What tiny detail in stories irritates you?

[Maromar]

When writers overuse the same literary device/phrase structure. It can be done to great effect when reinforcing an idea or creating contrast, which is itself a literary device "we shall fight on the beaches". But when you start every character description with a simile followed by a piece of dialogue, then make a three introduction chain of it in the same chapter, my eyes droop. Oftentimes, when writers rely on one literary device, they do it shoddily anyways.

The exception to this is when you're speaking from the POV of specific characters or if such descriptions are an integral aspect of the narrative. This can be seen in wistful tales passed from the lips of a mourner, fables, or comedy skits, but even then if everything else doesn't stick right it makes it worse.

 

[Nhatduongg]

I don't usually complain much about tiny details, but I saw a guy who literally used quotation marks in the place of apostrophes.

 

[tiaf]

I don't usually complain much about tiny details, but I saw a guy who literally used quotation marks in the place of apostrophes.

Who is it? I gotta send threatening emojis.

I get annoyed when I see TOO MANY CAPS or too many emojis like （╬ಠ益ಠ)

I used it too like once or twice for comedy effect or when I imitated online comments, but in every chapter? No, thanks.

Misleading titles are also a nightmare. Why would you name a chapter “meeting xx” when the characters don’t get to meet them at all?

 

[BenJepheneT]

When the story starts with someone waking up.

you've demonstrated that QUITE WELL

 

[Nhatduongg]

When the story starts with someone waking up.

What about chapter 2? Not the prologue?

 

[BenJepheneT]

here's my contribution to the discourse: conflicting or straight-up unhelpful descriptive writing. I'm not talking about authors that overdescribe stuff or describe what's been established. I'm talking about writers whose description doesn't match the tone or worse, the setting of the story.

one egregious example I can think of is describing the "blazing heat of the sun eating away his rotting corpse, leaving maggots in its wake" when said rotting corpse is supposed to be a respected leader of some guild that's fallen victim to a battlefield. i get that you wanted to show the visual example but what you're ALSO showing is the lack of respect the author shows towards the character's role within the story. "the fruits of his efforts and labour were clear for all to see. his dried corpse laid dormant, but not without the presence of a hundred more surrounding him, each more scarred than the other, all belonging to the enemy. even in defeat, he'd take all his losses to his grave." this not only paints the picture of a corpse, but elevates the scene in a way that accentuates that this leader is competent, honourable, and has combat skills to, well, LEAD a group.

another problem I have is more widespread. I've seen this repeated many times. sometimes in fantasy stories, they'll describe a loud sound akin to a "gunshot" when flintlock pistols aren't even invented yet. they'll say "as happy as a lark" but dogs don't exist in that story. they'll describe a person akin to a "sly fox" when fox-kin humans exist, thus causing some unintentional innuendos/characterizations (if written in a focused perspective). it's like the authors don't focus while writing and break immersion simply by co-opting modern English language without figuring the history that the language brings with it. when describing stuff, do it within the reason and culture of your own realm. it's a nitpick, yes, but I'm tired of reading through a fantasy book and have my experience shattered like a mirror with a line like "computer-smart".

 

[Cipiteca396]

"as happy as a lark" but dogs don't exist in that story

Larks are birds?

one egregious example I can think of is describing the "blazing heat of the sun eating away his rotting corpse, leaving maggots in its wake" when said rotting corpse is supposed to be a respected leader of some guild that's fallen victim to a battlefield.

I admit this is probably bad writing, but most likely the intent was to horrify. This respected person, someone who should have meant something, is now just a lifeless corpse. A meaningless existence that achieved nothing despite whatever ambitions they held in life.

Also, when characters keep secrets and their reasoning is "I was going to tell you when the time was right." I will take literally any other reason, even if it's a bad reason that the character thinks is a good reason, but "when the time is right" is author lingo for "I needed this to stay secret until a dramatically appropriate time and couldn't think of a reason why."

Damn right. I just read this one like... NO IT WAS A GAME. Fucking Kazara from Genshin Impact fully intended to die without explaining anything until the PC forced her to explain. Her excuse was, "I totally was gonna tell you... Definitely." Sure it's a lie, so it's a little different, but it's way too obvious a lie. At least say something like, "It's private, nothing to do with you."

 

[BenJepheneT]

Larks are birds?

but *birds don't exist.

I can't think of any specific examples right now but I've seen this thing enough for it to slam into my head as an example to list out.

 

[bafflinghaze]

hahah for me it's when people write "men, women, and children". I guess nonbinary people don't have to follow the rules, huh?

