This topic came to me while reading MLMonty's Author Parody(Very funny and very true fanfic by the way and should be read by every aspiring fanfic writer.)

I think every author has an opinion on what should be avoided when writing. I know I certainly do. For me, I have developed a grasp on what and what not to do by learning from my own mistakes and observing others' mistakes.

For example, when I write I always try to avoid starting a sentence with 'It was', 'There was', or something similar. To me, that is weak sentence structure and in the end makes the writing less rich. In most cases, those words are not even needed in the sentence and would be better without.

I also have a rule when developing my characters. For every talent I give, I give a flaw as well. In that way, I can create a more realistic and relateable character. The last thing I want is a Mary-Sue.

Those are just some of the little things. I am wondering about all of you. What do you try to avoid when writing?

I often try to avoid repetition of the same word multiple times in a paragraph. I've gotten better at it, but sometimes old habits die hard. >.<

I try to avoid using too many adverbs (he sat rigidly on the floor, she was speaking harshly, he stared at her longingly). Basically you can identify adverbs by words that end in "ly". I think that most of them are unnecessary. I know I have read books on writing and have heard professors in classes past that it is a sign of flawed description.

I also look for words used incorrectly. Like cloths and clothes. Cloths are material that are used to make clothes that you wear. That is a pet peeve of mine. Bath and Bathe are also at the top of my list. You take a bath, or you go somewhere to bathe. You can talk about someone taking a lot of baths, but you always bathe. Breath and Breathe fall into this same category. You breathe by taking breaths. I find these kinds of mistakes in a lot of stories.

There is also the you're and your problem, the their, there, and they're issue, and the to, two, and too conundrum.

I really try to stay away from these problems, but everyone has them. Learning from constructive criticism is an important skill all writers, including those that write fanfiction, business correspondence, personal correspondence, and other types of professional and creative projects should try to master.

Everyone has an opinion on this matter. The problem and goal should be to practice what you preach.

Find a good beta to help you. There are many types of words that can be used incorrectly, and everyone has problems once in awhile!

There are a great many good writers out there, and some really talented individuals with a great story to tell, and need our encouragement and support. Go Dokugians!

Akurei Tepes wrote:
I often try to avoid repetition of the same word multiple times in a paragraph. I've gotten better at it, but sometimes old habits die hard. >.<

I have run into the same problem when writing so don't feel alone. A thesaurus is practically glued to my side.

Sessylove219 wrote:
Find a good beta to help you. There are many types of words that can be used incorrectly, and everyone has problems once in awhile!

Amen to that! You also make a good point with the adverbs. Adverbs can add to one's writing but there is definitely such a thing as overkill. To me, it is better to find one word that encompasses the entirety what you are trying to say.

***

Another thing I have learned is to not be so critical of myself when critiquing my own work. See, I suffer from Perfectionist Syndrome. I am the person who will stress hours over a page because I am afraid my writing is confusing, scrambled, or just stupid. As a result, I have had to learn to back off. When I have one of those pages, I force myself to move on and look at it later. That or I get myself a beta.

Nisou Tenshi wrote:

Another thing I have learned is to not be so critical of myself when critiquing my own work. See, I suffer from Perfectionist Syndrome. I am the person who will stress hours over a page because I am afraid my writing is confusing, scrambled, or just stupid. As a result, I have had to learn to back off. When I have one of those pages, I force myself to move on and look at it later. That or I get myself a beta.

I feel you here. I'm this way about my writing and my art and while I've managed to back off my art a bit, me and my writing still have screaming matches over its quality. >.<

Akurei Tepes wrote:
I often try to avoid repetition of the same word multiple times in a paragraph. I've gotten better at it, but sometimes old habits die hard. >.<

The horror of 'him'-s twenty times in one paragraph!The HORROR!
...
Sometimes I want to kill myself because of this disgusting habit.I know how you feel.

I have seen the feudal era referred to as the "futile era" way more than once or twice. I don't know if it is because of spell-check...

I know what you mean about repetition because my brain likes to focus in on that sort of thing. If I read something repetitive I have to mentally correct it or I will keep focusing on it and not remember what I'm reading. (And I have a strange problem with the word "about", I really can't stand that word ).

One of the main things I've noticed from reading and the few times I actually get to write a real story (not evil essays) is that there is a tendency when writing Sesshoumaru to use his speech pattern with other characters. For example, I read a story recently where Kagome was having a normal conversation with one of her friends and she says stuff like, "I would greatly enjoy doing that" or "Would you be so kind as to throw this in the trash receptacle for me?" instead of "That sounds so fun!" or "Hey, throw this away for me, okay?" Kagome's a fifteen year old Japanese high schooler. She values all the things in her that make her not like Kikyo, and I would think the way she talks would be really important among those, so it irks at me when I read stuff like that (probably because I'm an obsessive perfectionist ).

