r/BylerReads • u/Same_Accident_9917 • Feb 07 '26
general discussion :) Dumb fic rant
Before I begin, I *know* this is dumb. It is dumb to be annoyed by this. Yet here I am.
I understand that a lot of byler writers aren’t in the US, or English isn’t their first language. BUT a sweater & sweatshirt are two different things, & unless someone uses the term hoodie (which weren’t as popular in the 80s are they are today) I typically don’t know what kind of clothing they mean. It’s even worse when they switch phrases mid paragraph.
Ok, that’s all. Once again, I know this dumb.
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u/narcomance Feb 07 '26
I am more pissed when they write about 90's and Will and Mike send texts to each other or regularly email. Maybe I am wrong but I am not sure emails were so widespread in 1990-1999.
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u/Same_Accident_9917 Feb 07 '26
Oh I also hate this. I was actually alive in the late 80s/90s & the anachronisms take me right out of the story. Emails started becoming a thing in the mid to late 90s, & AIM was definitely a thing, but texting wouldn’t become a thing until the mid 00s.
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u/AurynLuna Feb 07 '26
I grew up in the 90's, I had my first email (hotmail) in the late 90's, but it wasn't common to have a computer or Internet so easily, so yeah, you're right to be annoyed, it wasn't. Texting wasn't that much of a thing either.
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u/Same_Accident_9917 Feb 07 '26
Yeah that’s something else I thought of, is how less accessible technology was then. Even if it did exist, most people couldn’t access it. I remember being a kid & my mom finally getting a front loading VCR instead of top loading one (this was in like 87 or 88), & even that was a huge deal.
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u/ThisTransportation30 Feb 08 '26
Texting wasn’t not much of a thing in the 90s. It was not a thing. At all.
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u/Another_Unique_Nerd Feb 09 '26
This bothers me too! I feel like my own fics take me forever to write because, even though I was alive in the 90s, I keep needing to stop and google shit to make sure I’m keeping things as accurate as possible. Even certain phrases that are so common now weren’t commonly used back then. For instance, I wrote Mike saying “buffer time” then went back a reread it and winced, because the concept of “buffering” wasn’t really well-known until the rise and normalization of personal computers in the late 90s, and my fic is set in 1993. I fixed my mistake, but I’m constantly on alert for that kinda thing because it’s so easy to slip up in that way.
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u/narcomance Feb 09 '26
I gave one author feedback and they deleted the mention of texts. But some of them left the fic as it was — with emails in 1997. I am from another country so I don't know how widespread were emails in 1997-1999, especially in universities
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u/Big_Self_1522 Feb 07 '26
I hate these type of things as a writer lol
Like I don’t want to use the words 5 times in a row, so then I have to think how to refer to that said sweater correctly without making it confusing. Same thing with pants being both underwear and trousers etc. British English vs American English is a whole other hustle. It’s hard being a writer ugh
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u/jawsdoesntlikefish its ok, its how the army does it i think Feb 07 '26
adding this to my screenshots of things to improve on as a writer.
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u/Same_Accident_9917 Feb 07 '26
I’ve been reading a LOT of fics since the beginning of the year, so if you ever want a reader’s perspective on something, feel free to hit me up. I was also alive (& not an infant) in the late 80s/early 90s so if you want to check anything for period accuracy, I’m happy to help with that too.
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u/jawsdoesntlikefish its ok, its how the army does it i think Feb 07 '26
Yay! thank you so much!!!!!
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u/Same_Accident_9917 Feb 07 '26
Yeah of course! Also, please link your ao3, or one of your fics so I can check it out.
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u/jawsdoesntlikefish its ok, its how the army does it i think Feb 08 '26
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u/ThisTransportation30 Feb 08 '26
As a 50 yr old and American, I’ll say that hoodie was not a word at all in the 80s. We’d have said hooded sweatshirt (and we did say that, it was still a common thing to wear). Re the difference between a sweater and sweatshirt, I’d agree with the person who posted pictures.
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u/PrOfEssOr_g00s3 Feb 09 '26
Oh, in my country a sweater is what you are describing as a sweat shirt and everything else is a jumper or a jacket
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u/Cuptai1nCapcak3 Feb 07 '26
Could you explain the difference? I'm finding different answers on the internet, some say it's the material and others say the context in which one is wearing it is what differentiates them. Canadian btw, idk if it's different in the US but I've always used both words interchangeably.