Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
It used to be easier to write books in the old days. Even fiction books - at least because readers in those blessed times when there was no access to all human knowledge literally on the go often had to take the author's word for it.
On the other hand, preparing to write a lot of educational videos and texts used to be much more difficult without the internet. Today, a person can even write a good travel guide to a city they have never been to by just using Google Street View. And yet, human negligence knows no bounds. This viral thread in the AskReddit community is further proof of this.
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I read a book with the sentence, "His heart rate rose as his pulse began to slow."
You don't even have to be a healthcare person to raise an eyebrow at that.
Kylie Chapman 3 months ago
Come on! Completely possible! If the body part where the pulse is being taken is small and just been amputated. Just expect the heart rate to fall very very quickly thereafter too if you don't do something to stem the blood loss.
RELATED:
#2
Whenever a character is whimpering that her corset hurts.
For 90% of history, corsets did not hurt! Tightlacing was not the norm! Corsets were just bras and bodice shapers! A princess who’s worn corsets her entire life should be used to it. She can hate the feeling, but the whole “I can’t breathe!” trope needs to stop.
Edit: And don’t even get me f*****g started on the idea of someone having scars bc of their corsets. Corsets were NOT worn on bare skin. They would wear a chemise ffs!
#3
Any time they mention "poisonous" snakes. Poisonous snakes do exist, but they're much rarer than what people are actually worried about, which is *venomous* snakes. If it bites you and you die, it's venomous. If you bite it and you die, it's poisonous. If you're worried because a snake is poisonous, just don't eat it.
Let's make an assumption right away - there are a lot of authors who have done poor research on the subject they are writing about. Even more than those who haven’t done any research at all. Both in fiction and non-fiction.
And so we get the roar of spaceship engines in the vacuum of space, knights performing gymnastics in full armor and tirelessly waving a two-handed sword for several hours, and other stories that then appear in threads like this one.
There is always the temptation to explain any inconsistencies in the plot and text with the universal "It's just magic!", but there’s a limit to everything! You can try to provide scientific justification for the possibility of dragons flying or how they manage to breathe fire and not burn themselves - but when you have a Viking drinking from a fjord (which is, in fact, a sea bay with salt water), that's something completely different!
#4
I don’t know a ton about this, but all media from top to bottom seems to believe that bonking someone on the head with a blunt object merely results in an “unscheduled nap.”
The fact is that if you’re out for more than a second or two, you likely have permanent brain damage. Especially without modern medical care.
#5
I recently read a book where a couple was in Paris during WWII and they strolled into a restaurant and ordered a whole duck to eat. During.... WWII....... they were not even rich.
PattyK 3 months ago
The Nazis confiscated much of the food in Paris to feed their troops. A person would have to be in line very early in the morning to get just a loaf of bread. Meat of any kind was practically nonexistent. Many people today don’t know the sacrifices people, especially Europeans, had to make during WWII.
#6
Computers and programming.
"I just need to upload the IP address to the cloud server and then we will have root access to the network"
No, you won't. You just won't. That's like saying
"I just need to glue the plastic frog to the radiator and then the car will be able to fly".
Stephanie Did It 3 months ago
Back in Golden Hollywood, script writers could get away with fake tech speak because audiences had not been exposed to the huge amounts of information, scientific or medical, that we are today. Pseudoscience sounded technical enough for most everyone. We are no longer as gullible as our parents and grandparents.
"Okay," you may say - "but what to do then if the author cannot be an expert in absolutely all possible things?" The answer is quite simple - do not try to be an expert yourself when playing on a deliberately foreign field.
For example, the great John R.R. Tolkien, as is well known, when describing the campaign of the Fellowship of the Ring, specifically calculated the phases of the Moon - just to casually mention in some scene that there was a full moon in the sky.
On the other hand, the Professor was never an expert, for example, in economics - his goal was, first of all, a grand linguistic experiment. That is why you will not find in The Lord of the Rings any attempt to explain how the underground cities of the dwarves lived without grain and vegetables, or how much a pint of milk cost in Minas Tirith.
And still, the world created by the genius of Tolkien is considered one of the most developed in all of world fantasy.
#7
I read a novel in which the character kneaded pie crust for a long time. You should knead bread dough to activate the gluten, but pie crust should never be kneaded—it should be handled as little as possible!
Marnie 3 months ago
I never knew "activating gluten" was a thing. From the internet: "Kneading, stirring, or mixing the dough causes the gluten strands to develop and strengthen. The more the dough is mixed, the more gluten is developed, resulting in a more elastic and stretchy dough." From that, yes, makes perfect sense you would not want to knead pie crust! Learn something new every day.