Lady Shikibu wrote:
One of the main things I've noticed from reading and the few times I actually get to write a real story (not evil essays) is that there is a tendency when writing Sesshoumaru to use his speech pattern with other characters. For example, I read a story recently where Kagome was having a normal conversation with one of her friends and she says stuff like, "I would greatly enjoy doing that" or "Would you be so kind as to throw this in the trash receptacle for me?" instead of "That sounds so fun!" or "Hey, throw this away for me, okay?" Kagome's a fifteen year old Japanese high schooler. She values all the things in her that make her not like Kikyo, and I would think the way she talks would be really important among those, so it irks at me when I read stuff like that (probably because I'm an obsessive perfectionist ).

I have seen this, too. I always find it weird when Kagome is made into a pottymouth. I can understand maybe a cuss word here or there but in every other sentence?? Kagome does not have the type of personality to be throwing f-bombs everywhere so it always throws me off when I see it.

There have been fics where Sesshomaru is the victim of this, too. I remember reading one where he reminded me of a surfer guy. He kept saying words like "dude" or "lame." -_-

As a sometimes beta-person, I'd like to weigh in with a couple of my favorite things that aspiring authors should avoid at all costs.

First, PLEASE, don't get lazy and just whip something up and send it to the beta:

- Take the time to make sure you have things properly capitalized.

- Try to remember basic punctuation, especially in dialogue.

- If you have questions about punctuation for dialogue, use the forum, ASK someone!! There are any number of people here who would be happy to help answer simple questions.

- Check out this website:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

It can help anyone become a better writer just by searching it. I swear by it!!

~~Wiccan~~

Something that I have found distracting is when a story is written in the first person POV and the author switches character POVs like they're playing a literary version of Hot Potato. Sometimes, it gets to the point that, if the author doesn't tell me whose POV I'm seeing, I would have no clue. This also leads to the problem of the same scenes being played out, over and over, but through a different character's POV each time. In my opinion, doing that breaks up the flow of the story, and it becomes tedious to read the same scene repeatedly. If you are going to write in the first person, it is better to pick one character and stick with it, unless the story requires you to change POV once in a while.

I don't mean to sound negative, or anything like that. This is just one of my pet peeves, and this thread is meant to help aspiring authors. So, please, no one get angry over my little opinion.

CritterWhisperer wrote:
Something that I have found distracting is when a story is written in the first person POV and the author switches character POVs like they're playing a literary version of Hot Potato. Sometimes, it gets to the point that, if the author doesn't tell me whose POV I'm seeing, I would have no clue. This also leads to the problem of the same scenes being played out, over and over, but through a different character's POV each time. In my opinion, doing that breaks up the flow of the story, and it becomes tedious to read the same scene repeatedly. If you are going to write in the first person, it is better to pick one character and stick with it, unless the story requires you to change POV once in a while.

I don't mean to sound negative, or anything like that. This is just one of my pet peeves, and this thread is meant to help aspiring authors. So, please, no one get angry over my little opinion.

This is another problem I sometimes have. I try to write in one characters POV but I keep switching between it and third person. As a result, I have just taken to writing in third person to avoid all of that. XD

If someone already brought this up, sorry to be repeating.

One thing that I notice is people switching from past tense to present tense. It can be incredibly jarring, so please know what tense you're in and try to stick to it!

Personally, it drives me crazy when I read a story that has choppy flow.

I also simply cannot abide when an author explains EVERYTHING... It makes me, as a reader feel, like the author is dumbing things down. You dont have to explain that x+y=z ...the z is understood.

Michelle wrote:
Personally, it drives me crazy when I read a story that has choppy flow.

I also simply cannot abide when an author explains EVERYTHING... It makes me, as a reader feel, like the author is dumbing things down. You dont have to explain that x+y=z ...the z is understood.

While I understand what you mean, there are times when the author needs to explain what is going on. There are instances where the reader is simply brought into a situation with no idea where the characters are, what they are doing, what the author's intent is...and the author never tells the reader. These are the stories where I advise the author that readers are like husbands, they need to be told everything! Every reader needs a basis of knowledge to understand the story.

Rowdys Girl wrote:
Michelle wrote:
Personally, it drives me crazy when I read a story that has choppy flow.

I also simply cannot abide when an author explains EVERYTHING... It makes me, as a reader feel, like the author is dumbing things down. You dont have to explain that x+y=z ...the z is understood.

While I understand what you mean, there are times when the author needs to explain what is going on. There are instances where the reader is simply brought into a situation with no idea where the characters are, what they are doing, what the author's intent is...and the author never tells the reader. These are the stories where I advise the author that readers are like husbands, they need to be told everything! Every reader needs a basis of knowledge to understand the story.

