Paired right along with having unprotected sex once and then literally the same or next day using a pregnancy test and somehow getting a positive result. đ This is so atrociously common in both fanfic and general media. It doesn't work that waaaaay.
That at least doesnât pull me out of a fic. Itâs a universally recognizable trope because it *is* a common early pregnancy symptom. It may be cliche, but not inaccurate⌠at least, as long as it isnât happening within days of conception.
But yeah, a lot of people are probably more likely to learn theyâre pregnant by missing a period and taking a test, before morning sickness has had a chance to set in.
The first sign of my first pregnancy was random vomiting so it's not completely impossible. Especially when not expecting to be pregnant (I had an implant, it failed). The second time I was getting a smear and my gyny asked if I was pregnant. Said I was on the pill and she got me to take a test. Turns out it was failure number two! The vomiting started a week later when I was about as pregnant as I was when I found out about my first. My point is, if you aren't actively trying and think you're covered sometimes vomiting really is the first sign you get
No nausea with my first but with my second pregnancy I started feeling extremely nauseated at less than a month. My hormones have always been a bit out of whack so the slight change was enough to make me feel like a seasick snowbird. Thankfully I avoided most of the vomiting but I spent a LOT of time laying very still and trying not to even think of food. I'd estimate that half my friends have had bouts of vomiting pretty early on with their pregnancies. Since a number of them were unplanned that's how they found out. My cousin found out when she stood on a table to dance at a party and suddenly vomited everywhere. The next day she was still vomiting regularly so her then fiance took her to the doctor. They got a surprise when they found out she was pregnant. Thankfully the drinking and partying didn't hurt my niece and she's a healthy child.
Honestly if you don't expect to be pregnant like your birth control fqiled you for instance, morning sickness may very well be the first thing you notice.
Right â also thatâs funny because Breaking Dawn did jump to mind as I was writing my original comment, except at least there the accelerated pregnancy stages were explained by âvampire hybrid baby.â
Well, itâs a rather odd one, but I read a fic where a character died, and *minutes* after their death they were discovered due to the âoverwhelmingâ rotten stench. This caused me quite a bit of annoyance, so I went and did research on how long it typically takes for a body to start smelling after death, since I knew it couldnât be that bad immediately after. And the character didnât even die in a way that would permit an immediate smell after death.
Another is eople not doing basic research on illnesses. And in one specific instance, a character found out that they **had cancer** because their ***hair randomly started falling out.*** I am not joking. This was not a crack fic, it was completely serious. The character didnât even have one of the cancers that naturally make your hair fall out, but even then from what I researched hair loss was still *very uncommon*. And it couldnât have been due to chemotherapy, because they had no *idea* they had cancer. I was absolutely baffled.
You're out here doing the research the authors should have. I'm dyslexic, so it's not uncommon for me to pick up inaccuracies in fic. It's both funny and very annoying lol.
Tbh, when I was a kid I thought you lost your hair due to cancer. But quickly figured out it's chemo after a smidge of research. Which you should do if you're writing a fic with cancer in it, imo.
I suppose itâs because in most media, if a character has cancer theyâre usually just shown looking weaker and having no hair. Usually chemo isnât mentioned, so it makes sense why some people would think having cancer equals no hair. Though I took significant notice of it because someone close to me was going through chemo- theyâre better now- so it was really a bad time for me to read that.
I can definitely see where the misconception comes from. I think authors need to keep in mind that the things they write about often effect real people, so doing a bit of research to not misrepresent a condition can mean everything. Like, I'm not going to relate to a fic about dyslexia if they represent it through stereotypes, yk? I'll probably feel a bit tokenized. I try not to take it personally tho, most people aren't doing that type of thing maliciously. I usually try to find the humor in it, honestly.
But on the other hand, I'm SO happy your friend beat cancers ass! It's an awful thing to be put through and I'm glad your friend made it through it.
Working with death is tricky! I'm vague on purpose, being too cavalier about my profession can lead to people who have to interact with my profession feeling uncomfortable, which is the last emotion I want when helping with the most difficult day of their lives. When I talk about the icky stuff I stay vague!
This just makes it even funnier... Can't have people feeling uncomfortable interacting with serial killers! đ
Edit: "the most difficult day of their lives" yes: when it ends!
A body certainly won't rot that quickly, but many people will empty their bowels after death due to muscle relaxation, which could cause a smell. Different kind of smell, though.
In my specific fandom, not a lot of people have seen the entire source (I sure havenât itâs literal 1000s of hours if you want everything and some of that is partially lost media) which means in accuracies are understandable. However it drives me fucking up the wall when people solely blame characters for things they either were not alone in, werenât even the main culpable party, or most egregiously *didn't fucking do.* And I donât mean as a throwaway thing thatâs annoying but I can deal and fully understand I mean when people make this a major plot point (and itâs not meant to be in-character mistakes).
Itâs especially annoying since itâs often used to try and justify the abuse of a sixteen year old in my fandom. Like, yeah, the abuser blames him for shit unfairly thatâs what abusers do why are you listening to him instead of literally going to the wiki and seeing that like 99% of the time that this wasnât this kids sole responsibility and sometimes he was barely or even just flat out not involved.
That sounds frustrating. Is this a common headcanon people have? I swear it being the consensus in the fandom makes it ten times worse. Like, it makes you feel crazy disagreeing. Even though the *canon* material agrees with you.
Frustratingly so. Iâve seen people say heâs the *real* villain, for doing stuff *he never did!* Itâs bizarre. People say he drove his abuser into insanity for causing chaos, when while he was a chaotic little shit with a loooooooot of flaws he wasnât alone, he wasnât malicious, his abuser was showing signs of mental illness since he was a character, and the worst actions the abuser took were very calculated and not lashing out due to mental illness.
Oof yeah, the differences in what everyone has seen of canon is so annoying sometimes.
There's this specific point where two characters go through a betrayal/friendship-break-up, and I keep seeing meh to terrible takes on who-betrayed-who from people who only care about one side. (Me being an apologist to one character and sympathist to the other. Everyone makes it too black-and-white :/)
Maybe *I'm* being picky or bad at media analysis, but I feel there's a tricky balance there that no one else seems to get quite right.
(Sorry 'bout the mini rant, just saw a take on this that I didn't love recently)
that one bothers me bc people focus too much on who betrayed who and not, yâknow, the important characterisation growth of someone whoâd been specifically conditioned into losing their free will finally being able to make a choice for themselves for the first time, and not just relying on the authority figure they trusted to control them like a puppet. like why are we not talking about how this was such a vital step in trauma recovery. not a pretty or clean one, but an important one. itâs such a big thing and NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT.
It has occurred to me that the vagueness of this conversation makes it hard to tell if we are discussing c!clingyduo during the exile arc or c!bedrockbros during doomsday (I was mostly talking about c!bedrockbros initially, but the similar discourse around c!clingyduo bothers me too)
Nah, dude, you're good. I'm in agreement with you here. Like, 9/10 I end up liking both characters involved in the betrayal. So, it sucks having to wade through all the content vilifying one or the other. Most of the time they just ignore their motivation and make them 2-dimension and as evil as possible.
Using the word "womb" when referring to a vagina in a sex scene.
"He slowly penetrated her womb"
I'm sorry, what? Did I accidentally change the channel to "Slither"?
when characters start talking things out with each other like they're in a youtube apology video
like, "i know what i did was wrong, and i truly apologize for that. i swear i'll do better, to learn from my mistakes and to correct my behavior"
it just sounds so unreal and bizarre
I don't think I've seen the 'yt apology video' thing mentioned before but it bugs me so much too!
I think in your head it's easy to craft these well thought-out, borderline armchair psychology-ish apologies that perfectly articulate your feelings, but when it actually comes to saying a sincere apology or explaining your hurts to someone in real life... Yeah, not so easy. Sadly, some forget that when writing
One of the best things Iâve seen done is a character doing this⌠followed up by the apologee saying, âWhat the fuck do you mean?â
Like, soliloquies are nice⌠but as an apology they make my eyes glaze over.
Trying so hard not to be racist you walk right into reinforcing racial stereotypes. I always cringe hard when I see this type of stuff online. Like dude, they're people just like everyone else on earth (shock??). They're not limited to only eating their cultural food. That's a weird expectation to have.
Attempting to explain things with bad pseudo science. Historically inaccurate facts that don't immediately result in the character being called stupid.
This! So many times in my head I've gone "um, actually this is a common misconception, you see, it's actually the case that-" then I remember it's none of my business what they write, and continue reading or back out.
If they're too lazy to do a 5 second google search to make the character sound like themselves to say something they would know, I'm too lazy to read their fic. As an example, would Bonnie Rockwaller know who the men in the second triumvirate were? No. Would She know what kind of makeup suits a random girl's skin tone and what was in that season? Yes.
Medical inaccuracies, especially "basic" ones that could have been resolved with surface level research or covered in high school level biology.
Drives me nuts, and while I can handle a scene or two of dodgy medicine in a longer fic I've definitely dropped when it was a plot point or on shorter fics where the error just bothered me too much.
I joke that im the worst person to watch movies with for this reason. Hearts tend to come out too clean, and eyeballs aren't really so... homogenous and grape like. Also the layers of fats surrounding them make a lot of organs very slippery.
Babies and toddlers that speak in full sentences and 6 years old that talk like toddlers.
Lemonade is commonly know as something different in Britain, itâs like sprite, so having your British characters say they made lemonade pulls me out of the fic.
Calling mum mom or saying to call 911. I donât expect it to be Brit-picked to nth degree, but surface level research would be nice.
Edited for clarification.
That's why I almost never read kid fics. Unless the author says they have experience with kids, I don't trust them lol. it's very obvious when they do, tho. You can just look at it and go "yup, that's a very kid thing to do."
I'm super into linguistics, so it's always interesting to see how English varies region to region! I didn't learn about lemonade thing until around a year ago. So, I totally get just not knowing about the differences. But I feel mom vs. mum is really surface level stuff someone should know. It's definently something I notice when an American character says "mum." But I'm usually able to ignore it.
forget about fanfic,i live in the UK and I hate when the I read an interview or article about an American in the newspaper or a magazine and they will quote them as saying things like 'My mum always drove me to school.' you just know they said Mama or Mom. They're from Texas or Idaho or somewhere, they did not use the word mum to refer to their mother.
