MetaFic

Apart from what you've mentioned, weird summaries, or summaries asking for reviews. Author notes written without capitalization or proper punctuation. I don't understand how someone expects me to read their story if the AN at the beginning of each chapter looks like the worst kind of net speak.

Content-wise, I have a problem with stories where suddenly all of Harry's friends are included in the latest prophecy. If I spot those, I usually stop reading.

And my all-time favourite summary: Voldemort is defeated, Harry leaves. Ginny moves on and he returns (insert long period) years later to see if he has a chance. I actually made the mistake of reading one story like that. There's dozens of them and I can't stand that plot-line. They all look alike. As you can probably deduce, I'm not keen on angsty cliches.

Dino

Been a while since I posted anything here, but the topic is interesting.

So... stuff that will make me stop reading a story, or not read it at all.

1. Typos in the summary. If it's not highly recommended, I won't touch that story. Yes, typos happen, and one misspelling in the summary doesn't mean the story is horrible. But if I don't trust the source or the author, I won't bother reading it, as it shows that the author didn't bother double-checking.

2. Choppy writing. Sometimes it's right at the edge of bearable, like the first few chapters of lorddwar's "Summer of Change"

3. Obvious Self-inserts. I'm not talking about a minor character that might or might not resemble the author a bit, but when I see stuff like "blahblahstorytextblahblah (A/N: And that's me, there, I just LURVEEE that T-shirt!!) blahblahstorytext" I just want to shoot them.

4. A/N in the middle of the story text. I can ignore them if the fic is good enough, but I usually just stop reading.

And I agree with the 3rd and 4th point on Sovran's list :) I don't mind strange usernames, seeing as mine is one, and as long as the story isn't an endless preaching session, I don't mind religious overtones. As far as point 5... if it's not properly done, chances are I've stopped reading the story because of other reasons.

Chris
--
The more people I meet, the more I like my cat

I'll agree with Sovran's #1, for a couple reasons. First off, on a personal level I simply don't consider myself very religious. Thoughts about higher powers or gods or things of that nature simply don't enter my frame of mind on their own very often, and it always catches me off guard a bit when it's brought up. Secondly, and most importantly for me when it comes to HP fanfiction especially, is that I've read canon books one through seven, and religion simply didn't come up. There is a story out there that I actually truly like where, at some point in it, Harry and basically everyone he knows has to perform some kind of ritual spell to save Ginny. And, right there, while casting the spell, they invoke the name of Jehovah, which completely breaks my immersion in the story because that simply doesn't fit with the background I'm assuming in the story up to that point, as well as with what's actually occurring in the story at the time. I still like the story, but I just have to skip that part each time I read it.

As for an original warning sign of my own, I do have one but it's a bit more vague. I like the base universe provided by (most of) canon. I dislike it when a story picks up after canon at some point, but then... globally alters, sometimes retroactively, the way things happen in that universe with no explanation. Hm... that's super vague, let me try and have an example. In say a sixth year fic that picks up after OotP, the cast encounters some problem. The solution provided is some kind of group ceremony involving a class of magic previously unexplored. That by itself is not bad, and can be explained, but what I dislike is when things of that sort - group ceremonies or the unknown class of magic - aren't actually new. As in, we've had five years worth of knowledge of the magical universe, but apparently this whole class of magic and way of casting spells simply hasn't been brought up yet, but yes everyone and their grandmother knows about them. Oh, and now they're going to be the solution or involved in most of the problems encountered in the fic. The idea of Blood Magic is often exploited in such a way - all of a sudden, it's no longer some cryptic one-time-only thing that only Dumbledore knows about, but instead it becomes a facet of everyday life for everyone around Harry and nobody finds it the slightest bit weird that they've not ever even used the words "blood magic" for the past five years of schooling, despite its now-obvious importance to the wizarding world.

That's a little harder to spot, and not as much of a warning sign so maybe I just rambled for no good reason, but occasionally you can spot it early in a story. On chapter 2, some previously-obscure ritual is performed that dramatically alters the way of life for our protagonists (presumably in some positive way) and I'm left thinking "If it was that easy, why the hell didn't someone do that back in Philosopher's Stone?"

I tend to agree with your point, vague or not. The problem, to me, is that JKR did almost exactly that. How did we not hear about apparition or side-along apparition earlier in the series? There were some clues about non-verbal spells, so I can let that slide, but it still sortof came out of nowhere. I'm pretty sure I could come up with a few others, but Apparition is the one that really bugs me.

