Bronwyn Green

The Corner of Quirky & Kinky

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You may be wondering why there’s a psychotic-looking cat biting someone’s toes as the photo for a post about writing pet peeves. Well, I’m about to tell you. This cat is named Peeve. He’s a literal pet peeve. He belongs to my dear friend, Roxanne, and I can tell you, this cat? He’s a total asshole. He’s utterly hilarious, but oh my god, he’s a jerk. I blame her husband. He’s always wanted a pet named, Peeve. I feel like he brought this curse upon their family. However, I’m also kind of delighted because Peeve, while being unbelievably awful, is also unbelievably delightful. Though, Roxanne may beg to differ.

Unlike, the literal pet, Peeve, writing pet peeves don’t have much to recommend them. They’re just there. And they’re irksome. They don’t even purr and look cute. They just chew on my patience like Peeve chews on…well, everything.

In no particular order, here are a few of my writing pet peeves:

Head hopping: You know the one – where the POV bounces back and forth like a drunken game of ping pong in a smelly, frat house basement.

I think a good rule of thumb is if there are alternating points of view, stick to one character per scene.  Or, one POV per chapter. This is fairly easy for me because I tend toward shorter chapters. But whatever you do, the reader doesn’t need to be in the heads of the taxi-driver, mother-in-law, cashier, best friend, or pizza delivery person. See also: the POVs of every member of the rock band, members of the audience and the formerly non-sentient teddybear on the shelf. (Yes, these are all things I’ve come across in published books.)  If what those people are thinking is somehow crucial to the plot, it can be shown through dialogue and action. Except for the teddybear. Fuck that little stuffie.

POV changes mid-story: This is less head hopping and more straight up changes. For instance, if, in the middle of a third person narrative, the story suddenly jumps to second person, that’s super annoying.

Here’s an example:

Ivy hadn’t seen him since Caleb and Charlotte’s wedding reception, and she prayed to the deity of drunken hook-ups that Phoebe’s uncle didn’t remember her. It had been twelve years and zero contact. Chances were good that she might look vaguely familiar to him, but he’d never make the connection. At least, that was her fervent hope. Other than the fact he was the bride’s bother, she didn’t really have any regrets. You know how these things go…you get dumped the night before your friends’ wedding, drink entirely too much, and you find yourself in the janitor’s closet, attempting to fuck your ex out of your system. It happens.

This sudden switch into second person POV is jarring and unnecessary. Now, if you’re writing a first person narrative, you can get away with the occasional jump into second person. Here’s that same section from a first person POV with the jump to second. It’s a lot less jarring, I think , because a first person narrative is already telling the story directly to the reader, and that jump feels less like the author is breaking the fourth wall.

I hadn’t seen him since Caleb and Charlotte’s wedding reception, and I prayed to the deity of drunken hook-ups that Phoebe’s uncle didn’t remember me. It had been twelve years and zero contact. Chances were good that I might look vaguely familiar to him, but he’d never make the connection. At least, that was my fervent hope. Other than the fact he was the bride’s bother, I didn’t really have any regrets. You know how these things go…you get dumped the night before your friends’ wedding, drink entirely too much, and you find yourself in the janitor’s closet, attempting to fuck your ex out of your system. It happens.

Another kind of annoying POV insertion often happens in third person narrative. It’s the jump into an omniscient POV.

Here’s an example: 

She slumped against the back of the chair, able to relax knowing Jonah was safe–at least for a little while. But that was all about to change…in ways she never expected.

You see it a lot as a chapter hook. I think it’s often used that way because the author wants the reader to keep reading and thinks that this tantalizing  bit of info is going to keep them turning the pages and that it’ll also build tension. But all a jump into omniscient POV does is lessens the actual impact of your plot whenever whatever terrible thing you alluded to actually happens, because the readers knew it was coming. They might not have known what, exactly. But they were on the lookout. It’s more effective to let the plot wind tighter naturally than to try to engender artificial fear in your reader. 

Using apostrophes to pluralize words:  There’s a sign I see every year, starting around the beginning of Lent: All you can eat fish fry’s every Friday evening. 