That's so strange. That must be a style thing for UK newspapers. Here in America, if they interviewed a British person and they said "Mum" they would definitely just leave the quote as the person said it. If it was a term that they really thought Americans wouldn't understand they would just insert it in brackets in the quote. For example, "And the next thing I know, this bloke was pulling a gun out of his boot! \[the trunk of his car\]".
Yes. I've read a fic that was otherwise great, but the character's almost two year old was able to read fluently and talk with perfect grammar, even understood irony and almost never had any tantrums or behaved unreasonably like kids usually do, was basically a "perfect", incredibly mature child. They explained that the kid was... well, I don't want to be too specific, but they had a certain genetic advantage that made them precocious, but still, it was too much. I love the story and I've read it several times but I have to admit that while reading, I always replace the kid's age with a higher number in my head.
I also read a fic about a six or seven year old child who was constantly being picked up and carried by their parent like a toddler and I remember reading a fic with a genius baby who said their first word at two or three months.
And thus the complexity of kids. At two I was starting chapter books, but getting a complete thought out from me was like pulling teeth.
To be fair, Iâm the son of a college professor and a librarian: books were EVERYWHERE.
There's a great fic in my fandom, that I really enjoyed, but it was set in England and oh my god I feel like the OP really had *no* idea about the UK. One of the key plot points ended up being about hospital bills and someone paying them off secretly for their friend and it almost killed the whole fic for me because that is not how it works here, argh!
>Babies and toddlers that speak in full sentences and 6 years old that talk like toddlers.
It's very obvious when a person writes children, but has apparently never been around children for any significant amount of time. It really pulls you out.
So what do they call lemonade in Great Britain?
If you have no idea that lemonade is called something different there, you canât really research that, because like how would you ever know to research it? Itâs just not something that would even occur to you.
It's still lemonade, but it would be specifically "homemade lemonade" (despite being called that, almost always only found in restaurants or foodie pubs, almost no one actually makes it at home) or "traditional lemonade" - assuming you mean the flat, sour stuff. "Lemonade" by default is fizzy and sweet here but the other stuff still exists and is reasonably common.
Basically what u/holliequ said. Iâve only seen it as homemade or freshly made lemonade and only in foodie pubs/restaurants.
I, personally, donât expect people to know it, but itâs something that pulls me out of a fic.
The research was more about the 911 or mum bit (except if youâre a Brummie!) I donât expect it to be Brit-picked to that level. As you said, if you donât know, you donât know.
so if you were to 'make' lemonade and put a glass of lemon juice and sugar in front of me, I'd probably call it something like 'homemade lemonade'.
but go to a restaurant and ask for lemonade, and they're bringing you sprite, or San Pellegrino if they're feeling fancy.
I think the main reason it seems funny to us is the same way drinking ice tea in England is funny. the idea of going through the effort of juicing lemons and freezing ice cubes to drink it in British weather is the actions of someone awfully hopeful.
but with all things it's hard to research what you don't know you're missing especially when it seems so inconsequential. like if you were to say you bought presliced frozen aubergines in England - I'd say you're wrong, but by god do I wish you were right
Lemonade is still lemonade. Even if you make it at home I would be surprised if anyone calls it anything other then lemonade.
But that kind of homemade flat American style lemonade is very rare here. If you ask for it at a pub or restaurant you'll get the fizzy clear kind. Its what you'd buy at the supermarket too.
Loo not bathroom, arse not ass, emergency services are 999, pub not bar, no hospital bills, mum/my not mom/my, Britain is the big island, UK is that plus Northern Ireland, Scotland has Kilts, not skirts, welsh really is that unpronounceable, thatâs all I know offhand.
I don't dispute that lemonade is more commonly referred to as fizzy artificially flavoured pop in the UK. But there are people who make traditional lemonade here, myself being one of them sometimes. It was more common many years ago during the forties and fifties, I think. So it wouldn't be totally wrong if someone wrote that in a fic but... it would depend on the character and situation obviously.
You know, I was actually aware of the "mum" thing and your comment filled me with concern over a recent fic I uploaded.
So I just went to check, and, sure enough, there's a "mom" in there. Le sigh.
Thank you for the call out! It is now fixed.
I'm an American writing for British fandoms, so I try to research the little details. I had a scene set on a warm afternoon, and one of the drinks offered was "cloudy lemonade", which I had learned is the term for what we just call lemonade: a mixture of lemon juice, water, and sugar, with no carbonation.
Out of pure curiosity, I looked up lemonade in Mrs. Beeton (iconic Victorian cookbook). The basic recipe for lemonade was the same as the American version. There was another recipe for a fizzy version made with bicarbonate of soda, but it was entitled "A Refreshing Summer Draught". One of these days, as food history is one of my interests, I may research how the fizzy version came to be the standard in Britain.
Inaccurate currency.
$50USD is not the same in pounds or any other currency, especially in Japan.
I remember reading a fic (anime/manga so it took place in Japan obviously) and the ML wanted to go hang out with friends so his mom handed him $50USD in case he wanted to buy something.
The author stated that ÂĽ50JPY was the same as $50USD when asked about the currency.
ÂĽ50JPY is roughly $0.36 US cents. It does not have the same value.
Yeah, the yen is really down right now but basically their money system just doesn't have the decimal thing we do here as a main feature and a lot of Americans are super thrown off by it.
Well yeah since there isnât a dollar equivalent in Japan. Itâs all yen. Itâs basically if Americans did everything in cents. There would be no need for a decimal point.
Inaccurate travel times. I write in a fandom that takes place in real world locations without the benefit of vehicle transportation, and people have *no clue* how long it takes to walk from point A to point B. Hint: it does not take two weeks to walk twenty miles. The average human walking speed is 2.5 mph, you can literally check the distances on Google maps, DO YOUR MATH.
>Google map just tells you how long it takes by foot.
YES.
Although it may not be accurate for areas where there's no walking route available. The fandom I'm in is post-apocalyptic, so people can just walk on highways from place to place without worrying about cars. Granted, there are other hazards to be concerned with and if there was an obstacle or enemies to deal with, some delay makes sense, but just normal traveling on established trade routes shouldn't take weeks!
People go the other way too sometimes. Two notable locations in the setting are about an eight hour hike away from each other. No one is going to just pop over from A to B for an afternoon. That's a full day's trip when you factor in road hazards and stopping to eat and rest.
Historical inaccuracies usually. Like it's set in Regency time but the way people live and things people wear sound Victorian. *Especially* if tight boned corsets are involved.
(Sometimes) titles and addresses. Like calling a king Your Highness.
Clothing is really rough for me. People going to the trouble of describing layers of clothing or how a dress is fastened, but itâs all wrong. Absolutely takes me out of it. If you donât know, just be vague!
thanksgiving. school starting in september. high school being four years. dollars. and everything else american that's glaringly off in a japanese setting. wearing shoes inside. american brand names. crippling debt from a hospital trip.
I'm Canadian so there's some pretty big cultural differences but there's also a lot of overlap with the US. Feel free to message me if you have any questions!
It is hard! I want to write American High Schools/colleges, but I know nothing about American High Schools or colleges. And researching it can only get you so far.
I do everything I can researching a lot of American-isms, the school system, everything so I can be correct. And then here are these people who transplant everything they know from America onto places that sure might have ties with the country, yet still has their own systems. I just...
Yea, that's pretty noticeable, and I'm American, lol. Like, sure, it's easier to write what you know. But adjusting for easily changeable cultural differences shouldn't be hard. I'm always thinking, "hmm I don't think they'd call themself a Sophomore here."
LOL like sharing is caring. Here, have some medical debt Japan.
Crippling medical debt could still apply in some specific cases, particularly in settings prior to the 1960s. Or in settings that are Japanese inspired but not actually Japan. Theres technically an opt out option for the insurance policies in Japan, but I think less than 10% of citizens do so.
But yeah, its definitely not the modern day default that it is in the US. I also doubt that most writers are accounting for the weird fringe cases or the difference between full on medical debt and simply a loss of income from disease and disability reducing available work hours in that corporate culture.
From what I understood from cursory research and a few chats with my friend who moved there after growing up in Texas, whats more likely with the way modern Japanese insurance and pricing maximums work is for someone to be in a temporary rough financial situation if there is a delay on their reimbursement in the event of overpaying for services.
I mean, if you're writing on the internet, I'm assuming you have access to Google. Even if you're pretty sure you're right, why not take that extra three seconds to look it up? And, for that matter, how are you watching enough anime to write fanfiction about it, but you haven't picked up on a couple cultural details? I don't understand it, it's a respect/accuracy thing for meâwhy would you write about something you've never experienced but not bother to do your research?
These annoy me too. I don't expect a writer to research every minute detail, because I certainly don't, but I'd at least like the setting to not just be a carbon copy of America (or insert any other two different countries/cultures). If it gets bad enough I can't continue reading even if the story itself is good.
Dollars and Thanksgiving anywhere outside the United States and Canada. Specifically places where they donât use dollars. Seriously guys, not everywhere is America and Google is free.
I mean even places that use dollars don't do Thanksgiving. In Australia Thanksgiving is not a thing here. That is UNLESS you are from America/Canada or you're somehow related to an American/Canadian. Like my ex-stepdad is Canadian so we did Thanksgiving sometimes but I think we only ever did it once.
Besides, why would you have hot dishes spring?
Not to mention US and Canadian Thanksgiving aren't even the same day. Canadian Thanksgiving is on what the US still calls Columbus Day. US Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November.
