Funny that you complain about other peoples pet-peeves in this thread.

 

I think you just described about half of the pet peeves in this thread. Though, I consider that particular peeve (speaking oddly) in the realm of ridiculous and petty unless Harry was to speak that way for longer than a line or two.

With that in mind, everyone having a "drawl" is a decent peeve seeing as how IIRC only the Malfoy's were the only ones described as using a drawl in canon.

My newest peeve: the word "gleen" being used more than once in a story.

I seem to run across every story that has to use it at least five times in a single chapter and half the time it's spelled "gleem."

I think Dumbledore used it once or maybe even twice in the entire series. So being an uncommon word in everyday usage it has to be used by every person in the story at least a dozen times.

 

When people write characters that don't ever change despite the consequences of their actions and the world telling them that they need to change.

 

So... J. K. Rowling is your pet peeve?

 

This has literally raised my hackles - 'gleen' is barely a real word. It's shouldered its way into our butchery of a modern language because so many people fumbled the distinction between 'glean' (to learn something, to discover, to become aware of) and 'gleam' (a tiny light, glistening or glow), to the point wherein the obsolete 'gleen' has taken on the meaning of just about whatever the fuck people want, when in truth one cannot 'gleen' something, nor can something 'gleen'.

Now, I use obsolete words as much as anyone. I'm regularly called out on my use of the archaic 'span' in place of 'spun' - I write in an archaic way and am otherwise stubborn (read: snobbish) like that. But 'span' can be and has been used in that context, and will continue to be. It even has the barest hint of different inflection in speech. People outright using words incorrectly, however, not just once or twice using archaic jargon but in some sort of sustained verbal erosion of the entire language throughout an entire story, is a peeve than spans the breadth of the fandom.

:fire

 

Phoenixes (phoenīcēs?) do not fucking "thrill". If you're going to use 'thrill' as a verb, please don't use it to denote birds making noise.

"<insert character here> POV" at the top of each chapter or section. If the reader can't figure out the POV, then the author knows what they need to work on.

 

That's just a typo for "trill" - which is a sound some birds make.

 

I should have said main characters, because that's where the real peeve for me is. By the end of books, I believe most if not all of her major characters have gone through a change.

 

I'm fully aware of that.

That makes it no less annoying

 

I agree with the reviewer. Any kind of pulp american culture insertion is anathema to me in a HP universe story. Nothing kills the mood faster than "An American or a Canadian at Hogwarts" because there's no hook for some mysterious magical background supporting the atmosphere. Exceptions are american natives with some kind of nature theme or it's a crossover scenario.

 

I've never seen that used before. When I saw it I thought it was a typo.

 

Dude, don't talk shit to reviewers. Ever. Even trolls. I've done it a time or two, probably everyone has, but it is never worth it. Someone is going to hate your fic no matter what, and authors never, ever look good getting defensive. If someone says you suck, read what they say just in case they have a point, then shrug and move on. (This is, incidentally, a lesson that some professional authors have failed to learn...)

And yes, some people will love your story until they hit that one little thing that is like a needle skipping across the record for them, and then they'll tell you that you jumped the shark so sorry g'bye. It happens. Everyone has their own idiosyncratic deal-breakers.

FWIW, though, I agree with the reviewer. I am an American and I don't associate a Southern accent with "regal," and while British accents still have a bit of a cool, "regal" factor to American ears (less now that we've had decades of British movies and TV making y'all sound less exotic and foreign), I doubt it works the other way around. Harry strutting around Hogwarts trying to sound like Rhett Butler sounds kind of fail-y.

 

fail-y and pretty gay.

 

I hate how the majority of the authors on FF.net have forgotten that they need to put periods at the end of their sentences. I just can't handle seeing that in a story and when I do I usually stop reading.

Also dialogue that doesn't read like people having a real conversation, mostly due to it having incorrect punctuation or overly formal language for the characters who are speaking.

 

Actually, I don't care so much about correct punctuation and grammar in dialogue. Because, you know, we don't always speak in complete sentences. Or we rarely do. I don't, at any rate. Usually.


Like Dresden, for instance. Harry's internal monologue, his descriptions, his dialogue with other characters. All what you'd call sentence fragments.

 

I'd defend myself, but really and truly I don't give a fuck. Its a one off comment, and the only reason I even included it is because I'm from the southern part of the United States. Have you ever been sixteen and done something silly and childish to impress a girl? Ginny got the reference. Its not like I had them go back in time to visit the Civil War.

I didn't say anything to the guy, as I stated, and I wouldn't have cussed him out or something in the first place. I would have simply encouraged him to read the rest of the fic despite something as small and insignificant as 'How can I be of assistance, m'lady.' He even goes on to say immediately afterward that his drawl needed some work, implying that it was stupid and silly in the first place.

Keep in mind Ginny is 15 and not 28. I doubt that shit would have worked on Tonks, for example.

Besides, its my pet peeve, my story, and my party, and I'll cry if I fucking want to!

 

Let it out, man. Let it all out.

 

Though just as many, if not more, spell their name Lilian... still no double 'L'.

Then there's Lilith... no double 'L'.


And, adding an erroneous apostrophe to words that end in an 'S', just for the hell of it, is rapidly becoming the reason you'll eventually see me on the news, next to the word 'RAMPAGE'.

Compounded by the fact I've seen a dramatic upswing in the number of people leaving the apostrophe out of words that should be possessive... possibly as an over-correction of the aforementioned mistake.

Glean/Gleam is something that makes me want to smack someone with a dictionary... a big, hardback, unabridged, dictionary.

Right up there with Tomb/Tome and Poring/Pouring.

I hate homotextuals and the way their homophonic ass-hattery is clogging up fan fic.

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/65hz7/the_apostrophe_key_does_not_mean_holy_shit_here/

 

Suprise slash stories. Seriously, I was reading this awesome story until slash pairing jumped out of nowhere. No warning or anything. Least author could do was to put a warning but he didn't do that.

Jackass.