Friday, April 22, 2011

What Are Your Writer Pet Peeves???

These do not inspire my bunny picture book at all.
On Facebook today, I posted how I can't stand justified text. I know that it's used for most print media and I understand why it's used...I just don't like how it looks on a word document--anyway MAJOR pet peeve of mine. I compare it to people who don't like their food touching--you know--peas touching your potatoes and now you refuse to eat either.

So what bugs you in terms of writing? It can be anything! Formatting do's & don'ts, grammar issues, maybe something you discovered about writing or publishing that made you scratch your head and not in a good way. You get the idea. And if you don't have a writing peeve, feel free to rant about anything else. Like the guy at Starbucks who talks purposefully loud on his cell phone so everyone within a mile radius can hear his fantastic weekend plans! Please, shut it already! Ha, ha! ;)


It's dish the dirt Friday, so start dishing! ;)

Writer Cat (and I) say HAPPY EASTER!!!! 


xoxo -- Hilary

10 comments:

  1. As far as writing goes - during the process of writing/editing...I get pissed when the husband won't let me concentrate. I love you already - but you don't need my attention 24/7 - LET ME WRITE!

    Other pet peeves - people who drive slow in the left lane; treat their kids like indentured slaves; tie their dogs to trees or try to convince me that it's evil to eat meat...I think that's it... =) Great post.

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  2. I dislike how many times I thought "This is the final time I'm reading this book through, and then off to the publishers!" Just to find some obvious error I made over and over, or a glaring plot hole, and have to read it AGAIN.

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  3. hi miss hilary! for my writing pet peeve its one of my brothers that edits my stuff for me and makes so much changes it starts getting to be his voice and not mine. i love him but yikes! i dont like when some one asks for a critique or review and gets mad and complains bout what got said. for other stuff for sure i dont like animals or kids or people getting abused. and i dont like bad manners. that cat bunny picture is soooo funny. ha ha. have a real fun weekend. happy easter!!!
    ...hugs from lenny

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  4. When I know that the book I am writing needs a great deal more putting into it - that is, if it is going to interest children and keep their attention!

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  5. My pet peeve is when I'm writing a piece of description and it's going great and then I just can't think of that one, essential word that will cover exactly what I want to say! No matter what I do, it eludes me, and then I'm stuck until it comes to me in the middle of the night

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  6. What drives me crazy is when editors at writing conferences tell you "Don't use dialog tags other than he said, she said," and then you pick up a recently published book and find all kinds of dialog tags like "He smiled" or "She groaned."

    You can't smile words!

    Also they tell us picture book writers to keep the ms under 500 words these days. And yet you can find plenty of new picture books that are a lot more than 500 words!

    Those kinds of things make me grumble.

    When I'm writing, what gets me most is when Word tries to tell me I've done something ungrammatical. But it's clearly worse if I follow their suggestions!

    Great post, Hilary.

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  7. Wow, great peeves guys! It's fun just to vent a little sometimes! Not much bothers me, but for my real life job I have to look at a lot of word documents and time and time again they are justified and just look terrible. After having to reformat one for an hour on Friday, due to more issues than just the justified text, I had to vent a bit! Silly, but I sure felt better!

    HAPPY EASTER, everyone! Have a wonderful day! ;)

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  8. Here's mine. One space between words because in the legal world it's two spaces. So I'm constantly having to switch which I do.

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  9. My writing peeves mostly center on technology issues. Does this count? The other day, for example, after I'd been working on a manuscript for a bit, the computer informed me that the document was read only. What??? Grrrrr. I fixed the glitch, but this knocked me right out of the story. Ah well. : )

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  10. My no 1. writer's pet peeve is people who lecture me on why no one over 13 will like what I write, and what it's "too hard" for anyone under 13 to read, never mind all the folks who write the stories I love, and ARE reaching some of those "uninterested" readers.

    Close behind are Parent/Writers who treat writers younger than them like their "wayward children" when the give writing advice.

    Biggest non-writer centric pet peeve: Parents and teachers who refuse to see things from their students/children's perspective.

    People who put degrees and pedigrees over passion, pride, and diligence to what they ARE good at, whether or not it gets them into (Insert Iv League School of your choice here) or we risk turning future generations into money-grubbing, time-starved maniacs, and no sane parent or caregiver wants that for their children, do they?

    I'm in no way trying to bash education in general, but I wish it were less a dictatorship, and more a camaraderie between parents, students, and teachers, I didn't drop out because I didn't care, but because I was overwhelmed, and uncertain that I could survive college life when high school already brought me down, it was the stress of academics that drove me away, not just the bullying.

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