Someone needs to burn down /r/harrypotter. Just burn it all down and start over.

 

Why stop at only part of reddit?

 

No guarantees that whatever comes out from the ashes will be any better.

 

Just got blocked by a guy who I told that he wasn't going to get many views if he can't fix basic things like capitalisation... and then he proceeded to call me "kid". It should be really simple shit to fix.

 

When someone breaks out into song in the middle of a chapter.

I blame High School Musical.

 

When authors write in a fandom without knowing the source material:
"Takes place after Deathly Hallows! Warning: I Never actually read read/saw HBP or DH. No flames pls!"

"I've never actually read Worm. Everything I know about it is from fan fiction and crossovers." :facepalm
Then the fic goes on to be the typical shitty Taylor joins the Wards fic.

 

Stories that feel the need to append any variation of "don't like don't read" to the summary.

 

RWBY fics using Oum as substitute for God. Dont do that, thats creepy, creepy as fuck, just plain wrong.

 

One thing that peeves me is authors apologizing for bringing the next chapter so late multiple chapters in a row. Not that it's bad in itself but it seems to lead often times to the story being dropped unannounced. Which isn't the author's fault if real life gets in the way or the author loses interest but just sad as a reader to see the signs that a story might be dying.

 

"Please call me Harry."

Fuck, man. I think you'd be considered more rude, than humble, if you tried to be that familiar with everyone.

 

Super looooong stories that spend hundreds of thousands of words on useless canon rehash filler. Don't tell me it's a character-driven story if the changed characters don't impact the plot. Don't write 300k if you can accomplish the same in 80k. Or if you do, make every word count. Have characters DO something.

 

I think that the main reason for it is that there's this notion in fanfiction that a greater wordcount equals greater quality. It's not rare to see people saying that they don't read stories with less than 2-3k words per chapter, so when the plot doesn't have much happening, authors fill it with pointless details and rehash for padding.

 

Could be a culture thing, some writers may not 'get' that. I do hate the trope though, overly humble 'I just want to be normal' Harry is the worst.

 

Overly humble Harry is usually associated with Harry who is somehow a badass but a pushover at the same time.

 

Come now, there are a fair few shounen protagonists that aren't pushovers.

 

Giving the protagonist a guitar. Almost always a guaranteed shitfic.

 

Bluto was right. Bluto was always right.

 

I certainly agree with this. When I started reading fanfiction as a teenager I though these kind of stories were incredible, and it wasn't until I had read through a few hundred stories that followed the same cliched plot that I developed an eye for quality. Reading through the garbage was a step towards being able to truly appreciate solid writing.

As far as pet peeves go, I'm beginning to loathe stories with any kind of inherited titles, particularly ones where Harry discovers that all of his pure-blooded classmates are Lords/Ladies-in-training, and especially ones where their behavior as he interacts with them as the future house head is pompous and out of character. The worst culprit of this are the stories where Neville is somehow a confident Lord-in-training, despite his stuttering and submission to his grandmother in canon.

 

Two things. First, parseltongue is the language, parselmouth is the speaker.

Secondly, THE TRACE IS NOT ON THE WAND.