Fanfic Pet Hates

[Lace Neil Singer]

I remember once in an RP, this noob not only butted right into the middle of it without even bothering to check whether it was still open to new players (it wasn't, it was over 100 pages long) but posted a disgusting Mary Sue character that was the Princess of all Vampires, immune to wood and sunlight, breathtakingly beautiful with curves in all the right places, and able to turn her fangs into straight human teeth.

I and the other players had the mod delete her post and tell her to read the rules. She then tried to join another RP, with the same disgusting Mary Sue, and was simultanously yelled at by about five people. XD This time, she got the hint.

[depechemodefan]

4 Proofreading / Beta. Yeah. I can take a few small spelling errors.

Oh, I find a lot of fics that have the char. "shutter" instead of "shudder". I know people rely on spellcheck, but the rest of the fic has the words spelled right, except for this one word.

Speaking of canon, if anyone watched Buffy, this short fic is about how some fanfics kind of go to stupid land (Fanon) when the writer writes Buffy. It's by st._salierihttp://st-salieri.livejournal.com/123302.html It's about Buffy and Spike, a little x-rated.

[Dreamstalker]

Fanon isn't all stupid-land if researched/done correctly. Key word there is "correctly".

Nothing ticks me off more than a fanfic using the above to throw actual canon out the window...or if there is an established fanon timeline, contradicting choice bits because the author doesn't like them. Don't like them? Don't write anything referencing said sections.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Fanon isn't all stupid-land if researched/done correctly. Key word there is "correctly".

Nothing ticks me off more than a fanfic using the above to throw actual canon out the window...or if there is an established fanon timeline, contradicting choice bits because the author doesn't like them. Don't like them? Don't write anything referencing said sections.

Same goes for a character you dislike; especially if the only reason why you dislike them is cuz you want your self insert Mary Sue to get off with their love interest. -.- Like all the Suethors who cut Arwen out of LOTR as if she didn't exist in order that their character Rowanna Mistick Angle Fae can jump Aragorn's bones. Or worse; in slash stories, make Arwen into a vicious bitch from hell so as to put Aragon and Pregolas together. So called cuz in every effing Aragorn/Legolas slash story I've seen, he is always Aragorn's bitch and usually ends up as an mpreg. -.-

Note: I like slash, I just like male characters to you know, stay in character. I don't like Leggy as a character; however, I know damn well he's not a whimpering little uke woobie, so there's no need to reinvent him as one just so a Suethor can write about her fantasy of seeing Leggy boned by Aragorn. [/rant]

[Dreamstalker]

Most slash in my chosen fandom is fairly well-done, and there's the occasional plotline that necessitates some kind of personality change. The majority of times, that is well-justified and I have no problem with it. It's the authors that totally ignore established characterization over and over again I can't stand.

One thing my list will not tolerate is RPS. Among other reasons, since a major film studio acquired the property a lot of fansites/lists either are on their legal radar or are worried about same.

[depechemodefan]

Fanon isn't all stupid-land if researched/done correctly. Key word there is "correctly".

I was referring to that one fic.

I was reading this Buffy/TPM cross-over, and unfortunately Buffy becomes a Mary Sue. She's smarter, stronger (she breaks a lightsaber in half-granted, we never see a Jedi break one in half, and a Jedi probably can do it without breaking a sweat, in this case it's suppose to make her look stronger), more intuned with the force then the Jedi (well, she can tell Palpatine is evil). Acutally, I kind of like the fic, but I can see some Star Wars fans hating it. I like cross-overs, just not when the author makes one of the canon char. into a Mary Sue.

[Lace Neil Singer]

One Sue bashing site calls fanfic Sues that are supposedly canon characters "Qanonreip". XD I've seen fics where Hermione is changed into a sex crazy bitch from hell; now, that's frightening. O.o

[Dreamstalker]

I'm now the owner of at least three other author-created characters who abandoned their creators due to hideously bad attempts at het/slashfics using said characters. Initially, the blatant self-insertion attempts were so bad it was funny but the Suethors in question took any and all criticism as a call to keep writing.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I once left a well thought out post on someone's terrible slashfic; the story itself had promise, as a story, but it was badly written and the characters were mere shadows of their former selves. The author did not respond at first, but her fanclub were bashing like no-one's business. All "How dare you bash Suethor X?! She's a lovely person and you're hurting her feelings!" right up to "You're just jealous! I'd like to see you write better!" Eventually, Suethor X came on and immediately showed herself to be reasonable; her fanclub retreated, abashed, as she took on board the CC and said she'd work on the story a bit more.

