Wednesday Challenge 042220

This week: My silliest Pet Peeves.

1. Too many uses of the word have or had in a sentence. He had had enough to have had a nervous breakdown. Somehow that comes out grammatical, but it's atrocious. Too many authors use this tense to pad the number of words in a book.

2. English writers do this. It's like screeching breaks while reading. They had sat or they were sat. American English teacher (that's not an oxymoron) in me wants to scream: They sat. They were sitting.

3. Description is important, but not the be all and end all of the book. I hate skipping over two or three pages while every flower, tree, blade of grass etc is painstakingly described. I prefer people be described in some detail so you can get a visual of the character. It's important to know the setting, but to quote Shakespeare: "Brevity is the sole of wit."  

4. Over use of the word Fuck! It's good for affect, but if it's every other word it becomes meaningless. If the series or movie is set in ancient, middle ages or outside of Europe it shouldn't be part of the vocabulary.

5. Wife makes me watch The Voice. I actually like the singing and the guest coaching, but spare me the bickering and drivel between the four coaches over nothing. I get a little put out with the sob story of the singers. Everyone has a sob story, it's the voice that counts. When it comes to voting, I now know how someone like Trump could get elected president.

6. I am sick to death of World War II, even WWI. I'm tired of movies and TV shows that have body counts in the hundreds in a single episode. I stopped watching SEAL Team and SWAT, because it was like watching a video game over and over.

7. Shoot outs where the bad guys are spraying and praying with AK47's or M16's and the good guy has a pop gun, but hits the bad guy because they're behind a car door. A 7.6mm assault rifle round would make Swiss Cheese of that car door in a second and they'd pick up the good guy with a magnet. Part B, why do the bad guys always have assault rifles and the good guys have at best a Glock 9mm?

8. I've mentioned this before: anachronisms in historical fiction. It may be only a setting for a steamy romance, but get the history right. 
They didn't eat potatoes or yellow corn in Europe until after Columbus. The corn used before that time referred to wheat. 
Know your weapons. Sorry they didn't have gunpowder at the time of Robin Hood or a spyglass for that matter. 
They didn't know about red sulfur and use matches or zippers in the middle ages.

9. Repetitious sex scenes in books and movies. I watched the White Queen on Stars. Did they do one love scene and use if three times?
I've read books where every other chapter there was a sex scene word for word the same as the previous one with the same couple. It really peeves me to skip over sex scenes. Those should be the good parts.

10. Book pricing. With some of the authors on TTT and WC, they have their books on the sides of their column and I'll buy them to write a review, hoping they'll return the favor with one of mine. A little quid pro quo doesn't hurt. But when I pay five dollars and the book turns out to be a short story, I feel slighted. 

As you've possibly guessed. I'm an old curmudgeon and getting cranky for being cooped up during the pandemic. Actually the only hardship is not being able to go to the library. I'm retired and sit around the house writing, reading and watching TV on a normal basis.