#if you're just sprinkling it in to describe one-off actions that will not be repeated that's not what that tense means | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

isan0rt · 6 months

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Sigh. I know this is a pretentious pet peeve. But nothing makes me close out of a fanfic faster than use of the "[character] would [action]" future tense. You're not writing a roleplay where you need to give your partner a chance to counteract the intended action, you're writing a fanfic. Tell us what IS HAPPENING or DID HAPPEN, not what your character intends to do, if the other player is down with it, Christ almighty.

#listen I'm not even objecting to adapting fic from rp OBVIOUSLY #Like most of the fic in my ao3 is collaborative #Even if I'm always self-conscious about leaving split-POV in published fic #but for the love of god. I simply cannot abide Future Intent Tense in a fanfic #anyway just me being a stuck up bitch here for a minute but tenses have use cases #use the right tense for the job please #'would' as an action descriptor does have a use case!! but it's a HABITUAL use case.#'she would wave as she walked away' means she habitually does this.#it means she do be waving when she leaves a place for example #if you're just sprinkling it in to describe one-off actions that will not be repeated that's not what that tense means

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