You asked the worst question. Because I am bothered by many things.
First come those obvious you mentioned - grammar, spelling, obvious need of any sort of proofreading. But that is nothing compared to the loathing I have for 1st person narrative and switching POVs in one fic. The worst is where the POVs are not only switching, but switching every 500 words or so and where that is clearly stated. Just, HATE. In theory 1st person narrative can work, but that's in theory only. Because it never does. I used to think I hated it because it invited Mary Sueism in, but now I realize it is even worse - it invites "I want to be that character" type of mentality authors, and that's beyond bad for me.
Then we have OOCness. To be fair though, I am usually willing to accept some measure of it, especially if the writing/story is good, and provided it is not straying in some ridiculous direction - cue in sugary Brian cooing "baby" and the like. This makes my brain scream.
Then there is clumsy writing, all those "older men" "brunettes" and so on. Then there is describing everything, people, clothes, interiors, feelings, giving me far too graphic sex scenes (because balls and scrotum will never be sexy words in any universe ever). Just let the character show me things, convey, not tell me flat out, because that's not good writing. And a sex scene that relies on physical descriptions only will never be successful. I can't believe people don't see that.
Using whole lines from canon.I know lot of people like it, I don't. I don't enjoy such wink-wink, because that's lame.
Writing scenes where men can't shut up during sex. That just kills the fic right there, because it is not hot, it is fucking ridiculous. Not to mention it's where OCCness sneaks in a lot of the time. Writing dirty talk is a skill yo, and more often than not less is more.
Abusing bold type, italics - moderation is your friend. Most of the time the writing itself should convey what is important, and the reader should be trusted to pick it up. Don't spell everything out for me, I am not a moron.
Generally, there's nothing worse than a sex scene I don't believe in. And yes, I know that's subjective as hell, but there it is.
Digging in further, what bothers me are fics whose authors have no clue why they wrote them in the first place and it shows. By which I mean, they don't know who their characters are, they don't know what story they want to tell - be it plot-driven or character-driven - and we end up with a story that has been written zillion times in the fandom with absolutely nothing new to contribute. Why bother.
LOL. I was provoked :D And of course where I write "you" I don't mean you, jsut got carried away and am too lazy to rephrase everything.
no subject
First come those obvious you mentioned - grammar, spelling, obvious need of any sort of proofreading. But that is nothing compared to the loathing I have for 1st person narrative and switching POVs in one fic. The worst is where the POVs are not only switching, but switching every 500 words or so and where that is clearly stated. Just, HATE. In theory 1st person narrative can work, but that's in theory only. Because it never does. I used to think I hated it because it invited Mary Sueism in, but now I realize it is even worse - it invites "I want to be that character" type of mentality authors, and that's beyond bad for me.
Then we have OOCness. To be fair though, I am usually willing to accept some measure of it, especially if the writing/story is good, and provided it is not straying in some ridiculous direction - cue in sugary Brian cooing "baby" and the like. This makes my brain scream.
Then there is clumsy writing, all those "older men" "brunettes" and so on. Then there is describing everything, people, clothes, interiors, feelings, giving me far too graphic sex scenes (because balls and scrotum will never be sexy words in any universe ever). Just let the character show me things, convey, not tell me flat out, because that's not good writing. And a sex scene that relies on physical descriptions only will never be successful. I can't believe people don't see that.
Using whole lines from canon.I know lot of people like it, I don't. I don't enjoy such wink-wink, because that's lame.
Writing scenes where men can't shut up during sex. That just kills the fic right there, because it is not hot, it is fucking ridiculous. Not to mention it's where OCCness sneaks in a lot of the time. Writing dirty talk is a skill yo, and more often than not less is more.
Abusing bold type, italics - moderation is your friend. Most of the time the writing itself should convey what is important, and the reader should be trusted to pick it up. Don't spell everything out for me, I am not a moron.
Generally, there's nothing worse than a sex scene I don't believe in. And yes, I know that's subjective as hell, but there it is.
Digging in further, what bothers me are fics whose authors have no clue why they wrote them in the first place and it shows. By which I mean, they don't know who their characters are, they don't know what story they want to tell - be it plot-driven or character-driven - and we end up with a story that has been written zillion times in the fandom with absolutely nothing new to contribute. Why bother.
LOL. I was provoked :D And of course where I write "you" I don't mean you, jsut got carried away and am too lazy to rephrase everything.