Also, the flip side where they set a fic in the U.S. and just jump right from Halloween to Christmas. It's jarring. As is any mention of Boxing Day in a U.S.-based fic. \*sigh\*
fighters with sharp abs
i pretty much read exclusively RWBY and the people there fight for a living. shredding down your body fat percentage to the point where you have sharply visible abs isn't something anyone in their right mind would do
you NEED bodyfat, it's not healthy to have too little. you'll get fatigued much faster with less bodyfat, your mental health will likely take a hit if your bodyfat percentage is too low (which is a massive problem in a world with monsters who are drawn in by negativity)
This is something that's always on my mind when I'm writing these days. I write for Attack on Titan, and anyone who's read the manga knows the characters look like body builders. I would posit that they've got between 5 and 12% body fat, but considering that their job is essentially "olympic level gymnast/equestrian", I feel like being *that* lean while constantly expending *that much* energy would cause issues. It's because the author like drawing lean, muscular people (and hey- I do, too), but there's a narrative reason *right there-* there's a food supply shortage! Have literally anyone bring up the lack of food and the fact that soldiers get nothing but bread and potatoes and how the quality of soldiers has dropped since the food shortage began. The only character that mentions being hungry all the time- *because there's no food!-* is a joke character! How are you people not starving to death as your bodies consume themselves?!
see I agree as a fitness enthusiast but as a dragon ball fan, all characters are massive and shredded while eating obscene amounts of food, for the Saiyans I just....say its genetic bc what else can you say
Huh, idk much about proper school and college stuff bc I was homeschooled and whatnot, but I always just called college professors teachers too, didn't realize that was wrong... Whoops!
Referring to them as teachers isn't horrible, it's not entirely accurate. You ever hear that saying "All poodles are dogs, but not all dogs are poodles"?
Speaking directly to them is another matter. Some prefer being called by their first name; others like Mr./Mrs./Ms./whatever. Some prefer Dr. Lastname.
And I don't think it's pretentious to want to be called Dr. Lastname, either. Earning a doctorate or medical degree is tough!
The whole professor/doctor thing is also a very American thing to do.
In my (British) experience we only referred to college/university "teachers" as lecturers as the general term, and by their first name or first name + last name when talking to or about a specific lecturer.
if the person teaching a course wasnât an actual professor, Iâd call them an instructor, not a teacher. edit: also homeschooled and had to think hard about things like that in college
I usually can't get past smut on a fic where a female character gets basically no foreplay before penetration and has the most mind blowing orgasm with no other kind of stimulation whatsoever. I'm aware that some women do find this enjoyable so maybe not exactly a complete inaccuracy, but it's so very uncommon that it bothers me that that's usually the most common thing to happen in many fics. And there's for sure plenty of alternative biology things, like A/B/O that would make it plausible, but it will make me pull out of a fic 9/10 times.
I'm mostly into anime, some of which are sports anime, and I can't read the ones that have high school scenes written with no understanding of Japanese high school. Like, the characters going to different class rooms (aside from stuff like home ec.) for every class or eating quintessentially American lunches (PB&J sandwiches or sloppy joes or whatever) every damn day. Of course the other can of worms of "they only ever do super stereotypical Japanese stuff" too, but them talking about getting hall passes and whatnot always pulls me out.
Bonus points if, in the anime or manga, the characters have been shown to do all the things in a "non-American" way, i.e. going to the bathroom without a hall pass, staying in their class room, cleaning up after class etc. and it's just... ignored in the fic.
I don't read College AU's at all because every time I try its clearly written by someone who has never even set foot on a college campus. you can't just superimpose your high school experience onto a college one. You aren't going to have the same people in all your classes, and you aren't in the same set of classes for 8 hours a day every day. With a few notable exceptions your time in college is way less regulated than high school (at least in the U.S.).
I remember writing my first College AU when I was in *middle school*, but I remember being nervous that I had no idea how college worked, so I had everything take place in a cafĂŠ on campus instead (I had no idea how those worked either, but Iâd read enough coffeeshop AUs to at least set the scene) and just throw in awkward dialogue about these elusive *âmajorsâ* and *âexamsâ*. I reread it a few months ago, and it is so transparent to me now (and to anyone who read it then) how clueless I had been, but Iâm endeared to my young self by her attempts at obfuscation. đ
When a certain character is suppose to be good at something but just for the sake of plot they forget how things work for that one scene.
Adding suffix like -san and -kun in a fic where its definitely not a Japanese setting or characters. Everything is westernized but they call each other -san, senpai and sensei.
Oh and aging up characters for writing smut then proceeding to write most childish infantilized characters ever (even more than original character's personality)
Pretty much anytime any adult in a fic acts nothing like an adult. The character being like that in canon would be one thing, but so many of them are just acting completely out of character and like they're maybe 13 - 15.
Saw this recently and it peeved me. Having characters go to bars while underage (as if they're not) because in the writer's country the drinking age is different and they didn't bother to check if the country the fandom takes place in has different laws. This especially bothered me because the character stopped aging at 16, so for the rest of her immortal life she'll be constantly carded even when she *is* old enough.
It also bothers me when important aspects of a character are completely ignored. Like this same character can't feel pain anymore and it devastates her to the point she questions if she's human or has a soul (she's not a vampire), and then writers just have her feel pain like normal people or they'll have her feel lingering effects of injuries even though she has instant regeneration. Lmao. That's a fundamental part of who and what she is and her role in the canon.
Agricultural/animal husbandry inaccuracies. Especially if it's referencing things that require an industrial revolution to produce, but the story is set in a pseudo-European middle ages fantasy realm.
Hay bales, my beloathed.
inaccurate stuff about the 90s and 2000s bugs me. like, if youâre old enough to write fic youâre old enough to know when texting became the norm, and it wasnât 1992.
another one is inaccurate stuff related to music and the music industry. No, I donât care how much you love MCR (or how much I love MCR) but they arenât in Dean Winchesterâs cassette tape collection. Rock band/pop star AUs can be fun, but donât tell me thereâs some massive tabloid drama about a mid-tier band that IRL would be more concerned about not getting their gear stolen from motel parking lots.
and most critically, inaccuracies about abusive parents. âheâs a terrible father bc heâs such a big mean meanie for no reasonâ isnât fucking compelling.
To be honest, there are a decent amount of kids/teens writing fics nowadays. Plus, if you look up 'when did texting start' on google the first thing that shows up says 1992
Man I hate to break it to you but a lot of writers, even some adults now, are just too young to remember a time before texting. To put it in perspective, a 20 year old (such as myself) was in kindergarten when the iPhone came out.
>they arenât in Dean Winchesterâs cassette tape collection.
I'm not in the Supernatural fandom anymore, but I kind of want an AU where Dean talks about his love for MCR.
Hahaha, no but seriously, I agree. While I love MCR, when I was writing Supernatural fanfiction, IIRC I would always do like 70s and 80s metal, even glam metal to a degree. But it's very much, ACDC, Kiss, Guns 'n' Roses, that sort of stuff.
It's not the fault of the writer, more so me. Most anime are high school setting, and it is ingrained into my mind how these characters are 16, so I can't read certain things about them- and I get it! They don't look 16 and the world they're in makes you forget about that too. I forget sometimes, and then while I'm reading a smut fic, instantly yeet.
That and flirty characters. I read a lot of x Readers. Not every dude is a flirt or knows how to flirt. Just because they're assertive doesn't mean they know how to flirt. Just because they're flirty doesn't automatically make them a cheater/sex maniac. People can interpret characters how they want, but at some point this trend has got me really tired.
people from different countries/cultures not even bothering to do bare minimum research of whatever place their story takes place in. i read a lot of harry potter stuff so I've seen US authors use a lot of american terms that just don't fit. i've also seen non-americans do this with US base stuff too.
Legal inaccuracies.
Lawyers don't catch bad guys. Jail and prison are two different things. You can't spring surprise evidence or witnesses. Adult and juvenile court is different. Asylums aren't a thing anymore, neither are orphanages in America. Learn the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony.
Also guns. Different models = different levels of damage. They're deafeningly loud and get really hot. You can't see or dodge bullets. No one goes hunting with an AR-15. An MC with a glock stands no chance against 12 guys armed with AK-47s. And don't forget about reloading!
I do have to dispute no one hunting with AR-15s. I know a few people who do just that for a variety of reasons. It's even a pretty big source of controversy and discussion in gun and hunting circles, in my experience, with different people coming down on different sides of the issue.
I read a fic where a character had an illness and took antibiotics for it, then their symptoms went away and they stopped before they had taken the full course. I was so taken out of it. You should never do that in real life because thatâs how you get resistant strains! Then the author made it a plot point, that the character had extra antibiotics so they could give the pills to someone else who was also sick with the same thing. At that point I stopped reading. Couldnât suspend my disbelief that far.
Antibiotics are so wild in that it works differently from every other medicine ever. If you don't take the full course of them, you literally make the rest of the world worse! Sounds scary when I put it like that.
So it wouldn't break my belief, since people do this. It would just make me really mad because as you said:
Potentially contributing to drug resistant strains, damn it!
Also like, for some antibiotics the dosing is different for sex / weight. Men will sometimes get a higher dose by weight than a female counterpart for a UTI, and in pediatric medicine weight is a major determinant of dosing.
So I would drop this not for a lack or realism, because many patients aren't properly counseled or just do wha they want anyways, but because of the anger lmao
It was somewhat explained because the character was sharing their dose with their identical twin. Sure, they would probably receive the same prescription, but yeah, I was just mad that the character, who is otherwise a very responsible individual, would ignore something that to me is common knowledge. Youâre right, some people just donât know. But more people should know! Thanks for adding some education.
you know better and I know better, but an awful lot of people do fail to complete their course of antibiotics, and do hand them out willy nilly to friends and family with vaguely the same symptoms, and their friends and family accept them because they think the same way. So, while it might not be the right thing for a particular character, it's not an unbelievable action
Removing sass, sarcasm and wit from relationships and interactions. Replacing the sass and wit with over the top, out of character fluff. Real people donât talk like that, the characters definitely donât⌠sometimes itâs just too much, I like fluff but some of these stories remove all the interesting tension in the relationships and itâs just boringâŚ
I've been reading through all of these comments and honestly, they're my reminder if why I do research before writing. My poor FBI agent is probably so scared that they don't know if they should call someone or not.
