haha. i somewat skimmed through this.. but alot of it was so true! XD
it really annoys me when i see an intresting summary, start reading, and see ALOT of ... un-capitalized, no apostrophes watsoever, and.. alot of confusion. :P
your stories are wonderful! has everything i want in them :P
lol.

LOVED LOVE LOVED THIS =D

Few things:

a) Fabulous job with the catchy summary and title in order to lure readers to read the article. I actually fell for it twice because I read it the first time a long time ago.

b) Your advice is witty, humorous, and fun to read. So again, awesome job on effectively keeping the reader interested after the initial attempt of luring them to a totally different story than what was advertised.

c) I found one problem with 'Exhibit E'. I do understand that you personally loathe authors putting in brand names in the story. However, in their defense, I think many do it so you can learn more about what type of person the character is. For example, if the author describes the MC putting on a Hollister top and American Eagle jeans, then you can say that they're the middle-upper class part of the economic status. It also tells you that the MC is not a punk or emo or goth or anything like that. Similarly, if the MC was described as putting on, say Chucks, then you can tell that most likely, the MC is not going to be the stereotyped prep or cheerleader. I hope that makes sense.

Other than that, fabulous article. Keep it up!

Ah ha! That was quite witty. I definitely agree with some of your exhibits. Frankly I hate chatspeak and severe "typos" in stories, it's fairly distracting. As well as author notes. I try to avoid them even after the story is complete, because I feel it deters from the story.

Of course, I do write cliched bits of work, but I can completely understand what you're talking about in this selection. You explained yourself, in a somewhat humorous sense (well this did make me smile) that it wasn't bad that there was no cheesy sweet romance on this page.

Oh. My. Goodness. You are damn hilarious. My stomach hurts because I laughed so hard. Exhibit D cracked me up the most. This "story" is MUCH APPRECIATED. XD

Gah, how dare you lure me here?! ;)
Neverthless, I owe you my thanks. You have pointed out many issues that writers tend to overlook.

Fiction Press was in dire need of such an article. Sadly, even though this has been published over a year ago, three in every five stories match your description of a bad story.

Oh well. At least you tried!

Wow i wasn't expecting that...truthfully I clicked on it because of how many reviews it received. Very helpful...some of them were my thoughts exactly. I would love to get a review from you...although it would be slightly scary since you seem to pick up on all the classic mistakes, which i might have done myself. I'm going to check out your favourites now.

Oh my god, this totally cracked me up. I mean my biggest pet peeves is to never start with the alarm clock going off, it just irritates me. I also hate when people describe themselves throughly in the first chapter i dont know but it kinda sounds like thery're bragging to me. thank you for posting this up so maybe now there will be better storeis online!! cheese cakes :)

Omg; i can so agree with you on this one; but like instead of clicking every story and reading what the best one is; i just read the one with the most reviews = )
Saves me alot of time

Haha, loved it ;D

I really agree with you.
Especially for the capitals, overusing exclamation marks and, oh, slang.
There's aloso one more pet peeve. People who uses "..." every two seconds.
When I look at the preview and I see, "i" and "u" instead of "I" and "you", I go "nope, you suck". Sometimes, I get REALLY aggravated.

Seriously, people.

You pretty much sum up every sane people's grievances with reading romance fiction with in a very funny and amusing way. :)

This was so refreshing to read. Shamefacedly, I admit that I've committed a few of these blunders myself. HOWEVER, i have learned from them. And if I can be blunt, that did NOT take 10 minutes to read. Maybe 3.5 on a slow day?

Now, I scamper off like Bambi to read your favorites. Apologies for my slightly awkward review. I have bronchitis and the flu, and am coughing so hard I may have to go to the hospital soon! But I took the time to review, cause I love this. Awesome job!

Lexie, Lexa, Lex, Aly, Lexi can all be names in there own right. ANd some times Lexie can be derived from Elizabeth. But otherwise I agree with you on most things. I find that it is very hard to find good stories here on Fictionpress but hopefully these writers will go back and look at there stories and rewrite them.

Haha wow this is too true.