#8
Therapy! It's rare to see it portrayed correctly. Usually the therapist says things that are wildly inappropriate or just not right. Oversharing personal information, taking weird notes or being oddly distant and aloof.
Undercover 3 months ago
Same with psych wards. Usually they're just a normal part of a hospital, no spooky dungeon / asylum. And often there are two different wards (open vs. closed), depending on the severity of your condition. If someone is a danger to himself or others or psychotic, he will be kept in a closed ward where you can't leave without permission or supervision. Open wards are pretty much like normal hospital routine and you can leave as long you don't have scheduled therapy at the time and sign out.
#9
Hacking. The speed and ferocity is something commonly shown incorrectly, but another is hardware. You're not going to break into an encrypted database on a secure network with a Macbook. Brute forcing requires server farms worth of power.
Doctor Strange 3 months ago
Not a book, but I think the worst hacking scene is from NCIS, where two characters are both using the same keyboard to go faster.
Many authors, succumbing to the already typical cliches, try to add excessive realism to their books - and the texts only suffer from this. "For example, in a typical fantasy world, elves are so reverent about their forests and trees that they are ready to give their lives - both their own and someone else's - literally for a broken branch?" says Oleksiy Arkhireyev, a Ukrainian copywriter and novelist, with whom Bored Panda got in touch for a comment here.
"At the same time, elves are usually great archers. And any big battle is a huge number of arrows. For example, at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, English archers fired about 7 thousand arrows. And where, I ask you, did the elves get such a quantity of wood for these arrows?" Oleksiy questions.
In any case, it’s best to be guided by common sense, check the opinion of experts, and do a detailed study of the material you will write about, Oleksiy believes. "And even better - write about what you personally know very well, what you understand at an expert level or so. Then the text will definitely be interesting - and if you add some writing skills, then it will be completely captivating."
#10
Characters with wildly inaccurate names for their time period, location, gender during that time period, culture, etc.
Names are so easy to research and yet…
Also someone not knowing the appropriate ways to use Your Highness, Your Majesty, Your Grace, etc….
#11
As for medical field... Where do I even start?!
Idiotic CPR and defibrillator use, of course. People waking from long coma, getting up and leaving like nothing. Blunt force head trauma, knocking person unconscious for two mins, them getting up like nothing happened. Running with broken leg. Horror is super notorious with this - immediately passing out after getting shot with tranquilliser dart.
Closer to my field - cancer patients, their treatment portrayal.
Joanne Mendonza-Earle 3 months ago
There was an early Friends episode where Monice and Phoebe accidentally distracted a guy and he was hit by a car. They visit him in the hospital and call him 'coma guy' yet he's not hooked up to anything, his hair is perfectly styled....but he's in a coma? Then they go see him and he's coming out of the bathroom totally fine and coherent.
#12
Characters eating anything with tomatoes in medieval Europe. Makes me think the author did zero research as to what people ate in medieval Europe.
PeepPeep the duck 3 months ago (edited)
Hunchback of Notre dame to answer aces question of the top off my head 😂 festival of fools, confused me as a kid into history.
However, even the greatest masters of world prose and poetry could make mistakes - and sometimes even quite grossly. What can we say about simple craftsmen of texts then? So now just feel free to read these stories, and maybe share your own in the comments below. Perhaps your tale will be no less funny and captivating than those that we have collected in this selection? Who actually knows?
#13
I remember hearing about a James Bond script that was to start with a Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico. The writer didn't do his research and assumed that the holiday was celebrated all throughout the country.
When they go to film, they discover the locals didn't actually celebrate Day of the Dead in that region. The studio decided to host the festival themselves so that the movie could film its scenes as scheduled. The festival was such a hit with the locals that ever since then, the town *now* has a Day of the Dead celebration.
So who knows, maybe not doing research can result in a fluke where your factual errors can force reality to make them become true.
Joey Jo Jo Shabadoo 3 months ago
Somebody once told me that Day of the Dead was for Mexicans what St Patricks Day was for the Irish: something fun Americans did
#14
In John Gwynne's Shadow of the Gods, a character DRINKS FROM A FJORD. Excuse me that is salt water, you should be dead!
They also take their boats up the "rivers" at the end of the fjords, as if that's a thing. The author apparently didn't even spend 5 minutes googling what a fjord is before including the word at least four times per chapter. If you wanted it to be a river just call it that!
Only book I've ever rage quit.
#15
Anything to do with horses.
Making taking care of a lot of animals seem like just a few minutes' work a day. Ditto farming acres of any crops. That work never ends.