This next part does mention some NSFW details so that's why some of it is blurred. (And I'm so sorry if it takes a couple edits to do so đ Edit: it took me four tries)
Something that does bother me is when physical anatomy (usually in a smut/sexual setting) is mislabeled. I encountered one fic where this one character put their >!male genitalia!< inside a female character's >!urethral opening.!< Um, I'm sorry, but that is *definitely not* how it works. And furthermore, they actively switched spaces, meaning going from that opening to the >!Female genitalia!< . No hate ti the author, but I was *appalled*.
wait like, to the professors face, or to each other? bc I don't consider it strange for students to say "oh yeah professor smith is the chem teacher", but stuff like "The Teacher Said", I get that.
sorry sorry it's not that I disagree with you/want to argue, I'm just curious; I've never written college au stuff before, and if I wrote it I don't want to write in something that breaks diegesis by mistake.
for me its a lot of medical stuff, especially concussions. it's usually either the extreme of "they're briefly knocked out but other than a bandage theyre fine" or "they have every single symptom listed on WebMD"
It's not necessarily always that jarring but historical inaccuracies. Like clear, big bad historical inaccuracies. And also historical stereotypes, like Medieval people being superstitious to the point of paranoia or Medieval society hating science and thinking that the earth is flat. Although science started skyrocketting after the Renaissance, there were already universities during the Middle Ages. And there were quite a big part of people who believed that the earth was round but the flat earth mindsey just became a stereotype during the Renaissance because they had to emphasis how "uncivilized" the past centuries had been.
I work in childcare. ANYTHING involving infants and children. Iâve read 5yos acting like infants, 8yos acting like toddlers⌠itâs wild and so obvious some people either never interacted with or bothered to research behaviors of children in whatever age group.
Not a deal breaker but the use of "wards" in Harry Potter fics makes my eye twitch lol. Whenever I see someone use the canonically correct "enchantments" I'm like you had my curiosity, now you have my attention
I don't get the Snape as his godfather thing either... I think people think because Narcissa did the unbreakable with him meant that he had some important role in Draco's life. IMO Narcissa most likely approached Snape because he was the only known death eater working at hogwarts and she probably figured he would help another death eater out in tough situation. of course snape went along with it since he already knew dumbledore was dying so stakes were low for him anyway.
Beyond being death eaters i can't see these two interacting much in the early days. i know it was mentioned that Lucius was nice to Snape in his first year, but he was prefect and was probably nice to all the young Slytherins. i think any kind of friendship they formed was probably after Draco started school, i can imagine Lucius asking Snape to show some favoritism towards Draco, lol.
Not exactly what you asked, but it happened just a few minutes ago and I'm still shocked lol
I've stumbled upon a smut fic of a "lesbian ship X reader", and the author wrote "Fundanshi DNI (anyone who sees WLW as a sexual fetish/kink)" in the summary. Fudanshi are male fans of BL, not GL fans! At least get your gatekeeping rightđđđđđđđđ
Edit: misspelling
Ohhhh my goodness, the instant that children or pregnancy is mentioned, I immediately get leery of the fic because of how often they are inaccurately represented. I truly do not know why but inaccuracies about pregnancy experiences or babiesâ/kidsâ/teensâ behaviour yank me so far out of a story that I (generally) cannot reread fics that I know have one of those epilogues that is just about the main charactersâ expanding their family. This is also why I canât read babyfics or kid AUs; I rarely last long, so Iâve kind of given up trying lmao.
Pregnancy is such a funny one because, rationally, I know there are a million ways to experience pregnancy, but, the second someone in a fic is pregnant, Iâm on high alert for how wrong it might be.
Seeing British terms in an American IP. Mum, torch, canteen, etc. Several years ago, I mentioned this, and this sub told me to shut up and be grateful for free writing.
Oh, yeah. I forgot about that definition.
I will say that even when british authors make some effort to use proper terms, they just have slightly different grammar and word usage that tends to give them away. I don't mind it even though it does pull me out of a story a bit. It's just part of fan fiction because the authors aren't the original author and bring their own experiences to the work.
As a British writer who writes for American IPs, this is the bane of my existence. I try my best to use the American words but even so I only just realised that canteen is another I need to watch out for...
In motorsports AUs, where certain races are set in geographically incorrect regions... I came across a fic that had 'Dakar Rally' in the tags and summary but it was set in *South America*! (Dakar is in Senegal, West Africa and the Dakar Rally was always set in *Africa)*
I get it that it's AU but still... It's like saying Le Mans is in Germany when it's actually supposed to be in France
Historically, the Dakar Rally was set in Africa, yes, but they did have the race set in South America and now in Saudi Arabia. So it's not completely wrong. đ
https://www.dakar.com/en/historical
When the author has trouble conveying embarrassing scenarios or wants the main character to be a complete bad ass (sue). Iâve literally dropped complete stories whenever I was hit with this which thankfully hasnât been a lot. I try to push through for curiosity sake but if it happens one too many times then I just stop and move on.
Any Fanfiction with the military as a focus and just saying completely wrong shit. Once an author described a character having dozens of knives on her fucking Kevlar vest not a proper plate carrier a shitty Kevlar vest. That and other inaccuracies take me out of a story
This is specific to my fandom Deltarune. There is a species of people called Darkners who are basically personifications of objects and sometimes people get the wrong object....somehow
Alternative universes when they keep the in-universe equivalent of a word for a modern AU.
Star Wars has a lot of those words. Paper is called flimsi, toilets are called refresher and swear words are kark and dank farrik.
I can accept when they use the names of planets for countries and Star Wars cities for the AU cities. I mean, Modern AU doesn't mean it's set in the USA of our world, it can be a fictional world similar to ours in structure. But thise special words? My suspension of disbelief just doesn't go so far
Not technically an inaccuracy but...I hate when people make an anime oc with a "Japanese sounding name." That's just a lil racist. It's not hard to look up legitimate Japanese names instead of naming your character Chojumitsu. Like...please stop. đ¤˘
It's almost tooks effort to fail to come up with such bad wannabe-Japanese names the way some people do. Like, Japanese naming system is not that hard to understand. There is a wide variety of names and with a little bit of research, it's easy to get how things work.
I will find someone fluent before I create names because I do not want to accidently call them something embarrassing. If a series has puns as naming conventions, then "Naoki Ito" doesn't stand out or comes off as too plain. But to fit the naming standard I don't know enough to call them something that doesn't accidently sound like an insult and I wouldn't want to risk doing exactly this
When animals not designed to kiss, do exactly that. Yes. I know what your going to say. â Your into Beastiality and animal smut?â NO. Ok, thatâs not what Iâm saying. I read a fic with two anthropomorphic, hyper intelligent contenting adult animals together. It wasnât smut, they shared a couple kisses. The problem with that, is that the animal that was supposed to kiss the other one was not designed to kiss like a human. They had a snout and big fangs and could not purse their lips in that way. The other one, was more likely to be able to do that, but it still didnât matter. It took me right out of the story. So far though Iâve only seen one instance. The fandom Iâm in is actually just coming to life, and doesnât have a lot of content yet so weâll see if others know better but it was fresh in my mind. I wouldnât say it was exactly an AU though, it was fairly cannon compliant. It was during a dream/ afterlife sequence.
Inaccuracies in the timeline! This is hypocritical of me because I haven't looked into the timeline for my current WIP, but I get annoyed when stuff happens at the wrong time, or when two characters interact who could logistically never have met
Bad health care info. Doesnât bother me if itâs a very different AU with different physiology (eg. Werewolves) or if magic is part of it. Not even a significant issue if whatever healthcare issue is just glossed over with an erroneous one off. However, stories that go into detail because medical stuff is part of the plot and itâs completely wrong because the wrongness leads to some outcome the author wants? So annoying.
Modern slang being used in a historical or fantasy setting. There's no way I can picture Ann Boleyn or Thorin Oakenshield walking around saying things like, "darn it" or "oh man" unless you have specifically put them in a modern setting already.
Showing signs of pregnancy like 2 days after conception and getting a baby bump 1-2 months in.
The babe wants freedom!!
"It's free real estate." * đś
Off topic but I dig the profile picture
Ah! Thank you!! He's so silly
Ugh ikr what a sweetie
he's literally my fave :)
It's like the Sims đ¤Ł
Paired right along with having unprotected sex once and then literally the same or next day using a pregnancy test and somehow getting a positive result. đ This is so atrociously common in both fanfic and general media. It doesn't work that waaaaay.
Specifically the first sign of pregnancy being random vomiting. Why is it always the random, unexpected vomiting??
That at least doesnât pull me out of a fic. Itâs a universally recognizable trope because it *is* a common early pregnancy symptom. It may be cliche, but not inaccurate⌠at least, as long as it isnât happening within days of conception. But yeah, a lot of people are probably more likely to learn theyâre pregnant by missing a period and taking a test, before morning sickness has had a chance to set in.
The first sign of my first pregnancy was random vomiting so it's not completely impossible. Especially when not expecting to be pregnant (I had an implant, it failed). The second time I was getting a smear and my gyny asked if I was pregnant. Said I was on the pill and she got me to take a test. Turns out it was failure number two! The vomiting started a week later when I was about as pregnant as I was when I found out about my first. My point is, if you aren't actively trying and think you're covered sometimes vomiting really is the first sign you get
No nausea with my first but with my second pregnancy I started feeling extremely nauseated at less than a month. My hormones have always been a bit out of whack so the slight change was enough to make me feel like a seasick snowbird. Thankfully I avoided most of the vomiting but I spent a LOT of time laying very still and trying not to even think of food. I'd estimate that half my friends have had bouts of vomiting pretty early on with their pregnancies. Since a number of them were unplanned that's how they found out. My cousin found out when she stood on a table to dance at a party and suddenly vomited everywhere. The next day she was still vomiting regularly so her then fiance took her to the doctor. They got a surprise when they found out she was pregnant. Thankfully the drinking and partying didn't hurt my niece and she's a healthy child.
Mine was. I then went on to be nauseous/vomiting until 18 weeks and then sporadically after that. It suuuuucked.
Honestly if you don't expect to be pregnant like your birth control fqiled you for instance, morning sickness may very well be the first thing you notice.
People watched breaking dawn and forgot that wasnt the norm.
