the image of the character suddenly changes. 😂 It's so easy not to describe those things! Leave them up to imagination!

[@Ozzerz]

I despise when y/n fics are gendered and oddly specific, i thought this character x reader fic was supposed to be for anyone!! I’m a guy!!!! Stop describing me with an hourglass shaped body and long blonde hair!‼️‼️

[@Lilian040210]

​@@OzzerzI read one reader fic because my ho is not the most popular and I desperate for something, and author said "not gendered" only to have the character call you "good boy" halfway through. Bitch had one job. Also no way that ho touched a man in her life that shrivelled me so much

[@Rando_person22]

​@@Ozzerz real!! Like I'm not small or petite or "easy to break"?? How hard is it to tag your fics with fem reader or [insert appearance thing] reader 😭

[@Scalesthelizardwizard]

@@Ozzerz Agreed you should at least make it clear what gender the reader is

[@SpleenMuncher71]

11:33 in a similar vein to this, when authors write stutters but the combination of letters makes the wrong sound. For example I'll use the word "things" ☹️: "T- t- things" 🥳: Th- th- things" This annoys me as someone with a stutter, and I actually see it a lot in published works not only fan fictions. Like in IT by Stephen King, the main character, Bill, has a stutter but his stutter comes off as really unnatural If the reader reads it phonetically.

[@silly_dood_ART]

EXACTLY THIS- my brother stutters a lot and it made me realize how many people write them wrong so it really annoys me

[@HarmonyMoonbeam024]

THIS! It always made no sense to me when stutters were written like that. Like- if you just analyze how speech works for more than 2 seconds, you will realize that ‘t-t-this’ does not would not sound like how it should 😭

[@ellytucker3134]

When characters cry like every chapter, expect when it’s a character that doesn’t cry that often. To me, crying is something impactful and if every chapter the same person cries it loses its for me. Kid fics are like the only explanation to this and it has to be a will written fic .

[@BJGvideos]

Some people do cry that often though, so it's all indivdual

[@ran8601]

Actually. Yes. Goro *would* have a Pancake name because Futaba exists. Futaba is a hacker. She can do whatever she wants with Akechi's name. The man killed her mother. Akechi would try to change it back, but he quickly learns there is no stopping her. The second he tries to change it back, Futaba swoops in and changes it.

[@azter404]

oh i love this actually you’re so correct!!

[@MerzyHasAnOrange]

It's a small peeve of mine when someone uses a word not often used for speaking multiple times. I mean, I want to know how they're speaking - loudly, softly, sharply, gently. One fic kept using chirped, though, and it didn't sit right. I kept imagining them as birds

[@MikToast]

i mean, when im at work (at a bakery) and i have to yell at customers from across a cake case, over the sound of the oven, my voice sound very "chirpy," or not dissimilar to the yip-yapping of ankle-biter dogs

[@squid-123]

i use chirped if it’s something that’s quickly said like banter or a quick-witted insult. i’m sure there’s a better word out there but i haven’t found it yet

[@PatchyDragon]

As someone who typically writes anthropomorphic animals, I'm guilty of this for entirely different reasons.

[@Ozzerz]

As a person who writes and role-plays with creature or creature-like characters, i have quite a lot of bird men, but “chirped” is something i use *very* rarely. Most of my bird men are owls, vultures, and hawks; They don’t often chirp.

[@PatchyDragon]

@@Ozzerz Wow I hadn't even thought of having vulture characters before! That sounds super cool. One of my primary characters is a furred dragon though, who is vocally a cross between a fennec fox and a songbird. On top of that, she's a very small, cheerful, excitable thing, so she tends to chirp a lot. And warble, squeak, chirrup, trill, purr, and occasionally does a peafowl-like honk when startled.

[@BonePottery]

I was reading a fic that had some crazy characterization choices to begin with, but then they called shadow the hedgehog a “hedgie” in dead. seriousness. Like they would say “the ebony hedgie looked on in horror” or something like that and EVERY. TIME they did i would have a visceral cringe wave assault me from every imaginable angle. like. what? What? it sealed the deal whenever they used the dreaded orbs line in combination with “the colbalt hedgie” i clicked off and regretted the hour i had fought my better instincts to get the hell out of there

[@saturnas]

Same energy as "dark orbs of sight" 😂 such lines only work as satire

[@BonePottery]

@ quite literally because how am i supposed to carry on reading when ive been so thouroughly SMACKED in the face with these types of sentences

[@tinfoilslacks3750]

Sonic and Shadow don't even have orbs. They have one giant ski mask looking eye with two pupils lol

[@BonePottery]

@ as if it wasnt bad enough they pulled that line ur literally right

[@duckcatthequrugosk5504]

THIS MADE ME LAUGH SO HARD

[@vanillaextract4135]

Disagree on the kissing thing - having your face pressed up that close against another person’s for any length of time DOES make breathing somewhat difficult, even through the nose, and sometimes one does need to pull back for a second to get a good, deep breath of fresh air. To the original question, though: There’s this one fanfiction series that I overall love, but the author has a habit of. Cutting off their sentences with a period in the middle (like that), seemingly to denote hesitation. I just… please just use an ellipsis. It is not a crime to use an ellipsis. A small thing, and to be fair that is a bit hypocritical bc I ALSO do the period in the middle of a sentence thing when casually texting sometimes, but I do feel like there are different rules in that scenario. Idk. Like I said I still like that author’s fics in general.