Using real-world cities but never mapping distances. Miami and Tampa, for instance, are not at all close to each other.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 3 months ago
I spend two hours a day looking after my horse. It's a real commitment, not something that can be done in a few minutes.
#16
Animal companions that are immediately loyal to the protagonist, and go everywhere with them/do whatever they want without any training or general care. Bonus points if it’s an exotic animal.
I get that in many cases this is a “suspension of disbelief” thing more than a “author didn’t research” thing, but it still irks me. This trend repeated over and over again in media has left the general population with some really unrealistic/misinformed ideas about how animals think and work, which A- is unfortunate for their pets; and B- glorifies and bolsters the exotic pet trade, which is rife with animal abuse and mistreatment.
Everyone’s spent their whole lives consuming media that tells them that animals will automatically love/obey the “good guy”, and everyone is the good guy in their own mind. In reality it takes learning and work to train and bond with an animal no matter who you are.
I can’t count the amount of times I’ve told someone “my dog is a little scared of strangers but if you ignore him and pass him treats he’ll warm up fast”, and they’ve gone “dogs like me!” And reached right for his face anyways. Then they spend the next ten minutes trying to rationalize why the dog barked at them when he was obviously just scared.
Doctor Strange 3 months ago
Or the opposite. Many people think of wolves as dangerous, bloodthirsty monsters. Well I volunteer at a wolf sanctuary, and let me tell you - given the choice between getting in the pen with the wolves, and getting in a pen with chihuahas, I will choose the wolves every time. They are often very sweet, and loveable goofs. In the wild, wolves that are not used to humans will absolutely flee humans every time. Because wolves are smart, and one of the number one killers of wolves in the wild is human. So they Don't want to start any conflict, because it could kill them. Even if you p**s them off, they will warn you multiple times before even thinking about hurting you. One guy tried to ride one of our wolves like a pony, and Still didn't get bit for that.
#17
It bothers me when people don’t know the difference between jail and prison. Books, movies, and TV shows always talk about “going to jail for (x number) years” or “you’ll get arrested and they’ll take you to prison.” Jail is pre-trial and people sentenced to a year or less. Anything more than a year is prison.
#18
Weight of armor and weapons mainly swords. The heaviest plate armor weighed under 100lbs and was distributed over the body. Swords weighed 2 to 3 lbs. The 6 foot blades weighed up to 7lbs. More movie than book but if I see one more steel sword cast in an open mold I'm gonna lose it.
Doctor Strange 3 months ago
Its so rare to see a good blacksmithing scene. One of the things I liked about Blue Eyed Samurai is that they did get a lot of things right. Not everything, but a lot.
#19
When their stories only include the famous landmarks of a city. For instance, if the story takesChicago and the only locations the characters visit are Wrigley Field or the Chicago River, or they just generically call downtown "The Loop," as in one character says to the other, "Fine, meet me in the Loop.." WHERE IN THE LOOP???
This holds true for every other major city as well that is the backdrop of a book.
XanthippeⓐWulf🇨🇦️️🇬🇧 3 months ago
The landmarks I can understand. Someone reading a book about, say England, would more likely recognize landmarks like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, St. Paul's Cathedral, etc. Than places like Liberty or Greggs if they've not been there before. It helps the reader "visualize" a location using familiarity.
#20
Once I read a book where one of the MCs could draw really well and wanted to study at the academy of fine arts. She took drawing classes before she applied and was praised for her talent there, but the teacher showed her that there are more kinds of pencil than a HB. So you mean to tell me you’ve been drawing your whole life and you just learned that? And she did get accepted to the academy if i remember correctly, which is a very hard thing to do.
In the same series there was an article about a woman with an eating disorder and they said something like “at 13, she weighed 50kg (110lbs), which is way too much for a 13 year old”. Excuse me? No it’s not? Funny thing is I read it at 13 with an eating disorder, weighing 50kg and at that time people would ask me if my parents gave me food at all lmao
Edit: i hate to say it guys but the author is a woman. It seemed like she actually did some impressive research on eating disorders but that line shouldn’t be there
Edit2: actually i remembered another crazy thing she wrote about eating disorders, one of the mcs had ed and she would always judge other women who were fatter than her. i won’t speak for everyone with an ed but yeah, we don’t do that.
PeepPeep the duck 3 months ago
I am an artist from a super poor family growing up and I was also around 12-13 when someone finally introduced the 2, 4 & 8B pencil to me 😂 it happens
#21
Weather, specifically severe storms and tornadoes, is so easy to get right with even surface level research that it makes me want to tear my hair out. Some more egregious examples include: Issuing tornado warnings before the storm has even formed (that's what a watch is for), giving tornado ratings before the tornado forms or while it is on the ground (we can now kinda ballpark it with radar, but all ratings are done post event), tornadoes having a calm center "eye" like a hurricane (It's a giant blender full of debris, and even if it did have an "eye" they move too fast), just to name a few.