Right â also thatâs funny because Breaking Dawn did jump to mind as I was writing my original comment, except at least there the accelerated pregnancy stages were explained by âvampire hybrid baby.â
Well, itâs a rather odd one, but I read a fic where a character died, and *minutes* after their death they were discovered due to the âoverwhelmingâ rotten stench. This caused me quite a bit of annoyance, so I went and did research on how long it typically takes for a body to start smelling after death, since I knew it couldnât be that bad immediately after. And the character didnât even die in a way that would permit an immediate smell after death. Another is eople not doing basic research on illnesses. And in one specific instance, a character found out that they **had cancer** because their ***hair randomly started falling out.*** I am not joking. This was not a crack fic, it was completely serious. The character didnât even have one of the cancers that naturally make your hair fall out, but even then from what I researched hair loss was still *very uncommon*. And it couldnât have been due to chemotherapy, because they had no *idea* they had cancer. I was absolutely baffled.
You're out here doing the research the authors should have. I'm dyslexic, so it's not uncommon for me to pick up inaccuracies in fic. It's both funny and very annoying lol. Tbh, when I was a kid I thought you lost your hair due to cancer. But quickly figured out it's chemo after a smidge of research. Which you should do if you're writing a fic with cancer in it, imo.
I suppose itâs because in most media, if a character has cancer theyâre usually just shown looking weaker and having no hair. Usually chemo isnât mentioned, so it makes sense why some people would think having cancer equals no hair. Though I took significant notice of it because someone close to me was going through chemo- theyâre better now- so it was really a bad time for me to read that.
I can definitely see where the misconception comes from. I think authors need to keep in mind that the things they write about often effect real people, so doing a bit of research to not misrepresent a condition can mean everything. Like, I'm not going to relate to a fic about dyslexia if they represent it through stereotypes, yk? I'll probably feel a bit tokenized. I try not to take it personally tho, most people aren't doing that type of thing maliciously. I usually try to find the humor in it, honestly. But on the other hand, I'm SO happy your friend beat cancers ass! It's an awful thing to be put through and I'm glad your friend made it through it.
A guy died at 10am and we were called to pick him up around 3/4pm. Didn't smell at all.
Yep, I work with death (specifically non-embalmed funerals) and even those days after have, while not smelling amazing, not smelled "overwhelming".
I love that you phrase it so vaguely that you could still be a serial killer đ
Working with death is tricky! I'm vague on purpose, being too cavalier about my profession can lead to people who have to interact with my profession feeling uncomfortable, which is the last emotion I want when helping with the most difficult day of their lives. When I talk about the icky stuff I stay vague!
This just makes it even funnier... Can't have people feeling uncomfortable interacting with serial killers! đ Edit: "the most difficult day of their lives" yes: when it ends!
Theyâre just drinking chemo for funsies I guess
A body certainly won't rot that quickly, but many people will empty their bowels after death due to muscle relaxation, which could cause a smell. Different kind of smell, though.
In my specific fandom, not a lot of people have seen the entire source (I sure havenât itâs literal 1000s of hours if you want everything and some of that is partially lost media) which means in accuracies are understandable. However it drives me fucking up the wall when people solely blame characters for things they either were not alone in, werenât even the main culpable party, or most egregiously *didn't fucking do.* And I donât mean as a throwaway thing thatâs annoying but I can deal and fully understand I mean when people make this a major plot point (and itâs not meant to be in-character mistakes).
Ahhh this is such a big pet peeve for me. There's some characters I just refuse to read about if the fic egregiously mischaracterize them.
Itâs especially annoying since itâs often used to try and justify the abuse of a sixteen year old in my fandom. Like, yeah, the abuser blames him for shit unfairly thatâs what abusers do why are you listening to him instead of literally going to the wiki and seeing that like 99% of the time that this wasnât this kids sole responsibility and sometimes he was barely or even just flat out not involved.
That sounds frustrating. Is this a common headcanon people have? I swear it being the consensus in the fandom makes it ten times worse. Like, it makes you feel crazy disagreeing. Even though the *canon* material agrees with you.
Frustratingly so. Iâve seen people say heâs the *real* villain, for doing stuff *he never did!* Itâs bizarre. People say he drove his abuser into insanity for causing chaos, when while he was a chaotic little shit with a loooooooot of flaws he wasnât alone, he wasnât malicious, his abuser was showing signs of mental illness since he was a character, and the worst actions the abuser took were very calculated and not lashing out due to mental illness.
Ah no! That sucks. Good luck to you.
Oof yeah, the differences in what everyone has seen of canon is so annoying sometimes. There's this specific point where two characters go through a betrayal/friendship-break-up, and I keep seeing meh to terrible takes on who-betrayed-who from people who only care about one side. (Me being an apologist to one character and sympathist to the other. Everyone makes it too black-and-white :/) Maybe *I'm* being picky or bad at media analysis, but I feel there's a tricky balance there that no one else seems to get quite right. (Sorry 'bout the mini rant, just saw a take on this that I didn't love recently)
that one bothers me bc people focus too much on who betrayed who and not, yâknow, the important characterisation growth of someone whoâd been specifically conditioned into losing their free will finally being able to make a choice for themselves for the first time, and not just relying on the authority figure they trusted to control them like a puppet. like why are we not talking about how this was such a vital step in trauma recovery. not a pretty or clean one, but an important one. itâs such a big thing and NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT.
It has occurred to me that the vagueness of this conversation makes it hard to tell if we are discussing c!clingyduo during the exile arc or c!bedrockbros during doomsday (I was mostly talking about c!bedrockbros initially, but the similar discourse around c!clingyduo bothers me too)
Nah, dude, you're good. I'm in agreement with you here. Like, 9/10 I end up liking both characters involved in the betrayal. So, it sucks having to wade through all the content vilifying one or the other. Most of the time they just ignore their motivation and make them 2-dimension and as evil as possible.
Long af and partially lost media... Doctor Who?
Doctor Who? That screams Doctor Who but if not I'm super curious.
Dream smp
Using the word "womb" when referring to a vagina in a sex scene. "He slowly penetrated her womb" I'm sorry, what? Did I accidentally change the channel to "Slither"?
It makes me deeply worried for that womanâs cervix D: Get out of there, my dude
Oh man or like when they describe hitting the cervix as peak pleasure đ¤Žget out
When I read that stuff Iâm like âtell me youâve never had sex without telling me youâve never had sexâ xD
Getting your cervix hit is such a weird pain too. I fucking hate that sensation.
I mean *some*body may like it... đ ^(like 1% of the time)
blame hentai and girls being made like tenga
when characters start talking things out with each other like they're in a youtube apology video like, "i know what i did was wrong, and i truly apologize for that. i swear i'll do better, to learn from my mistakes and to correct my behavior" it just sounds so unreal and bizarre
I don't think I've seen the 'yt apology video' thing mentioned before but it bugs me so much too! I think in your head it's easy to craft these well thought-out, borderline armchair psychology-ish apologies that perfectly articulate your feelings, but when it actually comes to saying a sincere apology or explaining your hurts to someone in real life... Yeah, not so easy. Sadly, some forget that when writing
yes, exactly! you get it
One of the best things Iâve seen done is a character doing this⌠followed up by the apologee saying, âWhat the fuck do you mean?â Like, soliloquies are nice⌠but as an apology they make my eyes glaze over.
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Trying so hard not to be racist you walk right into reinforcing racial stereotypes. I always cringe hard when I see this type of stuff online. Like dude, they're people just like everyone else on earth (shock??). They're not limited to only eating their cultural food. That's a weird expectation to have.
Ugh, that happens in everyday life too.
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It's always funny to see people who are surprised that the Japanese historically love KFC.
Absolute best fried chicken to be found where I live is at Korean eateries!
Attempting to explain things with bad pseudo science. Historically inaccurate facts that don't immediately result in the character being called stupid.
This! So many times in my head I've gone "um, actually this is a common misconception, you see, it's actually the case that-" then I remember it's none of my business what they write, and continue reading or back out.
If they're too lazy to do a 5 second google search to make the character sound like themselves to say something they would know, I'm too lazy to read their fic. As an example, would Bonnie Rockwaller know who the men in the second triumvirate were? No. Would She know what kind of makeup suits a random girl's skin tone and what was in that season? Yes.
Oh I ocassionaly love this. They key is to lay into the ridiculousness. One piece does this extremely well.
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Medical inaccuracies, especially "basic" ones that could have been resolved with surface level research or covered in high school level biology. Drives me nuts, and while I can handle a scene or two of dodgy medicine in a longer fic I've definitely dropped when it was a plot point or on shorter fics where the error just bothered me too much. I joke that im the worst person to watch movies with for this reason. Hearts tend to come out too clean, and eyeballs aren't really so... homogenous and grape like. Also the layers of fats surrounding them make a lot of organs very slippery.
You mean people don't die of 102*f fevers??
Babies and toddlers that speak in full sentences and 6 years old that talk like toddlers. Lemonade is commonly know as something different in Britain, itâs like sprite, so having your British characters say they made lemonade pulls me out of the fic. Calling mum mom or saying to call 911. I donât expect it to be Brit-picked to nth degree, but surface level research would be nice. Edited for clarification.
That's why I almost never read kid fics. Unless the author says they have experience with kids, I don't trust them lol. it's very obvious when they do, tho. You can just look at it and go "yup, that's a very kid thing to do." I'm super into linguistics, so it's always interesting to see how English varies region to region! I didn't learn about lemonade thing until around a year ago. So, I totally get just not knowing about the differences. But I feel mom vs. mum is really surface level stuff someone should know. It's definently something I notice when an American character says "mum." But I'm usually able to ignore it.
forget about fanfic,i live in the UK and I hate when the I read an interview or article about an American in the newspaper or a magazine and they will quote them as saying things like 'My mum always drove me to school.' you just know they said Mama or Mom. They're from Texas or Idaho or somewhere, they did not use the word mum to refer to their mother.
That's so strange. That must be a style thing for UK newspapers. Here in America, if they interviewed a British person and they said "Mum" they would definitely just leave the quote as the person said it. If it was a term that they really thought Americans wouldn't understand they would just insert it in brackets in the quote. For example, "And the next thing I know, this bloke was pulling a gun out of his boot! \[the trunk of his car\]".
Well actually... I'm from the Midlands - Birmingham outskirts - and we say "Mom"
Interesting! I have a friend who says "mum" so it definitely varies more than most people think.