Is mentioned (if not by name) in Chapter 1 of Philosopher's Stone (i just happen to have my copy here as i needed to check a couple of facts)

UK Hardback 1st edition Page 12

A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground...

and on page 18 of the same chapter

"Good luck, Harry," he murmured, He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak he was gone

Not mentioned by name, but sounds like Apparition to me

------

I'm with you on the family thing it's one of the fundamentals you need to stick to when writing a HP fiction

I also hate it when people change the character ages to fit their plot, something else that that is a fundamental

Too powerful Harry is boring, where is the challenge. Make him powerful, but give the bloke some flaws to go with it. In canon Harry is a tad arrogant, exaggerate that to make him three dimensional at least.

Apparation was first mentioned by name by Ron in CoS.

Anyways, one thing I that sort of makes me hesitant to read stories is when the author puts something like "I suck at summaries", "read full summary inside", or "is better then it sounds" in the summary. That sort of tells me that person is not a good author.

Another thing I take as a bad sign is pairings that aren't believable. For example, I think we can all agree that it is not believable that Ginny and Draco would end up together. Sometimes a canon pairing isn't believable in some AUs. For example, a Harry/Ginny story where Harry was raised by the Malfoys and becomes like a cross between his father and Voldemort. I don't find that believable at all. There are a couple of non-canon pairings that are believable in certain situations. I've read believable Harry/Luna, Harry/Hermione, and Harry/OC stories. Its the situation that makes the pairing believable.

Anyways, one thing I that sort of makes me hesitant to read stories is when the author puts something like "I suck at summaries", "read full summary inside", or "is better then it sounds" in the summary. That sort of tells me that person is not a good author.

Seconded, this is a big turn-off.

I also tend to steer clear of anything where the summary starts with something akin to "my version of" or if it doesn't specify more than the time frame. eg "My version of what happened in the 19 years before the epilogue." I have therefore not read most of the post-DH fics on SIYE.

Other things I tend to avoid are stories where one or more of the main characters is an OC, or where the ship is left as a mystery.

- SC

Edit: I can't edit posts? oops, does that mean this edit feature is a bug? ;-)

Any story where the Notes consist only of pleading for reviews is suspect.

Any time the Notes out-bulk the actual Story and consist of lengthy dialogues with reviewers is painful in the extreme: indeed, I understand that quite a few places have actually taken action against this kind of thing.

One story which I had been following quite happily has suddenly begun to include lengthy diatribes against JKR's recent court victory over RDR and SVA, which has soured the experience for me. This stands as an example for my third set of AN-dislike: if you have a message to give, incorporate it properly into your story; if it doesn't fit there, it won't fit in the Notes either.

I admit that I had forgotten that JKR mentioned apparition before book 6. Mea culpa. I stand by the basic point, though - if apparition is as common as she makes it out to be in the last two books, it should have showed up a lot more in the first 5. Especially side-along apparition. Why all those Floo trips? Why the great excursions to get to Platform 9 3/4? There may be a reason that precludes apparition, but we don't know that, either.

BTW, I think it was a foregone conclusion that JKR would win over RDR in that case. It was an interesting situation, but I think it was doomed from the start.

'1. Religious overtones. It can be done well (and has been), but it's often a sign of murky waters in the future of the story.
h.'

never read 'A greater Love ' then?

Oh, yes, I read that. Like I said, it can be done well and has been. Though I would also say that AGL is not the sort of religious overtone that I had in mind. =)

.... because I thought you hadn't read it, I've submitted it :)

I had to have my memory jogged. It was interesting to read again, though. =)

ok so its taken me a bit longer than intended to post a reply but here it is

i think that this is a better place for my reply than things you hate in fanfiction as its more something that i find a bit off putting & wont actully stop me reading ihe story but will cause me to downgrade it rating .

For me the number one anyoance is harry otr any othe cannon charecter using american slng or in particuler refering to a sorcerase stone I know it petty but the charecters a british so finding harry or worse hermione refering to a sorcers stone just seams plane wrong. Also having refrence to american styl scholling irsjust realt odd as well & personally i can be quite happy reading a fic then sudenly harrys a freshman or something & iam yanked out of the hp univers in to high school musical or something (ok that an extream example but us brits are a rather resever lot in education anyway & relly dont go in for mass ecucation back patting).

Also though due to the care taken when i chose fics to read (reading stores recomend by other author i read plus limiting my self to omly siye & the odd storie on fanfic .net) is relativly uncommon is harry using or mking refrence to technology or cultrle refrence that dont match the time perod ie the internet in year 1 is very of puting & just show a lack of reserch into what actully was avalable at the time.