On the other hand, those kinds of inaccuracies did drive me into writing because I figured out I could write better tornado stories than that, so I guess it worked out in the end.
Beak Hookage 3 months ago
I watched "Twisters", and the most realistic part was where the heroes had to go and TELL people to take shelter while they milled around like idiots. Friend in Texas confirmed that this is exactly what happens and that some people will respond to a tornado warning BY GOING OUTSIDE TO WATCH.
#22
Lots of people mix up what kids can do at different stages
Barring any disability or circumstantial factors:
A 1yo should be able to walk and say a few words
A 2yo can run, kick things, climb around, go up and down the stairs, and speak in 2-3 word sentences
A 3yo can ride a tricycle
A 4yo should be able to hop on one foot and start knowing the alphabet
A 5yo can skip, somersault, read, count, ride a bike (with or without training wheels), and climb bigger things—and also speak in complete and grammatically correct sentences
(also by 10-11, a child's speech is pretty much the same as adults).
Huddo's sister 3 months ago
No, even if there is no delay or disability, a 5 year old shouldn't automatically be able to read. That's what school is for, to teach them (assuming children start formal school at about 5, not all countries are the same). This is a myth that makes parents and children feel bad a lot. Preschools should follow the child's interests, so if they want to learn the alphabet, form letters, read words, count above 10, they can be given those challenges, but if they don't show an interest they should not be forced to. 'School readiness' isn't being able to read, write and count, it's actually being able to hold a pencil, hold scissors, sit for 5-10 minutes and focus on a group activity/story.
#23
Divisions > Brigades > Battalions > Companies > Platoons > Sections/Squads
You can immediately resolve this with a 10 second google search.
Also, an infantry section or squad has around 8 guys in it, not 3 or 4. We can thank the *Battlefield* games for that misunderstanding, I think.
Spencer's slave no longer 3 months ago
This is entirely dependent on the country whose army the game is portraying. British Infantry battalions can have sqads of 4, consisting of two 2 man fire teams.
#24
Part of _Station Eleven_ takes place in an abandoned airport with an airplane chilling on runway 37. Runways only go up to 36.
#25
I am not comfortable with calling medicine "my field" yet but anything involving cpr or defibrillators. CPRs may break ribs, and last up to an hour until professional help comes.
Also as of lately, epigenetics become the "quantum" of human biology by that I mean how it is used in a manner in worldbuilding and fiction completely detached from how it actually works.
Doctor Strange 3 months ago
This person's heart has stopped due to drowning! Quick, put them in the bottom of the boat in a pool of salt water we are all standing in and then hit them with electricity! - a certain tv show about pretty but not very bright life guards in red
#26
Tazers rendering people unconscious. I worked on a project where people were being trained on the use of tasers. I'm no expert, but I learned enough to be annoyed with the trope of them knocking people out.
Depictions of kink. I write erotica specifically around a few specific, less run-of-the-mill kinks, and a LOT of authors get the kink lifestyle very wrong.
Zedrapazia 3 months ago
You can knock people out with tasers, but those strong enough to do that can't be commercially bought and demand a license. The police usually have them.
#27
99% of poker scenes in books, movies, TV. too many wrong depictions to count, some very technical, but one-in-a-million hands, mischaracterizing what makes a great player and betting more than is allowed are the most common ones.
out of context philosophical statements to pretty up an authors manuscript who woefully misunderstood the concept.
every decorative german basically being from bavaria (in serious media, comedy is whatever).
#28
When I read that someone is going "free climbing," 9 times out of 10 the author means to say that the person is going free *soloing.*
I go free climbing all the time. So many people do. Free climbing includes pretty much all of what we think of as recreational rock climbing, using ropes, carabiners, harnesses, etc. Free *soloing* means walking up to the wall and climbing with no safety gear of any kind. Soloing is inherently risky.
Also for some reason when I point this out, I invariably get harassed for it, as though my niche sport/interest doesn't rise to the level where we would expect an author to get it right. Drives me CRAZY.
**Author**: My [cool] character goes FREE CLIMBING and look how [cool] she is
**Me**: Oh nice, free climbing is great. A quiet afternoon at the crags with friends enjoying nature. Sounds lovely. Let's bring the kids.
#29
Any time a character on a horse “flicks” the reins to make it go.