[@Konoshy]

I can completely understand the period nitpick. A period is like a stop sign while an ellipses is like a yield sign. One you come to a dead stop for and the other you slow down but eventually get back into.

[@aliciam6145]

I do the full stop in the middle of a sentence thing when texting and nowhere else. It's not a good habit to get into in writing prose when there's a perfectly good ellipsis right there...

[@HornAndHaloEntertainment]

According to around 2 minutes of googling, woah is a word. it's just an alternate spelling for whoa, but that doesn't make it incorrect in the slightest.

[@skylarjay3513]

Right I always learned to spell it 'woah' and to me 'whoa' is the one that looks wrong In this case it's like people arguing over Gray and Grey, or Color and Colour. They're all correct spellings, just from different places.

[@Lilian040210]

It's a noise, it's not a word and there's no correct spelling technically

[@TSR-gs1tj]

When the author bolds a certain part/paragraph and forgets to turn it off for the rest of the chapter😐

[@charleston1789]

Yes! Or italics - I’ve noticed this in a lot of fics. But AO3 has screwed up a couple of my fics’ format so it may not be on them

[@HarmonyMoonbeam024]

I hate when that happens when I go through and proofread everything to make sure it’s formatted correctly 😭

[@eeriemerles5694]

or when the whole fic is in bold and the things that should be bold aren't. Or italics for no reason?? Is this word meant to be emphasized? Why??

[@jacobbissey9311]

Lol, I used to hate "babe" as a pet name, then I got a girlfriend who really likes calling me "babe", especially in text messages, and it's cute when she does it for some reason, like I like the way the word sounds coming out of her mouth, but also the way she uses it in text, which leads me to the "elongating words wrong" nitpick, because she will type it as babeeeeeee, and I once asked her how that was intended to be pronounced, as "babyyyyy" or as "baaaaaabe" and it turns out it's the latter, but for some reason she says it feels more natural to hold down the e instead of the a when typing that for emphasis so she keeps doing it, and for some reason I find that cute. So anyway, I no longer have a problem with people using "babe" or "baby" as a pet name unless it comes off as out of character for some reason, but it used to bother me.

[@grammy_hnng]

thank you for flexing your gf on us, that was actually adorable and i wish you the best

[@jacobbissey9311]

@@grammy_hnng Thanks! And yeah, my GF really is a flex, she's awesome! Took me 27 years to find one, and I'm super glad she's the one I got, one of my greatest fears is having to go back into the dating pool for any reason, that's a real hellscape these days, so best of luck and god speed to anyone still in there!

[@vanillaextract4135]

That is adorable.

[@squid-123]

that’s actually so cutee! :3

[@erinyes3943]

I used to feel the same way about babe, and then for some reason I started calling my cat that, and after making it a habit to say it spread to my friends as well. Way too many babes in my life

[@cam9913]

My nitpick really is a nitpick and a hot take at the same time because like, I hate seeing exclamation mark being overused in fics. Sometimes, or once actually, is fine, especially when the characters are shouting or something but I feel like ! Just takes me out of the immersion the same way the capitalization did to that one person in the video. The dialogue isn't just a dialogue now, someone is shouting and taking me out of it.

[@charleston1789]

I’m with you.

[@queenofqueen-4598]

Agreed, but also when they’re using it as a description. Like if someone is describing something and goes “it was taller than any building she had ever seen!”, (crappy example but eh) I get peeved. Especially when they keep using it like that.

[@storytellernegative1]

I do it if the characters are texting or writing and beign little shits about it, like a teenager is of course going to write "SRSLY?!?!!?!!?!" or "NOOOO!!!!!!!", but when they speak? "Seriously?!" or "Nooo!", maybe "NOOO!" or "Nooo!!!" if they are going to hurt their voice doing it.

[@BaobhanloreArt]

Referring to characters as "the black haired man" or "blue eyed female" when we know their names just to avoid word repetition.

[@FizzieWebb]

The only times I do stuff like this is near the start of a fic, even if the PoV character knows who they are. I always think "What is that characters most noticeable physical trait?" and describe them as such until they speak. It's sort of my way of going "I'm acknowledging that they are here, but they aren't important to the scene (yet)."

