(tw: talks about blood breifly, language)
Yes this is a rant, im sorry if it comes off as rude, i don’t mean for it to be
People who write AUs then title their stories as the AU... ik titles are hard to come up with but please have a title.
While on that subject, please don’t have “sorry I'm not good at summaries, just read it” in your story summary. Bruh, if you don’t have a summary that appeals to me, I’m not going to read it. And it’s especially annoying when they add it on after their summary, just keep it at that or make it into an author’s note, please, i beg of you, it makes people hesitant to read it cause like.... if you can’t write a summary, I assume you can’t write your story (that sounds harsh but I'm being honest).
People who don’t do even just the bare minimum of research when they write about injuries.
Just gonna put some stuff here in that—if someone gets shot or stabbed in the stomach, they will probably die unless they receive immediate medical attention (and even then the odds aren’t great), those stomach acids do not mix well outside the protective stomach lining its made for. IF YOUR CHARACTER HAS BEEN SHOT OR WOUNDED IN ANY WAY—THEY ARE NOT ALL GOOD TO KEEP FIGHTING/VIBING LIKE NOTHING IS WRONG. Blood loss affects people differently depending on their age, size, and health, so don’t immediately make someone pass out (though that can happen), on that note, don’t ignore the steps of what happens with things like blood loss and poison, not everyone reacts universally to something, explain what happens, don’t jump to the end. Just please for the love of god do just a bit of research about it—and if you really don’t want to, at least make it believable, if something sounds logical, I’ll go with it.
My god, please do not make characters OOC, especially if it's in the same story like.... dude frrr??? Also, if you want to change their personality from the original source material, that’s okay! But make it make sense, explain why the character is like that, why have they changed? Have their character crafted, then have them make decisions that seem logical to that personality. And this is not me saying characters can’t grow, they absolutely should, I’m just saying, don’t skip that growth without context and don’t make them act in a way they never would.
This goes for dialogue too, don’t write a high-class character using a lot of contractions, don’t have the serious character using “like” or “omg” or anything a teenage girl would say. If someone has an accent, like a Southern accent, they will say “y’all” (I say it all the time and I’m just barely from the south) but if they live in California or New York, that will turn into “you guys”. And some characters might pause more when they speak, think about if your character is calculated with their words, if they are, there shouldn’t be a lot of “um’s” “uhs” or “likes”. But some characters speak impulsively and talk fast, then there might be more filler words. Like everything in writing, it differs, if you make it the same, it gets boring. If you really want a character to reflect where they’re from, look it up, look up slang from that place or how they usually speak, everything is on google.
Do not assume the reader knows what you're talking about. You created the story, so you obviously know more than the readers, but don’t just make an assumption that the readers know what is happening or know what happened just because you do/think it's obvious. We want to read the backstory, we want to know how these characters met or how they got to where they are now, don’t skate past that for the sake of convenience.
For the love of all things holy, DONT MAKE YOUR STORY ONE LONG PARAGRAPH. I immediately exit the story when I see that, my eyes get lost on the page and it’s really super fucking overwhelming to look at everything with no paragraph breaks. We need those spaces to know who's talking, to know if there's a time change, sometimes to even stress something or add suspense. You’re writing could be amazing, but the way you present it is just as important, don’t forget that.
Just remember this rule, if you are changing topic, time, place, a different person’s line of dialogue, OR to add in dramatic effect, then you must make a new paragraph. It makes everyone much more easier to understand, I swear.
If you write in 1st person, I am not reading your story, sorry. I used to write in 1st person, I thought it was superior, but very few authors actually make it work. This is my own opinion (like everything else here) but 3rd person (omniscience or limited) is better because you can be more descriptive with it. This also does depend on your writing skill level, most people who start off write in 1st person, that's okay, but when you feel more comfortable it might be easier to transition to 3rd person.
And if you’re switching pov’s, please make it obvious (don’t title it) UNLESS you’re intention is for the chapter to start off without the reader knowing who's pov it is. But most of the time when you aren’t trying to make it mysterious, it’s just really confusing and people have to read ahead to know what is happening. Again, just because you know what is going on doesn’t mean your readers do.
PROPER CAPITALIZATION AND PUNCTUATION. Please, just, please. If you start a new paragraph or if it's after a period, capitalize the first word. Dear God, please don’t make a run-on sentence. (“I” should always be capitalized if it's it’s own word and well as “I’ve” “I’m” or “I’ll”... I am aware I’m a hypocrite because I’ve broken that rule in this rant, but this is not a story)
This would usually be where I would help you with where to put commas but... no one really knows all the rules... just use your best judgment, and if you don’t have good judgment then ask a friend who does. Or just use grammarly, it helps with the basics of proper comma usage and it’s free.
This is going to sound harsh but, if you’re going to write something, don’t half-ass it. You’ve decided to write something, writing takes hard fucking work, it takes research, it takes planning, it takes time to just think and figure out plot points, and if you aren’t willing to do that, you’re writing will reflect that lack of effort.
That is not to say that if you don’t like the way you’re writing now, that doesn’t mean you should stop at all. If you want to improve, you will, it takes time and exposure, and practice. If you don’t think you can write well now if you stick with it for even just a few months, you will get better because, with writing and other things involving creativity, nothing can be “perfect”, you are always finding ways to make yourself better, don’t take this rant as a sign to stop writing, please. I hope I didn’t scare anyone, but I do hope I made people aware of some of the stuff you should watch out for.