1. Forgetting what just happened. A character vomits, and then his or her love interest goes in for a makeout session without ever mentioning the vomit taste.

2. Inner dialogue as an excuse for the author to god-talk their characters into doing something they were/are resistant to, rather than having that character reach the decision organically.

3. Describing irises or eyes as "orbs", "spheres", or "globes". He stared ardently into her emerald orbs, because the word "eyes" had just been mentioned in the previous sentence. Surely there's something else you can talk about while you burn some literary distance to be able to use the word "eyes" again.

4. While we're at it, any phrase like "drilling eyes" "boring eyes" or just using only a character's "eyes" to indicate an expression or emotion. Usually what you're looking for is in the whole face: sadness is not just shown through the eyes, but the tension or relaxation of the muscles around them. Also, don't give me this "hint of sadness" crap... that's just lazy writing. Furthermore, usually obsessing about eye color is not helpful — unless they are really unusually piercing, like Daniel Craig or Hugh Laurie's eyes can be based in a specific artificially-created light. But for the love of God, think about the kind of lighting environment your scene has before using that.

5. Making out with someone while they are asleep with no negative consequences — or even just kissing them when they're asleep, when the characters involved are not in a relationship.

6. Unusual endearments or nicknames: some characters can get away with calling someone "Baby", some really really can't. While you're at it, don't shorten names into fake nicknames unless they've shown up in the canon.

7. When writing slash... using a "stomach" euphemism for arousal, or really any of that female bodies inside of male bodies (by which I mean, writing a male character not according to his canonical performed gender, but rather as the (female) writer's performed gender unless you're writing an actual transgender fic, but I haven't seen many of those). Men are generally more aware of the consequences of their performances of masculinity than women are of femininity. Considering the day and age, male performances of femininity can have social consequences and inferred assumptions that the character may or may not be okay with.

8. Using the prose in your fic to preach about something that doesn't add anything to your characters, especially when what you're preaching about is political and/or controversial. You're free to show it or problematize it in your story, but I'm not interested in your sweeping generalizations.

9. Making men giggle.

10. Mary Sues. Because I'm inter in reading your personal fantasy.

11. A character deciding that their crush on another character is actually full-blown love, and then whining about how they'll "never have them" or "they'll never notice me". Calling it love does not up the emotional ante if the "love" is just obsessive infatuation.

12. Having men experience multiple orgasms within a ten minute window. HA!

Title: Whatever Way Our Stories End
Fandom: Princess Tutu
Pairing: Fakir/Ahiru
Rating: PG
Length: 1,239 words
Summary: It doesn't turn out the way he expected it would.

( It was the ending. Your story's ending didn't seem right. )