No…just no. It’s fish fries.

Fish fry’s indicates a possessive. It means that something belongs to the fish fry. What is it? The fish fry’s excessive use of vegetable oil?  The fish fry’s extra large napkin order?  The fish fry’s pungent odor that clings to the hair and clothing of everyone present? What?

It’s not book’s, rug’s, fan’s, machine’s, or dresser’s. It’s books, rugs, fans, machines, and dressers.  Unless something specifically belongs to any of these things, you don’t use an apostrophe.

And if you’re sending out holiday cards or invitations to an entire family, they don’t go to the Jones’s, the De La Rosa’s, the St. James’s, the Jarman’s, the Norris’s, the Cease’s, the Prince’s, the Trout’s, or the Green’s.  They go to the Joneses, the De La Rosas, the St. Jameses, the Jarmans, the Norrises, the Ceases, the Princes, the Trouts, and the Greens.

Incorrect use of I and me:  This is one of those things that is constantly misused, mostly because a lot of people think that using me sounds wrong, and often childish or uneducated. Here’s a trick that my 10th grade English teacher taught me, because this was one of his biggest pet peeves.

Use “I” if you’re the subject of the sentence. Use “me” if you’re the object.

Here are some examples:

The teacher gave Sally and me good grades. This is correct usage. You can tell because if you swapped out “I” for “me” and took Sally out of the equation, you’d have The teacher gave I good grades. And if the teacher is giving me good grades for this kind of sentence construction, the teacher and I have bigger problems than using “me” and “I” correctly.

The trick is to remove the other person from the sentence. If “I” still works, you’re golden. If not, switch to “me”.

Telling about a character’s emotions rather than showing them:  This falls into the “drives me batty” category. Don’t tell me he was mad or sad or terrified or depressed. Show me. Show me his tightening fists and narrowed eyes. Show me a lump rising in his throat and tears burning his eyes. Show me his rapid breathing, his cold sweat, his inability to move. Show me how he plays one game of solitaire after another so he doesn’t have to think or how he shovels one handful of chips in his mouth after the other so the crunching will drown out the sound of his own thoughts.

Telling about a character’s traits rather than showing them: This involves one character waxing poetic about another character but never seeing anything in the story that backs up the description. (Looking at you, E.L. James.) For instance, Christian goes on at length about how brilliant and amazing and remarkable Ana is. There is nothing in the text to back up these assertions. In fact, if one were to make inferences about her intelligence based on her behavior, one would be forced to admit that she basically falls into the “too stupid to live” category. And there’s nothing remarkable about Ana either, other than she somehow managed to graduate from college without a working email address. So words mean things. By all means, have your characters think what they want about their fellow characters, but back it up. You can’t just run around having people talk about how smarty-smart your character is and have him behave like he’s the village idiot.

Doubling up on the action (no, not that kind): I see this on a fairly regular basis. Character thinks or talks about what action has to be done. Said thought or dialogue is immediately followed by character doing that very thing. No. Just…no.

Here’s an example:

Louloufifibelle sighed and muttered to herself, “Damnation. I have to get the mail.” Louloufifibelle walked outside and got the mail.

That is…just annoying. Not to mention super unnecessary.

Thesaurus misuse: Okay, I’m all about avoiding word reps. They’re annoying to read and when you start noticing a lot of them in the prose, it begins to feel like they’re dumbing down the narrative. Now, I’m sure you’re reading this and thinking, well the thesaurus is the best friend of people who hate word reps. It is…and it isn’t. You have to be careful when you’re choosing synonyms that you have the right one in the right form. Often times, I’ll be reading, and a fairly mundane word will just stop me dead in the middle of a sentence because it reads as so out of place that it jolted me from the story. When you’re searching for synonyms, the thing to keep in mind is that words have nuances. And you need to make sure that those nuances apply to your sentence.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say you write the sentence: He made a good point.

But then you realized that  you just used the word “made” three lines above. So you get out your handy dandy thesaurus and you look for synonyms for made.

And you write this: He contrived a good point.

