Fanfic Pet Hates

[Dreamstalker]

I don't really mind...IF it's relevant to the plot, well written and not overused. That's also one of the few situations where first-person could work.

[Lace Neil Singer]

If it's just yet another means of showcasing a Mary Sue; forget it. If it's relevant to the plot and is as well written as the rest of the story; and also, is obvious that it is a flashback (that means writing a followup to it, not just randomly throwing in an italicised paragraph and expecting people to guess) then go for it. XD

[RecoveringKinkoid]

First person is an absolutely wonderful POV, if it's done correctly and it suits the story. One of my favorite series, Joe. R. Lansdales' so-called Hap and Leonarad series, was written entirely first person, from Hap's POV. Robert R. McCammon's Boy's Life, one of the best books ever written IMHO, is in first person. The trick is getting the "voice" right.

I wrote an entire novella once in first person, and each chapter was from a different character's POV. Every character in the story, including the villian, had a chapter where it was their voice and their thoughts. It was a challenging an fun writing project.

Second person? I can't imagine that working. that was annoying even in the "Choose your own adventure" books.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I've got a chicklit book that's written from four different perspectives; each chapter is entitled "Matt", "H", "Susan" or "Stringer", depending on who's perspective it is. It works. Never mind the fact that it's chicklit, it's written well and the concept works.

I also have books written in first person; they work. However, I agree with RK; I am at a loss to see how second person can ever work. O_o Choose your own adventure books used to irritate me cuz they used "you" and put in actions I would never do. -.-

[Dreamstalker]

Yeah, first person can work very well--as long as it's clear whose POV is being used. I've read a few really good books like that.

Second-person...ugh.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

The reason first person POV so frequently fails is because it's so hard to do correctly if you are not used to writing that way. A lot of hobby writers do not know that it's something they need to pay attention to. After all, POV is a seamless part of the story if it's done correctly, so when reading well-written stuff, you don't notice it.

However, it's harder than you think to stay strictly within a certain POV unless you practice doing it. You have to think hard about how your story will unfold, because you only have a limited view from which to tell it. For instance, look at the Romance genre. A straight Romance only has, at the very most, two POV's...the hero and the heroine. The entire story is told only through their eyes.

The story I am doing online, while it's not straight romance, is more or less a romance type historical story. I've allowed myself three POV's instead of the usual two. Were I trying to get it published, I would have never added the third POV...an editor would probably dismiss it out of hand if I had done that and sent it in.

Here's something else that drives me nuts...passive voice. It's forgivable in a casual story written for fun, but it's something an editor would kick out as well. I've seen fanfics written with so much passive voice that it was almost like they were TRYING to write the entire thing in PV as a prank.

[Lace Neil Singer]

That's when they need to avail themselves of the services of a beta. Not their best friend, but someone neutral who can look at the story, read it over and accurately pick out what needs to be changed or fixed, and what is just absolutely god damned terrible and has to be removed completely. Such as your character being a Mary Sue. Or unrealistic recovery time. Example; Wolverine can recover quickly from injury, cuz he has mutant healing power. If your character is just an ordinary human being, he or she will not. Simple as that. I hate reading about overpowered Sues going into battle and either escaping unscafed, or being hurt and magically being better the next second. -,-

[RecoveringKinkoid]

You are absolutely right. However, I've rarely known someone who really wanted honest critique.

Oh, yeah, they say they do, but they never really do. I don't care they'e writing fanfic or original fiction. They think their stuff is genius and they don't take kindly to finding out your opinion is less than that of stunned adoration of their skill as a wordsmith.

I get asked a lot to critique stuff. To be honest, I very often just tell them I enjoyed it and move on. Probably shouldn't, but there you go. Especially if it's hopeless. I mean, probably, "I enjoyed reading it" wasn't a lie at all. I DO enjoy reading other people's stuff, good or bad. I like seeing what other people write, and as for just reading for enjoyment, I'm not a hard critic. If it kept me entertained and I appreciated the effort (which it usually did), fine. Thanks for sharing and that was a fun read and all that. No point nit picking something someone wrote for fun.

