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[mare]

I have to agree on both counts.

Being overly wordy is another pet peeve of mine. There is no reason to babble on and on about what color someone's house is. It's green we get it... lol

[Chaos]

But mare, it's not *green*. It's a shade of green that lies firmly between celery and lime, but with just a hint of gold shimmer when the light hits it...

[julilly]

But mare, it's not *green*. It's a shade of green that lies firmly between celery and lime, but with just a hint of gold shimmer when the light hits it...

That matches Kevin's eyes, and the stripes of the shirt Nick wore that time, once, during that photoshoot, with the guy with the hair and the camera. Ya know.

[Chaos]

^exactly!

[mare]

You left out twinkling....t here always has to be twinkling!

[Carter-Orange]

I'm guilty

I've put a few lines of songs into one of my fics, but it's supposed to be Nick writing a few lines of poetry, so it does have a purpose.

I don't mind songs in fics if they are relevent to the story.

[julilly]

I'm guilty

I've put a few lines of songs into one of my fics, but it's supposed to be Nick writing a few lines of poetry, so it does have a purpose.

I don't mind songs in fics if they are relevent to the story.

Yes but that's a few lines. I hate when the whole chapter is like:

John went to the store. He heard a song on the in-store satellite radio that they always kept tuned to the same station even though there's no way he would know that.

2
5
l
i
n
e
s
o
f
l
y
r
i
c
s

So he left cuz he didn't like that song.

[Chaos]

I'm with you; if it's relevant to the story, I don't mind it at all. However, there are some stories where the lyrics are being used in lieu of an actual story and that's really not my cup of tea. (mmm tea.)  It can be nice to have a "soundtrack" and it's okay to use more than a few lines of a song if it's actually serving a purpose other than to just simply have the song in the story (i.e. I've read stories that were essentially about 100 words longer than the lyrics to the song that is included in the story--there is one sentance of "fic" to one verse of song, etc...)

Of course, I must say that we all have done most of these things. It all comes with developing our writing. I *know* I'm still guilty of the being too wordy and of doing the telling-not-showing (still catch myself doing that all the time...ugh!) And I'm terrible when it comes to using proper grammar (altough sometimes I do that purposely, depending on the character...) I like reading these threads to find other things that I'm doing that I may not even be aware of until someone else points them out.

Also note, even if you recognize something from your writing in threads like this, remember that there are exceptions to every rule. Just because you (proverbial, not you specifically  )  do something mentioned here, doesn't make your writing bad by any means--it's just something that you may want to be aware of when you are writing and make decisions like "is this really necessary to the story/does it serve a purpose other than to show that I like it?".

[RokofAges75]

Speaking of song lyrics... there was this fic I read once (not on AC) where the author posted the lyrics to an entire song as one chapter... and that was it.  That was the whole chapter.  None of her writing at all; just this song LOL.

[Chaos]

I think I've read that one

The thing with that is that they could actually get into trouble for copyright infringement for doing just that (it's unlikely that anyone would pursue it; especially with all those lyric sites out there, but...technica lly speaking, they're using more than what would be considered "fair use".) If it's just a few lines, it's not so much of a copyright issue, but the whole thing--especially if not including some original work as well...yeeeah. pushing it. lol

[cabybakes]

Also note, even if you recognize something from your writing in threads like this, remember that there are exceptions to every rule. Just because you (proverbial, not you specifically  )  do something mentioned here, doesn't make your writing bad by any means--it's just something that you may want to be aware of when you are writing and make decisions like "is this really necessary to the story/does it serve a purpose other than to show that I like it?".

And also, one person's pet peeve is not another person's pet peeve...

[Chaos]

^very true also!

[julilly]

And also, one person's pet peeve is not another person's pet peeve...

This is definitely true, though a lot of times writers don't realize it's something they're doing

[RokofAges75]

Or they do realize it, but since it's not their pet peeve, they don't care.

It's all a matter of fact and opinion.  There are some pet peeves we've talked about on here, which, in fact, constitute poor writing.  Poor grammar, for instance.  No expert on writing will ever tell you it's okay to publish something that is chock full of grammar errors, unless they're there intentionally as part of a character's own writing or dialect or something, or that it's okay to write a novel that is all one paragraph.

But a lot of the other things we complain about - banners, song lyrics, lengthy description, etc. - are just a matter of opinion.  There are bestselling, highly-regarded, published novelists who use lyrics in their books and write lengthy, wordy descriptions.  And banners are the online equivalent to the cover of a book.  Sure, as a writer, you might want to take the opinions of other writers and your own readers into consideration. .. but when it all comes down to it, you need to do what you feel fits your story and your style the best.  Our styles and tastes are all different, so definitely, one person's pet peeve may be another person's love.

Still funny to see what drives everyone nuts though LOL.

[Carter-Orange]

OMG a whole chapter of just song lyrics and nothing else?  That's not a story at all!