No. No, he didn’t. Just because contrived is listed as a synonym for made doesn’t make those two words interchangeable. Be aware of the word’s nuances before you haphazardly try to swap it out.

Mary Sue as heroine: I’m sure you’ve all seen that character – the heroine who’s clearly a stand in for the author’s idealized self. (Looking at you, Laurel K. Hamilton/Anita Blake/Merry Gentry.) A Mary Sue tends to be pretty easy to pick out. She’s perfect, everyone loves her (except those mean girls who obviously just want to be her), she always saves the day, gets the guy, and she’s boring AF. The corresponding male character is Gary Stu. He’s equally irksome.

Sexist, misogynistic dickbags who are being lauded as heroes: I am so sick of a certain class of dude being portrayed as a romance hero. He tends to be aggressive sexually and otherwise. I’m not talking sexually aggressive in a fun way where both parties are into it – I’m talking the predatory sort of aggression that wears the victim heroine down to the point where she gives in. On pretty much everything.  And outwardly, it doesn’t even have to appear sexual in nature. It can be that he’s forcing her to accept a new car, protection from his super secret-y security team, a better job, etc. He’s constantly ignoring the wishes/feelings/autonomy of the heroine because he knows better, and he’s going to prove it. Ninety-nine percent of the time, this dude is ridiculously wealthy gazillionaire but he moonlights as an MMA fighter, the president of a motorcycle club, a former Navy SEAL, or a cowboy – sometimes all. at. once. Is it supposed to make him extra appealing that during the day he crushes his competitors in his super upscale job as the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and at night he beats the shit out of his opponents in the seedy underworld of mixed martial arts? Oh, and he fits in some Daddy-Domming on the side in some high-end, yet still skeezy leather club? No. It makes him a douche. 

If you, like me, now have this awesome song in your head…you’re welcome.

I think that’s about it from me. But be sure to share some of your writing/reading pet peeves and don’t forget to check out the other bloggers’ pet peeves, too!

Jessica

Kris

Kayleigh

Kellie

Gwen

Jess

 

27 thoughts on “Writing Pet Peeves

  1. Alex Kourvo says:

    These are all of my pet peeves, too! And the sad thing is, these are all easily fixable, yet we see them over and over.

    1. Bronwyn says:

      For some reason the apostrophe error used for business signage makes me especially nuts.

  2. twimom227 says:

    I can forgive a few poor grammar mistakes, but the ones you list – plural apostrophe and mixing me/I are not acceptable. These are elementary school level grammar and should have been edited out.

    The doubling up on action is a bad one that I forgot about. *pulls out hair*

    1. Bronwyn says:

      And when it happens over and over and over, it makes me nuts.

  3. Paige Prince says:

    Oh god thank you for this list. You are my goddess.

    1. Bronwyn says:

      *adjusts gown and settles on throne*

      😉

  4. kris norris says:

    Wow… you make my list seem pitiful. Yes to all of the above and two things. I love that we both used frat houses analogies and the clip at the end. Love those ladies.

    1. Bronwyn says:

      I was feeling a little ranty. 😉

  5. I’m going to disagree with you on the head hopping . Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling because her head hopping is game changing. Given, we are not JK Rowling and she is a very talented author but, she proved to me a dynamic scene is very possible with head hopping. It’s amazing to read.

    1. Bronwyn says:

      I’m gonna have to read that, now…

  6. Gwen Cease says:

    Okay, your list is amazing and I agree with all. I especially agree with the last two. I hate the Mary Sue heroine, but more than that I had the uber macho Type A male who’s super wealthy and a biker/fighter/spy on the side. So much stupid. It’s this whole 50 shades idiocy run rampant. Grey is not a hero and, yet, people think he is. So now we have abusive men pretending to be heroes. Ohhhh, obviously major pet peeve. LOL

    1. Bronwyn says:

      Thank you! They make me so stabby. Utterly stabby!

  7. Apostrophes to pluralise words. APOSTROPHES TO PLURALISE WORDS! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH! *RAGESPLOSION*

    …Yeah, I guess that bothers me too.

    Also, I had never head the term “fish fry” so I had to google it. Do you have [other food] fries (besides potato, obviously)?

