I like to be upbeat whenever possible, but in the spirit of the post below noting that "sex sells, but hate really sells," I'm going to list some of my pet peeves, starting with
Snow in April. That is just so wrong. As Lucy Maud Montgomery put it, it's like a slap in the face when you're expecting a kiss.
Turning nouns into verbs. "Journaling" -- ARGH. It's "writing in a journal." You assign priorities, or make priorities, you don't "prioritize." I could go on, but I may blow a casket if I do, so I'll stop there.
People who feel that responding to an issue calmly means you really don't care about the issue. Oh, I care -- I just don't think frothing at the mouth is particularly productive.
Folks who tell me that romance novels -- whether reading them or writing them -- are a waste of time. Clearly they are operating under the delusion that I want to hear their opinion, or will care about it. I don't.
People who spout rule after rule and convention after convention about what should or should not be in a romance novel. Really, my head fairly spins sometimes. I've been writing romance novels for over fifteen years, and I had no idea the genre was so restrictive. If it's a romance, I'd say the hero and heroine should be together at the end, and in a way that the reader can believe the relationship will last, but otherwise? Have at it, in your own way.
Reviewers who can dish it out, but get all defensive if somebody questions their views, going on about their right to their opinion. That's absolutely true -- they do have a right to their opinion, and to voice it however they wish. However, it's the right of the person disagreeing with them to have an opinion and voice it, too.
Copy editors who mess with my punctuation. Unless a sentence is really confusing, messing with my punctuation is also messing my voice, and I don't like it.
Revising a chapter, realizing I had it right the first time and not being able to blame the about-face on anybody else's stupidity.
When the newspaper delivery guy throws the paper into the garden (gardens my paper?) when it's snowing in April.
7 comments:
Prioritize ... well, I have to admit, that one surprised me to find its usage only dated back to the 60s. I'll have to remember that, but I'll also remember that English is a fluid language and we have to 'go with the flow.' (Otherwise we'd still be spelling horror with a U - even the English dropped that in the 1920s).
Then I read it's the right of the person disagreeing with them to have an opinion and voice it, too. and thought, boy, I wonder if I could have Margaret meet my father - I've been trying to tell him that for years.
But I really (and literally) laughed out loud when I reached this:
Revising a chapter, realizing I had it right the first time and not being able to blame the about-face on anybody else's stupidity.
Just thought you'd slide that one in there, didn't you? Thanks for my chuckle today, Margaret.
And *sigh* unfortunately not only is my garden papered, but the walkway between my house and the one beside. It's really doesn't add any sort of aesthetic quality, does it?
The snow has definitely been strange, especially when it snows in the morning and then it's gone by the afternoon, only to repeat the same pattern the next day. {:0
I'm guilty of making nouns verbs. Yep, not proper but much more efficient. I figure communication is all about getting the message across (and the former newspaper gal in me is conscious about wasting writing real estate).
Kimber, if the switch is done cleverly and not often, I'm more likely to smile than growl. (TWoP recappers do this all the time, actually.) But "journaling" in particular makes me cringe.
I agree...journaling is an ugly "word". Doesn't flow, awkward to say.
Gardens your paper. LOL.
I hate some of those too... They really grate on me. While others? Not so much. I think some of them I got so used to, while working in business, that they became part of my vocabulary. For example... prioritize doesn't bother me. Fisted her hands does. Doesn't one make a fist or form a fist???? My Oxford (concise edition admittedly) does list fist as a verb but with the meaning to strike with a fist. (Have never actually heard it used that way.) Not "to form a fist".
That one really bugs me. (So does journaling.)
isnt fist a verb in some movie genres and places like prison - like 5x more than "to finger"
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