[@DeltaDaspleto]

I do something similar quite a lot but that's because in school (german, austria specifcially) you're taught like word repition is the greatest sin known to man. (Maybe exaggerated but you catch my drift)

[@Ace-Of-Spades7712]

I'm guilty of doing this 😭 just sometimes I hate rewriting their names so many times where it's just a line of "Steve spoke" and it gets so badly repetitive for it I'm just looking for other words for the character but I think I draw the line when they start using the word "the younger man" or "the older woman" it feels more creepy doing that I can get behind "the raven haired man" and "the brunette" any day but when it comes to the younger older thing we have problems

[@Pipkiablo]

I've legit researched military ranks in different branches of the military for fanfic purposes before, so I knew about that 'no generals in the navy' thing, but now I'm tempted to have a character claim to be 'the General of the Navy' in order to break into a top secret government facility and then be shocked that it worked because the guy he tried it on was an idiot, or something.

[@Liggliluff]

Depends on the military. Kenya and Malawi do have generals in their navies. So you can absolutely have a general of the navy. Depends on the setting.

[@Pipkiablo]

@@Liggliluff I most likely would not have the story set in Kenya or Malawi, though. More likely it would be American since that's what I'm most familiar with.

[@Liggliluff]

@@Pipkiablo Of course not, but just informing that there are legitimate generals in navies, something that was ignored in the video.

[@WilliamTice]

I hate when the entire fic has center alignment

[@jogabd2785]

center alignment is DIABOLICAL

[@BonePottery]

oh my god i would turn into a worldwide supervillain

[@duckcatthequrugosk5504]

@@BonePottery same

[@thou_narsty_gremlin]

you just unlocked a vestigial instinct within me that I was not aware existed

[@michdie1046]

People do that? 😂 I could never

[@Out_Of_Spite]

I, as a non-native speaker, had some trouble getting the farther/further thing into my head, until I stumbled upon this meme: "Farther" is for physical distance, "further" is for metaphorical distance, and "father" is for emotional distance! And this is literally how I learned it.

[@BlindStarLily]

It’s not what I’d classify as a nitpick, more just something I’m forced to pay attention to. If you have a crutch word, I will know. I will pick it out, and that word will live in the back of my head until I recognize your new crutch word. This happens with my own writing, which is good since it means I can edit it, but it also happens with other people’s fics, which is not great. I distinctly remember the crutch word journey of my last binging sesh: first uncomprehending, then blithely, then finally languid, which was particularly bad because my girlfriend, who was reading to me at the time, picked up on it too. I long for the day that my brain can function like a reader instead of constantly being in writer mode-

[@alicethemad1613]

I’m terrified of you specifically because I always notice myself relying on certain words but can’t bring myself to change it because they fit so well in what I’ve already written.

[@liljatupsu]

For some reason as soon as I started reading Steven Universe fics I started noticing crutch descriptors. Entire chunks of centences that kept repeating in what was otherwise very well written fanfiction. It didn't take me out of the story, but it would remind me whose fic I was reading if I had multiple open at a time

[@queenofqueen-4598]

I’ll have a specific phrase or word for each new fic I write, and when I go back and edit, I’ll try to fix the overuse of that word/phrase

[@storytellernegative1]

I would love to have you find my crutch word because I am somewhat dyslexic and constantly reread my stuff to the point I dont know if I use stuff too often or too little.

[@BlindStarLily]

Maybe we could work something out :0 I actually do some editing stuff that I’d like to turn into a career, so if you want some metaphorical eyes on your work, I’d be happy to help :)

[@ehehrhjehrhrh]

my nitpick is when the author uses too many or not enough dots in an ellipsis (e.g. “What….. have you done?”) edit: to clarify, it’s not so bad i have to click off the fic if i see 2 or 57 dots instead of the usual 3 but it IS enough to make me pause for a little moment before continuing to read lol

[@MerzyHasAnOrange]

Every time I see .. or ......, a piece of my soul dies

[@KitnaMW]

Me who always uses four dots (even when I'm handwriting): am I in danger?

[@c0zmozys]

for me i do the too little but . but like ".." is a shorter pause than "..." for me and if i use "...." its a longer pause, but i dont use it rlly

[@BcyesandIsaidso]

@@KitnaMW Same 😭 It just looks so much better to me😞

[@wrightcember]

@@KitnaMWthe socially “correct” way to write ellipses is 3 dots, but if its not a formal or published piece 4 is fine

[@ThatOneKayna]

4:44 I feel like the entire Wings of Fire (book series) fandom has been gaslit into thinking Qibli's name is 'Quibli', 'Qiubli', or some variation of that.

[@honestlyali27]

haven't been in the wof fandom since elementary but this brought back sm 😨😨

[@wrightcember]

I say this and i will say this again. most fanfiction readers/writers need to read their source media more often LOL

[@PeriluneStar]

Lol literally

[@seguaye]

it’s not even that people didn’t read the books or something, it’s just you look at Qibli and have to decide how you’re gonna pronounce it in your head and there’s a good chance you’re way off. I think kee-blee now, but when i first read the books I thought it was kwib-lee

[@Icantchoosemyuser]

Ever time I saw that when I was in the fandom my blood boiled

[@toastiestfresh]

0:14 i use this all the time, but always mean it to be hyperbolic. i don't think the character is actually raising whole OCTAVES. i guess i never realized some people write/read it as literal

[@polrealfake]

I assume you are not musically inclined?