    I agreed with everything else you said too, just not in quite such a *transforms into ragebeast* kind of way.

    And I especially agree with your use of Garfunkel and Oates.

    1. Bronwyn says:

      I *may* have been a wee bit testy when I wrote that post. Particularly that last one.

      Really…? Fish fries are an American thing? Huh. But, to be fair, they are a bad idea, so it stands to reason. Everyone ends up smelling like fried fish for a week – you know, until the next Friday in Lent. Well, if you’re Catholic or you grow up Catholic, anyway. I can’t think of any other gatherings like fish fries were fried food is involved. But pig roasts are popular. And also kind of gross.

      1. Ahh… we have “hog roasts”, which either means a whole pig being roasted and served (so you might get someone to do a hog roast for your party) or just means a hot pork roll (so you might have a hog roast for lunch). Presumably kind of the same thing? But no, for all our love of (fried) fish and chips, we don’t theme parties around it, as far as I know.

        1. Bronwyn says:

          I think I was 11 or 12 the first time I saw a pig put on a spit, and I remember thinking to myself, “I’m really glad I don’t have to hunt and cook my own food because…” *vom*. I think the group fish fries started because during Lent, Catholics aren’t supposed to eat meat on Fridays, and no one wants their houses to smell like fish for days on end, hence the big fish fry parties in church basements and community centers. Sadly, my MIL always insisted on cooking fish at home…with no ventilation in the kitchen.

          1. Yes, I feel exactly the same about not having to kill and cook my own food. I definitely recognise that there is an enforced gap, in my mind, between “whole dead animals” and “nicely packaged lumps of meat in a supermarket”. My great-granddad was a butcher but clearly some things don’t get passed down…

  8. Pansy Petal says:

    Wow! I guess this list explains why you made my “favorite authors” list. You pay attention to these things.

    POV! I often find myself scratching my head wonder where I am with this issue.

    Basic grammar – Oh yeah! That one is a huge pet peeve for me. And it doesn’t stop with the examples you mentioned. Back in my day one knelt, they didn’t kneeled. *shutter* They slept instead of sleeped. You get the idea. But somewhere along the line these grammatical guidelines changed and I didn’t get the memo. Grrr!

    Thesaurus misuse – I beta read for an author who likes the word heinous. Don’t get me wrong, it is a neat word, but it does have it’s place. It does not work everyplace that is “terrible.” In this case I recommend thesaurus usage. *sigh* Guess that is what a beta reader does – ey?

    Overall, great list. I especially love the pet named peeve! 😀 Thank you for sharing.

    1. Bronwyn says:

      I really, really dislike using kneeled and dreamed. I’ll use knelt and dreamt until I die, damnit.

      Also, I made your favorite authors list?! *quietly squeeees in the corner*

  9. Maggie Wells says:

    I’m totally with you on the Alphaholes. If I met one of these dickweeds in the world as I know it, I’d give ’em a swift knee to the crotch.

    1. Bronwyn says:

      Same, Maggie. Same. 😀

  10. Jass says:

    All of these! Yes! And while I say agree, I’m terrified I have probably done them at some point. I’d like to add to the list a big pet peeve that destroys a book for me:
    Anytime a fantasy/Sci-fi world is being built and the author breaks their own established universe rules. It almost always reads as a deux ex machina, glossed away by the protagonist (usually a ‘chosen one’ type-which I also hate) being a special exception.

    Also thanks for that tip on the I and Me, I don’t usually have a problem with the two but there are times where I will doubt myself. Now I have a litmus test of sorts!

    1. Bronwyn says:

      I think we’ve all probably done them at some point. 🙂

      That irks me, too! With both sci-fi and paranormal. If you’ve set up rules, stick to them, please! Consistency is huge. And there are far, far too many chosen ones out there. I’m not saying I hate every instance of it. For instance, I adore Buffy. But sometimes, in Booklandia, it seems there are more special snowflakes than average people.

      1. Jass says:

        Buffy will always be the chosen one!

        1. Bronwyn says:

          Out of the myriad chosen ones running around out there, she really is the best one. 😀

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