Fic Tropes that annoy the Shit out of me
~The use of "orbs" to talk about someone's eyes: Not only is it over the top and melodramatic, it's also unoriginal.
~Describing a romantic engagement as a tryst: The word sounds just like trite for a reason, since that's what it usually is. Unless you've got characters that are really just having a fling, don't use this word.
~Describing the taste of twat as sweet nectar: Women don't taste like honey. They don't taste like candy. Don't be a moron. Women, just like men, taste salty. "Musky," if you like. I'll even buy "heady." But nectar is totally out.
~Making everyone have "interesting" colored eyes: The vast majority of people in the world have brown eyes. DARK. BROWN. So unless you're in Xena-verse (where they seriously must have used every blue-eyed New Zealander in casting, usually twice) or a 'verse with aliens or other non-human life forms (meeting a non-human with 300 eyes probably means you don't have to go by human conventions regarding coloration), giving all of your characters "emerald" or "azure" or, god-forbid, "amethyst" eyes yet again makes you sound melodramatic. And, please, if you're writing in media with an actual actor and you're using this actual actor as a model, LOOK at their eye color, and try to DESCRIBE it more or less accurately; if you're working with a literary medium, READ the character description and try to make yours BASICALLY recognizable as an interpretation of that. Billie Piper has BROWN EYES. Definitely not amber. Ditto to David Boreanaz, James Edward Olmos, Morena Baccarin, Milo Ventimiglia, hell, even Jared Padalecki. Okay? Okay.
~Describing a romantic engagement as a tryst: The word sounds just like trite for a reason, since that's what it usually is. Unless you've got characters that are really just having a fling, don't use this word.
~Describing the taste of twat as sweet nectar: Women don't taste like honey. They don't taste like candy. Don't be a moron. Women, just like men, taste salty. "Musky," if you like. I'll even buy "heady." But nectar is totally out.
~Making everyone have "interesting" colored eyes: The vast majority of people in the world have brown eyes. DARK. BROWN. So unless you're in Xena-verse (where they seriously must have used every blue-eyed New Zealander in casting, usually twice) or a 'verse with aliens or other non-human life forms (meeting a non-human with 300 eyes probably means you don't have to go by human conventions regarding coloration), giving all of your characters "emerald" or "azure" or, god-forbid, "amethyst" eyes yet again makes you sound melodramatic. And, please, if you're writing in media with an actual actor and you're using this actual actor as a model, LOOK at their eye color, and try to DESCRIBE it more or less accurately; if you're working with a literary medium, READ the character description and try to make yours BASICALLY recognizable as an interpretation of that. Billie Piper has BROWN EYES. Definitely not amber. Ditto to David Boreanaz, James Edward Olmos, Morena Baccarin, Milo Ventimiglia, hell, even Jared Padalecki. Okay? Okay.