Things you really don't care for in fan-fiction

[Gnudist]

Oh joy of joys!

Chapter 12 of that fanfic you're reading is now up!

.... oh wait no, it's an author's note informing you chapter 12 will be up tomorrow. Or a poll >_>

This is a annoyance that's specific to fanfic sites like fanfiction.net as opposed to personal sites

[TerraEpon]

Or when the summaries aren't of the story, just that 'Chapter 12 is up'.....so anyone new has NO idea what the story is about.

[Noy Telinú]

Oh yeah that and "i suck at summaries, story better!"

Yeah... no. I doubt that very much. Especially since the limit was expanded.

[Spica75]

Oh yeah that and "i suck at summaries, story better!"

Yeah... no. I doubt that very much. Especially since the limit was expanded.

Well at least that i can have a little understanding of, i can spend silly amounts of time trying to come up with a summary, and i KNOW they are not good enough, but still yeah, it´s much better than any variation on "i suck at summaries, story better!". No matter how impossible it can be to do a decent summary.

[Konsaki]

Summaries aren't too hard to make on a basic level. Just write out the basic plot of the story then omit things you want as plot twists later on.

Ranma gains magic girl powers with darkness based powers
Senshi find out and think 'she' is an evil enemy due to power type
Ranma has to hide powers from both family and senshi
Ranma also has to deal with a change in how the curse is working

Summary:

Those who think becoming a magical girl is a good thing are completely insane... At least, that's what Ranma thinks about it, after becoming one by accident. Now, he has to both hide this fact from his family and figure out what this crazy doo-dad did to him. The fact that the Senshi are hunting this new magical girl in town isn't helping either..."

[Noy Telinú]

Yep, no excuse to have that.

Oh and this...

"Who will Ranma choose? Shampoo? Ukyo? Akane? Who knows? Ranma/Akane."

....

-_-' Yeah, thanks for ruining your own suspense...

[Gnudist]

Yep, no excuse to have that.

Oh and this...

"Who will Ranma choose? Shampoo? Ukyo? Akane? Who knows? Ranma/Akane."

....

-_-' Yeah, thanks for ruining your own suspense...

Yeah, I often see this on fanfiction.net where authors use the little main character a & b thingy it has even if the fact a character is involved in the story at all is supposed to be a surprise.

FPIC EAIL

[Noy Telinú]

Hey ff.net writers! You CAN leave the 2nds character blank you know!

"Honestly!" -Akane Tendo

[Konsaki]

Oh joy of joys!

Chapter 12 of that fanfic you're reading is now up!

.... oh wait no, it's an author's note informing you chapter 12 will be up tomorrow. Or a poll >_>

This is a annoyance that's specific to fanfic sites like fanfiction.net as opposed to personal sites

This is actually against the TOS of FF.net and I've reported people for doing this and/or taking down chapter 12 to just repost it for more 'hits' and reviews as it jumps back to the top of the updated lists.
What's more, the author quit writing because of people calling him on this, claiming we hated his story/writing instead of the rule breaking he was doing.

[Crescent Pulsar S]

One thing that's been going up on my "don't care for" list over the years are stories with large chapters that either barely function as a chapter or are -- in actually -- multiple chapters in one. Word/character count isn't (and should never be) the objective of a chapter, but a byproduct of the actual objective.

[Spokavriel]

The Objective being advancing the plot. I saw a 20,000+ word chapter before that didn't advance the plot at all. It also didn't develop the characters any. Its like the Author decided to take a break crap on his/her own continuity and show that when it came to the NWC everything was still status quoe before returning to the Original and crossover characters that were left to advance the plot with that anchor on half the active cast.

[Noy Telinú]

If it's not advancing the plot then it must, MUST be...

-character development

OR

-funny, comic relief after drama or before it.

That's my view.

What I feel is worse is when I see that it's updated but the new chapter is "I am discontinuing this story"

... FFFFFFFFFF I hate that! Then there's the "I'm on haitus, may continue never"

Arggggggg!!!

[Crescent Pulsar S]

While advancing the plot is necessary, it's not the exact objective (but still part and parcel). Like the entire story, each chapter has a beginning and ending, with something specific that it needs to cover. Paragraphs work that way, too: depending on what it covers is how you'll know to end it once you have. Multiple chapters in one are like large paragraphs with multiple subjects (a good example being the kind where one contains the dialogue of more than one person and their actions going back and forth, possibly stopping and continuing to do the same thing in the next paragraph with no rhyme or reason to it).

Another thing that I've been caring less about is how authors facilitate sound effects and different languages, as if standard writing were incapable of doing so. I'd really like to know what people are being taught in schools to think that using "*boom*" is the answer to their problem, switching quotations marks with some other symbol for different languages spoken in dialogue, or even using bold or italics for thoughts. They're completely unnecessary.

If events in a story are fast-paced and trying to adapt slapstick from a visual medium, I can forgive the use of sound effects in that manner. As for the rest... no. It's not (nor should it be) hard to tell/show the reader when someone is either using or switching to a different language, and it shouldn't be difficult to express what is verbalized and what is internalized regardless of the perspective being used.

[Drawde]

While I agree that telling what the pairing is when the summary questions it is stupid, given the responses some people have to those pairings it's sometimes necessary.

There are quite a lot of readers out there who will give glowing reviews to a story, claiming it to be one of the best ever. At least until near the end when it becomes apparent that it ships a character they hate. Then they start flaming the story, the author, and everything he/she stands for. Just because they can't stand a certain character.

[Noy Telinú]

Another thing that I've been caring less about is how authors facilitate sound effects and different languages, as if standard writing were incapable of doing so. I'd really like to know what people are being taught in schools to think that using "*boom*" is the answer to their problem, switching quotations marks with some other symbol for different languages spoken in dialogue, or even using bold or italics for thoughts. They're completely unnecessary.

If events in a story are fast-paced and trying to adapt slapstick from a visual medium, I can forgive the use of sound effects in that manner. As for the rest... no. It's not (nor should it be) hard to tell/show the reader when someone is either using or switching to a different language, and it shouldn't be difficult to express what is verbalized and what is internalized regardless of the perspective being used.

*whistles innocently*

Eh heheh... um... about that...

Look, I LIKE having things go *BOOM!* Its more fun to read and... stuff... As for using {This} And ^This^ for other languages, I like that since I can tell that its another language and some characters don't understand what the person said.

Ok?

While I agree that telling what the pairing is when the summary questions it is stupid, given the responses some people have to those pairings it's sometimes necessary.

There are quite a lot of readers out there who will give glowing reviews to a story, claiming it to be one of the best ever. At least until near the end when it becomes apparent that it ships a character they hate. Then they start flaming the story, the author, and everything he/she stands for. Just because they can't stand a certain character.

Ah, appeasement, so common everywhere.