things I hate in stories.

Inspired by Amy's (little motorkitty;) list of things she hates in stories, I had a good think and remembered that the Things You Hate In Stories thread is my favourite thing ever and I love to read it because some of the things there are so damn hilarious.

Here's the thread, for anyone looking for a good giggle. So, my list would be as follows:

Arranged marriages.
Especially the kind set in modern day USA or UK. In Pennsylvania. I'll only ever read an arranged marriage story if it's set in a country that currently practices them, or did in the past, and the story is set during the time they were commonplace. Otherwise, no. I'm not going to read them. I enjoy accuracy and it's not a difficult thing to research.

Mental illnesses that are not elaborated upon.
As a soon-to-be psychology student and I've taken psychology classes, I know enough about several illnesses to know that if your character has schizophrenia, they are going to display symptoms. Even if it's only elaborated upon a little bit, mental illness can make or break a character. They can't be the character without their illness, as that defines most of their actions. But in many cases it's thrown in to make this character seem different, and it doesn't work.

Vampires. VAMPIRES. VAMPIRES.
Enough said. No thanks.

Stories that revolve around people of a reasonable age and there is no mention of schools, colleges, universities, or even just a job, but they have people living in this amazing house with iPhones and Macs and the most expensive car ever.

Basically above but with relatives. No mention of parents, brothers, sisters, at all.

Drug addictions with no consequences other than looking pale and gaunt for a few days and some vomiting. But of course that just makes the person look so much more beautiful. That's not how you'll be if you're snorting cocaine every night. You'll be a whole lot worse, and especially if it's an addiction, not a one-time thing at some party. Research drugs and what they do. Marijuana doesn't make you have a huge "RANDOM!!!" sugar rush - it might work as a stimulant for some, but not everyone.

"defiantly" instead of "definitely".

Names spelled in a different way, and not just as in Emilie instead of Emily or Michele instead of Michelle. I mean Emmahlee. Or Crysstyn instead of Kristen. Or Mihkaylah instead of Michaela. You know the sort. I don't mean names that can have various different spellings like Stephen or Steven or Stefan.

Romance. I'm bored of it.

Try-hard comedy: Every character is permanently hyper and screams about pink flying unicorns, has a random fear of shelves, it's normal to see aliens come to your door asking for gay Eskimos, you go back in time to the Land of Nukflukchukbuk to restore the Holy Wotsits to their leader but everyone there is screaming the lyrics to "Land Down Under". There's a difference between Monty Python and being just plain 'the fuck is this'.

Will perhaps add more as I discover it.