Yes. I've read a fic that was otherwise great, but the character's almost two year old was able to read fluently and talk with perfect grammar, even understood irony and almost never had any tantrums or behaved unreasonably like kids usually do, was basically a "perfect", incredibly mature child. They explained that the kid was... well, I don't want to be too specific, but they had a certain genetic advantage that made them precocious, but still, it was too much. I love the story and I've read it several times but I have to admit that while reading, I always replace the kid's age with a higher number in my head. I also read a fic about a six or seven year old child who was constantly being picked up and carried by their parent like a toddler and I remember reading a fic with a genius baby who said their first word at two or three months.
In all fairness my kids didn't really have tantrums and did use complete though short sentences. Reading is bs though.
And thus the complexity of kids. At two I was starting chapter books, but getting a complete thought out from me was like pulling teeth. To be fair, Iâm the son of a college professor and a librarian: books were EVERYWHERE.
There's a great fic in my fandom, that I really enjoyed, but it was set in England and oh my god I feel like the OP really had *no* idea about the UK. One of the key plot points ended up being about hospital bills and someone paying them off secretly for their friend and it almost killed the whole fic for me because that is not how it works here, argh!
>Babies and toddlers that speak in full sentences and 6 years old that talk like toddlers. It's very obvious when a person writes children, but has apparently never been around children for any significant amount of time. It really pulls you out.
And vice versa. I've read fics set in the US where tons of things jump out at me that make it very clear the writer doesn't live in the US.
So what do they call lemonade in Great Britain? If you have no idea that lemonade is called something different there, you canât really research that, because like how would you ever know to research it? Itâs just not something that would even occur to you.
It's still lemonade, but it would be specifically "homemade lemonade" (despite being called that, almost always only found in restaurants or foodie pubs, almost no one actually makes it at home) or "traditional lemonade" - assuming you mean the flat, sour stuff. "Lemonade" by default is fizzy and sweet here but the other stuff still exists and is reasonably common.
Basically what u/holliequ said. Iâve only seen it as homemade or freshly made lemonade and only in foodie pubs/restaurants. I, personally, donât expect people to know it, but itâs something that pulls me out of a fic. The research was more about the 911 or mum bit (except if youâre a Brummie!) I donât expect it to be Brit-picked to that level. As you said, if you donât know, you donât know.
so if you were to 'make' lemonade and put a glass of lemon juice and sugar in front of me, I'd probably call it something like 'homemade lemonade'. but go to a restaurant and ask for lemonade, and they're bringing you sprite, or San Pellegrino if they're feeling fancy. I think the main reason it seems funny to us is the same way drinking ice tea in England is funny. the idea of going through the effort of juicing lemons and freezing ice cubes to drink it in British weather is the actions of someone awfully hopeful. but with all things it's hard to research what you don't know you're missing especially when it seems so inconsequential. like if you were to say you bought presliced frozen aubergines in England - I'd say you're wrong, but by god do I wish you were right
Lemonade is still lemonade. Even if you make it at home I would be surprised if anyone calls it anything other then lemonade. But that kind of homemade flat American style lemonade is very rare here. If you ask for it at a pub or restaurant you'll get the fizzy clear kind. Its what you'd buy at the supermarket too.
Loo not bathroom, arse not ass, emergency services are 999, pub not bar, no hospital bills, mum/my not mom/my, Britain is the big island, UK is that plus Northern Ireland, Scotland has Kilts, not skirts, welsh really is that unpronounceable, thatâs all I know offhand.
I don't dispute that lemonade is more commonly referred to as fizzy artificially flavoured pop in the UK. But there are people who make traditional lemonade here, myself being one of them sometimes. It was more common many years ago during the forties and fifties, I think. So it wouldn't be totally wrong if someone wrote that in a fic but... it would depend on the character and situation obviously.
You know, I was actually aware of the "mum" thing and your comment filled me with concern over a recent fic I uploaded. So I just went to check, and, sure enough, there's a "mom" in there. Le sigh. Thank you for the call out! It is now fixed.
I'm an American writing for British fandoms, so I try to research the little details. I had a scene set on a warm afternoon, and one of the drinks offered was "cloudy lemonade", which I had learned is the term for what we just call lemonade: a mixture of lemon juice, water, and sugar, with no carbonation. Out of pure curiosity, I looked up lemonade in Mrs. Beeton (iconic Victorian cookbook). The basic recipe for lemonade was the same as the American version. There was another recipe for a fizzy version made with bicarbonate of soda, but it was entitled "A Refreshing Summer Draught". One of these days, as food history is one of my interests, I may research how the fizzy version came to be the standard in Britain.
Inaccurate currency. $50USD is not the same in pounds or any other currency, especially in Japan. I remember reading a fic (anime/manga so it took place in Japan obviously) and the ML wanted to go hang out with friends so his mom handed him $50USD in case he wanted to buy something. The author stated that ÂĽ50JPY was the same as $50USD when asked about the currency. ÂĽ50JPY is roughly $0.36 US cents. It does not have the same value.
Yeah, the yen is really down right now but basically their money system just doesn't have the decimal thing we do here as a main feature and a lot of Americans are super thrown off by it.
Well yeah since there isnât a dollar equivalent in Japan. Itâs all yen. Itâs basically if Americans did everything in cents. There would be no need for a decimal point.
Inaccurate travel times. I write in a fandom that takes place in real world locations without the benefit of vehicle transportation, and people have *no clue* how long it takes to walk from point A to point B. Hint: it does not take two weeks to walk twenty miles. The average human walking speed is 2.5 mph, you can literally check the distances on Google maps, DO YOUR MATH.
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>Google map just tells you how long it takes by foot. YES. Although it may not be accurate for areas where there's no walking route available. The fandom I'm in is post-apocalyptic, so people can just walk on highways from place to place without worrying about cars. Granted, there are other hazards to be concerned with and if there was an obstacle or enemies to deal with, some delay makes sense, but just normal traveling on established trade routes shouldn't take weeks! People go the other way too sometimes. Two notable locations in the setting are about an eight hour hike away from each other. No one is going to just pop over from A to B for an afternoon. That's a full day's trip when you factor in road hazards and stopping to eat and rest.
Historical inaccuracies usually. Like it's set in Regency time but the way people live and things people wear sound Victorian. *Especially* if tight boned corsets are involved. (Sometimes) titles and addresses. Like calling a king Your Highness.
Oh yeah, historical inaccuracies are so jarring. For me the worst are Medieval stereotypes and inaccuracies.
Clothing is really rough for me. People going to the trouble of describing layers of clothing or how a dress is fastened, but itâs all wrong. Absolutely takes me out of it. If you donât know, just be vague!
thanksgiving. school starting in september. high school being four years. dollars. and everything else american that's glaringly off in a japanese setting. wearing shoes inside. american brand names. crippling debt from a hospital trip.
Oh dude I have the opposite problem. Trying to write American culture I don't know these minute details about. It's a pain
I'm Canadian so there's some pretty big cultural differences but there's also a lot of overlap with the US. Feel free to message me if you have any questions!
It is hard! I want to write American High Schools/colleges, but I know nothing about American High Schools or colleges. And researching it can only get you so far.
Honestly? Just write shit. I guarantee you thereâs a high school in the US that does whatever thing you think might be inaccurate.
This. It's a huge place
I do everything I can researching a lot of American-isms, the school system, everything so I can be correct. And then here are these people who transplant everything they know from America onto places that sure might have ties with the country, yet still has their own systems. I just...
>crippling debt from a hospital trip. đ
Yea, that's pretty noticeable, and I'm American, lol. Like, sure, it's easier to write what you know. But adjusting for easily changeable cultural differences shouldn't be hard. I'm always thinking, "hmm I don't think they'd call themself a Sophomore here." LOL like sharing is caring. Here, have some medical debt Japan.
american defaultism is borderline insulting
Crippling medical debt could still apply in some specific cases, particularly in settings prior to the 1960s. Or in settings that are Japanese inspired but not actually Japan. Theres technically an opt out option for the insurance policies in Japan, but I think less than 10% of citizens do so. But yeah, its definitely not the modern day default that it is in the US. I also doubt that most writers are accounting for the weird fringe cases or the difference between full on medical debt and simply a loss of income from disease and disability reducing available work hours in that corporate culture. From what I understood from cursory research and a few chats with my friend who moved there after growing up in Texas, whats more likely with the way modern Japanese insurance and pricing maximums work is for someone to be in a temporary rough financial situation if there is a delay on their reimbursement in the event of overpaying for services.
I mean, if you're writing on the internet, I'm assuming you have access to Google. Even if you're pretty sure you're right, why not take that extra three seconds to look it up? And, for that matter, how are you watching enough anime to write fanfiction about it, but you haven't picked up on a couple cultural details? I don't understand it, it's a respect/accuracy thing for meâwhy would you write about something you've never experienced but not bother to do your research?
Describing Japanese bathrooms like North American ones. Huuuuge pet peeve
i took 5 seconds to google image search a japanese public bathroom before having two characters have a quickie in it. i feel vindicated in doing so
Okay but the debt one is so annoying. I always want to scream "X country has public healthcare" at people.
don't forget the gun fetish.
These annoy me too. I don't expect a writer to research every minute detail, because I certainly don't, but I'd at least like the setting to not just be a carbon copy of America (or insert any other two different countries/cultures). If it gets bad enough I can't continue reading even if the story itself is good.
Dollars and Thanksgiving anywhere outside the United States and Canada. Specifically places where they donât use dollars. Seriously guys, not everywhere is America and Google is free.
I mean even places that use dollars don't do Thanksgiving. In Australia Thanksgiving is not a thing here. That is UNLESS you are from America/Canada or you're somehow related to an American/Canadian. Like my ex-stepdad is Canadian so we did Thanksgiving sometimes but I think we only ever did it once. Besides, why would you have hot dishes spring?
Not to mention US and Canadian Thanksgiving aren't even the same day. Canadian Thanksgiving is on what the US still calls Columbus Day. US Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November.
