Fanfic Pet Hates

[MystyGlyttyr]

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

Okay, at the risk of sounding a bit dumb, how do you mean? I mean, a CSI story could be brilliantly written, and I like the characters, but that fandom just doesn't interest me so even when I try to read those fics, I just can't stomach them, let alone bother to fave them. Also, I know I'm a good writer (I'm not gonna play all coy false modest), but I'm not THAT good. I can do circles around your average Suethor and entertain most people pretty well, but I ain't winning any contests. (Unless it's a torture-Rey-Mysterio contest, and even at that, I can point out who I'd be coming in second to LOL)

[RecoveringKinkoid]

What I mean is that some people may not care what subject of genre something is, they just like people who write a certain way. Or, they may simply like YOUR particular way with words, regardless of what you are writing about.

I have looked at some writers that way. I didn't care what they wrote, I just appreciated their skill and their style. They could write a grocery list and I'd read it.

Judging from your posts, you have a hilariious way with words. I don't doubt for a minute you can write really well.

[Lace Neil Singer]

^This. I once read a House fanfic which was linked on another forum. It was fantastic; even tho I have never in my life watched House, I really enjoyed the fic cuz it was well written, with amazing characters and done in such a way, that you wouldn't have to be a fan of the series to enjoy it.

I've also joined RPs that are based off computer games, for example Condemned, which I haven't ever played, but have been able to create a character and join cuz of the intense RP description and plot information. Some people have it, some don't, I guess. Not sure I have the patience to write fanfic properly; I did write one several years ago while I was at school, but I'd never want to review it or publish it. XD I looked it over, and surprisingly it wasn't that bad; it was a LOTR fanfic and my character never met any of the main characters... well, she saw Aragorn from a distance, but that's about it. XD

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I've read stuff about shows I've never watched or books I've never read. I read it because I seriously love to read really good non-professional writing.

[guywithashovel]

Also, check my last rant; if you burst a blood vessel even at the sight of a well thought out piece of constructive criticism and act as tho the reviewer has just kicked your puppy, then don't put your writing online. And no, I don't mean flames like "ur storie sux ars u dickhed!1!!!", I mean proper concrit that actually tells the person what they're doing right as well as wrong, just as an English teacher or publisher would. If you're a teen and writing, you might as well do it right."

I'll admit, I haven't read this entire thread, so something like what I'm about to say might have already been said, but I'll have a go at it, anyway.

I have written two novels myself, though I haven't shown them to anyone yet. I also have never posted anything on FanFic. In fact, I have never even checked it out, and I have very little inclination to do so. However, I do occasionally make videos on Youtube, and recently I experienced something similiar to this in the comments section of one of my videos. Long story short, someone made a critical remark about my video and rated it 2 stars out of five. My response to this user wasn't mean, but I did get a tad bit snippy. Let me explain why.

His comments went something like this: "Fair points, but you could have made it much shorter, so I took the rating down to 'Nothing Special' (two stars). You do show promise though, and perhaps with some time and diversity of subject matter, you could pull together some nice videos."

Before I went to work on my reply, I took some time to check out his Youtube channel. What did I find? He had only posted two videos, and neither of the videos had been made by him Someone else on Youtube had made those videos, and he had downloaded them and reposted them on his channel. The point I'm trying to get at is, he hadn't made any videos of his own and posted them. In response, I essentially told him that honest comments were appreciated, but in lieu of the fact that he hasn't put up any material of his own, I wasn't going to take his remarks too seriously.

The part that sort of got to me was the part where he said, "You do show promise, and perhaps with some time and diversity of subject matter you could put up some nice videos." He came onto my video, gave it a crappy rating just because it was longer than he thought it should be (mostly disregarding my video's message), and then acted like he was some experienced guru who really knew what he was talking about. Taking into consideration the fact that he hadn't posted any videos that he had made, I found his comments to be quite arrogant and pretentious.

A fanfic parallel to this would be if I posted a story, and someone said the same types of things about my story that this guy said about my video, and I found out that this person had never posted any stories of his own. Maybe it's just me, but I think that if you're going to go around giving people criticism on something, you should expose your work as well.

