81 replies to this topic

[Cloud]

True/False?

I think I just keep searching up the crappiest fics ever written (no offense to people here), but I used to be able to get at least 20 good readable fics per page before. (A year ago, no less)

Now, my search yields me the worst titles/summaries and stories ever written by man. It's either a make-no-sense HP/Naruto fic, that somehow has Dumbledore call Tsunade for Ninja Protection or some dyslexic kid typing out a summary that either makes you laugh or slap your head in frustration.

Now, I don't mean to offend anyone that owns these fics here, I'm not gonna point out titles or names, but seriously, where have all the good writers gone to? I'm seriously bleeding from my eyes just reading some titles and summaries these days.

Rarely, out of at least 3 pages of queries do I find ONE good/reasonable story I can read and enjoy. The rest of the queries either make me start bleeding from the eyes or have me flaming the author to no end.

Dear god. Why have you forsaken the NS community?

[Sakura Blossoms]

Dear god. Why have you forsaken the NS community?

Um, it's not just NaruSaku you know, it's fanfiction in general now. That is kinda the reason why FFnet is now called 'The Pit' >.>

[Cloud]

DDX.



Still.. why?

[Kyuudaime]

Because, they like to rush through NS and take their time on yaoi (eww...)

[Sakura Blossoms]

And also, with the growth in popularity of the Naruto series, the fandom began to get more and more younger viewers/readers, especially those who have a very limited amount of experience in writing, much less in putting out quality work.

When the Naruto series began, the main writers were people who religiously read the manga or watched the RAW/subbed episodes. That required a certain kind of reader/viewer, usually the ones who at least had a high school education in English and proper grammar and writing, as reading Japanese translated manga, and English subbed episodes isn't something that the average person would do.

Now that the Naruto series has reached a certain level of popularity, and the manga and anime are both available in dubbed/fully translated English, the younger crowd that hasn't quite had the chance to polish their writing skills, are all jumping on the fanfiction bandwagon. And so, you start to get less-than-great quality of work, and the more polished, well-rounded, good, original writers get pushed further and further down into the pile. And so, it becomes a kind of treasure hunt to try to dig up those jewels of good stories, from the bottom of the badly-written fanfiction pit.

[Leney]

I've seen some very good ones, and some very okay ones recently. I think it's worth giving stories a chance, even if their summaries may not be the most enticing. I think the issue is there aren't many people writing NaruSaku in the first place and new stories have slowed down. So within 3 pages you'll be reading at least a month worth of updates and new additions that you've probably already gone though.

And don't knock the yaoi, LOL! NaruSaku is my OTP but (*coughcoughNaruSasuftwcoughcough*)

Edited by Leney, 05 August 2008 - 11:54 AM.

[Jin]

What is really frustrating me lately is when I do find a well written Naruto Fan Fiction it is always an AU story or it takes the characters so far out of their own personalities that it is almost unbearable. The last fic I read had a reall good story idea, but the persons grammar was abysmal and it had Hinata and Choji so far out of character than Hinata was willing to let her clan kill Sakura in order to get Naruto and Choji was killed by Ino when he broke into the Uchia compound to kill Sauske who Ino was going to be marrying. The only reason I was able to put up with all of that was I really liked the story even if it was written poorly and had ridiculous elements like that. Seriously though I go onto FF.net now and like the first three pages are all AU and Highschool stories. It makes me want to cry. Not literally.

[Wilson]

Lol, or it could be the fact that many good authors are just too disappointed with the manga and have decided to quit writing. (I know a couple).

Also, we've probably read too many gd fics to find any more lol. Even so, they might start improving...

Anyways, I'm gonna keep reading, and of course, writing as well. XD

[Hopestar]

Actually the great NS fics are decreasing, Kishi & CN are blame. Kishi, because his obsession of Sasuke that's its been a year since we seen Naruto in real action (Tobi battle doesn't count) & also the lack of NS (its been nearly year since we had a real good moment). CN, because they also points towards kids when the original series is meant for teens so its takes some of great importance. Perhaps Adult swim should've Naruto at least they wouldn't kitten it up like Toonami and don't what you people complain about other Japanese amine but at least it was kept original.

Here's my collection of the greatest (at least what I think) NS fics

[Onionhead Attacks]

That's kinda why I started that fanfic recommendations page... except the first (reference) post hasn't been updated in a while... the formatting I asked for kills character length XD So yeah... gonna either rework that or just give updating the list...