Can I ask you to edit this post? There are a few typos that when corrected would make it easier for me to read.

Thanks

Sorry about that next time i will use ms word spell check the post then copy & paste it BTW how do you edit a post as you are quite right the spelling on my last post is bad evan by my poor standards & I hate it when i re read my post & evan I have a hard time understanding them & i do want tocontribute more to this site and any help you can give me will be gratefully recived

Thank you

James

Editing your own posts isn't allowed. You'll have to re-post.

Another thing I've just realised is a 'warning sign' is a ridiculously simple title. I don't mean 'simple' as in short or using easy words. I mean 'simple' as in trivial. "Harry Potter and the Fifth Year" is trivial... it says nothing meaningful about the story. (I made that title up as an example.) Likewise, naming your AU story directly after the corresponding canon story is trivial - it doesn't tell me anything. I realise that I did that, initially, for MoO1, but my defense is that "Meaning of One" was always attached to "Philosopher's Stone". I'm wary of stories that are just called "HP & the Chamber of Secrets" or somesuch. A title should communicate something about the plot, characters, tone, and/or theme. If it doesn't, why should I expect the story itself to contain anything original or interesting?

The caveat, again, is that there have been decent stories that used trivial titles.

Anyone who uses a Z where there shouldn't be one, should not only never write but be first up against the rule when the quality revolution takes place

examples

Hogwartz

Ginz

For some reason i feel the urge to throw the imac out the window when i see this, but normally the cat suffices or is that surfficez

I think throwing your computer out is a little extreme for something like that. I would only do that for something I did. :P

Ginny Malfoy.....

Do you know how hard it is to even type those words.....

now go wash your hands, and your mouth for good measure!

What ever next Pansy Potter!

What ever next Pansy Potter!

Well, actually, I quite liked White Knight, Grey Queen ;-)

Pansy and the word Potter

Cheese and Tomato Sause

Dumbledore and bondage

Watford and promotion

Ginny and Malfoy

plenty of others as well!

the ever-invasive Hermione Potter. That's almost as hard to type as . . . that other thing you mentioned.

swearing for the fun of it!

I was sitting in my cafe around a month ago, sipping my morning latte (recovering from shoulder reconstruction does have advantages) when i overheard two teenage girls sitting at the next table going on about how JKR never released the book 6 and 7 that she wanted and was forced to write H/G rather than H/H to appease the fans, and they expected that the next movie would be H/H because everything pointed that way and Dan and Emma looked so good together.

I really wanted to say something, but no, i kept my mouth shut like a good boy. I don't think they would have appreciated a lecture on character development and how to understand the themes and patterns of a standard mono-myth (or me just shouting out all the bloody hints that were in the first bloody six books)

H/Hr I can handle: they're at least friends.

Ginny/Draco I will never understand. His father got her possessed by the memory of Tom quite intentionally, and Draco certainly didn't think the whole affair was a bad idea, and other than being a complete pussy at the end of HBP Draco himself never showed one ounce of common sense or morality upon which to base any kind of a turn-around.

I don't generally enjoy stories where Pansy is any kind of main character because to me, she simply isn't that - a main character. She's too far off the side and receives far too little attention in canon to have any kind of real background or supporting history in canon, so most of the time she has to be basically completely invented by the fanfic author, which turns her into one of three people: Super-slut for Malfoy, Mary-Sue for Harry, or Sneaky Slytherin Genius for Herself. That's my experience at least.

I read one where Pansy was betrothed to Draco and Draco wanted out. She was a jerk that wouldn't let Draco talk to anyone who she didn't approve of and she was very picky. It was one of the few stories I know of where he had a believable turn around (Draco wasn't the main character in the story BTW).

... this in the summary: Blood, Gore, Gratituos Violence, Probably shouldnt be read by anyone

Well that's a glowing recommendation to read it ...

I think this covers a lot of areas already considered:

"Basically Giiny kills herself after what happened to Fred. Can Harry figure out why she did it? i suck at summaries. Sounds beter than it is. Please R & R & ENJOY!/Warning: suicide/character death"

Now who could resist that invitation? lol

If you posted that shiny example earlier, this thread would have been much shorter.

Another thing that's a bad sign:

In the summary it says, "This is my first fic ever!"

I find that when the author does that in the summary, the story has more typos and plot mistakes then holes in swish cheese. The stories where the author says that in their end of chapter notes tend to be better.

