*Wishing for some writing skills*

*BetterWithThree*

I have a lot of pet peeves. If a story has even one of them, no matter how small or subtle, I will literally roll my eyes and turn away.

1) Grammar and punctuation:

If you don't know how to spell, either get a competent beta reader or use spell check. For people whose first language is not English, please find someone fluent. Or just stick to your native language. It really bothers me when there are a lot of spelling errors, or even just a few big ones. It makes your story hard to read. I don't want to spend more time trying to figure out what you're trying to say than actually reading the story. Proper punctuation is also a must.

I dont like seeing word's that are'nt punctuat'd or spelld corectley. It's irritating. Reverso is a good website that allows you to check your grammar and spelling.

2) Homophone:

Homophone is when two different words sound similar but are spelled differently and mean different things. This is something I see all the time in almost every story I've come across. Words such as bear (the animal)/bare (without covering), piece (a separate portion of something)/peace (a state of harmony), and bored (tedium)/board (flat slab of material).

One of the major spelling/homophones related mistake I see is "definitely/defiantly". I have seen this so many times that it irritates the sh*t out of me. I have to stop reading and calm myself down, that's how irritating it is.

3) Descriptions:

A lot of fanfiction writers these days aren't descriptive. When I read a story, I like to imagine it in my head. I picture the setting, what the characters look like, what they're doing and anything else that is described. While I don't want an entire chapter dedicated to how the main character looks, I do want at least a few sentences. Nothing fancy, but no "Jack had beautiful eyes and nice hair." What color are his eyes? Is he tall or short? What is he wearing? Things like that. And please, please describe your surroundings. Don't just say that there are a lot of plants around. I'll think the characters are in a forest until you surprise me and say they're actually in their office, which has a lot of plants.

4) Transition:

This is another big problem. Some writers switch to another character's point of view mid paragraph without any transition. It's very confusing, and distracting. If you say "John stretched as he stood up to make some coffee. The night was young and he didn't want to spend it sleeping. The wind was strong; whipping his jacket around as he leaned against the balcony railing. He could smell coffee coming from the kitchen. It looks like John is finally leaving the living room." I will stare at the screen and try to figure out what the heck just happened. Another transition problem is when writers forget where their characters are positioned. Sometimes the characters are facing each other and holding hands, but suddenly character A's back is pressed against character B's chest and their hands aren't even touching.

5) Realistic characters:

I understand that some of the stories I read are not canon. However, unless you include a good reason why the characters are acting, well, out of character, it makes me want to stop reading immediately. For example, I recently read a Harry Potter and CSI crossover. Harry found out that James isn't his father, Grissom is. So, Harry immediately took a plane to Vegas, took a cab to the lab, and told Grissom he is his son and magic is real. After about five minutes of trying to remember who Lily was, Grissom accepted the fact that magic is real and he's Harry's father. He didn't ask for a paternity test, he didn't ask Harry to prove magic is real, he didn't even ask for a background check. He just accepted what Harry told him at face value. That is extremely out of character for both Grissom and Harry. When a character does not act at least similarly than they do in the canon universe, please have a good, well thought out background that can make their behavior believable.

*BetterWithThree*

Random Doctor Who Rant:

First of all: Journey's End. The ending of the episode really pissed me off. The Doctor abandoning Rose and his meta-crisis clone (let's call him 10.2) in the parallel universe? How could he have thought it would be a good idea? First of all, how is 10.2 even alive? According to the Doctor, 10.2 is a human with the Doctor's brain, right? Isn't that what happened to Donna? A human can't hold a Time Lord's mind and knowledge, which is why the Doctor had to erase her memories. So what makes 10.2 so different? Frankly, it was sloppy of the writers to leave such a big plot hole. Another thing I didn't understand - why did the Doctor have to drop Rose and 10.2 back into the parallel universe? Why couldn't they have stayed in the original universe? Rose traveled across hundreds of dimensions to get back to him, probably running into a lot of trouble along the way, and putting herself in danger. The Doctor once said that time travel without a capsule is nasty (Blink). What about traveling across the void into different dimensions multiple times without a capsule? I imagine it's painful. Not only that, but 10.2 is essentially a human Doctor, with all of his memories and feelings. How will he able to survive without the TARDIS? Not only is she his oldest and dearest companion, she is also his home. 10.2 will have to deal with being human, getting used to this new universe where a lot of the things he knew are no longer applicable, and he has to take the slow path. He can't even travel through time and space and look for new adventures! That must be absolute torture for him. Also, I'm not convinced that Rose is completely human anymore. She absorbed the time vortex, and came out unscathed and unchanged? Unlikely. She was able to hold on to the vortex while piloting the TARDIS, scattering the words BAD WOLF throughout time and space, turn the Daleks to dust, and bring Jack back from the dead. It must have taken at least 10 minutes to do all that. And yet, the Doctor, with his superior Time Lord biology, died/regenerated after holding it for half a minute. Really? Unless humans are more compatible with the vortex than Time Lords, it's extremely unlikely that Rose remained unaffected.

Second of all: Weeping Angels. Whoever wrote the episodes that include the Weeping Angels are either forgetful, or didn't do their research. In our first look at the Angels (Blink), we learn that they are the silent assassins that can't move when observed. They are fast, and they kill people by displacing them in time and feeding off the energy created by the altered timeline. Then, we learn a bit more in Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone. However, the information we get from these three episodes are conflicting. In the later episodes, we learn that Angels can't be photographed or drawn. "The image of an Angel becomes, itself, an Angel." And yet, in Blink, Sally Sparrow offers the Doctor a packet with information of the Angels, a transcript, a list of DVD's, and pictures of the Angels. Nothing happened. No Angels came out of the pictures. And while Sally and Larry Nightingale are trapped in the old mansion, they take turns staring at the Angel in front of them. They made eye contact with it multiple times, which, according to the notebook in Time of the Angels, opens your soul to the Angels. When Amy looked the Angel in the eye, it went into her brain. Again, nothing happened to Sally or Larry. The writers need to keep a closer eye and do more research into past episodes.

*BetterWithThree*