Now, however, I don't bother getting involved in flame wars with Suethors and their fan clubs; I just leave the following link if they get nasty: http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:For_Other_People

[IDrinkaRum]

that's the one... i don't think they ever published the one that came before it.

and what, books aren't canon? noooooooo.
tho it would be kinda hard to put both professor x and picard in a movie... <snort!>

I too have that X-Men/Star Trek book. Great minds think a like! LOL.

However, I have to disagree with the "Books aren't Canon" philosophy as the Star Trek books William Shatner put out after the movie Generations, where Kirk was killed, are considered canon. If you've read those books, you'll know that Kirk never died at the end of the Generations, just got sent somewhere else and he finds his one true love, a Romulan/Klingon woman who lived on a world that was populated by such hybrids. Those are books are canon along with the other books.

Maybe there's a book canon and a show/movie canon, but I'm not sure.

[Seshat]

Well, as a slight defense to the unfinished fic, I have mine that's had a couple of long hiatuses, because I hit the brick wall of writer's block. Trust me, it drives me just as nuts as it does my readers. I WANT to get to the good stuff, believe me!

Writer's block is frequently a signal that your subconscious knows there's something wrong with what you're planning to write next; or some better way the story could go.

Sit down and re-do your plotting. You may find that the block goes away entirely once you have.

[color=pink]this is why real authors get money. cos they're not afraid to hurt their characters!

I recently watched couple of seasons of Buffy in a 'sick in bed' Buffy-marathon. By the end of it, I was amusing myself before each episode by thinking 'what' s the absolute worst thing Whedon can do to the characters right now?'

Usually, within two episodes, that absolute worst thing would happen.

[MystyGlyttyr]

Writer's block is frequently a signal that your subconscious knows there's something wrong with what you're planning to write next; or some better way the story could go.

Sit down and re-do your plotting. You may find that the block goes away entirely once you have.

Oh, I know exactly what's the problem with what's going to happen next. The problem is vital to the story. I just can't make it flow. See, for my readers, this is critical development and clues hinting at a climax they don't know about yet. For me, it's the boring part until I get to the really fun-to-write section with the big reveal. So, I'm really trying to keep it from SOUNDING like I'm bored while I'm writing it. Which is more difficult than it sounds, apparently.

[Dreamstalker]

My problem is that I can visualize scenes too well (think filmshoot-style) and then get myself in a pickle because I can't rectify the script-vs-prose writing styles well enough. Way back when I first figured this out, I tried to break a few scenes out and write them solely in script form, but that failed because I wasn't able to manage the level of detail the prose-style demanded >_<

This can be worked around most times, but when it does conflict...eeek.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Another rant; this is something I just need to rant about. XD

Prince/ss Of All Vampires.

It's an impossibility, for the following reasons:

1. There is no way that any such figurehead could possibly exist in any shape or form. Especially since that in most Suefics it tends to be an inherited role. Anyone proclaiming themselves in this way would just open themselves up to assassination, not just by vampire hunters, but also by other vampires. There is just no way that anyone could be the ruler over all vampires. Take the world of humans; we don't have a Prince/ss Of All Humans, do we? Even in the smallest country ever, not everyone automatically agrees with the person who runs it. So, therefore, the chances of every single vampire, no matter how powerful, accepting the dominion of a single figurehead, are so small as to be laughable.

2. There is no mention of one in vampire canon, either traditional or in books. Nearest thing to it is Akasha, but she firstly didn't claim dominion over all vampires in the entire world, and secondly was not a whiny, emo, teenage bratling. Whether vampires in books have vast clans, separate families, made vampires and born vampires, or even *shudders* sparkly Meyerpires, there is no mention of a whinging bratchild being ruler over all. Even if one did turn up, see #1.

3. The concept only usually comes up as either an excuse for the Suethor to put her loathsome Mary Sue self insert with the vampire character of her choice, or to put her into a canon world that either has no mention of vampires or only a token mention and to explain her presence. It doesn't work. It never will.


Yes, I do have a personal reason to loath this idea; once in an RP that was progressing nicely, this total noob butted in and proclaimed herself Princess Of All Vampires. -.- She was soon ejected from said RP, but it really hacked me and the other players off at the time.

[Dreamstalker]

I had someone in RP (same whiny silly girl I've mentioned earlier) claim that I was trying to champion werewolf society, destroy all humans, and become the Werewolf Queen...

Hey sparky, my character is an outcast because she is not a "true werewolf" according to the clan leaders in New York State at the time (higher-than-typical percentage of human blood and she had allowed a human to help her).