Fanfic Pet Hates

[Dreamstalker]

Mysty, you are evil. In a good way. I love it.

[Lace Neil Singer]

XD

The sad fact is, that most men I know are incapable of handling even a common cold; I really doubt they could handle pregnancy and birth. XD

[Dreamstalker]

*snerk* How true.

[LewisLegion]

We did an RP story once that turned out so good we're actually publishing it (with permissions from the writers that we kept in there).

We had a totally horrible Mary Sue (or Gary Stu, I guess, since it was a dude) that wanted to join. We knew he was not the most talented writer but we let him in because...well, we're all not the most talented writers until we learn, practice, and take feedback.

Well, it turned out to be a mistake. Not only was his writing painful to read but his character...omg.

The story is about a research team in a haunted castle. HIS character was a mercenary who breaks into the castle, who is handsome and smart and knows immediately what's going on and how to control the twisted, demented spirit of a sadistic Victorian lady who is basically the nemesis of the entire plot. He even once tried to stop her harming someone by shouting 'it's me you want!!' even though no where in the plot was it in any way indicated that he was even a target, let alone THE focus of her murderous afterlife vengeance.

Being the...well, I guess the dungeon master of the situation...I killed his character after I couldn't stand it any more.

He immediately resurrected his character as a ghost. I immediately had the main bad chick destroy his ghost and send him to hell.

Needless to say, his is one character that will NOT be in the publication.

I wrote myself in a story as well (I consider this author insertion and NOT Mary Sue if it is intended to BE the author and not the author's ideal, unrealistic representation of what they wish they were). But the story was based on my own created universe and though it won't be published and the others in the series will (first due soon!) it is canon and will be vaguely referred to in the books after the timeframe in which I was involved.

[anakhouri]

When I comment on anyone's story, I always ask what level of criticism they want. As a professional writer, I crave hardcore constructive criticism and am used to giving it, so I don't want to give unwanted comments to someone who is just writing as a hobby.

I'm not a big fanfic writer or reader, but can't you just ignore stories on subjects you don't like? I guess not all writers list what it is their stories though so you probably get surprised a lot.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Mpreg appears in slash sometimes, so no, I can't ignore it. I like slash; however, bad slash really hacks me off.

In any case, I like to spork badfic and read badfic sporkage so avoiding the badfic would be difficult, if not impossible. XD

[Dreamstalker]

Badslash can be unintentionally hilarious on its own. Especially writers who are clueless about grammar.

What are people's thoughts on RPS?

[fireheart17]

OK, I'll admit I'm working on two fanfics at the moment, both of which have OCs.

One is for the Disney superhero movie Sky High but the inserted character has a somewhat dark past and winds up the damsel-in-distress.
The other is for Final Fantasy X and has been set after the events of the game, although not in the way of FFX-2. OC? Well, let's just say that the story's set in a high school with Tidus, Wakka, Lulu and Rikku involved and the new character is a new girl...but one who has a good and bad side to her.

I've kept these two to PG-13 (kissing only) and both characters have flaws, neither of which are fully developed in the first story. Both characters are afraid to take that next step, have mild cases of androphobia and in the case of the first one, affects her superhero powers (telekinesis and force fields)

I've seen both good and bad fanfiction out there in both an X-rated and G-rated site. some of the X-rated stuff is just baad....while some of the G-rated stuff is quite well done. I don't particularly like songfics either. Having said that, I've read some good song lyrics and they've helped me write my own.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Badslash can be unintentionally hilarious on its own. Especially writers who are clueless about grammar.

What are people's thoughts on RPS?

I think it should be avoided as these are real people you're talking about; people who can be upset if say, someone writes them as shagging their brother (yes, I did read an RPS story that went there... ick) or as being a rapist. -.- And, more to the point, can sue the author for defamation of character or something like that. Stick to fictional characters; much better.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Not a fan of the RPS. Then, not a fan of regular slash. Doesn't offend me, it just does nothing for me and I personally don't see the point. But the real person slash makes me uncomfortable for the reasons Lace sited. Real people are not make believe characters. They are...well...real people.

[Dreamstalker]

And, more to the point, can sue the author for defamation of character or something like that. Stick to fictional characters; much better.

That's exactly why my list bans anyone who even tries. The studio that now owns the franchise has tried to intimidate a few of the larger fansites into shutting down (for no reason other than they wanted complete control over everything--they failed). Nobody knows who is watching what (or how), so it's better to just play it safe.

RPS to me shows that the author has no respect for the actor (hence none for the character).

[Talon]

Here's one I've noticed recently on FF.net.

Some authors refer to female characters in their stories as "the blonde" or "the brunette". Excuse me, does she not have a name? And it is always women who get referenced by their hair colour, never men.

Whether or not that's limited to FF.net, its bad writing.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, I know what you mean. They do describe men that way on occasion, and usually (in the case of male blonds, it's the incorrect form). But yeah, it's lazy writing. I don't like it either.

[Lace Neil Singer]

As is "he said/she said." Yes, you don't have to give out the person's name every single time, but constant "he said this, she said that" is very boring to read; even more so when the story contains just dialogue and no description. -.- Or, as in the case of a lot of Mary Sue stories, just constant discription of the Sue, and none of the other characters, or just fleeting discription. For example (not taken from a story, but demonstrates what I'm talking about)

Rowanna Mystick Angle Demetor ran her fingers thru her golden hair, which shone like the sun on ripening wheat. Her companion, Joe Bloggs, looked at her in admiration. He especially was admiring of Rowanna Mistick Angle Demetor's perfect figure, with curves in all the right places; her large, rounded breasts that didn't detract from her heartbreakingly beautiful face, with skin like peaches and cream, sapphire blue eyes that were like pools a man could fall into, and lips like rose petals.

Urgh. I feel dirty just having written that. *stabs writing*

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Oh, good Lord.

Yeah, that's bad. Real bad.

You write your scene right, you don't even really need to say who is speaking or who the subject is. The reader will know. That can be taken to extreme, but if you can't find an unobtrusive way to let your reader know who is speaking or who is the subject of the paragraph, you need to rewrite that bit.

That bit you just quoted is so purple it makes my stomach hurt. Geez. I'm hoping the writer of that is very young and will grow out of that.

Another thing people do is they don't understand Point of View. Makes it very hard to follow when the writer keeps swapping who's pov we are seeing the scene from. I've seen this done sometimes within the same paragraph. Extremely confusing to read. A writer should probably stick to as few POVs as possible. If they are writing romance, then no more than two.