[@FizzieWebb]

​@@polrealfake They also just said they used it hyperbolically, or as an exaggeration.

[@yojojolovesyou]

@@polrealfake "always mean it to be hyperbolic"

[@summerheart9834]

I've always viewed it as hyperbolic, I didn't think that people would take it literally. Makes sense though, since I'm not musically inclined.

[@grimreaper7303]

A moment is actually a real unit of time. It's not used that way anymore, but it's about 90 seconds long.

[@Pystoria]

I dislike when magic is described as an "energy" when there's a better word for it. There was a fanfic where someone cast a wind spell and the author described it as "green energy," like what??? IT'S WIND???

[@storytellernegative1]

anime. anime is at fault for that one, since they took games and went "put that in the anime" "how do we describe it?" "english speakers dont matter!" meanwhile, the eng "its an energy that flows through you, and now the winds green energy can cut things" ITS MANA, WE AHVE A WORD FOR IT YOU FUCKS, USE IT.

[@pisces2569]

I’m mean technically wind is green energy. It’s a renewable resource

[@FizzieWebb]

This one I put up to being more a visual aid than anything else, unless a wind mage is doing nothing but summoning tornadoes and creating gale force winds, it's not really visually clear what they are doing, especially in a medium like say... comics or manga. Add on the idea that while gathering the mana, or ki, or whatever the energy in the universe of the story is called, the element added to it will change the colour in a way. "Ah you're charging a fire spell? Red Energy! Electricity? Yellow! Water? Blue! Wind? Green!" It's a visual shorthand and aid for the viewer/reader/player, and for purely written mediums, it gives the reader something to visualize. I can understand the frustration, for it, but also the reason it exists.

[@saturnas]

Aside from certain themes that should be tagged, I can't stand seeing the characters names wrongly written. I can recognize an accidental typo (like, if a character named suzy is called suzt once) but if it turns out to be too frequent, I quit the story without a doubt. Not related: these days i finally concluded a piece of work i had been stuck on for 5 YEARS and its so cursed and weirdly specific that i'd like to celebrate it getting its first kudos with you all ♡ yay

[@MerzyHasAnOrange]

Especially if it's from a book. You had the name in front of you for 600 pages 😭

[@saturnas]

​​@@MerzyHasAnOrange Or a long ahh manga/anime that got decades of printed and animated material going on. Come onnnn, how did you never see the name correctly written?

[@georged.5595]

Congrats on getting to the conclusion and the kudos. 👏

[@saturnas]

​@@georged.5595thanks!

[@storytellernegative1]

oh? what work, can I rea it?

[@birdontheinternet]

The interesting thing about fanfic is that it's a great study in why literature and professional writing is LITERARY and PROFESSIONAL. Not everyone can just sit down and write a bestseller, but a lot of people tend to trivialize writing as "just writing words" or "just telling a story" when it really is so much more than that Your favorite novel, or even your favorite movie based on a novel, would NEVER have gotten popular enough for you to have found it if the author was barely literate. Even the greatest story of all time isn't worth shit if it isn't told well.

[@gigi-f27]

when people shorten the name of a charact er to make it more "endearing" or wtvr and its the most brainless pet-namey way possible (like literally how you would nickname a pet). and then it becomes the nickname for that character that most of the fandom uses.

[@TheBritishDragong]

I did do this once, but I know people dislike it so I apologised in the author’s note because I just really wanted to 😭 no one’s ever mentioned it though, so I hope it hasn’t made anyone mad

[@storytellernegative1]

unless i have a reason for the nick name, i dont. for example, trying to describe a past version and the current version of a character without confusing the two of them in a way that would make sense for the reader ended up with me making the old versions (which were younger adn kinder) use nick names despite the original show not for 2 major reasons, previously stated and how certain characters interact making one that wasnt normall there change the others to having them (sort of), so they had nick names for their "young and niave" side and their names for their "older and cynical" side (it is a pun, if you know, you know). When they were young, I thought it would make sense, and show their closeness, then when they are older, they are quite hostile and very business like with eachother, so names and titles are used a bit more often.

[@thou_narsty_gremlin]

To combat this, let's all start incorrectly elongating the characters' names as an endearing pet name! (ex. say someone's name is Min? Ah yes, short for Minnesota. Or someone named Cam could be...Cambrian Period)

[@Konoshy]

​@thou_narsty_gremlin I know people who this happens to in real life. Their name is something that others consider a nickname and when people try to act condescending or "holier than thou" to they try to elongate the name to what they think it should be and will argue when told they are wrong and the short name is the person's true name.