 

[LostLibrarian]

Don't know if it's a "detail", but it isn't the main point of the story:

I hate it, when action-novels with romantic subplot just forget about the love interest the moment they are together. Seen way too often in chinese novels, where the MC fights 700 chapters for the girl, kisses her once (maybe even sleeps with her once) and afterwards he just goes to the next level/plane/whatever and forgets everything, leaving the girl behind.

Really hated it and dropped multiple stories for it. A romantic subplot doesn't end with a kiss. It can continue even after that! -.-''

 

[KiraMinoru]

Don't know if it's a "detail", but it isn't the main point of the story:

I hate it, when action-novels with romantic subplot just forget about the love interest the moment they are together. Seen way too often in chinese novels, where the MC fights 700 chapters for the girl, kisses her once (maybe even sleeps with her once) and afterwards he just goes to the next level/plane/whatever and forgets everything, leaving the girl behind.

Really hated it and dropped multiple stories for it. A romantic subplot doesn't end with a kiss. It can continue even after that! -.-''

Lol, right? Like just bring the bloody girl along with you. Afraid she’ll get snatched up and targeted for her looks and you won’t be able to protect her? Oh bs, just have her disguise herself and keep her away from some of the stupid dangerous shit you get tied up in every now and then while also keeping your relationship with her a secret to avoid people treating her as a target of revenge.

Blows my mind how many authors just throw those characters away and give up on the potential interactions between future love interests and current love interests. It’a always because an even hotter chick needs to appear for the MC to drool after because of “cultivation reasons.”

 

[Aoibh]

I don't mind unnumbered chapters, what I dislike are overnumbered chapters like

chapter 2.020
chapter 2.050
chapter 2.1

I think people consider [Part (1\2)] for example to be overrated or... it’s too cool for them

 

[aattss]

When the author explicitly states that the MC won't be OP. Like, no one cares whether or not a story has an OP protagonist; they just care about whether or not the story is actually good. If whether or not the MC is OP is really that important, then that OPness should be obvious from the summary/premise without having to break the flow of said summary with an explicit "oh and by the way the MC isn't OP".

Really, subversions in general aren't inherently interesting.

 

[Mysticant]

When 80-90% of the story is just people talking and that happens for 3 chapters starting from chapter 1. I am dropping almost immediately. I also hate novels where people just stir conflict just for the sake of it, at least plan out an arc before writing. Don't just throw in fights because nothing is going on!

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

When the author explicitly states that the MC won't be OP. Like, no one cares whether or not a story has an OP protagonist; they just care about whether or not the story is actually good. If whether or not the MC is OP is really that important, then that OPness should be obvious from the summary/premise without having to break the flow of said summary with an explicit "oh and by the way the MC isn't OP".

Really, subversions in general aren't inherently interesting.

I think it's because at this point isekai has become a genre where everyone expects the protagonist to be OP, for example friend of mine explicitly looks for anime where the MC is OP. But I wholeheartedly agree that if you want to inform readers your MC isn't OP, hint at it in the summary in a way that won't break immersion

When 80-90% of the story is just people talking and that happens for 3 chapters starting from chapter 1.

Me who has entire chapters of people talking and eating cookies while people get murdered in the background:

 

[Mysticant]

Me who has entire chapters of people talking and eating cookies while people get murdered in the background:

Key point is that, at least someone is getting slashed/hammered/obliterated in the background. I have picking a few novels to read at my free time and all I see is dialogue after dialogue after dialogue. At one point, I almost thought that the plot is just supposed to progress based on dialogue at this point. Why bother writing out actions when you can just talk everything out.

A sample of the pattern I see is:
Lore>Inner monologue>Dialogue>Inner monologue>Dialogue>Dialogue

Don't know if it's a "detail", but it isn't the main point of the story:

I hate it, when action-novels with romantic subplot just forget about the love interest the moment they are together. Seen way too often in chinese novels, where the MC fights 700 chapters for the girl, kisses her once (maybe even sleeps with her once) and afterwards he just goes to the next level/plane/whatever and forgets everything, leaving the girl behind.

Really hated it and dropped multiple stories for it. A romantic subplot doesn't end with a kiss. It can continue even after that! -.-''

Wait....you don't mean the forbidden....h-h-h-holding hands!?

 

[xiaomangisbusy]

I prefer numbered chapters with a name attached (i.e. ###. *insert chapter title*). Unnumbered chapters make it so hard to point out a certain scene to friends because it's such a pain to look for manually if there are 50+ chapters in that novel.

Also, this is probably not considered a small detail but I get super turned off reading a plot where a character is supposed to be some mature experienced person in their late 20s or 30s...and then they proceed to act like a 10 yr old in conflicts/issues.
*side-eyes plots with mafia/CEO/boss MCs who talk like tweens