174 replies to this topic

[Catwho]

Slogging through the dirt of FF.net, looking for buried gems, gets really frustrating sometimes. In a fit of annoyance, I wrote a list I am calling:

"Ten signs I'm probably not going to enjoy this fanfic"

- The author refers to their latest chapter as "chappie."
- It is a lemon and the author admits they are only 13.
- The first chapter is less than 300 words long.
- It is an AU... set in a high school... with an OC main character... slashed with other characters.
- It's a couple which deliberately breaks up couples who have already been established in canon - by killing off their canon partners (aka Die For Our Ship).
- The summary has poor grammar, no punctuation, and no capitalization. No, it's not cute.
- The main character's names are mispelled, and/or the name of the series is incorrect.
- The only thing in the summary is "pls r&r!"
- The author offers to change the pairings and/or plot in response to reader requests. (Now, this can work in a forum setting, I'll admit.)
- The author holds the next chapter hostage until they reach a certain number of reviews.

Sorry about the rant. I usually just gloss over these fanfics, though, even though I really want to post a review that says "Why did you do this???"

[Dragunov]

Here's another one: the author doesnt update in 2 years.

[desaix]

Here's another one: the author doesnt update in 2 years.

*wince* sorry....

[Catwho]

*wince* sorry....

Guilty.

Actually, I went back to a half-finished store that I haven't written on in like 10 years, and tried to find my original notes. The story was GOOD! Good, dangit! But I quite halfway through because the scene I really wanted to write all along was done.

Actually, I peter out through most of my fics. My muse leaves me.

Or I lose my notes.

Edited by Catwho, 05 March 2012 - 03:36 AM.

[LegendaryArcanine42]

One of my peeves?

Getting no attention for your story... and watching other people (who write really badly) get attention for their stories ¬_¬

You could say it's jealousy... I say it's injustice...

[Konohakitten]

One of my peeves?

Getting no attention for your story... and watching other people (who write really badly) get attention for their stories ¬_¬

You could say it's jealousy... I say it's injustice...

I agree but most of the time those ppl get the attention because their writing is horrible, but I know what you mean. What gets me is that most readers are too lazy to review and instead they favorite your story, you as an author, and get a story alert.....but no review. I'm flattered that they enjoyed it because they chose to follow my every move on fanfiction, but I'd like to know why they liked it. Feedback can be crucial and to me that's my biggest peeve on FF.

[ciardha]

Writer grossly bashes main female (completely misunderstanding the tsundere trope as "abusive", pretending the female character's initial irritation [and being rather unimpressed with the male character who was attracted to her] was actually virulent hatred, pretending the main female character consciously and coldly [with a verbal rejection of the male character who has feelings for her] leaves that male character in a dangerous situation just because she wants to flirt with a different male character) because she doesn't worship and submissively adore the male character who is in love with her, then has said male character:

1) Decide he he'll get revenge and emotionally break the female character (until she plays the fanfic writer's repressive idea of the proper female role) and does one or more of these things- verbally abuses her or sexually abuses her, or the rival male character does this leaving the female character psychologically shattered and again now acting submissive and adoring toward the male who is attracted to her

2) Abruptly decides he hates the girl he loves in story canon and immediately becomes involved with either a storyline character who is submissive and adoring toward him or an obvious author self insert character who again is submissive and adoring toward the male character. (Not content with just doing that, the fanfic writer often has the actual canon love interest female character begin to act mean to the fanfic writer's female character in a fit of jealousy that makes the male character despise the canon love interest character even more)

[LegendaryArcanine42]

I agree but most of the time those ppl get the attention because their writing is horrible, but I know what you mean. What gets me is that most readers are too lazy to review and instead they favorite your story, you as an author, and get a story alert.....but no review. I'm flattered that they enjoyed it because they chose to follow my every move on fanfiction, but I'd like to know why they liked it. Feedback can be crucial and to me that's my biggest peeve on FF.

^ This (I have written so many stories that have never even received a review, and a lot of these are either interactive or require some manner of feedback... That and I just can't help but feel insulted when no one even tries to review, that's why I barely go on fanfiction anymore...)

