Hey guys, this is something a bit new as it's not a fictional story.
I've been on Fanfiction for quite awhile and initially I just used this profile as a reader. For a few years, that's all I did was read fics and I read a lot. I mainly read Ratchet and Clank fanfics, but I read a few other kinds as well.
Then, a little under five years ago (dang... five years have gone by...) I started dabbling in writing and wrote my first book; The Jolt. I mainly started writing due to having to deal with a health issue that ultimately put me down for about two years.
After finishing The Jolt, I wrote a few short stories that tied in with its universe and one story that set up the villain for the sequel, Calamity. Now the sequel called The Calamity is still a WIP due to many factors. However, to help form the characters, world, and tone, and to hopefully get people interested in this universe, I started working on a fanfiction called Ravage.
And it grew much bigger than I thought it would and is, ironically , one of the reasons progress on The Calamity is so slow. Now I'm working the sequel to Ravage, I've done both silly and serious spinoffs and oneshots with it.
Why do I say this? Mainly to lend some credibility to this list I'm about to do.
You see, I obviously love Fanfiction! I've met some great people, gotten the chance to express myself and explore other people's stories and ideas. To all my readers, thanks guys so much for taking the time to read my stories!
During this time, I have also run into many cliches and errors in various stories that just drive me nuts as both a reader and a writer! I get that there are many people who are learning more about writing (myself included) and simply don't know any better.
Still, whenever I see the following cliches or errors in a story; at the very least they take me out of whatever world the story is making and at most they can ruin the story.
Anyways, here's my Ten Worst Cliches/Errors.
They aren't in any particular order as they all grate on my nerves in various ways.
10. Forced Action
I love action, I really do. But there's a time for it and if you're trying to make a good story, then you need to allow the characters to develop. I mean if you're going to have just an all-out action fest that's one thing and they can be enjoyable.
9. Forced Romance/Love Triangles
Romance is often one of the hardest things for a writer to make feel natural. I get it, there are those "Slash Fictions" out there and I know what they're meant for. Still, I find most of them cheap and reeking of this cliche. Hence, why I mostly avoid them and have little interest in reading those things. There are few things more cringe-worthy than an awkward/forced romance or love triangle.
8. Flat/Cartoony Villains/Bullies
It's said that great villain, makes a great story, and this is quite true. It really depends on the kind of story the writer is presenting though. The most common error I see is a cartoony villain in a serious story. Now if you're going for a tongue-in-cheek approach, or just an outright humorous approach, by all means do what you want.. But making a villain that's just evil for evil's sake in a serious story is boring and easily forgettable. What does he/she want? Why? How are they going to do it? These are questions the writer must ask themselves.
Underdeveloped bullies that are just there to torment the protagonist are also forgettable. Why are they bullying the main character? What makes them act like that?
7. Too Much Darkness/Drama
I don't have a problem with darkness or drama in a story (Read Ravage and you'll see) but what I do have an issue with is when an author uses way too much of either. The story becomes unbalanced and a chore to read in my opinion. When it's too dark for too long and, especially when there's no good reason for it, the story becomes too uncomfortable and unpleasant to read. When there's unnecessary drama, it's easy to tell that most of it is forced and it becomes a chore to read. Characters overreacting to things they normally wouldn't or saying things that don't make much sense in the given setting.
One thing that I'll add to this is the use of sexual assault for nothing more than shock value. If you're going to have something so dark, so vile and evil in you story, you better be sure you treat it with respect and sensitivity. I didn't want to include this on this list, but seeing as how there's quite a few stories containing this... I feel I must. I know people that have gone through horrific abuse and the damage that is done is permanent and terrible. I cannot express the magnitude of the impact this has on people and for others to treat it callously is disgusting. I don't care if I was loving the story before, once I read about something like that, I refuse to read any more.
6. Capitalization/Punctuation/Grammatical/Spelling Errors.
Pretty self-explanatory yet very, very, very common. I know it is inevitable to have a one or two, or a few of these slip through and those don't bother me. If it's every-other word however, then it gets tedious. It's like trying to ride a bike on a path filled with potholes. It's jarring, uncomfortable, and annoying. Another thing that that can be described the same way, are substituting common slang terms, numbers and phrases for words. Among the most common of these errors are incorrect uses of homophones (ie. to, too, and two; there, their, and they're etc...).
5. Not Separating Lines of Dialogue.
This one can easily make a reader confused and make the story hard to read. By starting a new line when another character starts to speak, it makes things less muddled and the extra space helps the eye of the reader to pick up where they had left off. It also makes the story look better and flow better.
4. Changing Tenses/Point of View.
This is probably one of the easiest errors to make as a writer. It is very common and I am guilty of these two myself. It happens, to me at least, when I'm tired and not paying as much attention as I should.
As for the Point of View, the reader must be informed that the point of view has changed. The ability to do this subtly takes skill and expierence but even if it is blatantly obvious, it must be done. Otherwise, the reader is left in confusion.
It is naturally very confusing for the reader and can easily leave them lost if it happens too often. One or two of these won't have much impact, but too many will detract from the story.
3. Forcing Plot Over Logic/Characters.
This is also extremely common. It's when the writer makes something completely illogical or out-of-character happen just to serve the plot. For example; making a character appear somewhere just to try to add to the drama when that character should not have been there. Either they don't know the location, are too far away, or busy with something else, yet they appear there. Of course, depending on the story and subject, there are bound to be some leaps in logic. However, I am talking about too large a leap. One that takes me out of the story and makes the author's intentions obvious. Another is when a character says something completely out of left field for his/her character and the situation.
2. An Over-Powered Protagonist/Protagonist's Race.
This is one of the easiest ways to kill any tension or suspense in a story. If a character, especially the main character, doesn't get hurt and is nearly invulnerable, then you know the outcome. Giving protagonists abilities to say, control time, space, or reality basically makes them god. When there isn't a villain or anything that can stand against them, the story gets boring.
1. Giving the Main Protagonist an Evil Dark Side.
If done correctly and to a character that already has some depth or a reason to have it, this could actually wok out well. However, most of the time it seems that this is mainly used on flat or cliched characters and is meant as a way to give them depth. The most common type of characters I've seen get this are teenagers, and they are typically female. This isn't the case all of the time but it does seem to be very common.
Something similar is making a character go crazy for really no reason at all. This is one that really gets to me because it shows a lack of understanding and often comes off as desperate. I'm not talking about villains or those who, in the story, are already established as a murderous psychopath. I'm talking about showing the descent of a character into madness. More often than not, it is too quick and/or not logical. Insanity typically starts slow and builds up over time until, at one point, something happens that makes the character snap! Sadly, often people just skip right to the person snapping and doesn't show the slow descent. That or the reason they snap is weak and makes little to no sense.
The biggest offenders to me are those, "Jeff The Killer Fan-Based Spinoffs." For those of you that don't know, Jeff the Killer is a very popular (I don't know why) Creepypasta.