Pet Peeves in Fanfiction

[Gravi Bunni]

I hate it when I see all these gorgeous stories with amazing concepts without any reviews and then go through all these crappy slash ones and they have 23423423423 reviews. I love slash and everything, just not crappy ones.

I hate it when people review their own stories. Or spoil the story in the author notes. Or insert stupid [lol XD] mid-story. UGGGHHHsdfsdfasdfasfjkfkjkjkjkjkfds

Song fics are worthless too. So are people who put "REQUEST A PAIRING" stories up.
Or put new chapters to a story as ANOTHER story.

I could go on.

[Successor Of Fate]

There are many of you that hate original characters for fan fiction, but I have a question. What about a fan fiction for a sandbox game? I'm making a fan fiction about the Dragonborn of Skyrim and in the game, you create your own character. So I can't help but have the main character of the fan fiction an OC. Any thoughts?

EDIT: Also, wanted to put in a pet peeve here. I think it might sort of go against a rule or something in this forum (overly flashly formatting) but I cannot read fan fiction that doesn't give me a synopsis of what the story is about. Even if it's a sentence. Something like, "Mother 3: After The End, a fan fiction about the events after the world was renewed." would do. This is probably just me, but I find no synopsis = no reader. I also cannot stand walls of text that have no formatting of any kind. Go ahead and tell me that I have a short attention span, but I cannot look at big black text for half an hour and not get bored. Might sound backwards, but it really isn't.

[Renkon Root]

Gravi Bunni

I hate it when I see all these gorgeous stories with amazing concepts without any reviews and then go through all these crappy slash ones and they have 23423423423 reviews.

OH. MY. GOD! I agree whole heartedly with you on that!
Its always so sad to see a story that the author has put real thought and effort into, where you can tell that they really strove to make it as good as they possibly could and that it was a real labo of love for them and yet it has no review. Or, just as bad, their only reviews are "you had one small typo in one paragraph in one chapter of the fic, try getting a beta reader next time nooblet". Those also bother me greatly.

Successor Of Fate

There are many of you that hate original characters for fan fiction, but I have a question. What about a fan fiction for a sandbox game? I'm making a fan fiction about the Dragonborn of Skyrim and in the game, you create your own character. So I can't help but have the main character of the fan fiction an OC. Any thoughts?

To be honest, I've never read anything for fandoms of games like that. I have a friend who does and he likes to read them to see what kinds of characters people create. But he rarely reads anything longer than a oneshot.

[Clare_N]

Gravi Bunni

I hate it when people review their own stories.

And they generally try to cover their tracks by pretending to be their own sibling or best friend. I even saw a guy on fanfiction.net, from which he's since been banned, who reviewed himself while he was logged into his account. How stupid can you get?!

[Pow in the Wow]

Mary Sues WITH a horrible plot, having so many guys falling for her.

[JediKitteh]

I'm not a writer at all. Words just dont come to me naturally. but i love to read, and i read a lot of fanfiction. Honestly poor spelling and grammar dont bother me too much. it's the internet, ive come to expect it.
i for one love crossovers. its usually why i read fanfiction. there are quite a few really well written ones. a nice star trek/star wars one and a star trek/sailor moon one are some of the shining examples of great crossovers (i can provide links if anyone wants).
it peeves me to no end when people cant come up with a decent explanation as to why the two universes are crossing over. if you cant think if a way to link the two within the limitations of the series, dont do it. Also, fics that throw in random characters from universes unrelated to the main crossover. also, the piss poor writing.... good lord save the internet from piss poor writing.
Most of my other peeves have already been mentioned...*cough* OOC characters *cough*

[Allyhall]

Honestly, OC's don't really bug me if they're used right. I've read many fanfictions where there have been OC's, even as really important characters in the past or the present, and they were wonderful because they weren't flat or even stated as OC's even they were obviously not canon. They were characters, there were there, and they were well written. Mary Sue's/Gary Sue's are an exception of course.

One pet peeve however, is when the characters are children/early teens in canon and then they are paired up with an OC at that age. Or anyone, really, because I don't think a nine year old is going to fall in love and date some random OC or their best friend at that age. Even if they were to fall in love or get some massive crush, which is reasonable, they aren't likely to even have the confidence to do anything or WANT to. (Of course it's possible, one of my siblings had sex at twelve, but come on, really? Why would you write a serious romance about kids?)

[Ienaella]

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ʂєєɨɳɠ is (∂є¢єɨνɨɳɠ),∂ʀєαɱɨɳɠ is (ɓєℓɨєνɨɳɠ)•·.·´¯`·.·• •·.·´¯`·.·•´

I don't normally mind gender bending, it gives a unique experiance and change that shows between how a character might act as a woman vs. man, or the other way around. What I don't like is reading along...and bang, Blaise Zabini (Harry Potter) is a woman.....I want a little warning with my gender bending thank you. I would also like it if you remembered that Blaise was black. I also have issues when you totally change the way a character looks.

