writing pet peeve

[demeter918]

I think, if there's anything that will instantly annoy me in writing, there's nothing like the line of,

a single tear glistened on her cheek

or

a lonely tear rolled down her face

or

how does a person squeeze one tear out? how about the other eye? You can't make just one eye have a tear!

... oh, wait. That's my line. ;)

I don't know what about it annoys me so much, but it does. Everytime I read it in a fic, I either start snickering, completely breaking the mood or I roll my eyes. I think I've done it before, which makes it all the more annoying. I just realized I had this annoyance when I was reading a FFX fic, and a line like that popped up on the end of what was a decent fic, and it lost me. It just lost me in a way that nothing else has lost me. No, seriously. You could insert an author's line in the middle of a fic (I don't know why, but I find these hilarious!) and it never bothered me in the way that the 'single lonely tear' did.

Methinks my eccentricities have come into play again.

Comments

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

Sometimes a person does only shed one tear.

But I agree; it's a cliche that needs to be retired.

[tamchronin.livejournal.com]

Agreed, and agreed. I've been known to cry more out of one eye more/faster than the other, and have had one tear drop/roll down my cheek/whatever and stop crying before it's more than that, blah blah blah, whatever. But there aren't enough writers out there who will write crying as anything other than sweet and romantic and an excuse for the main character's love interest to offer a cliche comfort. Blah. Meh. Time to stop rambling now...

[demeter918.livejournal.com]

I've shed one tear before, but that was me snuffling and trying to hold back the deluge so that I wouldn't too badly embarrass myself. What truly annoys me about it is the 'glistening' or 'shining' or 'lonely' or... OH I JUST CAN'T STAND IT! *runs around*

I think I need to be retired. ;)