FANFIC RANTING! BAD FANFICS MAKE ANGRY!

[Dumbledork]

But I like getting reviews. I don't write to get reviews, but it warms my heart when people appreciate my work.

[CRBWildcat]

Like I said, good reviews are bonuses.

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

To be Devil's Advocate here -- terrible, awful, not-good-at-all stories have their uses. They teach the aspiring writer what not to do. Mind you, some of them can teach you in the first glance; but some of them take longer than that.

There was one story - all details redacted here except that it had words in five digits - that I was enjoying very much. Suddenly, about halfway through, nobody said anything. They droned, they hummed, they used half a dozen different words. Somebody had decided the word 'said' was being overused, and tossed a thesaurus into the blender. But they never realized that a thesaurus doesn't give synonyms. It gives words that live in the same neighborhood of concept space. You can use 'droned' for speech; but it bloody better be a boring speech. You can use 'hummed', but it should probably be saved for Kasumi in the kitchen.

Reading just one story like that made an indelible impression on me. Pity - I really liked that story until the thesaurus hit. There are times I feel I should rewrite it, just to practice my editing skills. If you have the time but lack the inspiration, that's not a bad writing exercise.

[Yarrow]

There's nothing wrong with short stories. Sure, it's likelier that really awful works will be short rather than long, but there are good short stories and bad long stories. Of course, since I've written some short stories that I think are pretty good, I might be a bit biased.

[Winchester]

My favorite hates, aside from the stuff mentioned above (all of which I agree with), are fics where the setting is summarily changed to a US high school and the characters stripped of their original histories and powers (Inuyasha and Kouga as leaders of rival highschool gangs? The Slayers being a high-school rock band? "HP AU No-magic Highschool"), and fics where being gay suddenly is the norm, rather than the exception. (I mean, seriously, the entire Naruto and HP crews turning out to be gay, and having always been that way because it was just off screen? Bluuuaaaaaaarrrrkkkkghhh!)

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

My favorite hates, aside from the stuff mentioned above (all of which I agree with), are fics where the setting is summarily changed to a US high school and the characters stripped of their original histories and powers (Inuyasha and Kouga as leaders of rival highschool gangs? The Slayers being a high-school rock band? "HP AU No-magic Highschool"), and fics where being gay suddenly is the norm, rather than the exception. (I mean, seriously, the entire Naruto and HP crews turning out to be gay, and having always been that way because it was just off screen? Bluuuaaaaaaarrrrkkkkghhh!)

I'll go with you on that. I like gay/lez/trans characters. And it's only fair that they should have relationships. But unless you're running an alternate or peculiar universe (Eleanor Arnasen's Hwarath, A. Bertram Chandler's Spartan Planet) they shouldn't all be GLBT. For heaven's sake, part of the GLBT experience is being in a minority! In a world, say, where everybody changed sex with cold and hot water, Ranma would be much less remarkable.

[claymade]

My favorite hates, aside from the stuff mentioned above (all of which I agree with), are fics where the setting is summarily changed to a US high school and the characters stripped of their original histories and powers (Inuyasha and Kouga as leaders of rival highschool gangs? The Slayers being a high-school rock band? "HP AU No-magic Highschool")

I am rather ashamed to say that in moments of boredom, I've read those kind of fics, and even found a few of them to be not entirely unpalatable. And to be honest, they're no more intrinsically bad than any other kind of AU/fusion, assuming that you can find enough amusing parallels between the canon situation and the new situation. The main red flag, though, is just the lack of originality that is suggested by the choice makes it doubtful that they're going to find said amusing parallels. But some can, I suppose.

As for my own fic dislikes, I have three main ones that make me wince whenever I see them:

1) OCs that are played as being cooler/better/awesomer/whatever than the canon characters. And this is more general than just a Mary-Sue. I've seen fleshed-out, well-developed, human characters where it was still clear that the point of the fic was that we were supposed to be enthused about how this character was so amazing, over and above the canon characters. Irks me to no end--seems to me such a flagrant disrespect for the characters you're supposed to be a fan of.