On the other hand, every now and then I get lulled into the idea that they want an honest opinion and I give them one. I would like to state that I always find more positive things to say than negative, always end with encouragement, and always suggest how to fix any problems, so no, I"m not just sitting there tearing apart their stuff.

Oh, they never freaking want to hear it. Waste of time almost always. And ironically, I never really give a real honest critique unless I think their stuff is really, really good and worth tinkering with.

If it's hopeless (like in the example posted in this thread) there's no point. But if it's good, yeah, let's work on it and make it stellar. Nobody wants to do that, they just want the props.

Although I will say that a friend of mine recently starting sending her stuff to me and I can honestly say I got nothing. She's brilliant. She's better than I am. I should be sending my stuff to her.

[PepperElf]

8. People who write 50 words, call it a chapter, then say "if you want more, leave feedback." You don't get the props without doing the work. You want feedback, write something.

Also...

- People who write a story that's 50+ chapters... that turn out to be about 4 paragraphs each.

One of the old fanfic sites I use to go to based story length on chapters... so yes there was a 40+ chapter story that ended up being shorter than someone else's 6 chapter story.

- People who fill up their "word count" with constant replies to reader comments.

Some other sites base story length on word-count. This bulks up the word count so you think you're getting say... a 5000-word story, when in fact it's maybe 3000 words and a ton of author's notes.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Ugh, I hate author's notes. -.- Especially when they're bang in the middle of a chapter and serve no purpose whatsoever.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I know, I always wonder what the hell they are writing when I see that.

When was the last time these people picked up, say, a book and it had author's notes ever chapter or so. Writers, here's a tip: if you need to explain something, understand that you DON'T need to explain anything. You do, however, need to get in there and do some re-writing to make your story make sense without the notes.

[Dreamstalker]

I've read a few fics that were essentially just a collection of stream-of-consciousness author's notes...it's like they filled in a basic outline (actually, even saying it had an outline was a stretch) with ramblings and thought that's how you write fanfic.

[Lace Neil Singer]

One fic that I read sporkage about had awful, self obsessed authors notes after practically every scene. Worse; the author was anticipating what the reader was saying. -.- Here's an example:

That's so sad, she has to watch her sister die
Is she some type of warrior? (me: all will be revealed in time)
*sniffle

And another:

Frodo lives! (me: of course, have you not seen the movies?)
Where did the name come from? (me: she's named after her grandmother, Galadriel)
Galadrianna has healing powers? (me: yup, not major ones, but they're there)

The entire badfic was filled with these annoying author notes; making it even more unreadable. After looking at the first chapter, after that I just read the spork. XD

[MystyGlyttyr]

I've added author's notes to a few places in my stories, but they were always tech specs or something of the sort. (Addressing a controversy about the story, offering an explanation for the disappearance and reappearance of a chapter, etc.) The most snarky thing I did was at the beginning of one chapter, write a quick note about a heavily tattooed character getting an MRI to prevent people e-mailing me about whether or not it would rip the tats out of his skin. (It wouldn't!! GAR)

This is less a hate, and more, to me, an oddity. Whenever FF.net readers add my story to their favorites list, I get an e-mail notification, and I go check out the person's profile just as a matter of curiosity. Almost every time, their list of favorites is all one kind of story that is NOTHING like what mine is. My story is (at least intended to be) a psychological drama wrestlefic mindscrew that's only rated M for safety's sake (well, there's a couple of things...), and it shows up on a list for a person who has nothing else but fluffy CSI and House fics, or borderline pornographic torture fics, or something to that effect. I've never questioned the people adding it as to what stuck out so that they'd fave mine, but I am rather curious about what kind of takes people are getting from it that makes them interested when their list indicates it's FAR off their norm.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Might have less to do with your subject matter and more to do with your writing style.