these are some more MISCELLANEOUS MISTAKES people make that u now know how to avoid!

- the way people come out. when people meet each other and start casually asking abt boyfriends and girlfriends (which doesn't actually generally happen that early on?), a gay adult would most likely not react by blushing furiously and going "Actually, I-I'm g-gay. Please don't hate me." generally people age 30 and under are indifferent to gay people, and although a gay man might be pretty anxious about telling strangers off the collar that he was gay, he would be aware of this and wouldn't act like a frightened child and say things like "please don't hate me". this may just be a personal preference of mine (and possibly everyone i know over the age of 13?) but infantilising grown men by making them blush and giggle and refer to each other as 'sexy' in their heads like they're twelve years old makes me uncomfortable. of course though, it's your story, and if that's what you like to read, then go for it! remember, im just some dick telling you what i personally like to read best. if you're going for something realistic and believable, though, then think about how a real life twenty year old man would react. remember, your characters are strangers, and although it feels like they know each other because you know them, in your book they have no idea that they're going to end up being special to one another. imagine how two real strangers would interact.

- if someone is nervous, DO NOT DISPLAY IT BY MAKING THEM STUTTER IN DIALOGUE. have you ever, ever, read a published book where someone said "H-hi, nice to m-meet you"? if someone is nervous or has a stutter, just let the reader know outside of the dialogue, and they can imagine it for themselves. putting it in the dialogue is unprofessional and breaks up the flow of the story. (im aware that i did this in several fics but they weren't well written at all, if you liked them it was just because they had cool ideas.)

- don't make the two of them kiss as soon as they find out the other is gay. thinking it's okay to kiss someone just because theyre potentially attracted to people of your gender blatantly perpetuates the stereotype that all gays are attracted to each other. that's like a straight boy thinking it's alright to just dive in and kiss a girl for the sole reason that she's straight. not cool.

- generally, the tips in this book can be applied to writing original fiction, but this one is exclusive to fanfiction, and very important: don't make a real person the villain. it's not classy. it's alright if you're writing a fic based on a movie or a book, but for RPF, it's a massive no. imagine you married your famous crush, gerard or phil or brendon or something, and then everyone in the entire fandom hated you and wrote you in their fics as a bitch who screamed slurs and beat people up, paying no attention to your real character. it's rude and unimaginative. my point: stop being shitty to lindsey + jamia + bert they didn't do anything.

- pay attention to the first word in each sentence, and each paragraph. are you starting nearly every sentence with a pronoun (eg 'I' or 'he')? does every paragraph begin with someone's name? that makes for disjointed writing, and doesn't read well. make sure there's some variation between the words you use to start each sentence and paragraph!

anyway hope some of these tips help u improve ur writing! u don't have to apply all of them to ur book, or even any at all-- incorporating all of these would make a story more fit for publishing than putting on the internet, and sometimes you just want to write fanfiction your way, not a mainstream book. im tired now goodbye