2) "Victory lap" fics. These are the fics that start out with, say, Ranma being cured of his curse, mastering his fear of cats, gaining new wisdom that makes his relationships start to go smoother, and just generally having things go better and better and better for him. It's not bad if it's just a one-shot (especially if the resolution is a clever one) but when you try to make a long fic out of it, I at least will most likely be tossing it before you can say "diminishing sense of conflict."

For my money, if you're going to change the basic parameters of the world you're in to start your fic, the net differences had better result in at LEAST as much hell for the main characters as they alleviate--preferably much more. And quickly.

3) Character bashing. The choice to demonize unliked characters rather than humanize them tends to make me gag, and there are few faster ways to get me to drop a fic.

[Southern Cross]

O.K. Here's my opinions:
(1)This is true.Not only are "Mary Sue" characters often obscenely more powerful than the main characters,they often don't have many of the flaws they should have.
(2)"Victory lap" stories are a problem because they resolve too many things too quickly,and in the process reduce the stories dramatic potential.This isn't realistic-resolution stories should give the cast new problems to worry about instead of the old ones.
(3)Actually the problem I have with character bashing is that they tend TO BASH THE WRONG CHARACTERS!!!!!!!
Look at how many so-called Ranma fics claim Akane is a "violent raging psycho" or a lesbian,or both.
(4)Character sanctification-How many Ranma fics turn Nabiki into the misunderstood provider?Yet Nabiki is clearly one of the most evil characters in the Ranma manga.(I've never watched the Ranma anime,so I can't comment on it).

[Comartemis]

Character bashing. The choice to demonize unliked characters rather than humanize them tends to make me gag, and there are few faster ways to get me to drop a fic.

For me, this depends entirely on who exactly is getting bashed; if it's Genma or Sasuke, then sure, go right ahead! But if it's Dumbledore or Usagi (or the Senshi in general), then forget about it.

[borgrabbit]

Errr? The Rants scare me. I've been guilty of several of the deadly sins discussed here. However, I feel that my command of the english language is sufficient to seldom require opening the "Chicago Manual of Style".
A few authors have made short chapters work.
A few authors have written good stories in spite of difficulties with english.
The exceptions to the rule often are what keep me reading.
The ones that prove the rule... Well. I try to leave a positive suggestion. I seriously try to channel Ms. Manners. Even if they spelled it 'Nermia', I'll point out the availability of free, open source software like "Open Office" that has spell checking.
Excessive profanity definitely causes me to go elsewhere. Hey, even the lemon story galleries don't normally have much profanity, if well written.
This here is my rant and I hope tha it added to the conversation.

[Atlan]

A good OC/Mary sue fic CAN be worth reading. The problem is, finding the decent ones.

Atlan's guide to finding a good Oc/Mary Sue fic:

Thing's to avoid:
(1) A character who wields a katana
(1A) A character who wields doubble pistols
(1B) A character who wears a trench coat
(2) A character with the ability to beat/fight to a stand still one of the main characters
(3) Cannon characters acting abnormally asshole-like


But if I'm looking for something new to read, I just have two turn off's
1: Lack of distinct paragraphs (It's basic english- you change which character is speaking, you start a new paragraph)

2: Script style (If you can write good dialogue, you can probably write the rest of the story. If you can't write the other parts, you probably shouldnt be trying to write dialogue anyway)

[CRBWildcat]

2: Script style (If you can write good dialogue, you can probably write the rest of the story. If you can't write the other parts, you probably shouldnt be trying to write dialogue anyway)

The way I see that, it's just a matter of preference. Depending on the author, of course, he/she just may choose to write in script format (guilty as charged) instead of writing everything out, if anything else than for the sake of time. It doesn't really mean that the person's a bad author (at least, that's true in some cases, the keyword being 'some').

[claymade]

Actually the problem I have with character bashing is that they tend TO BASH THE WRONG CHARACTERS!!!!!!!
Look at how many so-called Ranma fics claim Akane is a "violent raging psycho" or a lesbian,or both.