When the fic is called My Immortal (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2828044/1/) and has nearly 13000 reviews. Thats when you know its bad. Anything similar means RUN FOR THE HILLS.

Anyways jokes, not really, aside... the when the fic starts out with so little imagery that you can't even picture anything of consequence without working your brain more than you should, then you should turn back.

When it may be well written but is as descriptive as an elementary student's writers workshop...

When the characters at the start of an AU redo have to much knowledge of more than one subject of magic. Its all right if its something very specific like Occlumency and Legilemency, but of all magic? Run.

When it includes movie physics like exploding cars.

Super human strength from normal magical humans?

When vampires are used as merely as a boss fight from a video game?

When characters 'use their martial arts' on another character without describing what kind of attack it was.

Elemental magic mastery. Manipulation of the elements seems to fall in the realm of magic that only Dumbledore or Volde are capable of.

Phoenix Animagus, Fate's Debt at least doesn't make it power mongering but still seems pretty cliche.

Another thing that is a bad sign is when the author say it is how they would have written the story of Harry Potter. Nearly every story I've read that the author said that, well, were riddled with mistakes and/or were very hard to follow. Its like the author things they are great but in reality don't have any talent.

My eyes and my brain both hate you for linking that.

Recognizing that there are exceptions to every hard and fast rule, I will usually stop reading fanfiction as soon as:

(1) Merlin and/or Godric Gryffindor appear as characters in the story (either corporeal or by way of a portrait),

(2) mention is made of Harry having double digit animagi forms, or

(3) Harry visits his vault and reads letters from his parents that are WAY TOO detailed and specific (e.g., "I'll bet you fall in love with a redhead Harry").

It depends on how they are written and how big their part is.

I'd never read those either.

I did write one, though.

And it was funny. I literally almost fell out of my chair at one point laughing. I would say you have quite an imagination.

Harry the animagus is not something I enjoy. It's usually a sign to me the story won't be good quite frankly. there are exceptions but as soon as he finds the second one I hit the back button.

FicSnob, maybe but I've not found a decent multiple animagi story yet!

Taking Control by fakeasmile.

I was wary of this one at first because it started with several clichés which are commonly used to conveniently 'power-up' harry in many of the worst of the super!harry fics. These included purchasing a multi-room trunk, mental training with dead character X, multiple animagi (2 in this case) and wandless magic to name a few. I really wasn't expecting much once these elements appeared, but I was quite pleasantly surprised at the way the story developed, and how these elements were used, and it is currently one of my favourite stories.

- SC

I'm not a huge fan of that one though. I remember I really liked it at the beginning but lately it's failed to interest me. *shrugs* I know it's a favourite and it's definitely not one of the woeful pieces of rubbish out there though.

All in all 2 animagus forms would have to be my limit more than that gets a bit ... let's put it this way, usually in the stories I've read where that happens the writing is childish and a wish list of 'how Harry Potter could have all the god things happen to him forever and ever.'

I've become a bit too discerning.

The mere notion of multiple animagus forms bugs me. If it's supposed to reflect aspects of personality, what's a Harry with multiple forms? Schizophrenic?

In this case (Taking Control) I would say its more that each of the 2 forms represented a different selection of aspects of his personality.

- SC

No. I would say suffering from multiple-personality syndrome. :P

. . . on the rules your magic system use. Perhaps it's not possible. Perhaps it is, but within narrow boundaries. Perhaps it's Uber Awesome Coolness. In the latter case, the authors need not reproduce, for they would go against Darwin's beliefs.

I believe that's called DID now.

In that case, I'm not sure the author can find someone to reproduce with.

Nice theory, but I believe you'll find that for everyone vacant enough to warrant removal from the gene pool, there'll be someone of the opposite gender vacant enough to want to reproduce with them. *wry smile*

- SC

True enough. As for Taking Control - I don't mind it in that case, as it's a very well-told story. It works. (As an aside, I should have remembered the difference between schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder. My bad.)

No, I'm talking about the "Harry was eight forms" stories.

Eight? Really? Why in the world would they possibly need that? If you're going to do that, just... make him a shape-shifter or something. Please.

For me, the difference is that while Harry goes through various, cliche or not, means of 'powering up', in this story it doesn't elevate him to the status of godhood among the general populace of wizardkind. Sure, he can lord it over any student he wants, and he's spent months going through multiple hours of combat training a day, so he can beat the crap out of the average joe-blow Death Eater or Auror alike. But he can still be overwhelmed, and he still knows that he is no match for either Dumbledore or Tom. fakeasmile has made it a point in his story to elevate the Death Eaters past the skill and intellectual point where a group of fifth years can capture Tom's entire inner circle, and that is something I truly agree with.