[@cam4636]

Ughhh. Add this to the cultural mix-up mix, when someone nicknames a name they very clearly don't understand or picks a nickname that no one really would from that culture. I get it, how much of another culture are you going to understand especially when you're only studying it for a few lines of a fanfic, but come on

[@Sci0927]

9:59 nitpick to the nitpick: woah is usually concidered a variant of whoa, in the OED, at least

[@aceanarchy5554]

Oh this came perfectly in time for me discovering a brand new nitpick. The author of a fanfic I read, that was good and I did read the whole thing, repeatedly did "Oh my g-d" and "What the h-ll" instead of having the characters just say "oh my god" or "what the hell" or some other variant of it. It wasn't like a creature fic or something where the characters couldn't say that. It was a bit annoying, but the fic was good so it was forgivable

[@MyaKHamilton]

In my experience, this usually occurs because the writer is Jewish or is trying to be accurate in portraying a Jewish character. I have discovered that many religiously observant Jews abbreviate the words "God" and "hell" because they, as a matter of principle, do not want to write them. This was even true in the Bible itself, where God’s name was not used very much for this reason. I've noticed this even in fanfictions, but that's not necessarily the case here. I think I first noticed this in the Nanny and South Park FanFictions years ago. This can occur even when the writer is aware that other religions don't have this restriction; however, they still refuse to write it due to their own religious principles.

[@cactuspeach2517]

"g-d" is a common thing for observant jewish writers, there's laws about using the name of god that can be avoided with the abbreviation. No clue about "h-ll" though lol-- i'd have to assume it's unrelated because judaism doesn't really have a concept of hell

[@BJGvideos]

@@cactuspeach2517 Then use another word. That's why "gosh" was invented, yeah?

[@paisleepunk]

@@BJGvideos i get that, but there are some characters where saying "gosh" just does NOT sound right. (not a jew, just providing further context)

[@BJGvideos]

@@paisleepunk Then use some other exclamation

[@waffler-yz3gw]

8:25 the issue with this nitpick is that this is a genuine phenomenon. especially during tense video games, if i stay stilll for half a second it feels like i just stared at my screen for a solid 10 seconds doing nothing.

[@Konoshy]

I get this feeling all the time at work. Especially around 3pm for some strange reason.

[@comradewindowsill4253]

my first thought when i saw this was 'some people don't have adhd and it shows' like man i live my whole life in a state where time is completely subjective. there's entire months i don't remember, and sometimes 5 minutes is an hour, or an hour is 5 minutes.

[@PowerSpirit50]

I hate dancing being described in any way. I hate it every time, for some reason it's the cringiest thing. Also everyone taking scalding showers and baths, doesn't that just hurt?

[@arikira5492]

I am sorry to say that I'm guilty of the scalding shower thing in real life 😅 It does hurt, but it's also nice? It is absolutely a real thing though

[@wrightcember]

they HURT!!! i have chronic joint pain and take hot baths for some relief once a week or so, but if theyre too hot? it hurts more than it helps at that point!

[@PowerSpirit50]

@@arikira5492 If water is warm to a point that it feels like it's cold I just get concerned because that isn't right.

[@arikira5492]

@@PowerSpirit50 Oh yeah no, it definitely still feels hot, if they're describing it like that in fan fic that is a legit heath concern, like that character is probably melting lmfao

[@PowerSpirit50]

@arikira5492 No, but that's what I imagine scalding to be. I like warm water but I don't like pain.

[@AUCreatoer]

My nitpick is making a story with an OC in it (Ex; Oc in MHA, etc) and just, NOT changing anything of the story! Like, it'll still go the same way but just with an extra character in it and it quite pisses me off because, why make a story with your OC in it yet not do anything else but just copy paste the story? I might as well read the OG source material. I LOVE when OC insert stories change the flow of the story, it keeps me interested and the different dynamics are such a treat so when the OC doesn't do anything to affect the plot at all, it just makes me dissapointed (unless your point was that then nice! But most of the time, authors do this with the advertisment that it's supposed to be a change stuff story, yet nothing changes).

[@saturnas]

When I had a HxH phase I have no idea how many times did i read the exact same description of the hunter exam in stories where one OC was there, but nothing changed at all until that canon story arc ended 😂

[@supa_klo]

It's funny to me because that's how my very intense daydreams are. just my Oc being there but not changing anything in the story as a whole. I would never write that down but it's always amusing when I see such a fic because it's like "I do that too lol"

[@fizzydrinkuno]

Similar for me but my nitpick is when a fandom idea of a side character's backstory makes no sense canonically. As a Shinsou fan, can writers divert from the abused foster kid storyline, it actually irks me the amount of Shinsou centric fics is just the same plot but to the left. I get it, fans want Aizawa to be Shinsou's father but there are other ways to accomplish that than doing the same old, same old. It feels unnecessary and I would swipe by summaries when I see them. I just know there are other ways to write him angsty, but I'm done with this trope. It feels cheap at this point.

