ext_325559 ([identity profile] drasticbarbie.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] criminalxminds2010-01-03 08:16 am

let's discuss!

this if for those of you who read fanfic, which is hopefully most of you.

what are your fanfic pet peeves? is there a pairing or genre you won't read? do you hate mistakes in canon?

for me it's more about grammar. i get irritated with bad spelling (use spellcheck!), poor use of punctuation (besides commas because there are about 40 rules. you should know the basics), and capitalization. in posts i don't bother with caps. but when i publish i try to make it as correct as possible.

other things are the use of certain words. there/their/they're, we're/ were/where, bare/bear, lie/lay/laid etc., i/me, overuse of italics and bold. to me italics are good for emphasizing certain words that should be stressed, either in dialog or narration, sounds coming off the television/phone or written words read by the narrator or out loud in dialog, musical lyrics. it just makes it easier to understand that it isn't normal sounds. i only use bold in my author's note, disclaimer, and warnings.

also, i won't even read a fic that has all the text bunched up because someone didn't press enter. or something with only about 200 words.

also, when you address someone it should be like,   Person, blah blah. with the comma there. that just bugs me.

for specifically CM i won't read Morgan with anyone but Garcia. i don't know, i just think they belong together and i love that Garcia is one of very few average sized women on television. in spite of what hollywood wants us to think, most women are more Garcia's size than JJ's.

[identity profile] scarimor.livejournal.com 2010-01-04 06:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I still remember several years ago I was reading a fairly good Buffy story until Angel attacked Spike with a steak.

*giggles helplessly* That one really tickled me :D

Re. Britishisms in the mouths of Americans and vice-versa - that's something Ive relied heavily on criticism to correct over the years. I'm always grateful when a reader pms me politely and let's me know a rogue term got through. If my fic is set in a foreign TV show I try to write in that country's vernacular, even if it's not in dialogue: torches/flashlights, etc. I stick to my own country's spellings, though, as is proper :)