Mpreg.

I had to look that up.

I wish I hadn't.

Makes anything possible for some authors.

But yes, MPreg makes my brain look for devices best fit for a thoroughly messy homicide.

Really, I don't think that the "bad signs" in fan fiction are much different than the bad signs in any other fiction.

• Lousy grammar at the start.
• Interminable backstory in narrative form. (JKR is guilty of a bit of this herself, actually, especially in CoS, PoA and GoF. But she got over it.)
• Lengthy descriptions of how a character is feeling.
• A lot of tell rather than show.
• And -- oddly -- calling a character by his/her full name ("Ginevra Molly Weasley") at the start of a story. That always strikes me as a bit self-conscious.
There aren't really any fan fiction tropes per se that I consider bad signs, although there are a lot of tropes I don't like (many of which have already been mentioned by others). I don't like slash, but I have seen some slash that was beautifully written. There are some things (like mpreg) that I'm just never going to read, but that's not the same thing as a "bad sign."

Superpowerful anything is usually a bad sign, unless it's a superpowerful antagonist. Superpowerful protagonist means no drama. Superpowerful antagonist means a lot of obstacles to overcome, which probably means more drama.

I'll stop writing Sins of the Fathers then :p

I had forgotten about Mpreg ... that's definitely bad ...

Can't speak for that story, as I haven't read it. Exceptions to every rule, yeah? But I'll bet, if you have a superpowerful protagonist, that either (a) your antagonist is really clever, (b) there are crucial events that are altered by things beyond the protagonist's powers, or (c) the central drama doesn't isn't in the win/lose, power/no power dimension.

I decided to take a look at this. Run for the hills is right if this is supposed to be done as someone's serious effort. However, the language and spelling of the fragment I rather unbelievingly read, closely resembles that of the well-known and frequently funny "I Can Has Cheezeburger" site ( AKA as Lol Cats) with its deliberately fractured SPaG. The writer also credits someone with helping with spelling ( OMG, there's more than one of them?). Due to that, I can't help wondering ( or maybe it's fervent wishful thinking ) if this is a hoax posting rather than a real ( shudder ) story.

Ok I confess. The answers are:

a) Yes
b) yes
c) yes

'Ginny pealed her banana'

You couldn't write this stuff.... :p

I think you mean "shouldn't", since obviously you could since you obviously just did.

...

I'll get my coat...hey, why are you pointing that chopstick at me?

I read the other day in a rather unfortunate piece of smut I stumbled over - 'caressingly pealed'. I ran far, far away form the evil writing ...

Nope .... there's a joke in there... :p

This is a story where harry are abused in bad ways. Please read and review Rating due to child abuse,rape and maybe some lemon.

Some times you can figure out what the writer is trying to say but in this case we probably don't want to know.

Lemon? Um I think I'm a bit ... sheltered.

As far as that goes, I think we all al.

There are two definitions of Lemon here that could possibly apply, either of which is horrible.
Per Wikipedia, this is one option:

In Western fanfiction circles, hentai-based works are popularly referred to as "lemon"...

And then, and and I am ever so unfortunate to have actually fallen victim to this site, there is this, again per wikipedia for sanity reasons:

Lemonparty.org contains an image, lemonparty.jpg, of three elderly males in a bed kissing and having oral sex.

And I do emphasize the importance that you not go to that site. It is of dire importance that you stay away. Anyways, either connotation sounds disturbing in the context, and the second is disturbing regardless of context.
Isn't the internets grand?

Taillwh, your first definition is bit off, but close.
Lemons are generally any anime fanfic which is essentially aimed to be smut fics, hentai on the other hand denotes actual images generally, though Hentai does translate to perverversion. The Western fanbase is right. In the end its still just a smut fic.

Oh and also fics that are lemons often get edited in Mystery Science Theater 3000 format containing both the aforementioned characters from the show as well as characters starring in the aforementioned fanfiction and their reactions to the sometimes disturbing imagery.

Yeah I've been submerged in the Anime and Manga culture for way to long..

Another thing: a low chapter to word ratio. I prefer stories that have at least 1,000 words per chapter. I've seen stories on FF.net that are 5 chapters long and have like 1,000 words... That's 200 words per chapter. That's way to short and the sign of a writer that tends to not think about what they are writing...