Writer grossly bashes main female (completely misunderstanding the tsundere trope as "abusive", pretending the female character's initial irritation [and being rather unimpressed with the male character who was attracted to her] was actually virulent hatred, pretending the main female character consciously and coldly [with a verbal rejection of the male character who has feelings for her] leaves that male character in a dangerous situation just because she wants to flirt with a different male character) because she doesn't worship and submissively adore the male character who is in love with her, then has said male character:

1) Decide he he'll get revenge and emotionally break the female character (until she plays the fanfic writer's repressive idea of the proper female role) and does one or more of these things- verbally abuses her or sexually abuses her, or the rival male character does this leaving the female character psychologically shattered and again now acting submissive and adoring toward the male who is attracted to her

2) Abruptly decides he hates the girl he loves in story canon and immediately becomes involved with either a storyline character who is submissive and adoring toward him or an obvious author self insert character who again is submissive and adoring toward the male character. (Not content with just doing that, the fanfic writer often has the actual canon love interest female character begin to act mean to the fanfic writer's female character in a fit of jealousy that makes the male character despise the canon love interest character even more)

So in other words... You hate any NaruHina fanfic that is Anti-NaruSaku...

That sounds completely reasonable (sarcasm)

[Pink Cherries]

^ This (I have written so many stories that have never even received a review, and a lot of these are either interactive or require some manner of feedback... That and I just can't help but feel insulted when no one even tries to review, that's why I barely go on fanfiction anymore...)

Hey, don't worry too much about getting reviews. Yeah, it sucks when you feel like you're not getting anything in return for the effort you put in, but remember that writing should not only please your audience. It's supposed to please you first. Reviews are nice, but fanfiction is for fun. Now if you're worried about getting feedback, then maybe getting a beta reader would help.

Anyways, back on topic.
-Excessive typos imply that there was little effort put into the work. I understand having a few typos here and there, but people should definitely proofread before posting.
-For some reason, I need each chapter to be a least 2,000 words. I don't know why. Maybe it's because after waiting several weeks for an author to update, I feel ripped off if the latest chapter is too short.
-Out-of-characters characters bother me. I don't like it when someone completely changes a character's personality.
-I rarely like Original Characters. I tend to avoid fics where the an OC is the main character.
-I avoid fics with unoriginal and predictable storylines.
-This one is hard to explain, but I only want to read stories that are well written. The author needs to wow me. The writing style needs to be clear and mature, and the story should have me wanting for more. However, I'd appreciate it if I see an author shows gradual improvement. I can empathize with the younger authors. I was once a crappy writer and I still need a lot of work to be at the level I want to be.

Yeah, I'm a bit picky with the fics I read.

[Nate River]

This is Fanfiction hates bu another name. Threads merged.

EDIT: Nevermind...that thread has not had a post since 2009. Closed the old thread and will leave this one active.

[ciardha]

^ This (I have written so many stories that have never even received a review, and a lot of these are either interactive or require some manner of feedback... That and I just can't help but feel insulted when no one even tries to review, that's why I barely go on fanfiction anymore...)



So in other words... You hate any NaruHina fanfic that is Anti-NaruSaku...

That sounds completely reasonable (sarcasm)

please. It's repulsion at the writer's misogyny. I strongly dislike noncanon pairings in any fandoms and stay firmly away from those fanfics. I'm just not interested at all, so why should I even waste my precious time on something that has absolutely no interest for me. This is another issue entirely and happens in ones the writers actually label with the canon ship. And I've seen it in many fandoms over the years, both manga/anime related and western fandom as well. It's a nasty pattern amongst a vocal minority in the fandom- sadly the majority are female writers so it's about subconscious self-hatred- jealous envy of any female who tries to break the socialized role but refuses to play the other stereotyped role of the Alpha female, S&M queen, etc...

Edited by ciardha, 05 March 2012 - 04:27 PM.

[Konohakitten]

I generally tend to avoid those highschool stories..... Most are..... "Awkward"

You know.... I really hate it when authors do that! It's not right!

Yeah anything that is sent in the RW is just a turn off for me, I dont even bother reading those fics.

[pharix]

- The author holds the next chapter hostage until they reach a certain number of reviews.

also, huge A/N's and breaking up the story with A/N's

[Konohakitten]

also, huge A/N's and breaking up the story with A/N's

Lol I know right after months or even years with no updates they upload an authors note. All that does is just really p*ss the readers off. I put everything I have to say at the beginning and ending of my fics. That or I upload any other news to my DA journal or tumblr, that way I get the message across without uploading an unnecessary authors note.