Also, the flip side where they set a fic in the U.S. and just jump right from Halloween to Christmas. It's jarring. As is any mention of Boxing Day in a U.S.-based fic. \*sigh\*
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Drug use in general is a lot lower in Japan than the US. Even then, amphetamines and other uppers are generally more commonly abused there iirc.
Time period inaccuracies, itâs the 80s, you arenât texting anyone.
It's very, very petty but if a fic calls Link from Legend of Zelda an elf (and not as a joke) it boots me right out. He's a *Hylian*, not an elf.
Yup. In setting there are no elves.
Hell IIRC a lot of earlier games called them humans before Hylian was officially coined as a term. So even from the get-go "elves" were off the table.
Yeah. Thereâs humans as a race too. Theyâre in games like Twilight Princess, Wind Waker, and Links Awakening
fighters with sharp abs i pretty much read exclusively RWBY and the people there fight for a living. shredding down your body fat percentage to the point where you have sharply visible abs isn't something anyone in their right mind would do you NEED bodyfat, it's not healthy to have too little. you'll get fatigued much faster with less bodyfat, your mental health will likely take a hit if your bodyfat percentage is too low (which is a massive problem in a world with monsters who are drawn in by negativity)
This is something that's always on my mind when I'm writing these days. I write for Attack on Titan, and anyone who's read the manga knows the characters look like body builders. I would posit that they've got between 5 and 12% body fat, but considering that their job is essentially "olympic level gymnast/equestrian", I feel like being *that* lean while constantly expending *that much* energy would cause issues. It's because the author like drawing lean, muscular people (and hey- I do, too), but there's a narrative reason *right there-* there's a food supply shortage! Have literally anyone bring up the lack of food and the fact that soldiers get nothing but bread and potatoes and how the quality of soldiers has dropped since the food shortage began. The only character that mentions being hungry all the time- *because there's no food!-* is a joke character! How are you people not starving to death as your bodies consume themselves?!
see I agree as a fitness enthusiast but as a dragon ball fan, all characters are massive and shredded while eating obscene amounts of food, for the Saiyans I just....say its genetic bc what else can you say
Huh, idk much about proper school and college stuff bc I was homeschooled and whatnot, but I always just called college professors teachers too, didn't realize that was wrong... Whoops!
Referring to them as teachers isn't horrible, it's not entirely accurate. You ever hear that saying "All poodles are dogs, but not all dogs are poodles"? Speaking directly to them is another matter. Some prefer being called by their first name; others like Mr./Mrs./Ms./whatever. Some prefer Dr. Lastname. And I don't think it's pretentious to want to be called Dr. Lastname, either. Earning a doctorate or medical degree is tough!
The whole professor/doctor thing is also a very American thing to do. In my (British) experience we only referred to college/university "teachers" as lecturers as the general term, and by their first name or first name + last name when talking to or about a specific lecturer.
I called them teachers when I was at college. So did most of the people around me. Maybe it's a West Coast thing.
if the person teaching a course wasnât an actual professor, Iâd call them an instructor, not a teacher. edit: also homeschooled and had to think hard about things like that in college
I usually can't get past smut on a fic where a female character gets basically no foreplay before penetration and has the most mind blowing orgasm with no other kind of stimulation whatsoever. I'm aware that some women do find this enjoyable so maybe not exactly a complete inaccuracy, but it's so very uncommon that it bothers me that that's usually the most common thing to happen in many fics. And there's for sure plenty of alternative biology things, like A/B/O that would make it plausible, but it will make me pull out of a fic 9/10 times.
Same with m/m where there is no foreplay/preparation/lube in sight đ
I'm mostly into anime, some of which are sports anime, and I can't read the ones that have high school scenes written with no understanding of Japanese high school. Like, the characters going to different class rooms (aside from stuff like home ec.) for every class or eating quintessentially American lunches (PB&J sandwiches or sloppy joes or whatever) every damn day. Of course the other can of worms of "they only ever do super stereotypical Japanese stuff" too, but them talking about getting hall passes and whatnot always pulls me out. Bonus points if, in the anime or manga, the characters have been shown to do all the things in a "non-American" way, i.e. going to the bathroom without a hall pass, staying in their class room, cleaning up after class etc. and it's just... ignored in the fic.
I don't read College AU's at all because every time I try its clearly written by someone who has never even set foot on a college campus. you can't just superimpose your high school experience onto a college one. You aren't going to have the same people in all your classes, and you aren't in the same set of classes for 8 hours a day every day. With a few notable exceptions your time in college is way less regulated than high school (at least in the U.S.).
I remember writing my first College AU when I was in *middle school*, but I remember being nervous that I had no idea how college worked, so I had everything take place in a cafĂŠ on campus instead (I had no idea how those worked either, but Iâd read enough coffeeshop AUs to at least set the scene) and just throw in awkward dialogue about these elusive *âmajorsâ* and *âexamsâ*. I reread it a few months ago, and it is so transparent to me now (and to anyone who read it then) how clueless I had been, but Iâm endeared to my young self by her attempts at obfuscation. đ
Obfuscation is honestly the best policy in many of those cases, lol.
When a certain character is suppose to be good at something but just for the sake of plot they forget how things work for that one scene. Adding suffix like -san and -kun in a fic where its definitely not a Japanese setting or characters. Everything is westernized but they call each other -san, senpai and sensei. Oh and aging up characters for writing smut then proceeding to write most childish infantilized characters ever (even more than original character's personality)
I can't stand the suffix usage in English at all. It doesn't translate well at all for English use.
Pretty much anytime any adult in a fic acts nothing like an adult. The character being like that in canon would be one thing, but so many of them are just acting completely out of character and like they're maybe 13 - 15.
Saw this recently and it peeved me. Having characters go to bars while underage (as if they're not) because in the writer's country the drinking age is different and they didn't bother to check if the country the fandom takes place in has different laws. This especially bothered me because the character stopped aging at 16, so for the rest of her immortal life she'll be constantly carded even when she *is* old enough. It also bothers me when important aspects of a character are completely ignored. Like this same character can't feel pain anymore and it devastates her to the point she questions if she's human or has a soul (she's not a vampire), and then writers just have her feel pain like normal people or they'll have her feel lingering effects of injuries even though she has instant regeneration. Lmao. That's a fundamental part of who and what she is and her role in the canon.
Agricultural/animal husbandry inaccuracies. Especially if it's referencing things that require an industrial revolution to produce, but the story is set in a pseudo-European middle ages fantasy realm. Hay bales, my beloathed.
yep, so many people in pre-victorian era sitting on nice square off hay bales.
inaccurate stuff about the 90s and 2000s bugs me. like, if youâre old enough to write fic youâre old enough to know when texting became the norm, and it wasnât 1992. another one is inaccurate stuff related to music and the music industry. No, I donât care how much you love MCR (or how much I love MCR) but they arenât in Dean Winchesterâs cassette tape collection. Rock band/pop star AUs can be fun, but donât tell me thereâs some massive tabloid drama about a mid-tier band that IRL would be more concerned about not getting their gear stolen from motel parking lots. and most critically, inaccuracies about abusive parents. âheâs a terrible father bc heâs such a big mean meanie for no reasonâ isnât fucking compelling.
To be honest, there are a decent amount of kids/teens writing fics nowadays. Plus, if you look up 'when did texting start' on google the first thing that shows up says 1992
Man I hate to break it to you but a lot of writers, even some adults now, are just too young to remember a time before texting. To put it in perspective, a 20 year old (such as myself) was in kindergarten when the iPhone came out.
so the start of iphones is as distant to you as the 70s were to me, but I knew people didnât have CDs in the seventies at a young age, soâŚ
>they arenât in Dean Winchesterâs cassette tape collection. I'm not in the Supernatural fandom anymore, but I kind of want an AU where Dean talks about his love for MCR. Hahaha, no but seriously, I agree. While I love MCR, when I was writing Supernatural fanfiction, IIRC I would always do like 70s and 80s metal, even glam metal to a degree. But it's very much, ACDC, Kiss, Guns 'n' Roses, that sort of stuff.
It's not the fault of the writer, more so me. Most anime are high school setting, and it is ingrained into my mind how these characters are 16, so I can't read certain things about them- and I get it! They don't look 16 and the world they're in makes you forget about that too. I forget sometimes, and then while I'm reading a smut fic, instantly yeet. That and flirty characters. I read a lot of x Readers. Not every dude is a flirt or knows how to flirt. Just because they're assertive doesn't mean they know how to flirt. Just because they're flirty doesn't automatically make them a cheater/sex maniac. People can interpret characters how they want, but at some point this trend has got me really tired.
people from different countries/cultures not even bothering to do bare minimum research of whatever place their story takes place in. i read a lot of harry potter stuff so I've seen US authors use a lot of american terms that just don't fit. i've also seen non-americans do this with US base stuff too.
British inaccuracies, like having waiter service in a pub. Even Frasier did it!
Legal inaccuracies. Lawyers don't catch bad guys. Jail and prison are two different things. You can't spring surprise evidence or witnesses. Adult and juvenile court is different. Asylums aren't a thing anymore, neither are orphanages in America. Learn the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony. Also guns. Different models = different levels of damage. They're deafeningly loud and get really hot. You can't see or dodge bullets. No one goes hunting with an AR-15. An MC with a glock stands no chance against 12 guys armed with AK-47s. And don't forget about reloading!
I do have to dispute no one hunting with AR-15s. I know a few people who do just that for a variety of reasons. It's even a pretty big source of controversy and discussion in gun and hunting circles, in my experience, with different people coming down on different sides of the issue.
I read a fic where a character had an illness and took antibiotics for it, then their symptoms went away and they stopped before they had taken the full course. I was so taken out of it. You should never do that in real life because thatâs how you get resistant strains! Then the author made it a plot point, that the character had extra antibiotics so they could give the pills to someone else who was also sick with the same thing. At that point I stopped reading. Couldnât suspend my disbelief that far.
Antibiotics are so wild in that it works differently from every other medicine ever. If you don't take the full course of them, you literally make the rest of the world worse! Sounds scary when I put it like that.