Say Kagome Higurashi from Inuyasha -shave her bald and she now has green eyes....wait, wait wait, I've seen Kagome with Gray/Blue/Brown eyes on the manga and animal...why does she have green eyes? Why has she suddenly changed species? Random things like that just throw me.

✿

[Chibi Envy Chan]

OCs can make or break a story for me. It depends on how they're being used and the dimension/depth to that character. I've seen good fan fiction with supportive OCs without being paired to a canon character for the sake of having them paired. Then I've seen fiction where the OC(Sue) sucks all the life out of the characters, making them one dimensional. Often these stories lack plot or depth. Basically, they're wish fulfillment.

Another thing for me is things happening without a reason. For example, Harry and his friends suddenly turn goth or maybe a cold stoic character turns into Mr. Romance for some female OC. This does not compute. People take time to change. It doesn't happen overnight especially for characters with a strong disposition. It's like a character sprinkling magic fairy dust and suddenly this person becomes the man of her dreams.

[Delim0n]

-Any fic that uses ALL CAPS in their dialogue.
-Any fic with enough errors or awkward phrasing that I start correcting them in my head. Even if you're writing smut, please have the decency to observe some grammar rules.
-OCs with major parts. ******** no. No convincing me otherwise. I hate series-based OCs. I don't want to read about some mary sue character the author thought up just because they didn't want to literally write their name in for some fantasy they have between themselves and a fictional character
-Ignoring personality of the characters in canon entirely
-Inaccurate warnings and disclaimers

:I

[justadarling]

I hate m-preg. I hate it scream Please explain to me how a man gets pregnant and then gives birth! There's no womb in which a baby could grow! No freakin woman reproductive organs. How do they even give birth? I imagine it's full of p***s exploding pain.

I also dislike gender-swapping when it's not cannon (like Futurama, Malcolm in the Middle, or Adventure Time where a gender-swap episode actually happened)

I don't like when the author repeatedly refers to an already identified character by a physical trait. Like, you've already established that the character is Mai so you don't have to refer to her as "the blonde" every single time you mention her. "she" and her actual name work too. I understand that you don't want to say "she she she" or "Mai Mai Mai" but there's a limit to using those alternatives. Be careful not to abuse them.

I dont like grammar errors or extreme OOCness. I hate super cliche highschool drama plots where everyone's problems and reactions are really stupid.

I dislike when authors put too much of themselves into the character. I'm pretty sure this character has never worn black and neon clothing or spends their time listening to Pink and Kesha. You can tell that the author just sprinkled that on to make the character seem more like their own creation rather than an already defined character. I won't lie, Ive done this. I made a reference to one of my characters watching Beavis and Butthead. In my defense, I Only said it because the character was totally the type that would watch a show like that. It could be cannon if Beavis and Butthead was acknowledged as a real show in the series. I didn't just throw it on there because I liked it.

I hate when Joey calls Kaiba "dragon" in puppyshipping stories in the Yugioh fandom. It sounds stupid. "Oh Dragon, you're so sexy, ******** me!" "Your going to have to beg, Puppy" ick. Just ick. Also I hate dialogue just like the one I just wrote.

I can't think of anything else right now. I feel like a giant whiner bit you asked gonk

[Clare_N]

Allyhall

Honestly, OC's don't really bug me if they're used right. I've read many fanfictions where there have been OC's, even as really important characters in the past or the present, and they were wonderful because they weren't flat or even stated as OC's even they were obviously not canon. They were characters, there were there, and they were well written. Mary Sue's/Gary Sue's are an exception of course.

Both you and Chibi Envy Chan nicely sum up my feelings on the subject of OCs. They're perfectly fine to use if you take the time to develop them properly and don't just shoe-horn them into the "regular gang" with a view to pairing them up with your favourite canon character. That's when the problem of Mary Sues can arise. However, it's perfectly fine to have the character interact with the canon characters, provided the character doesn't pull them Out Of Character.

[the last holy roman]

For general fanfictions, I really hate poor grammar. That, and original plots, or stories that have INSTANT love relationships. That's not how love works, dammit. Unless the character's already in love with the other. That, and very short chapters. By that, I mean like seven small-paragraphs short. Oh, and things like "letters to _____". They're so annoying ; A;

Also, for Hetalia ones. Italy's "Leaning Tower of Pisa"? Really guys? Really?
x

[RiverSong1984]

When you read a really good story and it gets updated every few years or is abandoned without notice. Mary Sues bother me to no end.

[Renkon Root]

RiverSong1984

When you read a really good story and it gets updated every few years or is abandoned without notice.

This bothers be too, but I try to understand. Fan fic authors are people too they have lives and sometimes their lives get in the way of their writing.