Pet Peeves in Fanfiction

[TheManyFacesofJester]

Weisser Ritter

1.) Screaming like a girl is a legit phenomenon that occurs in the male species and is forever the source of great humour amongst men. But making some poor bloke liken himself to a schoolgirl because his heart rate picks up or he's feeling humiliated or fancies someone is not dissimilar in theory to making a moemoe cat-eared magical girl liken herself to The Hulk.

2.) If it was short or amusing, that would be one thing. But five paragraphs explaining how tight someone's clothes are, what colours, where they bought them, naming each and every accessory and its location, how they did their hair and how long it took, the amount of makeup worn, etc... Being descriptive is one thing, but that's plain old obnoxious.

Another peeve: The "Oh, s/he's so cute/adorable/sexy like that -- wait, what did I just think?.I can't possibly be in love with this person, can I?" line. I want to punch whoever started that.

Also: NEEDLESS DRAMA. If your character finally came out of a coma only to be gang raped the next chapter and flung over a cliff in a car accident during the one after that, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.

You Just Made My Day...

[Zias]

TheManyFacesofJester

-Copy-Write Disclaimers. I don't think I have even heard of an actor/production company suing anyone over a fanfiction.

No actual suing, but that's because usually the issue get sorted before it reaches court. There have been plenty of cease and desist letters sent and threats of law suits made.

[TheManyFacesofJester]

Zias

TheManyFacesofJester

-Copy-Write Disclaimers. I don't think I have even heard of an actor/production company suing anyone over a fanfiction.

No actual suing, but that's because usually the issue get sorted before it reaches court. There have been plenty of cease and desist letters sent and threats of law suits made.

I have only read fanfictions posted on FanFiction.Net and am not aware of anyone ever being forced to take down a story for legal reasons.

If it does happen there, I suposse I haven't asked around enough. Or were these FanFiction posted somewhere else without permission?

[Sherlock Merlin Dr Who]

... Pet Peaves. I have not many, but nonetheless, here they are-

→ AU stories. Well, that's not entirely true- I have read one or two interesting, and well thought out AU stories. What is dislike is when the story they write is so different from the original idea (I.E. New Time, OOCness, and Gender Swap All-In-One) that were a few names changed it could be its own story.

→ I Can't Write A Summary Syndrome- Giving me a poorly written summary is better than none at all. Also, following up your summary with "I Suck at Summaries" doesn't exactly spark my interest in reading your story.

→ Song Fictions- Sticking random lyrics into a song decreases the value of your own work. It's like doodling on your SAT's. Your story can survive without it.

→ OC Singing- I recently read a FanFiction in which a girl (OC) sung "FireWorks" in a medieval time period. It threw off the whole story and flung me headlong back into reality. Any time someone has an OC sing, they always sing perfectly, and makes the reader more than aware that they are referring back to themselves.

→ Character Name Changes- I read a FanFiction not too long back where the Author changed the names of the characters. I wasn't sure why- though I had a hunch it was for copy-write reasons- so I asked her. She simply told me she had done it to make the characters more "her own."
I cannot stress this enough- These are not your characters. Making them "Your Own" is simply, and utterly ridiculous, and egotistical. Unless you wrote the character yourself, or are doing it for copy-write reasons, you have no right to change a character’s name.

→ Bad Name Choosing- To many times a FanFiction OC character has a random name. One that the writer thought was pretty, or more often, their own.
Only in one particularly fabulous story did the author choose perfect OC names. I asked what made her choose the names, and she told me that each name has a specific meaning that refers back to the character themselves, either in their mannerism, life, or death. These were just side OC's, not the major characters, who were all canon, but it added so much to the story. Carefully chosen names can do so much for a story.

→ Original Stories- Please, post them in FictionPress. I want to read about Emma FanFictions, not your smutty teenage life story.

→ Female OC'S- There is something Sexist happening on Fanfiction. What, so only girls can fall through time? Only girls have "chosen" magical powers? Only girls can be past forgotten friends? Only girls can fall in love with Canons? Only girls know everything that is happening and is keeping it a secret? Only girls can save us all?
Not to berate my own sex, but do we no longer have men in the future?

→ Foreign Word = Misspell- I have read a lot of British fanfictions, gone to comment, only to find a million people saying "It's 'Favorite' not 'Favourite' Get a spell check." Those people bother me. In Britain, things are spelled different. Please understand this.

...Well, that was more then I thought it was. But, yes, that's what bothers me most. Poor spelling can be bothersome, but if it is one or two comman mistakes that spell check didn't pick up, I can live with it. No One is perfect ...

[Clare_N]

Sherlock Merlin Dr Who

→ Foreign Word = Misspell- I have read a lot of British fanfictions, gone to comment, only to find a million people saying "It's 'Favorite' not 'Favourite' Get a spell check." Those people bother me. In Britain, things are spelled different. Please understand this.

Exactly. I don't go round yelling at Americans for missing out the U in words like "colour" and "favourite", so what gives them the right to criticise British people for spelling those words and others with a U? Not that I'm accusing all Americans of doing this . . .

Talking of Americans, another thing that can be irritating is when they attempt to write a fanfic based on a British series, but mess up by using Americanised dialogue. For example, I once read an otherwise well-written "Doctor Who" fanfic in which the Doctor said the word "diapers". Granted he's an alien, but the show's such a British institution that it doesn't sit right when characters start using Americanisms in dialogue. Except in the case of characters like Peri (a companion from the mid-Eighties) who are clearly described as being American.

And, TheManyFacesofJester, fanfiction.net does have a list of authors who do not allow fanfiction based on their work. But I don't know if anyone has ever been caught posting stuff in defiance of that list - if they have been, the offending stories would have been deleted.

[Weisser Ritter]

Sherlock Merlin Dr Who

→ Female OC'S
→ Foreign Word = Misspell

Thank you. Thankyouthankyouthankyou. For once, I'd like to see a (masculine) male inserted into a story. That said, self-inserts elicit rage.

And once upon a time when I thought I'd brave posting up a fanfiction, I ended up taking it down out of irritability -- every single American read it, it seemed, and had to take up an issue with me. ("Ummm, just thought I'd let you know it's spelled curb, not kerb!" Yeah, and I just thought I'd let you know there's a car being swung at your face with my hands attached...)

Clare_N

Agreeing with you on that matter as well. The only thing worse than having a British person spew Americanisms is having them speak in a ridiculous fashion. I've read one too many stories when a (typically American) author tries to make an Englishman sound pompously (faux-)intelligent (I suppose that's how they view the English?) but ends up making him sound ridiculously stupid instead. I would prefer Americanisms over a 14yo trying to sound 30 any day. And, er, to be perfectly honest, I'd prefer they use American slang over butchering and/or abusing British slang. I dunno a single person irl who says "bloody" or "git" at least 3 times per sentence every single time without fail.