A List of Irksome Writing Habits

Editors have pet peeves too!

Diana C.
2 min readOct 2, 2024

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Image by Piyapong Saydaung from Pixabay

I’ve been an editor on Medium for a few years now, and I’ve picked up a few pet peeves along the way. I always try to be nice, smile, and leave a polite private message, but I’m screaming internally. I bet even the most patient editor can’t help but roll their eyes at some of these!

Writers leaving a lot of space between the lines of a poem/paragraphs of an essay

Someone please explain why, because I don’t get it. It’s like staring at a sea of white space or trying to read a book with half the pages missing. It’s giving my eyes quite a workout.

Writers using bold and italic fonts randomly

I get the whole trying to be artsy and poetic thing, but bold and italics are like the spice of writing — use them sparingly and with purpose, because when they’re scattered throughout a piece like confetti at a wedding, it literally feels like a visual assault.

Writers adding gifs

Some of you love gifs — and I did too, back in my Tumblr days. However, in my unpopular opinion, they don’t belong on Medium. Gifs are just like those people we all know in real life who constantly interrupt our conversations, trying…

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Diana C.

Editor at KTHT & Hobbies & Stories. Penning, polishing, and provoking thoughts. My online presence is vast, explore it here: https://linktr.ee/ktht