Is this this time again?

That's by Cornelius Agrippa, he has a Famous Witches and Wizards Card, he knows what he is talking about.

 

I hate single quotes. They just make me want to gouge my eyes out. It's the only reason I couldn't give Resurrexit by Master Slytherin a chance.

Why did he decide this was a good idea?

This looks so much better. For anyone who wants to write stories in the future, just stop using single quotes. I know it's technically correct, but it's less readable.

That being said, I sort of feel like giving Resurrexit a chance now that I've read the first chapter.

Noticed this error. Seems like it would be pretty hard to make this error if you weren't used to typing in double quotes already. Unless he wrote on mobile or tablet of course.

 

Single quotes or double quotes don't bother me, it's leaving out the punctuation that makes me drop fics faster than a hot rock. "I'm just popping out to Ollivander's" said Harry with an infuriating lack of a comma.

 

I hate bashing worse than anything.

 

The reason I targeted single quotes is because they are technically an acceptable format of dialogue and not uncommon either, even amongst profrssional writers. It's hard to successfully criticize their use as a result.

 

I once stumbled across a Fem!Harry fic where Fem!Harry was still named Harry.

Seriously? Are these writers truly that lacking in imagination that they can't come up an actual girl's name? I mean come on, who in their right mind would name their daughter Harry?

 

I mean, "Harriet" is a totally legit girl's name, and I've heard it shortened to Harry (phonetically anyway, not sure how she spelled it, if she even did) as a nickname.

 

Isn’t that a very minor plot point in the first Sherlock episode, him mistaking John’s sister for a brother because of the engraving on John’s phone says Harry?

 

Yeah, that was also the first thing I thought about. The moment is at around 3 minutes in.

 

Be that as it may it's still highly unoriginal and lacking in creativity. I know coming up with names can be difficult but I'd like for them to at least put some effort into it.

 

So I posted a new story last night. Literally the second comment was asking about potential major plot points. Why the hell would I answer that question for you?

 

New pet peeve, just thought of it.

When the protag starts learning some sort of martial arts from the dojo that just so happens to be on the same street. And starts calling him sensei.

 

You'd be surprised how common they can be, if you look, although (in the UK) it's rare to have a dedicated dojo.

I used to live in a small town (about 9,000 people). We were the end point of a decent 'hiking' route, and had a shitload of pubs. But that was it. We shared a high-school/college with the next village over, and all the surrounds, which was nowhere near full.

We had at least three karate schools, one kickboxing club, one tai-kwon-do club, two ju-jitsu clubs (one's closed now), and the local gym ran MMA sessions. Most just didn't advertise well, because they weren't really very good with all this new-fangled technology. We were about ten miles from the closest city, too, so it's not like we were completely out in the arse end of nowhere


My first karate class was very informal, and I loved it. I got up to first kyu (one before black), but they had to change location due to the building being sold off, and I didn't have a car to get to where they moved to. A few years later, I tried to go to another karate class, and was initially refused entry because I referred to the previous teacher by name, rather than as 'sensei'. The new class were big on the formal thing - every instruction had to be responded to with 'HAI!' (translator's note - "Hai" means "Yes"),instructions were given in (probably mangled) Japanese, and it was a very strict no-talking policy as soon as you entered the room.

I can easily believe that a younger protagonist would refer to their martial arts teacher as 'sensei', even after only the first session.


What gets me about those stories though, is that the protag will end up getting their black belt in a few months, and then never going again. I really dislike the clubs that guarantee a black belt within X amount of years, because they treat it as just another goal/box to tick.

 

@Thaumologist I totally get it.

My problem is that 99.99% of the time is that it's an excuse for weebs to display an abridged version of their love for Kung Fu movies. In the actual work it isn't about the discipline, the physical, spiritual, or mental improvement the characters might experience. It's so that Harry can have a katana and look 'cool'.

I get dojos are around, this just bugs me.

It's the reason I couldn't get past the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Gift of Memories.

I don't have anything against dojos or martial arts, but you can tell when stuff like this is inserted into the story just because the author thinks it's cool.

(Also, what do you think martial arts would do in a world like Harry Potter? Sure, it might help with speed during duels, dodging, etc., but other than that? MMA fighting isn't going to take down Voldemort.)

 

Shit this just came to me all of a sudden (the memory of it).

It's when the protagonist has their sword strapped to their back instead of their hip. I go FUCK!!!! inside my head whenever I see this. Whomever perpetrates this has watched to much anime, played too many video games, and/or done too little research.

 

Funnily enough when I'm writing I hate using doubles. Singles just look more appealing to me.

One of my biggest pet peeves would be an AN at the beginning of each chapter clarifying how the author is going to write several different types of speech, especially parseltongue and gobbledegook.

 

I hate the anime flavored fanfiction.

I don’t give a shit about anime itself, but whenever the MC faints when a beautiful girl talks to them, characters get nosebleeds when they think about sex, and generally men are scared of women… you just know the author loves anime and therefore, not only are they wrong in how characters act, they also crank this idiocy up to 11, obliterating any chance of the nonexistent subtlety their 99% mind is capable of.

Fuck anime.

 

Thats even bad when the fanfic itself is about an anime/manga. Those things just dont work outside of a visual medium.