[Deej]

I don't mind AU High School fics if they are set in the Konoha Gakuen universe. That OVA was begging for fanfics.

[Nate River]

Slogging through the dirt of FF.net, looking for buried gems, gets really frustrating sometimes. In a fit of annoyance, I wrote a list I am calling:

"Ten signs I'm probably not going to enjoy this fanfic"

- The author refers to their latest chapter as "chappie."

Yeah. Add "ficcie" to that, too. If you want to really add insult to injury you have those with conversations between the author and character with those words used.

- The first chapter is less than 300 words long.

I'd say that for almost any chapter and I'd put the threshold much higher (I prefer at least in the 2K-5K range ) if we are talking multi-chapter stories), unless it's a fic style that is, by design, supposed to be short (ficlet, some oneshots).

But yeah, 300 isn't very many and it's simply not enough to do anything meaningful with it.

[Madz]

The few points that would put me off a story:

- Very very bad grammar/language. I don't mind the common grammatical mistakes, a story can have tons of it and I will barely notice (heck, I'm no perfect in this area). But I do care about having at least a decent grammar/language/flow of language.
- Stories where Naruto hates Sakura (I'm talking about Narusaku stories).
- And a story which really irked me was one which started as a Narusaku, then right in the middle, the author decided to make it a harem

Otherwise, I like reading various genres / pairings, and I don't mind some twists - though reasonable - of characters.

[JoHamSandwich]

-Summaries that have "What if" and "read to find out."
-Cliche'd plots (i.e. early NaruSaku fic plots that were good back then, but are now cliche)
-Bad grammar
-Horrible writing format (wilkins75 fics anyone?)
-Fighting scenes (not that I don't like them, it's just I would rather watch a fight scene than read it, so I would just normally skim over it.)
-99% of Lemons. (Lemons have to be creatively written.)

*wince* sorry....

I LOL'd at this.

Edited by JoHamSandwich, 05 March 2012 - 07:49 PM.

[Catwho]

Writer grossly bashes main female (completely misunderstanding the tsundere trope as "abusive", pretending the female character's initial irritation [and being rather unimpressed with the male character who was attracted to her] was actually virulent hatred, pretending the main female character consciously and coldly [with a verbal rejection of the male character who has feelings for her] leaves that male character in a dangerous situation just because she wants to flirt with a different male character) because she doesn't worship and submissively adore the male character who is in love with her, then has said male character:

1) Decide he he'll get revenge and emotionally break the female character (until she plays the fanfic writer's repressive idea of the proper female role) and does one or more of these things- verbally abuses her or sexually abuses her, or the rival male character does this leaving the female character psychologically shattered and again now acting submissive and adoring toward the male who is attracted to her

2) Abruptly decides he hates the girl he loves in story canon and immediately becomes involved with either a storyline character who is submissive and adoring toward him or an obvious author self insert character who again is submissive and adoring toward the male character. (Not content with just doing that, the fanfic writer often has the actual canon love interest female character begin to act mean to the fanfic writer's female character in a fit of jealousy that makes the male character despise the canon love interest character even more)

You know, there was this Ranma 1/2 fanfic called The Bitter End that was widely regarded as the "best Ranma fanfic ever written!" for years and years that was this exact thing. Akane goes homicidal and kills Ranma when he chooses Ukyo or something. So this has been happening long before Naruto even existed.

And that was written before the term tsundere was even a word in common parlance.

[desaix]

You know, there was this Ranma 1/2 fanfic called The Bitter End that was widely regarded as the "best Ranma fanfic ever written!" for years and years that was this exact thing. Akane goes homicidal and kills Ranma when he chooses Ukyo or something. So this has been happening long before Naruto even existed.

And that was written before the term tsundere was even a word in common parlance.

I don't think it was ever regarded as the "Best Ranma fanfic ever written!" (and I should know -- I was on the fanfiction mailing list, where it debuted, when it was written). It was certainly... controversial, in the best of times. The annoying thing was that the author presented it as his answer to the challenge to write a "Ranma-Akane fanfic."

For those who have never read it, Ranma and Akane do get married, but Akane eventually kills him because of increasingly violent explosions from "rage syndrome" over misunderstandings, or something of that nature.