Personally, I believe chapters should be at least 2500 words (about 5 pages typed); however, a good author would strive for between 6000 to 10000 words per chapter, about 12 to 20 pages typed. I am not a fan of chapters over 17000 words either, although I have written them myself and they are not a deal breaker for me. I still think, in many cases, that if there is a good break point in a long chapter that it should be used.

-Jonathan

- A good novel is an indivisible sum; every scene, sequence and passage of a good novel has to involve, contribute to and advance all three of its major attributes: theme, plot, characterization.
Ayn Rand - The Romantic Manifesto p. 74 (pb 93)

Speaking of length....

I really struggle with long paragraphs. Maybe its age, but if its over long I just skip it.

Summary begins with: 'Basically,'

- SC

Well, I've found some exceptions to this but most of the time when they say, "will think of a better title (or/and) summary) later" in the summary, the story isn't all that good.

Another thing that bugs me. Stories that start out like Fate's Debt in the sense that one chapter covers a large span of time but unless you have more or less memorized canon, you may have a hard time figuring out when things are happening. Its worse when the story has a major change in Harry's life.

This one also irritates me. People who make major changes to Harry's life and/or personality but the butterfly effect is minimal when it comes to what happens at key events. What's even worse is when there's a change at a key event, the outcome is the same as in canon. Best example of these things is a story called "Harry Potter and the Second Chance". Its a story where Harry dies before his time and his mind is sent back in time to his younger self on Sept. 1st, 1991. The only thing he was allowed to remember was his love for Ginny.

Well, I just read through this whole topic and I found it highly entertaining.

In general, I agree with a lot of points that have been made. I fortunately never stumbled over a mpreg fic and if I, from now on, ever read it in a summary I will most definitely run for the hills.

I also generally avoid everything not H/G. Sometimes I read a R/Hr - Harry and Ginny must be present though - but it doesn't happen often.

In my opinion a "Please R&R" in a summary is the worst sign possible. Okay, ONLY USING CAPITALS, no punctation or blatant grammar and spelling errors equal "Please R&R". Actually, after I started reading fanfiction, I found myself skimming through summaries a lot, trying to find something worth reading. Nowadays I almost only read recommendations by others. It just saves a lot time.

A theme I generally dislike is time travel.

The overwhelming mass of horrifying post-Hogwarts stories has got me avoiding that category almost completely. That doesn't mean that I dislike every single of them, though. There are definitely some worth reading.

Marc

. . . to pay homage to that sign of greatness:

A certainty that death would be kinder than perusal.

Stories that more or less are a slightly modified version of the books. There's this one story called Feral Child and I swear, the author of it is putting large chunks from book 1 in to it. With the exception of Harry being raised by talking wolves, having a normal wolf as a friend, and being sorted into Hufflepuff, its just like Book 1 with a few name changes, added scenes, and extra lines.

Incorrect spelling of character names. Pavarti? What is she, cheese?

And also, awfully incorrect French accents. 'Ou written for "you"?

Oh, I should have thought of that one. 'Pavarti' definitely bugs me. And 'Ginerva' is my arch-enemy. Is it so much to ask that people spell canon names correctly?

Might as well add that one to the list, too. We all make random typos in quick notes, posts, and so on. But in published work, screwing up the difference between a sometimes offensive weapon and sometimes offensive literature is simply always offensive.

I've lost count of how many times I've seen Moony misspelled in fan fictions. Its the second most common mistake fan fiction authors make. The biggest one, even the best writers I've read sometimes make this one, is that Pettigrew killed 13 muggles. He didn't. He killed 12. In HP canon, everyone believed Sirius Black killed 13 people and that number included Pettigrew.

I'm forever typing Pavarti ... I'm stupid like that ...

I am forever typing "Zambini." That isn't even a cheese!

When checking over my own work, I find that I write Snake instead of Snape in some places... I hope I catch all of them before I post anything...

That is a mistake I would never notice. :-)

As an author that wants things to be a perfect as possible, that is very re-assuring...

I don't want to loose my temper over this, but your not as smart as you're fellow writers...

I don't know why, but I've frequently noticed "defiantly" being used in place of "definitely" lately. Drives me nuts.

the number of writers/stories who spell lightning (as in bolt...as in Harry's scar ) as lightening. I've literally lost track of the huge numbers of times I've seen that incorrect spelling. And when it's pointed out to some authors, they do not correct it even when they do correct other spelling errors pointed out to them.

Flare vs. flair, then vs. than, faze vs. phase. These things seriously make me want to holler.