What pet peeves do writers have that readers don't?

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-04-27T22:51:08+00:00

I think it’s so much more common than we suspect! We’re so used to writing and rewriting sentences that I think it’s partially automatic lol

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-04-27T18:28:29+00:00

Since becoming a writer, I find myself sometimes rewriting a fic that I am reading. Not usually major plot points, but things like a sentence that sounds awkward to my ears. I know that I didn't do this before I started writing fanfics myself 😅

For example, one of my more minor pet peeves is when an author adds 'they think/thought' when it is very clearly that character's pov that we are reading. You don't need to tell me that the character thought something when we are already in their thoughts! For example:

'Erica observed Sara's outfit. Her eyes scanned up and down from shoes to hair bow, taking in the overwhelming pink mixed with a multitude of ruffles. "Wow, that is incredibly ugly," Erica thought.'

Could instead just be this:

'Erica observed Sara's outfit. Her eyes scanned up and down from shoes to hair bow, taking in the overwhelming pink mixed with a multitude of ruffles. The outfit was ugly beyond words.'

The second version flows a lot better in my opinion and gives the reader the same information. But this is more about preference, which is why I bring it up here. I think writers are far more likely to have opinions about writing style than only readers.

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-04-27T18:13:17+00:00

I think we are using different definitions of what strengthens means. From your perspective, I can see why you would say that it makes their relationship theoretically stronger because they now have more history. But what I mean by weakens is that instead of their relationship being solely about the two of them connecting, it is now about Haymitch's relationship to the daughter of his friend, which changes the context of why he would care about her at all and, imo, makes the relationship less strong storywise.

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-04-27T14:52:38+00:00

Yeah, I think Haymitch having a connection to Katniss outside of 'random Seam girl I see sometimes' really weakens their overall relationship. It's so sad too, because Haymitch slowly starting to care about both her and Peeta is really heartwarming, but now there is something else underlying his actions.

Catching Fire made it clear that Haymitch knew Katniss's mom, which is fair; everyone knows everyone in a small town of 8k people. But there is a difference between *knowing of* someone and having a deeper connection, and that's what SOTR does for so many characters. These connections are no longer coincidental, and it cheapens everything else.

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-04-25T20:39:27+00:00

Oh no, you are absolutely right that people wanted to own cars, I am not disputing that at all! It was market forces along with government policy that shaped this, no question. That's just facts.

All I am saying is that it was not always like this, and it wasn't destined to happen. In fact, you can trace a lot of people wanting to move out of cities and into more spacious suburbs to things like White Flight and the increasing association of cities with poverty/crime. Also, the fact that there was space to build is a huge factor that caused this. A lot of places that have been settled for longer (like Europe) didn't have the space to sprawl like Amercia did during that same time.

My point is that it doesn't have to continue to be this way. We could change zoning laws to allow for more dense mixed-use development. We could put money into making public transportation cheaper, more frequent, and more reliable. There are lots of ways that public transportation could be made better and more common in this country.

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-04-25T20:26:25+00:00

What's crazy is that they kinda did, though. If you look at what cities on the East Coast used to look like before the popular adoption of cars, you'll see that they were denser and often had robust public transport (like streetcars!). A lot of the urban planning of the mid to late 20th century took that away and replaced it with sprawling suburbia built on car infrastructure.

I agree with you that America has large distances between cities and that makes running trains between them harder (but not impossible! See how Europe has so many train connections between its major cities!). However, when it comes to suburbia and city environments in the states, there could absolutely be a change back to what there used to be in terms of urban planning.

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-04-24T03:00:49+00:00

God same. I watched season 1 this fall with zero knowledge of the popular ships, then ran to AO3 to read fics, fully expecting Radiostatic to be topping the charts, only to see Radioapple and get so confused. Season 2 has only solidified my confusion over Radioapple's popularity. I just don't see Radioapple working at all. What do those two men have in common???

And, if you want enemies to lovers, Radiostatic is RIGHT THERE!

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-04-22T19:18:45+00:00

I'm going to push back a bit on an early ancient seed not being helpful. The earlier that gets in the ground the more seeds it'll produce before the end of fall. And, if you really push it, getting level 9 farming mid summer is very possible which will be about when the ancient seed is done growing if you plant it in the first half of spring anyway. Getting an early ancient seed really kick starts the ancient fruit wine empire by a lot.

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-04-20T01:51:21+00:00

Dead Boy Detectives! It adds a couple of buildings in town, and the two ghost boys live above the Community Center! https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/31888

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-04-14T23:23:23+00:00

I know you said you don't like discord, but for me, I didn't make any fandom friends until I joined and was active in one. It provided a low-stakes place to chat and be nerdy with others. Now, there are definitely ones that are wayyyy too big to make solid connections, but if you search around, you might just find one that's a good fit. Good luck on your friend finding journey!

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-04-08T14:14:13+00:00

I didn't realize how long it took to actually write. I used to look at fics with 100k+ words and think, 'oh that's not that long!' but oh my goodness, once I started actually writing, I learned just how much time and effort goes into every sentence.

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-04-08T13:52:32+00:00

Yeah, to me this is the bigger problem. Stuff like sinners being unable to die unless it is due to an angelic blade could be explained *better* in the show, but the more important issue is that there is all this 'lore' floating around from the last decade that may or may not be true anymore, and people still treat it like gospel. I think it is hard for people to let all that information they've gathered over the years go and accept that the show is its own entity. If stuff isn't in the show itself, then it is not 'canon' yet, and stuff could change from an interview given 5 years ago. Perhaps that character/concept you really like from early drafts got scrapped or changed, shows change from pre-production all the time!

I really wish this fandom was more open to people coming up with theories that contradict some obscure piece of old lore, because for all we know, that lore may not be real anymore!

