Warning:  This blog post is written from my own personal RANTING straight to the point (point of view) and can be used as a light how-to (don't take anything I say personal or allow it to discourage you), although if you can look past the bluntness and personal frustrations, it might just help you.  I plan on writing an >>>actual how-to soon (more detailed), with a more positive upbeat tone.  If you've made it this far feel free to read.  We all have personal frustrations and these are five of mine. 

I'm sure you all have Pet Peeves in Fan Fics, just like me.  Here is a list of my 5 Personal Pet Peeves in Fan Fics.

1)  When the author is showing a loving or intimate moment between two characters and they use 'young boy' to describe them.  That automatically makes my brain cringe, because it makes me think of children making out and having .  It's just wrong.  EX:  He the youngs boys cheek, He kissed the young boy tenderly... *cringe *cringe *cringe 

Example of what it should say:  He 'his' cheek.  He kissed him tenderly. 

2)  When the author keeps referring to a character as 'the younger/the older/the shorter/the taller/the brunette/the blonde head'.  The words 'He, she, they, them, I and you exist for a reason' (they are proper ways to describe characters without depersonalizing everything you've written.  If you build up a relationship between two characters, but keep calling them something other than 'he or she', it takes out all of the emotional value that you've gained momentum on.  They become just two cardboard cut outs and I automatically want to throw it away in disgust.

​Example:  (No) The taller smiled.  (Yes) He smiled.  [If your dialogue has been done correctly, they'll know whose speaking, whose smiling (and will already know whose taller).  They won't need to be repeatedly told that.  Give the reader some credit.  They are smart - most readers are and whose the tallest has most likely been well established by now.]

3)  When the author has all 'tell' and hardly any 'show' in their fic.  If the author explains everything and rarely has the characters interacting with each other, I feel like I'm being swept through a story and only getting glimpses of the characters through a very small scope, that doesn't work half of the time.  The fun of a story is to get surrounded by dialogue and the world the characters are in.  I want to hear their unique voices, see what they're going through.  Not be told it's happening, but get to experience it along with the characters (get to take in all of the sensory details, as well as the way they deal with it). 

​Example:  (Tell/NO)  He was mad at his sister.  (Show/YES)  "Would you please slow down," she said.  He rolled his eyes and said, "You really are unbelievable.  I don't know why I trusted you.  You pretty much stabbed me in the back."  He slammed the door in her face and the despicable part of him hoped it had hit her in it. 

4)  Super long chapter fics and super long One Shots (with no Plot).  I've read some of the greatest fics and One Shots on AFF and AO3 that just went on and on and on and on... The dialogue was amazing, the characters were individuals and easy to spot, even when there were in the double digits, the sensory details (sounds, scene, emotions... everything that you can take in with your five sense) were amazing.  Everything was believable and there was such promise in the stories, but there was no Plot.  These characters kept living there amazing, realistic lives (there were realistic changes in there lives), but it never ended. 

There was no or resolution.  I actually found myself getting bored of reading about them, because it never took me any where and never gave me that satisfying conclusion that should've been there.  It was super annoying and a huge disappointment.

​Example:  There needs to be some kind of message that is relayed in the story.  There needs to be the main character(s) (Protagonist), and some kind of character that apposes the visible goal of your main character/Protagonist and that would be your (Antagonist).  The story has to build in tension, reach a , and then a resolution has to form.  The main character/Protagonist has to either reach their goal or fail at reaching it.  By the end of the story, regardless of rather they reached their goal or not, they will have been changed. 

So their lives will look different.  This is the Resolution, which comes after the (the highest tension part of the story).

5)  And last but not least, when an author writes a story and writes it well (and then just slops the last bit in there) with a note that pretty much says, I just randomly wrote the ending.  They may as well have said:  Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed everything, but sorry, your feelings just weren't important enough to take my time to give you a satisfying ending (the ending you deserved), for taking the time and dedicating to my story. 

We as readers don't want an ending for an endings sake.  We want to feel like our feelings matter to.  We do spend time on stories.  We do dedicate our personal time to be entertained.  So, why do some authors neglect the readers' feelings in this matter? 

They seem to forget that without the readers to follow them, they wouldn't have anyone to read what they write.  And if I find a writer who does this (and I have quite a few times) - I lose that reader/author respect (and never read another one of their stories again, because I can't trust that I won't once again be highly disappointed with their lack of commitment to a story that I've devoted my personal time to).

******Do you agree with any of these?  Do you have some of your own personal Pet Peeves in Fan Fiction?  Share them in the Comment Section below.

~Demitria_Teague