9 Pet Peeves About Writing (As An Author/Reader)

As an author/reader, there are some things that other authors do that I find ridiculous, redundant, pointless or just plain stupid. Some of these things I am guilty of (to an extent), so if you do some of these things, don't worry, you're not alone :)

1. No description: As a reader, I know that once I click on that story and there's no description to tell me what it's about, I'm not giving the story the time of day. Having something written there isn't enough. You can't have a description that says something along the lines of "I suck at descriptions, just read it"; that doesn't cut it for me. Your description is JUST as important as your writing. I judge your writing based off of your description. If there are grammar mistakes, spelling mistakes, or even a sentence that just doesn't flow, there's a 99.9% chance that I'm not reading your story and I can guarantee I'm not the only one. Bravo. You just lost several readers because you forgot that crucial step to being an author. Granted, not everyone reads descriptions, and that's just fine for them to skip over it. However, it's better to have something there than nothing at all.

2. Threatening not to update unless X number of comments received: What is this all about anyways? As an author, I write because I love to write. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE comments. They motivate me, make me feel like I'm actually writing something that's worth reading and even push me to make my writing better (in the rare case of someone giving me constructive criticism---people should do this more often). But the second an author tells me that they wont update unless I comment immediately makes me lose respect for them. SURE, I MIGHT still read their story (if it's good enough and/or already completed), but I'm DEFINITELY not commenting now. To me, an author gets comments when they have a good story. If they have written something that sparks so much emotion in someone that the reader just HAS to tell someone what they're thinking/feeling about it. If an author NEEDS comments to write something, they're not in it for the love of writing. They're in it for attention. And no one likes attention seekers.

3. Not following the Writing Guidelines: Nothing bothers me more than when I see a story written either in chat speak, with no punctuation, with noticeable grammar mistakes or...even worse than all of that combined (is there even such a thing?) when you don't put the correct spacing in your story. You'd be surprised how many people don't realize that writing online shouldn't look identical to how you'd read a book. Each person's dialogue is definitively separated. Each paragraph is definitively separated. Every time you hit that "enter" button, you should be hitting it TWICE.

For example;

This:
"But I love you Valerie! You don't understand!" His hand reached out to grab hold of Valerie, but she was too far away.
"I do understand Marcus. I love you too. I just...I can't be with you anymore." With that, her sobs burst forth and she ran from the building, never to see Marcus again.

Should look like this:
"But I love you Valerie! You don't understand!" His hand reached out to grab hold of Valerie, but she was too far away.

"I do understand Marcus. I love you too. I just...I can't be with you anymore." With that, her sobs burst forth and she ran from the building, never to see Marcus again.

4. More than one Point of View: This is more as a reader. I simply don't read stories like these. I understand that many people are better at/prefer to write in first person, and so when they want a reader to get the full view of multiple characters, this is especially difficult. Or when writing a story with a co-author in 1st person and you have multiple characters. The reason I don't like to read these kinds of stories (but have absolutely NO problem writing them) is because I tend to prefer one character over another. When have you ever read a story where there were TWO protagonists? There simply isn't. One character is bound to take the lead role in these kinds of stories. Besides, it's exhausting switching from one person's mind to another. I have a hard enough time with my own ;P

5. "Joint" stories: For some reason, I HATE when people call them "joint" stories. I prefer "shared" stories, or "co-written". There is no explanation behind this, I simply don't like it.

6. Insane layouts: If you can't read your ENTIRE story on the layout you've created, why do you expect us to? Sure, some of the colours look REALLY awesome together...for about a minute before my eyes can't handle the pressure anymore. The majority of the time I will click the "default layout" button on a story, even if your layout is perfectly acceptable to read or even gorgeous. I prefer to look like I'm researching things than sitting around reading something on the Internet (you get a lot of over-the-shoulder-readers if you do that). The point is, make a layout that people don't have to strain their eyes for. The insane pattern goes on as ONE background. The story content background better be one flat colour with a font that is readable and in a colour that you can see. Work on that.

7. Character pages: I use these....every once in awhile. I'm actually trying to not use them at all. I find that a lot of authors use the character page inadvertently so as not to describe the appearance/backstory of one or more of their characters. However, in a published novel, you don't have the luxury of having a character page or a background story page. Any author should get used to having to describe the appearance of their characters (something I CONSTANTLY forget to do). And if a background story is needed, you should write that into your story either as a prologue or manage to work it into the story in a subtle way. I mean subtle in the way that you DON'T have your character randomly tell a stranger (or even a close friend) their story. That's just you throwing it in there. And that's ridiculous.

8. Epilogues: I don't like epilogues. I have on occasion used them myself, however, I use epilogues in a different way than most. My epilogues do not take place 19 years later, 4 months later, 5 days later, or even 1 day later. To me, the climax of the story is the last chapter. The epilogue is what's happened after the climax; the clean up directly after the climax has happened. Having the climax and the denouement in the same chapter is too much for readers to handle. They need a break. Give it to them.

9. Preface vs. Prologue: People honestly don't know the difference between a preface and a prologue. They are two completely different things and there are quite a few authors who use them interchangeably (probably choosing whichever one they think sounds cooler--which is what I would do if I didn't know the difference). Do not worry. I know the difference and I will share my knowledge! :D A prologue is like the background story. What happened BEFORE you actually start your story. It's about the length that a normal chapter would be, but it describes the before events of the story. A preface is like foreshadowing. It is hinting at the events to come in the novel. Think of Twilight (yes, I went there). Stephenie Meyer has a preface and if you read it again (after you've completed reading the whole Twilight book) then you'll see the foreshadowing there. A preface is a really vague and uninformative chapter to spark intrigue in the reader to read further. It's very similar to what your description might look like if you're going the foreshadowing route (if you're going the descriptive route, then it's nothing like that). Don't have a prologue AND a preface. You can only have one. If you need a prologue, then sorry dollface, you can't have a catchy preface. Lucky for you, you have a description to write.

I probably have more pet peeves (since there is a large amount of things in writing that seem to bother me), I simply cannot think of them now. I hope this was informative, helpful (and not too discouraging) to you all. And remember these are simply things that bother ME. I'm sure there are people out there (probably you) that like one or more of the things that I mentioned bothered me. So don't be discouraged and happy writing!

Sunny-Lee <3