I agree. When I write, I try to pull the reader into the story and make them feel what the characters do; I do this because I believe it makes for such a wonderful reading experience. If the character is angry about something, I want the reader to feel his fury; if the character is a sad, I want the reader to feel it too. Even the lemons are written to try and get the old ticker beating faster, the breathing to labor just a bit and, if I did it right, bring out that wonderful color of pink to a face or two . Without being descriptive, that goal cannot be reached; however, there is also a limit to this technique. There is such a thing as too much information after all. The key is to know just the right amount to put in so that the reader doesn't get bored or frustrated and move on to something else.

One thing I really try to avoid, even in one-shots, is poor characterization! Although I try very hard to write the characters in a way that is consistent with their original personalities, I don't necessarily think that variations on character portrayal is a bad thing.

However, it bugs me to see characters who, not only do things that seem completely out of character, but also do these things with no discernible motive. This is something I try to avoid at all cost! Even when writing a very short story, I make it a note to take the extra time to explain why certain things are happening and what is going on in the minds of the characters.

Oroyukae wrote:
Rowdys Girl wrote:
Michelle wrote:
Personally, it drives me crazy when I read a story that has choppy flow.

I also simply cannot abide when an author explains EVERYTHING... It makes me, as a reader feel, like the author is dumbing things down. You dont have to explain that x+y=z ...the z is understood.

While I understand what you mean, there are times when the author needs to explain what is going on. There are instances where the reader is simply brought into a situation with no idea where the characters are, what they are doing, what the author's intent is...and the author never tells the reader. These are the stories where I advise the author that readers are like husbands, they need to be told everything! Every reader needs a basis of knowledge to understand the story.

I agree. When I write, I try to pull the reader into the story and make them feel what the characters do; I do this because I believe it makes for such a wonderful reading experience. If the character is angry about something, I want the reader to feel his fury; if the character is a sad, I want the reader to feel it too. Even the lemons are written to try and get the old ticker beating faster, the breathing to labor just a bit and, if I did it right, bring out that wonderful color of pink to a face or two . Without being descriptive, that goal cannot be reached; however, there is also a limit to this technique. There is such a thing as too much information after all. The key is to know just the right amount to put in so that the reader doesn't get bored or frustrated and move on to something else.

I believe you both missunderstand me. I appreciate when authors put their readers in to the story. To an extent a story is insufficient without proper explanations. To what I refer to however, is when an author goes in to vast detail explaining something that is simply a given, or understood. For example: An author explaining a kiss can imply that both characters involved were surprised, through inner monologue, and facial expression, or physical responces... but to THEN go on to say that they were surprised, and why, and how, and when, etc... its redundant, and frankly its insulting. Thats what I was refering too.

The thing that bugs me the most is when Kagome and Sesshoumaru falls in love in about 3-5 chapters. Knowing Sesshoumaru, that's not gonna happen >_<

xXxBlackRosexXx wrote:
The thing that bugs me the most is when Kagome and Sesshoumaru falls in love in about 3-5 chapters. Knowing Sesshoumaru, that's not gonna happen >_<

I second that.

A lot of authors try to avoid the things that are listed above, but the fact is, most authors will not catch all their flaws.

I myself am never confident that I've been able to avoid most of the "don't do" list or that my writing is good enough. I can read, re-read, and edit numerous times, but I'm certain that there will still be stuff that I miss.

So, that is why when I review, I try to help other authors. I know its nice to just say, "good job! update!" but it is better to actually give the author insight about how their writing is and ways they can improve.

Gabrielle wrote:
xXxBlackRosexXx wrote:
The thing that bugs me the most is when Kagome and Sesshoumaru falls in love in about 3-5 chapters. Knowing Sesshoumaru, that's not gonna happen >_<

I second that.

The other thing that is irritating for me, is when the characters are jumping into each others bed after few words or few looks.
Also I'm getting an uneasy feeling when I read in the story that after seeing Sesshoumaru in hotspring for example, Kagome gets the enlightenment that she loved him all along, or something of that kind.
But that is only my feelings.

If I happened to see Sesshomaru in a hotspring, I would get the enlightenment that I had loved him all along, too. Just saying

knifethrower wrote:
If I happened to see Sesshomaru in a hotspring, I would get the enlightenment that I had loved him all along, too. Just saying

Haha ;D Welcome to the club.

Sophie ~ I agree. After all, Sesshoumaru probably has to beat the girls off with his sword ;D There must be some that are more beautiful then Kagome

I can relate, knifethrower. But isn't that, love, spelled l u s t? lol