Words are important

[ratherastory]

Dear fanfic writers:

peak: noun. 1. the pointed top of a mountain or ridge.
2. a mountain with a pointed summit.
3. the pointed top of anything.
4. the highest or most important point or level: the peak of her political career.
5. the maximum point, degree, or volume of anything: Oil prices reached their peak last year.

peek: verb. 1. to look or glance quickly or furtively, esp. through a small opening or from a concealed location; peep; peer.
noun. 2. a quick or furtive look or glance; peep.

pique: verb. 1. to affect with sharp irritation and resentment, esp. by some wound to pride: She was greatly piqued when they refused her invitation.
2. to wound (the pride, vanity, etc.).
3. to excite (interest, curiosity, etc.): Her curiosity was piqued by the gossip.
4. to arouse an emotion or provoke to action: to pique someone to answer a challenge.
noun. 5. a feeling of irritation or resentment, as from a wound to pride or self-esteem: to be in a pique.


PLEASE TO BE LEARNING THESE WORDS AND USING THEM CORRECTLY. YOU ARE DRIVING ME NUTS!

Comments

[de-nugis.livejournal.com]

*piques in, wonders if your peak has reached its peek*

*tiptoes away*

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

*keels over and dies*

[calamitycrow.livejournal.com]

but the reel question is: has this peeked your eyre?

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

*twitches*

You're mean. ;)

[harrigan.livejournal.com]

I love reading others' pet peeves! And yes - this is one of the most prevalent! (That - and vice-like grip.)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, Lord. There are so many, but this is the one I've seen the most lately.

[melanth0.livejournal.com]

dear lord, yes!

it would be great if there were a list of commonly misused homophones etc, handed out with the "welcome to fanfic" giftbasket. said giftbasket would probably also include a snazzy tin hat and five bags of whoppers.

[greeneyes-fan.livejournal.com]

Maybe we should make one and put it up on certain communities.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

There should totally be a gift basket with that in it!

[greeneyes-fan.livejournal.com]

I was at a con once, and there was someone selling t-shirts. Each had several little pictures, and captions for those pictures which were almost but not quite the same.

"You need me": Romantic scene
"You knead me": Massage
"You kneed me": Groin kick

Another was: "I helped my Uncle Jack off a horse" versus "I helped my uncle jack off a horse." In the interests of good taste, I won't describe those pictures.

But yeah. Annoying. Funny, but annoying.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

LOL

Oh my GOD.

Punctuation and capitalization are also your friends, folks!

[authoressnebula.livejournal.com]

I shall climb to the peak of the mountain, peek over the side, and thus pique you into wondering what the hell I'm doing.

But what I'll be doing is waiting to ask you if I could have your babies since you are obviously the true definition of awesome.

♥♥

~Nebula

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Come to Canada and marry me! It's legal here, and then I could badger you into writing about Eliot's hair all day long. :D

[tahirire.livejournal.com]

The one that annoys me is your vs you're and its vs it's.

The one that gets my beta is whose vs THAT. Lol.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, so many of them annoy me. This is just the most recent one.

I will confess to not being 100% clear on the rules governing "which" and "that."

[ficwriter1966.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes! What you said. *nods*

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Gnarr. It ANNOYS me to NO END.

If your grammar/spelling/syntax is shaky, then GET A BETA.

I am guilty of not getting my work beta'd, but I do try to fix the mistakes I catch when I hurry through my writing. If you can't spot them on your own, then you need a beta.

[running-hot.livejournal.com]

PLEASE TO BE LEARNING ENGLISH, ALL WRITERS. PLEASE TO BE LEARNING THE DEFINITION OF HOMOPHONES AND THE DIFFERENT SPELLINGS OF THE SAME. PLEASE TO BE LEARNING GRAMMAR. PLEASE TO BE WRITING GOODLY WORDS.

AND HURRY UP ABOUT IT, TOO.

Agreed on all fronts, amiga.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

YES, THIS.

Good Lord, how hard can it be? I'm willing to cut a lot of slack if English isn't their first language (it's not mine either, but I've been speaking it since I was a little girl), but if it's their native tongue? COME ON.

[faithburke.livejournal.com]

My pet peeve has always been past vs. passed. I have engaged the person I beta for in actual heated debate over the difference between verb, noun, and preposition as it applies to those two words and their context.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

*shudders*

There are SO MANY common mistakes that make me cringe.

I have yet to beta for someone who's argued with me about grammar, but I'm lucky to have writers who know the rules of grammar and really need me only for content/continuity/plot and the fixing of occasional slip-ups.

My sympathies.

[tifaching.livejournal.com]

I saw peak used instead of peek just yesterday. Probably the same story and it annoyed me to death, because I wasn't expecting to see it in this author's work. What annoys me even more is loose and lose. They are NOT the same thing people! Damn spell check for not being word check.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, Jesus. "Loose" and "lose" make me want to scream and tear out my hair.

I saw "peak" instead of "pique" AND "peek" in no fewer than three fics over the last couple of days, and it made my head explode. Hence this post. ;)

[wave-obscura.livejournal.com]

HA! I JUST made that mistake not an hour ago. *runs to fix*

Cut me a break, though. I'm just getting over crippling writer's block.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

You're totally forgiven. ;)

[peppervl.livejournal.com]

So essentially you get piqued when you peek and see someone's interest has reached the mountain peak?

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Essentially, yes. ;)

[spookysquall.livejournal.com]

Ugh. If that's not bad enough, I still can't get over people using their, there and they're incorrectly. And don't even get me started on it's and its. *faceplant*

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know.

*headdesk*

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

The one I see *all* the time, and from very good writers, is the lie/lay mess. Dean ain't gonna lay on the bed unless he's doing it in past tense. He lays *something* on the bed in present tense - his gun, his weary head, etc. But if it's just him and it's present tense, he lies on the bed.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Yes, THIS.

Although I am given to understand that there is some idiomatic leeway on lie/lay.

[izzie7.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am so with you on this. It drives me completely nuts too. Just don't get me started on apostrophe abuse or we could be here for some time :(

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Grammar Nazis od the world, UNITE!

*fist bump*

[harrigan.livejournal.com]

Okay - now I've got to ask about a pet peeve of mine: using vice instead of vise. Specifically seen when writers are talking about a vise-like grip.

It happens so often that I actually tried to google to see if vice-grip is a brand name (like kleenex) that would explain why folks would use it. Or if it's a spelling not used by Americans.

But there really is a difference between vice and vise, and when it comes to describing a grip, it always takes me out of the flow when I read vice-grip or vice-like grip. Even if it turns out there's a valid reason for the word choice?

All of which I'm mentioning now because it's in the opening scene of your spn_j2_bigbang!

ETA: clearly it is a Brit/American spelling difference - which is why I didn't put this comment on the story itself. It's not about the story, it's about the reader and a broader issue. I guess I just find it interesting that Brit/American differences that don't conjure up a different meaning (grey vs gray) don't take me out of the flow, but the rare spelling difference where the word HAS different meanings does.

Which isn't the same issue as peek/peak/pique because in that situation the word choice is just WRONG sometimes. But anyway... this made me think!

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I think this one might be a Brit/American thing. To me, "vise" looks wrong, but it might also be because I'm French, and there's an extra "e" in there. ;)

I empathize, though. Sometimes the use of an obvious Britishism, even if it's technically accurate, will launch me right out of a fic.