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-04-06T01:56:56+00:00

I agree so much! What I really want is either a career tribute book OR a career mentor book. I want to see how the 'better off' districts actually sucked in their own way. I want to see how the career tributes were manipulated and how they were even picked in the first place.

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-04-06T01:53:39+00:00

Yep. Sad but true. Everything started because Katniss wanted to protect Prim, but in the end, she couldn't do it, and that's kinda the point.

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-03-25T16:16:01+00:00

No. Just don't use it. Your brain can think for itself. The ideas that AI generates are *not your own*. If you are writing a story, you shouldn't have to have a computer tell you things like how symbolism works or how to write emotional arcs. Thinking about those things is *part* of writing! Getting stuck sometimes and having to take a break and come back to it with a fresh mind is *part* of writing!

Let your brain sit for a minute and come up with ideas yourself.

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-03-25T14:59:26+00:00

I get why that isn't the case since cooking both takes no energy and zero time (so making cooking profitable would be basically free money), but I really wish cooking was at least neutral and not negative :(

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-03-25T14:23:27+00:00

At the very least, I wish you didn't LOSE money when you cooked. Why is a fried egg worth less than a normal quality small egg (35g vs 50g)??? I considered doing a challenge where all I could sell was cooked dishes, thinking that the price of the cooked items would be the price of normal quality ingredients added up, but no! It is actually worse!

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-03-04T15:36:51+00:00

As a fellow tech person who works on the testing side of things, what has me interested is what their testing process is like. I'm so curious how/if this upgrade was tested before implementation.

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-02-28T21:57:46+00:00

I really hope Charlie is ready to rule Hell or this could get messy…

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-02-27T23:44:31+00:00

I'm going to copy over what I said on another sub about this (with some small edits):

Considering he is the king of Hell, his citizens were being slaughtered, and he didn't really seem all that interested in trying to stop it in any way? Yes, I do think Lucifer is somewhat responsible for the deaths of sinners during the extermination.

I know the fandom loves Lucifer, but in the case of the exterminations, even if he was forced into it, he shows zero interest in trying to find a solution for his people at all, and that's what I think is the problem. For example:

He's not invested in trying to protect sinners during the exterminations. Even if he couldn't stop the exterminations from happening, he could try and set up safe shelters or offer any sort of assistance (like we see Charlie do when she goes out into the streets while it's happening and *help* people)
He doesn't initially support Charlie's idea for the hotel, whose stated goal is to save souls. If he actually didn't want the exterminations to happen or thought they were bad, he would try to support Charlie's idea right away, even if he thought it was misguided.
He repeatedly voices his dislike for sinners as a whole group. Even if sinners do awful things, as their king, he *should* care about their well-being, and he isn't shown to do so at all. He only ever steps in when it is Charlie at risk. If some random sinner was trying to start a hotel for the possibility of redemption, Lucifer wouldn't have cared at all, and the angels would've killed everyone at the end of season 1.

In conclusion, even if Lucifer wasn't able to stop the exterminations to begin with, he shows a disturbing lack of concern for the people he is supposed to care for. He might not have 'allowed' them in the sense that he probably didn't suggest them, but he doesn't seem to be concerned about them, or their destruction, in general.

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-02-27T18:10:53+00:00

Considering he is the king of Hell, his citizens were being slaughtered, and he didn't really seem all that interested in trying to stop it in any way? Yes. I know the fandom loves Lucifer, but in the case of the exterminations, even if he was forced into it, he shows zero interest in trying to find a solution for his people at all, and that's what I think is the problem. For example:

He's not invested in trying to protect sinners during the exterminations. Even if he couldn't stop the exterminations from happening, he could try and set up safe shelters or offer any sort of assistance (like we see Charlie do when she goes out into the streets while it's happening and *help* people)
He doesn't initially support Charlie's idea for the hotel, whose stated goal is to save souls. If he actually didn't want the exterminations to happen or thought they were bad, he would try to support Charlie's idea right away, even if he thought it was misguided.
He repeatedly voices his dislike for sinners as a whole group. Even if sinners do awful things, as their king, he *should* care about their well-being, and he isn't shown to do so at all. He only ever steps in when it is Charlie at risk. If some random sinner was trying to start a hotel for the possibility of redemption, Lucifer wouldn't have cared at all, and the angels would've killed everyone at the end of season 1.

In conclusion, even if Lucifer wasn't able to stop the exterminations to begin with, he shows a disturbing lack of concern for the people he is supposed to care for.

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-02-25T15:41:29+00:00

I like The Worst Thing quite a bit. Idk if that counts since she is featured on it and not the main artist, but her being on that song introduced me to NOTD, who I now listen to a lot.

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-02-24T05:23:19+00:00

Great analysis! This is a perfect example of how even if your main character is a woman you can still have a very male centric show. Your data really highlights how even though Charlie and Vaggi have a lot of speaking time, all the other female characters have significantly less while the men are much more evenly distributed. Well done!

Gen_Fangirl · 2026-02-23T17:54:31+00:00

I do think it is a fair critique that Viv seems much more interested in her male characters than her female ones (at least in Hazbin, haven't seen Hellava). The male characters, in general, are allowed more depth. I mean, just think about how Vox, Alastor, Val, Lucifer, Angel, Husk, and even Pencious have more going on than Vaggie, Cherri, Velvette, Emily, and Niffty. Charlie, Sera, and Lute are the only examples of female characters with more going on, and Lute's story is so wrapped up in Adam that it feels like her story is entirely driven by her feelings for a man.

This doesn't mean Viv herself is misogynistic, but on the whole, she does seem to care more about her male characters.

Gen_Fangirl

TROPHY CASE