Zedrapazia 3 months ago
I think this stereotype has been caused by this being portrayed in western. The actual way to make a trained horse walk is to gently nudge it in the sides with both of your feet once or twice. Horses are smart, they understand this signal.
#30
Guns. Wow, are guns so poorly understood by the media. Like seriously. I've seen guns being mislabbeled as completely different guns, semi-automatics being portrayed as fully automatic, constant serious gun safety violations (looking at you Baldwin), never seen a gun jam in a movie or show, and seen people taking rounds they shouldn't survive and being completely fine, etc etc. Not to mention supressors.
Tucker Cahooter 3 months ago
BP deciding to think of the children by showing us a picture of water pistols.
#31
There's countless examples of video games being portrayed really weirdly in media, particularly television. I immediately think of some kid wildly waving like a Super Nintendo controller around while playing some modern generic royalty-free Call of Duty clone.
Sky Render 3 months ago
It was worse in the 90s. They had actors using NES controllers and the sounds were clearly Atari 2600 games. TV seems to consistently be as wrong as possible about video games.
#32
As a scientist, units are often a dead giveaway. Often, they pick a unit that sounds impressive, but is really small, and describe something that's enormous with a unit more appropriate for a crumpled up piece of paper or a lighter.
#33
Not a book but a video game.
I love Detroit Become Human but living in Detroit myself I noticed some things.
-They call the People Mover the tram. No one in Detroit will call it that.
-The hyperfixation on poverty porn in the game. Even in the downtown and nice areas of the city you’re really not going to see rundown houses in Downtown anymore as it looks like nice and gentrified around the collages.
-The severe lack of npcs trying to get you to buy their mixtape as they tell you they’re going to be the next Eminem.
What do you think ?
Helena 3 months ago
The volume of male writers getting female anatomy wrong is staggering. And hilarious. I highly recommend looking it up. Everything from thinking women have a tamper evident seal and have no vaginal opening as a virgin, to breasts having personality, to one describing keeping a tiny purse in a vagina. It is friggin hilarious. You can't help but think 'oh bud, no real relationships yet huh'. Except one of the offenders is Stephen King, which is just baffling.
PFD 3 months ago
When complaining about this issue (totally rightly btw) you're contractually obligated to quote "She breasted boobily to the stairs and titted downwards." Sorry I don't make the rules.
Load More Replies...
Marnie 3 months ago
In apocalypse type books, when they write that societies will "revert" back to women being treated as subservient and inferior, as if that's the norm, when in fact, it's a fairly recent development for humans (as far as we know), and is getting worse on average every century for a while now. Look at the perverted Taliban treating every woman in the country as a sex object they own. That's not normal. And if societies broke up into hunter-gatherer societies, small nomadic bands, or sustenance farming, they would very, very, very likely revert to the types of societies that form with those economies, which is largely egalitarian.
ElfVibratorGlitter 3 months ago (edited)
Hmmm. Interesting. Very good point. Some of the older civilizations were matrilineal societies. And there are still cultures around today...
Load More Replies...
Mariele Scherzinger 3 months ago
Something so obvious and so stupid. "By the light of the new moon". I don't know if I should laugh or scream.
Helena 3 months ago
The volume of male writers getting female anatomy wrong is staggering. And hilarious. I highly recommend looking it up. Everything from thinking women have a tamper evident seal and have no vaginal opening as a virgin, to breasts having personality, to one describing keeping a tiny purse in a vagina. It is friggin hilarious. You can't help but think 'oh bud, no real relationships yet huh'. Except one of the offenders is Stephen King, which is just baffling.
PFD 3 months ago
When complaining about this issue (totally rightly btw) you're contractually obligated to quote "She breasted boobily to the stairs and titted downwards." Sorry I don't make the rules.
Load More Replies... Marnie 3 months ago
In apocalypse type books, when they write that societies will "revert" back to women being treated as subservient and inferior, as if that's the norm, when in fact, it's a fairly recent development for humans (as far as we know), and is getting worse on average every century for a while now. Look at the perverted Taliban treating every woman in the country as a sex object they own. That's not normal. And if societies broke up into hunter-gatherer societies, small nomadic bands, or sustenance farming, they would very, very, very likely revert to the types of societies that form with those economies, which is largely egalitarian.
ElfVibratorGlitter 3 months ago (edited)
Hmmm. Interesting. Very good point. Some of the older civilizations were matrilineal societies. And there are still cultures around today...
Load More Replies... Mariele Scherzinger 3 months ago
Something so obvious and so stupid. "By the light of the new moon". I don't know if I should laugh or scream.
Related on Bored Panda