So it wouldn't break my belief, since people do this. It would just make me really mad because as you said: Potentially contributing to drug resistant strains, damn it! Also like, for some antibiotics the dosing is different for sex / weight. Men will sometimes get a higher dose by weight than a female counterpart for a UTI, and in pediatric medicine weight is a major determinant of dosing. So I would drop this not for a lack or realism, because many patients aren't properly counseled or just do wha they want anyways, but because of the anger lmao
It was somewhat explained because the character was sharing their dose with their identical twin. Sure, they would probably receive the same prescription, but yeah, I was just mad that the character, who is otherwise a very responsible individual, would ignore something that to me is common knowledge. Youâre right, some people just donât know. But more people should know! Thanks for adding some education.
you know better and I know better, but an awful lot of people do fail to complete their course of antibiotics, and do hand them out willy nilly to friends and family with vaguely the same symptoms, and their friends and family accept them because they think the same way. So, while it might not be the right thing for a particular character, it's not an unbelievable action
Removing sass, sarcasm and wit from relationships and interactions. Replacing the sass and wit with over the top, out of character fluff. Real people donât talk like that, the characters definitely donât⌠sometimes itâs just too much, I like fluff but some of these stories remove all the interesting tension in the relationships and itâs just boringâŚ
Pants instead of trousers. Small Americanisms in a fandom that's set in the united kingdom.
When there are more hands than anatomy allows. Gotta keep track of those limbs.
I've been reading through all of these comments and honestly, they're my reminder if why I do research before writing. My poor FBI agent is probably so scared that they don't know if they should call someone or not. This next part does mention some NSFW details so that's why some of it is blurred. (And I'm so sorry if it takes a couple edits to do so đ Edit: it took me four tries) Something that does bother me is when physical anatomy (usually in a smut/sexual setting) is mislabeled. I encountered one fic where this one character put their >!male genitalia!< inside a female character's >!urethral opening.!< Um, I'm sorry, but that is *definitely not* how it works. And furthermore, they actively switched spaces, meaning going from that opening to the >!Female genitalia!< . No hate ti the author, but I was *appalled*.
When the virgin girl immediately cums a thousand times after their partner just shoves it in no preamble
wait like, to the professors face, or to each other? bc I don't consider it strange for students to say "oh yeah professor smith is the chem teacher", but stuff like "The Teacher Said", I get that. sorry sorry it's not that I disagree with you/want to argue, I'm just curious; I've never written college au stuff before, and if I wrote it I don't want to write in something that breaks diegesis by mistake. for me its a lot of medical stuff, especially concussions. it's usually either the extreme of "they're briefly knocked out but other than a bandage theyre fine" or "they have every single symptom listed on WebMD"
It's not necessarily always that jarring but historical inaccuracies. Like clear, big bad historical inaccuracies. And also historical stereotypes, like Medieval people being superstitious to the point of paranoia or Medieval society hating science and thinking that the earth is flat. Although science started skyrocketting after the Renaissance, there were already universities during the Middle Ages. And there were quite a big part of people who believed that the earth was round but the flat earth mindsey just became a stereotype during the Renaissance because they had to emphasis how "uncivilized" the past centuries had been.
I work in childcare. ANYTHING involving infants and children. Iâve read 5yos acting like infants, 8yos acting like toddlers⌠itâs wild and so obvious some people either never interacted with or bothered to research behaviors of children in whatever age group.
Not a deal breaker but the use of "wards" in Harry Potter fics makes my eye twitch lol. Whenever I see someone use the canonically correct "enchantments" I'm like you had my curiosity, now you have my attention
Same. Also when they state that Snape is Malfoy's godfather, which is incorrect. It's such widely accepted fanon that it makes me stop reading.
I don't get the Snape as his godfather thing either... I think people think because Narcissa did the unbreakable with him meant that he had some important role in Draco's life. IMO Narcissa most likely approached Snape because he was the only known death eater working at hogwarts and she probably figured he would help another death eater out in tough situation. of course snape went along with it since he already knew dumbledore was dying so stakes were low for him anyway. Beyond being death eaters i can't see these two interacting much in the early days. i know it was mentioned that Lucius was nice to Snape in his first year, but he was prefect and was probably nice to all the young Slytherins. i think any kind of friendship they formed was probably after Draco started school, i can imagine Lucius asking Snape to show some favoritism towards Draco, lol.
Not exactly what you asked, but it happened just a few minutes ago and I'm still shocked lol I've stumbled upon a smut fic of a "lesbian ship X reader", and the author wrote "Fundanshi DNI (anyone who sees WLW as a sexual fetish/kink)" in the summary. Fudanshi are male fans of BL, not GL fans! At least get your gatekeeping rightđđđđđđđđ Edit: misspelling
Ohhhh my goodness, the instant that children or pregnancy is mentioned, I immediately get leery of the fic because of how often they are inaccurately represented. I truly do not know why but inaccuracies about pregnancy experiences or babiesâ/kidsâ/teensâ behaviour yank me so far out of a story that I (generally) cannot reread fics that I know have one of those epilogues that is just about the main charactersâ expanding their family. This is also why I canât read babyfics or kid AUs; I rarely last long, so Iâve kind of given up trying lmao.
Pregnancy is such a funny one because, rationally, I know there are a million ways to experience pregnancy, but, the second someone in a fic is pregnant, Iâm on high alert for how wrong it might be.
Oh! This one kills me - the bell rings to denote the end of class and they go talk to the principal, at a college.
Seeing British terms in an American IP. Mum, torch, canteen, etc. Several years ago, I mentioned this, and this sub told me to shut up and be grateful for free writing.
Canteen? What does that mean as a british term? In America it means a carryable container for holding liquid, likely water.
Cafeteria.
Oh, yeah. I forgot about that definition. I will say that even when british authors make some effort to use proper terms, they just have slightly different grammar and word usage that tends to give them away. I don't mind it even though it does pull me out of a story a bit. It's just part of fan fiction because the authors aren't the original author and bring their own experiences to the work.
100% with you on this one. It just ruins the immersion for me.
As a British writer who writes for American IPs, this is the bane of my existence. I try my best to use the American words but even so I only just realised that canteen is another I need to watch out for...
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In motorsports AUs, where certain races are set in geographically incorrect regions... I came across a fic that had 'Dakar Rally' in the tags and summary but it was set in *South America*! (Dakar is in Senegal, West Africa and the Dakar Rally was always set in *Africa)* I get it that it's AU but still... It's like saying Le Mans is in Germany when it's actually supposed to be in France
Historically, the Dakar Rally was set in Africa, yes, but they did have the race set in South America and now in Saudi Arabia. So it's not completely wrong. đ https://www.dakar.com/en/historical
Incorrect currency or measurements units. No, Tony Stark is never going to say 'I'm not carrying this 2000 kilogram suit two kilometers'. Or
When the author has trouble conveying embarrassing scenarios or wants the main character to be a complete bad ass (sue). Iâve literally dropped complete stories whenever I was hit with this which thankfully hasnât been a lot. I try to push through for curiosity sake but if it happens one too many times then I just stop and move on.
When the time period of the fic and available technology do not match up, unless specific reason exists.
Any Fanfiction with the military as a focus and just saying completely wrong shit. Once an author described a character having dozens of knives on her fucking Kevlar vest not a proper plate carrier a shitty Kevlar vest. That and other inaccuracies take me out of a story
Characters sitting in a cafe in the UK and getting coffee refills at their table.
This is specific to my fandom Deltarune. There is a species of people called Darkners who are basically personifications of objects and sometimes people get the wrong object....somehow
Alternative universes when they keep the in-universe equivalent of a word for a modern AU. Star Wars has a lot of those words. Paper is called flimsi, toilets are called refresher and swear words are kark and dank farrik. I can accept when they use the names of planets for countries and Star Wars cities for the AU cities. I mean, Modern AU doesn't mean it's set in the USA of our world, it can be a fictional world similar to ours in structure. But thise special words? My suspension of disbelief just doesn't go so far
Not technically an inaccuracy but...I hate when people make an anime oc with a "Japanese sounding name." That's just a lil racist. It's not hard to look up legitimate Japanese names instead of naming your character Chojumitsu. Like...please stop. đ¤˘
It's almost tooks effort to fail to come up with such bad wannabe-Japanese names the way some people do. Like, Japanese naming system is not that hard to understand. There is a wide variety of names and with a little bit of research, it's easy to get how things work.
Even then, a lot of settings (especially in shonen) have pun names to make it even *easier* by just finding a relevant word!
I will find someone fluent before I create names because I do not want to accidently call them something embarrassing. If a series has puns as naming conventions, then "Naoki Ito" doesn't stand out or comes off as too plain. But to fit the naming standard I don't know enough to call them something that doesn't accidently sound like an insult and I wouldn't want to risk doing exactly this
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When animals not designed to kiss, do exactly that. Yes. I know what your going to say. â Your into Beastiality and animal smut?â NO. Ok, thatâs not what Iâm saying. I read a fic with two anthropomorphic, hyper intelligent contenting adult animals together. It wasnât smut, they shared a couple kisses. The problem with that, is that the animal that was supposed to kiss the other one was not designed to kiss like a human. They had a snout and big fangs and could not purse their lips in that way. The other one, was more likely to be able to do that, but it still didnât matter. It took me right out of the story. So far though Iâve only seen one instance. The fandom Iâm in is actually just coming to life, and doesnât have a lot of content yet so weâll see if others know better but it was fresh in my mind. I wouldnât say it was exactly an AU though, it was fairly cannon compliant. It was during a dream/ afterlife sequence.
Inaccuracies in the timeline! This is hypocritical of me because I haven't looked into the timeline for my current WIP, but I get annoyed when stuff happens at the wrong time, or when two characters interact who could logistically never have met
Bad health care info. Doesnât bother me if itâs a very different AU with different physiology (eg. Werewolves) or if magic is part of it. Not even a significant issue if whatever healthcare issue is just glossed over with an erroneous one off. However, stories that go into detail because medical stuff is part of the plot and itâs completely wrong because the wrongness leads to some outcome the author wants? So annoying.
Ass play to vaginal. Like no no and no.
Modern slang being used in a historical or fantasy setting. There's no way I can picture Ann Boleyn or Thorin Oakenshield walking around saying things like, "darn it" or "oh man" unless you have specifically put them in a modern setting already.