I actually think about this whenever I read reviews on Amazon and a reviewer says something like, "Now, *insert author's name* definitely has a long way to go if she wants to be a respected writer." I always think, "Yeah, and how many novels have YOU written and published?"

[Boozy]

The part that sort of got to me was the part where he said, "You do show promise, and perhaps with some time and diversity of subject matter you could put up some nice videos." He came onto my video, gave it a crappy rating just because it was longer than he thought it should be (mostly disregarding my video's message), and then acted like he was some experienced guru who really knew what he was talking about.

If that's the worst you get in the YouTube comments section, consider yourself lucky.

Welcome to the Internet. Where every douchebag has an opinion and thinks that everyone needs to hear it.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Also, you're forgetting that as a reader, I and anyone else has a right to comment on a story that someone else has written. If you can't take concrit, then you shouldn't be a writer; you will get far far FAR worse from a publisher than simply "Your character is a Mary Sue, paragraphing is your friend and you need to get a beta to read thru each chapter before you put it up as you have several spelling mistakes". Someone who's a friend of my parents had a book published, but she had to rewrite parts of it several times before it passed muster; sometimes, she was even reduced to tears of frustration cuz of working hard and then it being criticised.

[guywithashovel]

If that's the worst you get in the YouTube comments section, consider yourself lucky.

Welcome to the Internet. Where every douchebag has an opinion and thinks that everyone needs to hear it.

Actually, I have gotten worse on my videos. I've been using the Internet since 1996. I know by now how it works. The only reason I brought that up was because it was pertinent to this discussion, and I thought it represented a good point to add.

Also, you're forgetting that as a reader, I and anyone else has a right to comment on a story that someone else has written. If you can't take concrit, then you shouldn't be a writer; you will get far far FAR worse from a publisher than simply "Your character is a Mary Sue, paragraphing is your friend and you need to get a beta to read thru each chapter before you put it up as you have several spelling mistakes". Someone who's a friend of my parents had a book published, but she had to rewrite parts of it several times before it passed muster; sometimes, she was even reduced to tears of frustration cuz of working hard and then it being criticised.

No, I'm not forgetting that. I do realize that if I ever go the way of getting published, I'm probably going to deal with headaches from publishers and editors.

The reason I said what I said was that it has long been a pet peeve of mine when people put forth little to nothing of their own, yet want to criticize the crap out of anything that anyone else does. A non-writing, non-videomaking example of this would be a neighbor of mine when I was a kid. She had never learned how to drive a car, yet she wouldn't blink an eye before telling someone else how to drive. Draw this parallel to writing. If someone who has never even attempted to write a novel is going to tell me how to do it, I probably won't be too receptive of what that person has to say. Maybe I'm going to be in the minority on this, but if you can't show me where you've done better on something, then don't tell me how to do it.

[Lace Neil Singer]

You are forgetting, or at the best, deliberately misunderstanding; you're basically saying that no-one has a right to criticise anything unless they've done it themselves. So that's every food critic out of a job, then. I guess that the people who review movies can't do that either, cuz they've never acted or directed a movie.

The fact is, that as a reader, I have a perfect right to say why I don't like your writing, and to point out that it's subpar. I've also studied English lit in A-Level, so when I tell you that you need to use paragraphing or that you don't need to abuse commas the way you've been doing, I know what I'm talking about. As long as a person doesn't post a flame, or just puts "That was crap" without justifying what they're saying, then you have a choice. You can either ignore it and carry on writing the way you are, even if you're writing badly, or you can read it, suck it up and follow it. But you can't stand there and say, "Blah blah, you haven't got anything up online therefore you can't tell me mine sucks".

[MystyGlyttyr]

I think the difference is criticizing as a reader, and criticizing as an "expert." For instance, as a pro wrestler, if another wrestler were to tell me something I did in a match would have looked better if I had done this, this, and this, I'd take it more seriously than if a 14-year-old boy who otherwise never says anything about women's wrestling but "BEWBS" were to say the same thing.

Further, I usually end up shaking my head whenever dorky wrestling fanboys start working each other into a froth over how something "should" have gone when I know perfectly well why it wouldn't have gone that way (particularly when it's something that defies the laws of physics, heh), and yet my calm explanations of that reason are dismissed with "Well, no, that's not right!"

