Well duh! It's totally in the books.

 

Yeah, but I see people complaining about this one often enough, that I expected some reason for it.

 

It pisses me off because it implies that no one can have a certain quality unless they belong in a certain house. Which is an attitude that a lot of fanfiction writers actually do possess. They are so quick to sort everyone into four archetypes and have absolutely everyone act according to their house's virtues, when in canon, it was pretty obvious that the differences between the people from each house are minuscule.

 

Which would make it the most realistic cliché in the fandom.

Pizza is love. Pizza is life.

Nope. :|

 

• "Fanfictions" as the plural of "fanfiction."
  
  
• Treatments of Hermione that clearly stem from author's resentment of intelligent or powerful women.
  
  
• Treatments of Hermione that clearly stem from author's resentment of intelligent or powerful women (oh and here is a hot woman for Harry to sleep with).

 

In real life when you call somebody "jew" because they are stingy, you don't mean that all Jews are actually stingy or that only Jews are stingy. You just use a certain stereotype associated with the word.

 

In Harmony fics (and sometimes Harry/Tonks) isn't it usually that he goes shopping for new clothes, because he's never had any, and the cute young girl working in the store flirts with him. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. And every single time, Harry is obviously adorably unaware and Hermione or Tonks has to point it out.

 

I understand the semantic reasoning behind it. But in this case it's a just part of the simplistic mindset of so many fanfiction authors, who are so obsessed with house traits and differences.

 

Yeah cloth buying or any Alley tour are boring if they don't have any plot in them.
Few authors pull it in good way.

Harry's social skills are quite poor so the outcome his expected.
It is just Hermione doesn't strike many as socially skilled as well.
Oh she probably read every book with every advise to give to Ginny, but in the field I doubt.
Tonks is something different she is always fun.

 

A small pet peeve that I've only recently noticed, is how some characters address each other. I've mainly noticed this in fics where Dumbledore will address students by their first name when he has only a passing familiarity with them. Just seems a little odd.

 

Harry is sorted into Slytherin but hangs out with Gryffindors (particularly Hermione and Neville) for... reasons. I don't have any ideological objection to it, it just comes off as lame plot-wise. Also, Harry hardly wanted to hang out with them when he was in Gryffindor.

Gryffindors hating Harry for getting into the TWT. I see this a lot for some reason. In canon, they threw him a party and cheered for him.

11 year old Harry addressing girls as "Miss". Might as well give him a fedora.

 

Fedoras get a bad rap because people can't tell the difference between them and the trilby.

Plagiarizing the actual books like that is just uncalled for.

--
Vicious/Viscous

Vicious: Savage, violent, ferocious. "They are vicious warriors."

Viscous: Thick, resistant to flowing. "This cough syrup is disgustingly viscous."

--
People spelling/pronouncing Dilapidated as DilapiTated. STAHP. :facepalm

--
Fourth/Forth
All the damned time...

Fourth: That which comes between the third and the fifth. "This is the fourth time I've corrected your grammar."

Forth: An adverb, thus it accompanies a verb to describe an action. Onward, forward, out into the open.

"Step forth and be heard." "Go forth and multiply."

"That's the fourth fuckin' stripper to burst forth from that cake. It's not supposed to be a goddamned clown car."

--
Aspirations/Aspersions

I'm going to cast aspersions on you for what is obviously your aspiration to make the computer's spellchecker your unquestioned wingman.

--
Clamored/Clambered

Clamor: An insistent and noisy public expression.
"We're out of stock, but the customers are clamoring for more."
"The disgruntled employees clamored for his resignation."

Clamber: To awkwardly climb or scramble over something.
"They clambered over the debris, hoping to find survivors in the wreckage."

--
"The war waged for years."
No, no, no!
Look, war does not wage, war RAGES. Beings, people, countries, and kingdoms can wage war.

In short, war can rage but it cannot wage itself; war needs people to wage it. Conversely, people do not "rage war," though they can be in a rage as they wage it.

It all depends on how it's written. Some would say there is more inherent conflict in Harry trying to date a girl from a neutral family than one from a death eater family.

If her parents are death eaters, the answer can be as simple as, "Kill the parents." End of conflict.

If her parents are neutral, then maybe they don't want their daughter with Harry because Harry quite obviously isn't neutral; he couldn't be even if he wanted to. Allowing their daughter to date Harry kind of throws a monkey wrench into the whole neutrality thing, possibly putting all of them in danger. Harry and the daughter can't just write her parents off as evil and ignore, jail, or kill them like they could if they were death eaters, so the conflict continues.

It's especially important because, though she certainly has her faults, JKR does know a bit about etymology.

Dolo, dolare, dolavi, dolatus: to inflict blows, to batter, to chop or hew into shape.
Dolor, doloris: Pain, anguish, suffering, sorrow, grief, indignation.

