i wonder if this is how they did it back at medieval times… 
I don’t mind there being flirt options when you first meet an npc, as long as it doesn’t lock me out of their romance, if I don’t pick it.
There have been quite a few times, though, where the flirt option was waaaaaaayyyy over the top, and I have trouble believing anyone would ever react like that to meeting some random stranger, no matter how hot they are.
Then again, I’m ace, so what do I know?
10 Likes
I’m sure they had to offer money first. Wasn’t that was dowries were for?
4 Likes
This isn’t limited to JUST writing although… I guess technically it is, because regardless if it’s a standard novel, a VN, etc. you still have to write… ANYWAY. I HATE RIVAL LOVE INTERESTS. To specify, I hate it when they’re donkeys to MC even though nEITHER CHARACTER IS DATING THE PERSON THEY ARE BOTH CRUSHING OVER. I see this WAY too much with female characters-- I don’t know if it’s more commonly done with women than men but it pisses me off. Why can’t they just be rivals… but respect each other? Or, y’know, deny each other’s existence???
How come women’s breasts are compared by fruit but we aren’t doing that for men’s junk? I mean, if this is gonna keep being a trend for some reason, at least even it out. (Bananas are off the table, they’ve already been ruined, aight?)
When characters can’t just… talk. At all. How are your feelings so complicated that YOU CAN’T FIND ANY WAY IN THE UNIVERSE TO PRESENT THEM CLEARLY TO THE OTHER PERSON. ARE YOU EVEN TRYING.
I kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinda hate this weird thing when people write “strong, independent women” because they’ll make her rude. I’m doing my best to NOT do this myself (because I have a character who is quite independent and powerful on her own) but if she’s going to be rude… can it at least be for a reason? Like… she isn’t used to talking to people because she’s been literally on her own for years and raised herself? Or it’s some kind of subconscious defense/coping mechanism because of trauma in her life (ie. hurt them before they hurt me). And let her be “feminine”! Why can’t she wear dresses and heels? Why can’t she like cute things or still want kids?
Long smut scenes. Okay. Yeah. I’ve read porn without a plot type fanfics without issue (especially for ships that never became canon) but that’s just it, they don’t have a plot. So I don’t care. But if you’re writing a story, do we seriously need like fifty million words for ten minutes (if even that) of happy fun times? No. We do not. I do not. And if you’re gonna make it long, it better be because the romance was a slow burn-- at least then it becomes a reward.
10 Likes
Finally, another human who shares my hatred for ridiculously long intimate scenes.
2 Likes
I’d also be okay with it if the characters rarely get any opportunities to be alone, and then it’s just intimate in enjoying each other’s company but have some meaningful conversation so at least something is happening-
2 Likes
Lol, that list was hilarious. I’d say the top 3 that stand out are breaking the 8 year old girl’s jaw, slaughtering the pacifists to prove a point and making the pedo cannibalize himself. Never read his stuff before, but I don’t see much reason to now since I imagine that list consolidates the best parts and the rest is just dull in comparison.
About the only major things I really dislike seeing are author self-inserts/mary sue types or some combo of the two. Obvious ideological agendas are also pretty eye roll inducing.
There’s probably a lot more minor things that could be listed, but most of those can still be salvageable or even done well to the point of being enjoyable.
4 Likes
A weird pet peeve of mine is badly written children. Eg, a five year old behaving like a ten year old, or vice versa.
7 Likes
Also, yeah a suddenly damsel in distress mc. If the mc was written as weak character at the begining then okay, I can tolerate that. But sometime when I watch or read something, and MC was written to have like mastering of martial art or something in the begining, but completely useless and doesn’t use it in the fight at all in much later scene. Like dude, you have this badass flying kick in the begining of the episode why are you not using that right now?? ahshshsj.
3 Likes
Mostly a problem in otomes yeah, but a variant exists where the super powerful supernatural LI(sometimes woman) needs rescuing from something their bf/gf(regular Joe) can easily get rid of. But both can be done well imo.
Speaking of super powerful: is anyone ever nervous about heroes succeeding in Avengers movies? Nope. The entire cast is so ridiculously overpowered there’s no way they could not succeed and that’s a bit of a no-no.
9 Likes
Okay, just finished The Wages of Virtue. Wren really, really, really likes using stupid coincidences and then at the end of the book you find out that everybody’s actually related. Somehow. Sure, suspension of disbelief, I’ll sort of accept the latter… but with the former being a running theme in all his books I’ve read so far, that stops being funny rather quick. Not everything should be handwaved away just like that…
Also, personal pet peeve: really exaggerated phonetic spellings being used continuously. Every word. That’s really hard to read, and if there’s something you’ve never seen, good luck trying to figure it out because dictionaries don’t do phonetic spellings. Why doesn’t an author just say someone has an accent, or at least, use it sparingly on select words that can be understood from context anyway? Just enough to give the effect of the character’s accent, but don’t write it to ludicrous levels.
I started a little ways into A Lion is in the Streets, but holy hell. That is some really thick phonetically spelled southern hick accent. And all the characters who live in the bayou (which is most of the cast including the main character, who is prone to long monologues) speak that way. Only a tiny handful of rich folks who came from the east aren’t given phonetic accents.
I think I’ll stick with the Cagney film, thank you (he drops his signature fast-talking New York Irish accent for a drawl here). Not having to read the accents is an improvement.
5 Likes
Amen AMEN amen! 
Mine are very, very simple:
- Giving me a police description of how someone looks “She was tall with long, brown hair. She was wearing a dark jacket and blue jeans.” Puke.
- Telling me all about the world (exposition) instead of just jumping right into it. Imagine if the first Harry Potter book was 20 pages about Muggles, Azkaban, et al. No thanks!
1 Like
- unnecessarily describing everything and anything
- flat narratives
- info dump or lazy worldbuilding
- awkwardly structured dialogues
- characters that are too weirdly/flamboyantly designed and sound like they were pullled straight from a ‘woke’ tumblr rp
- rambling characters
- navel gazing
8 Likes
Yeah, I’ve read so much fantasy lately it solidifies my position on worldbuilding: If I’m interested, I’ll find out. No need to info dump me. Especially when most fantasy follows similar trends. Applies to science fiction too. I think the best compromise between pushing the player into deep water and info-dumping is just including a codex.
1 Like
I wish that a lot of fantasy authors would stop emulating Tolkien in that regard.
The man was an amazing writer, but he sure loved to spend half a chapter describing how a forest looked.
6 Likes
Ha, you’ll hate my cast then 
1 Like
@LiliArch aw haha I just don’t like reading an unnecessarily long stream of words. They get on my nerves for some reason 
I’ve come to hate the mc getting kidnapped by a group of ro’s and then introduced to the plot. It’s happened one too many times, and it’s hard for me to justify why the mc would like another character after such a bad introduction.
Explicitly making the mc cis, and/or not having non-binary options is also an automatic disqualifier for any interactive fiction.
16 Likes
I really hate anything that just undoes everything I just read. Things like it was just a dream, or the worst of all, let’s just time travel back in time and prevent everything from happening.
3 Likes