[@tsifirakiehl4250]

This! If the OC doesn’t add anything to the plot, what’s the point of having them there in the first place? If I wanted the exact same plot, I’d reread the original work. The canon story did everything it needed to with the characters it had. Adding more is just going to bog down the plot. If you’re going to add a new character, add something new to the story.

[@JustaRandomIdk]

Unrelated, but the character in your pfp is strangely familiar to me.🙏🏿

[@SofieCarmine]

These are my favorite videos to do anything to; paint, eat, clean, literally anything! Your voice; tumblr personified but in a good way :)

[@sunberryflower]

When the dialogue ends with the period after the quotations. Like "Hello".

[@unaestheticfrog11]

The difference between your majesty and your highness. I've seen it in published books too and it annoys me to death!

[@Liggliluff]

I've seen people point this out, and reference how it works with British royalty, and you should certainly get it right if it's based on the British royalty. But there's multiple royalties in our world with different cultures and standards, so it depends on what the royalty is and especially if it's fictional. Swedish has informal/formal pronouns, but our king does not care if you use informal pronouns. He's very laid back.

[@jabbathehutt2774]

Not so much a nit-pick since i dont read fan-fic, but a "rule" i follow when daydreaming to music is that my OCs generally speaking should lose. Like as fun as it is to imagine my OCs fighting batman or whatever, i should respect the fact that batman has much more history and combined appreciation than my idiot stoner with super powers is and therefore he should get his ass kicked, even if that idiot stoner is the chosen one and is op. Idk just the way i see characters.

[@storytellernegative1]

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I want to write a fanfiction about my OC being the MC and slowly coming to hate the OG MC, eventually get into a face off against the OG MC and lose fucking terribly because A. they are alone adn the OG MC is not and B. the themes of the original series AND this one require my OC MC to lose (and die, because I am a cruel god)

[@jabbathehutt2774]

@storytellernegative1 thats legit awesome! (And funny) Please do that. (I am also a cruel creator, that same idiot stoner I wrote canonically isn't aloud to stay dead so he can't refuse the call lmao.)

[@snorpington5910]

Cultural inaccuracies get me. No, catgirl655, draco malfoy wouldn't use kpop reaction images, he'd call you a slur and say his brother got access to his account

[@dungquoc8552]

Don't forget Japanese honorifics thrown around in fics for anime that aren't _set_ in Japan. Dude, Attack on Titan characters shouldn't be calling each other -chan and -kun.

[@MerzyHasAnOrange]

Whenever fics use pet names I always have to adjust, but...babygirl... No thank you

[@saturnas]

I cant stand pet names as a way of showing affection. Still, I understand the use when they're a bit demeaning.

[@ContinentalDummbrot]

I literally cannot count the amount of fics I closed because the characters would call eachother "babe"😭

[@bumbabees]

im an author that refuses to not use nicknames, regardless of relationship, regardless of fandom. i know it bothers some people but i cant help myself lmao.

[@georged.5595]

​@ContinentalDummbrot what's wrong with babe? Does it sound too condescending or demeaning to you? Or do you simply dislike its sound/look? Sorry I'm not from an English-speaking country so opinions like this are uncommon to hear.

[@liljatupsu]

@ContinentalDummbrot Once a Ninjago fic kept having the two robot characters who speak formally in canon say stuff like "Watcha doing babe?" and it hurt my soul

[@Mossy-Artist]

BLUENETTE BLUENETTE GRRRR I HATE BLUENETTE IF I SEE BLUENETTE ONE MORE TIME I’M EATING THE CHARACTER’S HAIR

[@BJGvideos]

What do you think it would be called in a setting where blue hair is natural?

[@yellowturtle14]

​@@BJGvideos"Bluehead" or "blue-haired" probably, like with redhead

[@BJGvideos]

@yellowturtle14 I guess the issue is we don't actually know, and "bluenette" seems as good a guess as any to me

[@OrionoftheStar]

Bashing, although that's a pretty common dislike, I think. Writing from the perspective that "everything 'wrong' with the series is because other people are stupid". The protagonist manages to solve major problems or point out how stupid things are, that somehow NO ONE ELSE (including people with superhuman intellect) ever came up with an answer to. Basically, when they write from the viewpoint that "this is wrong, how does this character fix it?", rather than "what aren't we seeing that makes this right?". This is specific to My Hero Academia fanfics, but when they call Mirko, "Miruko". Rumi's hero name is openly a duplicate of a historical Russian fighter's name. Yes, the Japanese use "Miruko", but that's only because it's a syllabic language and literally CAN'T spell the name without using letters from a different language. It's the best approximation they can do. It's like calling McDonald's "Makudonarudo", just because that's how it's written in Japan.

[@PatchyDragon]

The "Everything wrong with" one is something I find myself guilty of sometimes, but from a slightly backwards direction. Often times, I'll sit here with the stupidest sounding plot hole or game mechanic imaginable and be like "Okay, what could possibly explain why this actually works this way?" and try to fill the hole in.