This is what Umbrige is all about. Her name literally tells you everything she's about and everything she's going to do. This is why her name is spelled in a way that is more true to its Latin origin.

Some people miss the more understated clues, whilst JKR is bashing them over the head with stuff like Remus Lupin... which is about as subtle as a daisy cutter going off in your backyard.

 

Dumbledore bashing. Canon Dumbledore didn't seem like an exceptional mastermind but I feel like fics should recognize that in the context of the story's plot. Dumbledore being weak and stupid and all "Greater Good" all the time is too out of character for me.

Also Umbitch, Pronglet, Pup, Mione, and all those nicknames.

 

Idiots who mass copy great fics onto fanfiction. Its been days already and still this newest copycat has not been deleted yet. I just don't see why people do this. I can at least understand if there is any money involved, but this is fanfiction. I also don't understand how it takes so long for the admins at fanfiction to delete this dude's account.

 

FFN has admins since when?

 

For me the bigger issues isn't making Dumbledore evil so much as a stupid one with no real Greater Good to speak of outside of maybe his vague personal gains.

A Dumbledore that has the Greater Good of stopping Voldemort and maybe even end the Pureblood's control of the government could make for an interesting read. How far would he go in the name of creating a better society, how much do the ends really justify the means? Hell, what kind of means would he deploy, from political maneuvering to assassinations? Would he, in the end, realize he's turning into Grindelwald and try to change for the better? So many legitimately cool ways to take such a story.

But nope. In every single Dumbledore Bashing Fic, he is always portrayed as an idiot who is somehow worse than Magic Hitler. Dumbledore steals from Harry's vault because, uh, he either needs it to fight Magic Hitler or feed his lemon drop addiction? Dumbledore doesn't teach Harry about the Magical World, because otherwise he might join the same group of people that murdered his parents and tried to kill him in the first place? Dumbledore doesn't even teach Harry real Magic, because a teenager actually stands a chance of beating the most powerful Dark Wizard alive?

 

560 ME/Halo crossovers on FF.net but I've yet to find one that's good.

 

Current Pet Peeves; some new, some renewed:

1. Was = past tense. It should never be used in the optative mood.

Past tense: "I was about to go."
Optative mood: "If I were to go . . ." (in the slight chance I might go, or hypothetically, without any real chance, if I decide to go). ​

2. I vs. me.

This one is simple, folks. Subject = I. Object = me.

He threw the ball to jack and me.
The question was posed whether Jack and I would catch the ball.
Tired am I, and to me shall come sleep.

I am sick and tired of reading: "So when they came to speak the Ron and I . . ." type constructions. ​

3. For the love of God, stop making Umbridge a stupid person that can be bettered by a fifteen year old. She's an Undersecretary and is masterful in manipulation. If she's going to be befuddled by teenagers, it's because they're willing to do stupid stuff (cough, like puking on her in class after a hangover, cough).

4a. 's is always possession or a contraction, never a way to pluralize a noun.

4b. If you're an American English speaker, please use proper possessives for a singular proper noun. The rules have changed in the last decade.

Correct in the past:

"That is Russ' ball."
"Renee Descartes' writings elevated philosophy."

Correct in the present:

"That is Russ's ball."
"Renee Descartes's writings elevated philosophy."*​

5. Fleur, Daphne, or Hermione's vagina is not a power-up for Harry's maturity, intelligence, or magical ability. Just because Harry has sex does not mean he can now outwit the entire magical world.

6a. Concerning Reviewers: If you're going to leave a review, review the actual story, not the story you thought you read.

6b. Concerning Authors on Reviewers: "Don't like, don't read" is probably the stupidest thing I've ever read. If someone doesn't like your fic, then find out why the person doesn't like it so you can become a better writer. I am by far not the best DLP writer, but most here will agree my writing has greatly improved over the last few years. The reason? Because I have encouraged con-crits and taken them to heart, then gone and read up on writing and tried to put it to good use.
____________
*See Chicago Manual of Style, Turabian Style Manual, APA, Strunk and White, MLA style manual, etc.

 

When did that happen? I've always been taught the old way and it was pretty recent.

 

That was probably because your teacher was taught the old way.

Chicago Manual of style 15th edition indicated proper singular nouns with a silenced last s would only be s'. 16th edition changed it to s's.

Turabian 7 changed the s' to s's for words without a silenced ending s. Turabian 8 followed CMoS in having all proper singular nouns end in s's. Note, however, proper singular groups, such as the United States, still follows the plural method, United States' flag.

I am not as familiar with MLA and APA, but I suspect this shift occurred soon thereafter because CMoS is one of the primary go-to style guides for publishing in the US. Often, it is the catch-all for other style guides, as in "For all other questions, see Chicago Manual of Style."

CMoS 15 was published in 2003.
Turabian 7 was published in 2007.
For MLA, I know it's been at least since 2008.

It may be earlier than these, but I know for sure about these dates.