Two observations today

[Miskatonic]

The farm boy with a destiny. Maybe it's because I'm old, but I don't think so, because this particular peeve has been my pet for a couple of decades at least.

Once upon a time, I did like coming-of-age stories. But I grew out of it. Now I give the book a pass if I see it's about young people engaged in a fantasy quest. I want a story about grown-ups. In truth, I'd like a story about an old man on an epic quest. But adult, anyway.

Adults have a depth that youth cannot have. Give me someone with a history (but not someone like Kvothe, please). Someone with scars rather than aspirations. Someone with a past rather than a destiny.

'Scuse me. Gotta take my pet for a walk.

I have a farm boy MC in my series. However he's not destined to save the world or anything, just has a part to play in the bigger picture. No superpowers, no special lineage that makes him unique, etc. That and he's only MC for the first half of the series.

 

[Nomadica]

^ You can have young people with depth and scars. They would be the exceptions but that's what stories are made of, exceptions. When I was younger I had made some bizarre choices that took me to such strange experiences that I had and have a hard time relating to people. I also had a lot of trauma early on. So deep young people happen. Also shallow old people happen. But I see where skip.knox is coming from.

 

[Necroben]

Sadly I used to think this could go without saying, but bad grammar is a peeve of mine.

In today's e-book world where anyone can publish a story I've seen a lot of bad grammar. Nothing knocks you out of a story faster than: Strait a head he marshed. Never looked over the shoulder.

 

[Heliotrope]

lol! @ Necroben that is hilarious!

 

[Necroben]

Looking back on it I can laugh now. But at the time I wanted to break my Kindle.

 

[glutton]

Anything that starts with a noble girl leaving her home to become a warrior. Not saying any names, but a particular author with a particular steam punk pirate air ship captain novel caught my attention recently. I like air ship pirates, and the man on the cover was my type (*cough cough*). At the very beginning, it started with a noble girl leaving home to become a warrior. I was so disappointed!

Lol I use the noble girl warrior all the time, they don't usually renounce their nobility to do it though. One of them does it because her sick brother can't attend military school so she goes in his place with the (reluctant) blessing of her parents, in general they are often so gifted at fighting it would be kind of a waste for them not to be warriors and they become champion of their homeland or something XD

 

[spectre]

@heliotrope what about "...tears rolled angrily down his cheeks like a river over stone." or something to that affect. Now I'm scared to have my characters cry. Lol.

Sent from my LGLS675 using Tapatalk

 

[spectre]

@Svrtnesse yeah I struggle with it and I'm trying to really put new craft into my fantasy. (about a <thing> called <special name>).

Sent from my LGLS675 using Tapatalk

 

[spectre]

@skip.nox if farm boy with a destiny bugs you, did you like Robert Jordan?

Sent from my LGLS675 using Tapatalk

 

[Guy]

Pet peeves... well, let's see...

Vampires.
Names that don't conform to any known rules of phonetics.
Would-be action girls who end up having to be rescued by the men.
Vampires.
Authors who don't do their research. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Phillip K. Dick armed Deckard with a ".38 Magnum." I just shook my head and thought, "Congratulations, Phil. You just invented the .357. Too bad Smith and Wesson and Winchester beat you to it in 1935." Another author had his hero "switch off the safety on his Glock." Yeah, you know how you switch off the safety on a Glock? You pull the trigger. Swords didn't weigh twenty pounds and no warrior with more than three functioning brain cells would go into battle wearing armor so heavy it immobilized him.
Vampires.
Giving archers the order to "fire!" You don't fire a bow. You loose, release, or shoot, but you do not fire.
Love triangles.
Did I mention vampires?

 

[Ireth]

Giving archers the order to "fire!" You don't fire a bow. You loose, release, or shoot, but you do not fire.

Seconded. So very, very seconded.

Also, characters speaking random phrases in their native tongue when the book/movie/whatever as a whole is meant to be translated, and it can be assumed they're speaking their native tongue already even though we see or hear English. Ex. in "The Road to El Dorado", Tulio suddenly saying "¡Buenos Días!" or "...we'll row back to Spain like there's no mañana!"

 

[Miskatonic]

Pet peeves... well, let's see...

Vampires.
Names that don't conform to any known rules of phonetics.
Would-be action girls who end up having to be rescued by the men.
Vampires.
Authors who don't do their research. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Phillip K. Dick armed Deckard with a ".38 Magnum." I just shook my head and thought, "Congratulations, Phil. You just invented the .357. Too bad Smith and Wesson and Winchester beat you to it in 1935." Another author had his hero "switch off the safety on his Glock." Yeah, you know how you switch off the safety on a Glock? You pull the trigger. Swords didn't weigh twenty pounds and no warrior with more than three functioning brain cells would go into battle wearing armor so heavy it immobilized him.
Vampires.
Giving archers the order to "fire!" You don't fire a bow. You loose, release, or shoot, but you do not fire.
Love triangles.
Did I mention vampires?

Not only do I have farm boys, I also have vampires!

 

[Ireth]

Not only do I have farm boys, I also have vampires!

I have a farm boy (well, man; he's 23) who becomes a vampire at the start of his novel. XD And various other vampires as well.

 

[FifthView]

Names that don't conform to any known rules of phonetics.

Yes, this.

Giving archers the order to "fire!" You don't fire a bow. You loose, release, or shoot, but you do not fire.

The idea of "fire a gun" comes from setting fire to the fuse on cannons and other early firearms. Heh, firearms. That's from the 1520s, although apparently the "extended sense of 'to throw (as a missile)' " is from 1580s, so it quickly gained a more general warfare-related sense.

Earlier, I can see "Fire!" being a command to set the arrows on fire, then it might be followed by "Loose!"

 

[Russ]

Language that is inappropriate for the period really ticks me off. I came across one last year (from a very successful writer who will remain nameless) that literally made me throw the book out the window.

His MC is talking to the leader of a group of a race that is trying to remain secretive. The leader of that race says:

"We are trying to stay under the radar."

Instant defenestration.

 

[FifthView]

"We are trying to stay under the radar."

Ouch. I don't understand how that got past the editor, even if it was self-edited.

 

[Miskatonic]

I have a farm boy (well, man; he's 23) who becomes a vampire at the start of his novel. XD And various other vampires as well.

Vampires have been given a bad reputation in recent years. You just have to do something different with them!

 

[Ireth]

Language that is inappropriate for the period really ticks me off. I came across one last year (from a very successful writer who will remain nameless) that literally made me throw the book out the window.

His MC is talking to the leader of a group of a race that is trying to remain secretive. The leader of that race says:

"We are trying to stay under the radar."

Instant defenestration.

This. So many times this.

 

[glutton]

If one side has a mix of bow and gun users, would it still seem off for the leader to say something like 'fire at will' for all ranged attackers on their side? I ask because my giant hammer wielding, Godzilla-sized monster smashing MC is leading a force that includes archers, gunmen, mechas, and elemental creatures some of which can shoot stuff in my current WIP lol.

 

[Guy]

Vampires have been given a bad reputation in recent years. You just have to do something different with them!

That's the thing. The stories I've come across, they're always whiny, angsty creatures that somehow manage to have an adolescent personality despite being centuries old. When I was a whiny, angsty adolescent I thought they were desperately cool. Now, as a middle aged man, I just want to smack them. And the thing is, I would love a good vampire story. There's a lot of potential in the character, but it seems like almost every author wants to take this potentially awesome character and turn it into an emo drug addict. It's fairly infuriating.