Nekosmuse is my new god.

[icarus]

amethyst_lupin pointed me in the direction of a great meta by nekosmuse The Ten Commandments of Fanfiction.

Thou shalt never use epithets. Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou. If I never see Draco referred to 'the blond' or Ron called 'the redhead' again, it will be too soon.

Thou shalt use warnings. Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou. I cracked open a fic the other day and halfway through it - Surprise! - was the rape scene. Ack. I still have that unpleasant image in my mind, and I'm glaring at author and never want to read them again.

I shalt not spoil the rest. Enjoy!

Comments

[mctabby.livejournal.com]

*sporks epithets with a great big spork-like implement (i.e. a spork)*

Special circle of hell reserved for those addicted to describing Harry as the emerald-eyed boy/youth/man/wizard.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Commends the... the... sporklingness. Er.

Dear lord. Did you really say "emerald-eyed youth"? Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse.

Icarus

[fpb.livejournal.com]

That is because nobody uses "emerald" for eyes in real life. It's still a matter of bad writing being bad writing. If you said "the green-eyed lad," especially in a context where the narrator might not know that much about Harry himself, there is nothing much wrong about it. Ive done it, for instance, in Strange Encounter, where a person who knows nothing about wizards ends up with the Trio and their friends. (Largely OT: ever since I found out that Hijja has green eyes, I have been trying to find a context to refer to her as "the green-eyed genius from Tubingen". That's got me satisfied now.)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Did you know that I was an exchange student in Reutlingen? I was only a few miles away from Hijja.

On the rest, well yeah. That's the whole point of the post. It's not for the good writers to follow slavishly, but for the crap writers who consistently abuse all of this. I mean, when commandment 8 or 9 is "their" and "they're" do not mean the same thing! -- it's pretty clear what level of writer Neko means.

Icarus