[@OrionoftheStar]

@@PatchyDragon I actually like it when I see that. Yeah, there are plenty of things that are the result of people making stupid decisions, but I feel like it's better for a fanfic author to try to figure out "what would make this make sense?" than to just assume that everyone in the world is stupid.

[@fizzydrinkuno]

Names being written in lowercase. I don't care if it's a writing style, I will click off because I get so confused who's perspective is because everything blends in so badly.

[@kuzuboshisd]

Honestly, just general lowercase. I just can’t. It isn’t aesthetically pleasing to me at all, but do you know what is? CORRECT GRAMMAR, which lowercase isn’t.

[@fizzydrinkuno]

@@kuzuboshisd REAL

[@slytherinlady3907]

3:01 in the defense of this one, it probably has something to do with the adrenaline and heat and stuff. like if you run for a while you’re probably also gonna breathe through your mouth, despite the fact that you could have used your nose the whole time

[@Omnywrench]

One of my pet peeves in writing is when someone is writing a spoken word as being drawn-out like the character is speaking very slowly or holding a note while singing, but they add on too many of the wrong letter to stretch out the word. Like, for example, someone says "this is boring", and draws out the word "boring" for emphasis. You would naturally say "this is booooriiiiiing" instead of "this is bbbbbborinnnng", drawing out the vowel sound more often than not. For another example, compare someone singing the star-spangled banner like: "O'er the laaaand of the freeee" To: "O'er the landdddd of the fffffree" If you're writing drawn-out words like this, try actually speaking a drawn-out word out loud and listen to what syllable you hold on when speaking. On a side note, it also annoys me when people add way too many extra letters, especially if it's long enough to mess with the web page's formatting. It's so stuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuupiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid

[@moviemoment247]

The character ends up sounding like a DJ trying to hype up the crowd. 😂

[@storytellernegative1]

fun fact, when i draw out boring myself, it is the o and the n I draw out solely because I slur a lot, so my mouth is closer to the N than the I position. but how the hell do you draw out a B?

[@inkylynx2777]

@@storytellernegative1 (technical language-speak being used here) You can't draw out /b/! It's a plosive! You _could_ draw out a if it's a bilabial trill tho!

[@storytellernegative1]

@@inkylynx2777 neat

[@cam4636]

Mine's when they want to stretch out 'god,' as in 'oh my _god,'_ but they stretch the 'o'. Oh my good?

[@averageveno]

Similar to the rouge/rogue one: psychic and physic. I used to be in a murder mystery fandom where psychic was a role. Every damn fanfic called the psychic a 'physic' and it made me wither every time

[@tntrose7285]

If a psychic does stuff related to the mind, then a physic does stuff related to the body.

[@yellowturtle14]

I was guilty of this but only when playing Pokémon when I was like 5. I did get corrected pretty quick though lmao

[@undyingUmbrage413]

Something that bothers me so much is when I'm reading a ship fic with a perfect premise but then seemingly assigning the wrong personality traits to each character. Most recent was a Sonadow fic where Sonic got a super infected wound from poor first aid after a fight with Eggman, which he hid from his friends because he didn't want to worry them. I can buy that reasoning, sure. Then Shadow finds him after he loses consciousness because he's super sick, gets pissed and concerned and starts tending to the wound, and when he asks why Sonic didn't tell anyone about it, Sonic starts saying how he doesn't want to be a burden and keeps apologizing to Shadow for needing to be taken care of, and Shadow lectures him about how he's allowed to lean on his friends, and suddenly it feels so backwards? And that's not to say Sonic can't have insecurities or issues like that, but in my mind, he's the one who's able to trust and lean on his friends when he needs to, and Shadow is the one who's afraid to be vulnerable with people, hides his issues with others, and acts more self reliant to a potentially destructive degree. It made perfect sense to me for Sonic to not want to make his friends worry over something that wasn't a huge deal and then letting it snowball, but the sudden shift to borderline self loathing and insecurity about letting other people care for him, and Shadow of all people being the one to lecture him for that, really took me out of it.

[@QueenGreenflame]

Wait guys, the all-caps thing, how _would_ you rewrite, "AHH NO!" without using caps and have the same effect? I don't use all-caps for shouting words, mostly for short screams, but even then, I don't see how I could write it differently and still have it be tense and fast-paced

[@sparks5419]

Simple- you can say “[character] shrieked/screeched/screamed/cried out” and it reads perfectly well. If you add in an adjective (“cried out in terror”) it can actually enhance the sound :)

[@QueenGreenflame]

@@sparks5419 Oh yeah, I can see that working, though it still takes away from the snappy scenes, but you could probably fix that with context. Thanks for the tip!