It's when people presume to speak more than they can rightly know that it's so annoying. I might look at a paper on calculus and say "You know, this formula would make more sense if you added these symbols here and here" and it might, but a calculus major would look at me like I was completely insane and rightly so.

Writing is a lot more subjective, though, so yeah.

[Boozy]

Actually, I have gotten worse on my videos. I've been using the Internet since 1996. I know by now how it works.

Of course, I didn't doubt it. I apologize if I sounded condescending. I was just trying to commiserate with you, because I know how ridiculous and insulting those YouTube comments can be.

[Lace Neil Singer]

That's a fact; once this stupid bitch not only posted a ranting raving comment on the video, in response to a comment I'd made to someone else, but she also sent me a message and posted a comment on my profile. I just deleted her drivel and posted on the video that she needs to do two things. Firstly, wipe the rabid froth off her mouth and realise that I was not even replying to her, and second, get professional help. Since that wasn't the first time a psycho's done that to me, I then made my profile private. -.- Jeez, overreact much?

I get what Mysty's saying; however, it's just that a lot of badfic authors use that excuse and it's wearing thin, especially when said badfic shows promise and just needs to be tweaked a little to make it good. Here's what I usually link people to if they drop the dummy over polite contrit with that response (I am ALWAYS polite when I give concrit; I do NOT see the point of flaming):

http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:For_Other_People

"Who are you to judge? I bet you can't write half as well. Show me some of your work, if you're so much better!"

I am a reader. As such, I know what doesn't work for readers. Unless you didn't write your story to be read, don't question my qualifications as a reader.

[Fire_on_High]

Re-hashing portions of a story that have already been written, through another character's POV.

I've seen authors who could pull it off, and I've seen ones who couldn't. My favorite author did two books centered around one of the most famous time periods referenced in her main trilogy...one from the POV of one major segment of society, one from another. The books worked together splendidly! Of course it helps that with all the songs referring to this heroic saga the fandom was starving for the stories, but none of her early books were turds.

A few years ago, she handed her main world to her son. Total. Effin. Disaster.

He's butchered it in ways I didn't think it could be butchered. It makes me want to cry...the world I grew up with, read voraciously for 20 years...just savaged.

His last several books had a couple of super Mary Sues and a Gary Stu, as well as covering the same 15 or so years of history from about 5 POVs.

I'm intentionally not naming names as I'm fairly sure at least in years past she did scour the web to see what fan authors were doing and what folks thought of her work...I hope in her old age she never realizes how bad he's done.

I've seen an author on ff.net who should've been the chosen heir...she wrote a direct sequel to the earliest novel in the timeline and it was a great match stylewise, really fit in with canon, answered the inevitable questions that came up.

The last book just killed it for me...the one before was a stinker, the one before that was a trite stinker with cliched characters, but the absolute rape of canon on how certain characters would act just floored me.

In any case...I've ended up fascinated with a new fandom lately, where the company that created the characters put out a single official pic, a small bio with their age and a small hint about them, and then let the fans make of them what they will. Oh...and a voice. Which in some ways changes everything, when you know exactly what the character being written about *sounds* like.

I've seen some pretty amazing PVs, read some wonderful fanfic, and yes...listened to some great songs as well.

[MystyGlyttyr]

Okay, another person faved me and I went to look at their profile, and my fic was the only one that wasn't Twilight. Now that's just insulting

This is another one that bugs me, although I understand why it happens. People who try frantically to guess what's going to happen next. Not that I have any issue with people guessing. It's when they fill up comments/inboxes with "IS THIS GONNA HAPPEN IS IT IS IT IS IT HUH HUH HUH??" and then getting all perturbed when they don't get an answer they like. Look, I know I don't update every day, or even as often as I myself would like, but I can't just be spelling out future plot devices to you people. What's the point of reading a story if you just want me to tell you everything that's going to happen?

[Lace Neil Singer]

Tell them total lies. I would. XD And in fact, did; I read the last Harry Potter book, and suddenly people were bugging me to tell them what happened. I got sick of just saying, "Read the damn book!" and just made a whole lot of shit up; I told them all something different just for kicks.