For me, this depends entirely on who exactly is getting bashed; if it's Genma or Sasuke, then sure, go right ahead! But if it's Dumbledore or Usagi (or the Senshi in general), then forget about it.

Certainly, it's more painful on a personal level when the character being bashed is one that the reader likes. However, a writer specifically setting out to do a hatchet job on a character, any character, even a character I myself don't like, generally leaves a foul taste in my mouth. When I detect an author's own spite seeping through into their story, I find that to be quite unappealing--and distracting to boot.

There's a distinct line, cutting through a writer's motivations. On one side, the underlying motive is to give an accurate, humanized portrayal of a character who may be (to whatever extent) a nasty piece of work. On the other side, the underlying motive is simply to make them look bad, ignoring or playing down any virtues they might have displayed in canon. Cross that line, and (for that moment) you've ceased to be an author at all--now you're just a polemicist.

Ultimately, recognizably human characters are quite simply better than cardboard, demonized ones--no matter which fiancee or which ninja or which wizard you're talking about.

Cheb, though, has put the whole thing far better than I ever could, so listen to him, not me:

For a reader it's excusable to dislike or even hate some character. For a writer it's unacceptable. You either love absolutely everybody in the set like God loves his children including the lost sheep or your story comes out weakened and distorted. It's one of the anime cornerstones: "Creator, love thy characters". Doesn't say the characters themselves cannot hate each other's guts, though.
But without the love you cannot create a decent villain.

In short, if you absolutely dislike someone in the cast - you must resolve this issue before trying to write a fanfic. The world would be a better place if the beginner fic writers followed this advice.

[Ran]

O.K. Here's my opinions:
(1)This is true.Not only are "Mary Sue" characters often obscenely more powerful than the main characters,they often don't have many of the flaws they should have.
(2)"Victory lap" stories are a problem because they resolve too many things too quickly,and in the process reduce the stories dramatic potential.This isn't realistic-resolution stories should give the cast new problems to worry about instead of the old ones.
(3)Actually the problem I have with character bashing is that they tend TO BASH THE WRONG CHARACTERS!!!!!!!
Look at how many so-called Ranma fics claim Akane is a "violent raging psycho" or a lesbian,or both.
(4)Character sanctification-How many Ranma fics turn Nabiki into the misunderstood provider?Yet Nabiki is clearly one of the most evil characters in the Ranma manga.(I've never watched the Ranma anime,so I can't comment on it).

I agree with most of these points, though character bashing tends to be a mark of poor writing anyway. Genma is a selfish, greedy, idiot, this should be able to get him in plenty of trouble without making him look like the antichrist.

Excessively drawing out a characters bad points and bashing them is a good way to get me to drop a fic.

Then again, I am very sick of the character sanctification aspect of many fics, fanon Nabiki irritates me so much. Almost as much as the negative fanon Akane.

[Comartemis]

I agree with most of these points, though character bashing tends to be a mark of poor writing anyway.

Nah, some writers do it for the laughs. Anybody here read Chunin Exam Day by Perfect Lionheart? Sasuke takes all kinds of abuse at various points in the story because the author doesn't think very much of him, which leads to a wide variety of gut-bustingly hilarious scenes where Sas gets what's coming to him in one form or another.

One of Sand's prime explosives experts got caught in one of his own blasts, still having been in the act of placing more. However, he hadn't gotten to be so good without having learned how to shield himself from his own dangerous specialty, and although he got flung with significant force, he survived it.

The Sand ninja got slammed through a wall, skidding to a halt in a bathroom right beside Sasuke, who was standing, taking a leak. Instantly the thought went through the expert ninja's head, "Those are the most valuable balls in the Elemental Countries; They contain the secrets of the Sharingan!" Said ninja then reached up, grabbed them, cut them off their owner with a swift stroke of a kunai, and escaped back through the hole he'd entered through, leaving Sasuke behind to writhe on the bathroom floor tiles in agony.

Truly, the life of a bloodline wielder is fraught with peril. Unusual dangers of the most terrifying sort faced them every day. Very few other ninja were in any danger at all of having their danglies stolen by foreign agents.