Alright so since some people seem to need help with these things, I’m gonna do a PSA on common fanfic turns of phrase and what they’re actually driving at:
‘Humming’, as in, when a character ‘hums in agreement’ or ‘hums happily’, isn’t them suddenly breaking out a tune. It’s referring to an inarticulate sound, usually with the lips closed. ‘Mmhmm’ for example is a hum. ‘Hummed a question’ is less common, but generally means something along the lines of ‘hmm?’
If someone ‘moans in appreciation’ of something, like food or a good massage, that is usually indicating a lower ‘mmm’ noise than ‘humming’, with the tone being defined by the context of the situation. At some point actually writing out ‘yum’ or ‘oooh’ or similar became unpopular in fic, so describing the noise took prominence. The ‘mmm’ sound is fairly indistinct, and is technically a moan. It’s not actually an inherently sexual term, even though it’s used overwhelmingly in sexual contexts. (In older stories characters would even moan in pain, though that’s less common now).
Toeing off your shoes refers to taking off your shoes without bending down and using your hands in any way. You’re using your toes instead. It’s actually more common with slippers (which are designed for this) but can apply to any footwear that doesn’t need untying or unbuckling or something in order to come loose. Related to ‘kicking off your shoes’ but less dramatic in terms of the implied action involved.
Carding your fingers through something (i.e. hair, feathers) comes from a process (carding) for disentangling cloth or wool fibers (usually a special type of card-shaped tool was used for this, hence the term). It’s got nothing to do with playing cards or shuffling, and here’s the wikipedia article on the process, just for the skeptics. It basically means ‘gently disentangle’ in the fanfic context.
Thus concludes the PSA.
I do know all of this… but the constant repetition can still make things sound silly.
This is true! But it’s also probably worth considering two points on that front.
One is that if you like fanfic, you’re probably going to read way more fic than published novels. So common turns of phrase or idioms that show up in fanfiction writing communities will seem even more repetitive. Because you are reading a ton of it. I mean, you could read nothing but fanfiction until you die and never run out of it, even if everyone stopped writing it today, and it’s all free and readily available so long as you have internet access. People binge reading fics and then getting sick of seeing the tropes or phrases most common to them is a bit like gorging on ice cream and then going ‘ugh sugar disgusts me now for some mysterious reason, why do people put so much of it in food???’
The other point is that, of course, fanfic writers are often amateurs. Repetition within a single story is gonna happen more often when the author is new to writing. It’s something writers just have to learn how to not do. Usually by building up broader vocabularies and learning how to pace things better, which takes practice.
After all, while fanfiction serves many purposes, one of them is a practice ground for people who are still learning.
So the two biggest reasons for perfectly serviceable and innocuous phrases to be ‘over used’ in fics are, themselves, pretty much just unavoidable and minor downsides caused by the unique status of fanfiction itself.
And if somebody just really dislikes a certain turn of phrase ‘just because’, and is not actually unfamiliar with it and picturing something totally bizarre, that’s understandable too. But really the best recourse to that is to just come up with alternatives and fling them out into the community. Writers are ALWAYS looking for new, concise ways to describe things and help fill out their prose. It’s one of the reasons why, when a useful turn of phrase comes along, it will catch on and start showing up in other fics. Trust me, when you’re trying to make thousands upon thousands of words flow, it’s way better to get more options than to feel like you have to avoid certain common turns of phrase.
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