[@sagetheidiotartist]

the voice octaves thing is so funny to me. It's hilarious to imagine saying "are you *serious*?" but actually going up in pitch THAT much. 😭

[@MerzyHasAnOrange]

For some reason I really don't like seeing characters text each other because I'm selfish and it never aligns with what I think they'd text like. What do you mean they use :( and ;)?? No they don't

[@voidcamel5981]

When someone Spells the word percent, as in a percentage, like per cent. As if it is a monetary value.

[@cam4636]

I mean...that's literally where the word comes from and is considered a valid spelling

[@comradewindowsill4253]

per cent is the original spelling. means 'out of 100'.

[@evagarcia865]

if I read one more hazbin hotel fanfic that consistently calls him “Alastair” I swear I’m going to fucking lose it

[@duckcatthequrugosk5504]

If I read one more that says "Nifty" I'm joining you

[@ShadowGunR]

Well now the image of Alastor as a staircase is stuck in my head for some reason

[@StainedGlassLamp]

The amount of people who spell Alastor's name wrong in general just... Help. Also "Velvet," instead of "Velvette," "Moxie," instead of "Moxxie," "Angle Dust," instead of "Angel Dust," I understand Velvette's the most though since in the pilot days it actually was spelt "Velvet," and not "Velvette,"

[@Ozzerz]

Good way to find out that the writer is probably too young to even be in the fandom. /hj

[@StainedGlassLamp]

@@Ozzerz Speaking of underage fans who shouldn't be watching these shows... Last year I was at a community Halloween Party cosplaying Alastor and literally EVERY single person who complimented my cosplay was underage. As in, less then 14. Only one appeared to be older then that, and they still weren't 18. Every single kid except that one I had to actually look down at and I'm only 5'2. It made me DEEPLY uncomfortable.

[@VelociraptorAnimations]

That "woah is me" part is the single best thing I'll read this year.

[@kokoro7996]

This video gave me some tips on what I should do/shouldn’t do when writing my own fics.

[@Radium_Alarie]

I've never read or written fanfic but I can't stop watching these videos, I don't know why

[@BJGvideos]

Oh I bet you have. A lot of literature is fanfic.

[@idkimbored279]

A moment is 90 seconds, by the way. When people used sundials, instead of seconds, they used moments

[@storytellernegative1]

huh, the more you know... *goes into my fantasy setting to add that little bit of information no one will ever know or care about since I dont know if anyone relevant will read my originals*

[@squid-123]

wowie thanks for this tidbit of info :D

[@cam4636]

I don't know enough about sundial law to be sure that's true, but whatever. Headcanon accepted

[@MarsoftheStars01]

A Y/N fic that doesn't have a gender tag but has characters using gendered terms. More broadly, any reader inserts because they either don't have a personality or have so much personality that they are just an oc and not relatable to the reader. I hate reader inserts 9/10 times. Another nitpick is just anything that's not tagged. I don't care if it's supposed to be a surprise, I don't want to suddenly be reading an mpreg fic out of nowhere. I want to know what to expect, generally. You don't even have to say which character is doing what, just that it happens to someone. That's what content warnings are for.

[@Konoshy]

I hate when a fic includes cheating but it's not tagged. I have specific feelings about that and don't want to get part way into a fic I am enjoying then BAM, cheating. Immediate exit from the fic.

[@rato_o6841]

5:21’s take is so funny to me, because I see it as the exact opposite. It irks me when a character needs to be screaming intensely and the sentence isn’t in all caps. How else am I supposed to feel the intensity of you words?! There’s a big difference between; “No! General, stand back!” And “NO! GENERAL, STAND BACK!” One of them is just so much more immediately urgent.

[@stellafanders]

That's what I thought! It's especially good if the character usually /doesn't/ scream

[@Mothman-185]

Can someone teach the people complaining about the jumping up/ lowering multiple octaves thing what comedic or even dramatic exaggeration is

[@Konoshy]

I can understand how that can be frustrating or off putting for someone who has proper context of what those words are supposed to mean. I myself am not musically inclined so I don't have frame of reference for octaves so my only context is the way it is used for meaning in fics and other media. It's like how once you get too much knowledge of the medical field or the justice system/law enforcement you either can't watch medical/crime shows do to the inaccuracies or find them the funniest thing ever for how wrong they are.

[@Mothman-185]

@@Konoshy I have played multiple instruments for many many years since I was a little kid and I’ve never been bothered.

[@Mothman-185]

@@mcowley895 How DARE all these people who have never played an instrument and also never will misuse the word octave?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? HOW DARE SOMEONE WHO DOESNT PLAY MUSIC NOT GET A MUSIC DEGREE TO WRITE A THROWAWAY COLLOQUIAL TURN OF PHRASE IN THEIR FANFICTION?!?!?!?!?!?!!??!!?????!!!

[@karenluo795]

​@@Mothman-185I'm literally getting a music degree and I would still say that. It's just hyperbole. No need to make a big deal out of it.

[@karenluo795]

And even if it's not, it's just an expression. Those don't have to make sense or be accurate. And I really don't care if some people have a mistaken idea of how much an octave is because of it