[Derock]

Actually the great NS fics are decreasing, Kishi & CN are blame. Kishi, because his obsession of Sasuke that's its been a year since we seen Naruto in real action (Tobi battle doesn't count) & also the lack of NS (its been nearly year since we had a real good moment). CN, because they also points towards kids when the original series is meant for teens so its takes some of great importance. Perhaps Adult swim should've Naruto at least they wouldn't kitten it up like Toonami and don't what you people complain about other Japanese amine but at least it was kept original.

Here's my collection of the greatest (at least what I think) NS fics

Why blame CN because of that? They done it with DBZ and other anime, even though back then they were originally aired on weekdays and kids were watching it. Naruto is actually about young kids (12-13 years old/beginning teens) as ninja but in adult situations (aka violence, language, etc), so if a show is actually about beginning teens, don't you think it should be aimed in American standards towards those viewers (Hell, young Japanese kids watch the show and it's actually part of their standards to watch violence and adult situations in their eyes, you see the reason why their kids use inappropriate language). The only part you can blame for them is the demographics which had caused them to moved Toonami to weekend nights. Since Naruto is still a popular show, if it was moved to Adult Swim, ratings may go down which may led to cancellation of the series. (Although Bleach is fine in that category).

But back on topic, I absolutely agree with Shauna. Though in terms, it does have to do with the younger audience who haven't had any experience in writing, especially in the spelling, grammar and structure department.

[Denim88]

I've come to the point where if I read in the summary of a fic "I suck at summaries" that I just ignore it. Sorry, but if someone doesn't want to take five minutes or so to come up with a theme or at least a description of what the story will entail, then what is that saying?

Yeah, overall though, I think the younger viewers/readers of the series are the cause of fanfic writing becoming...less sophisticated. I have read NaruSaku fics where one minute Sakura is trying to beat/kill Naruto (MAJOR OOC by the way) for bringing Sasuke. At least several dozen fics possibly. I think the era of originality for Naruto fics is dying. It scares me somewhat...just shows that I'm getting older

Well, what I do now is search for fics based on a) title b) summary c) word count d) reviews (you're more likely to get a good fic if many left reviews for it...usually) and e) when it was updated last if it is still in progress. Another major reason why NaruSaku fics are becoming less in the measurement of quality I believe is because most of the writers are probably either in college or busy with work/life. I've found myself having less and less time to write these days, so I try and take time with typing up my fics.

Though there may be many dissapointing fics, we must not give up on NaruSaku. There are still plenty of diamonds amongst the coal!!!! And if all else fails...just re-read old fics from your favorites lists.

[catsi563]

Actually the great NS fics are decreasing, Kishi & CN are blame. Kishi, because his obsession of Sasuke that's its been a year since we seen Naruto in real action (Tobi battle doesn't count) & also the lack of NS (its been nearly year since we had a real good moment). CN, because they also points towards kids when the original series is meant for teens so its takes some of great importance. Perhaps Adult swim should've Naruto at least they wouldn't kitten it up like Toonami and don't what you people complain about other Japanese amine but at least it was kept original.

Here's my collection of the greatest (at least what I think) NS fics

Hey hope any chance I could reccomend my own stories for your C2? Think theyd fit in well actually.

[Hopestar]

Hey hope any chance I could reccomend my own stories for your C2? Think theyd fit in well actually.

What's your user name?

[Illjwamh]

Let me paint you a scenario:

Person A starts reading Manga X, and then goes online to look for fanfiction. There are 1000 stories out for it, 90% of which are crap. Still, that leaves 100 good stories which aren't all that difficult to find. Person A manages to read 20 of these in a week. In that week, 10 new stories have been posted. There are now 1010 total stories, and 101 good ones. Of those good ones, there are 81 Person A hasn't read.

That next week, Person A really gets into it and reads 30 stories. Also, there was a boom in the fandom and this time 50 new stories were written. The numbers are now as follows:

Total fics for Manga X: 1060

Total good fics for Manga X: 106

Good fics remaining unread by Person A: 56.

The next week, Person A only reads 25, and 40 new stories go up. The numbers are now 1100, 110, 35.

Two weeks later, even though fics continue to be uploaded rather regularly, and the ratio of good to crap remains the same, there are only 5 good fics left out of nearly 1200 that Person A has not read. Consequently, they're going to be rather difficult to find.

[Daniee]

Anyways, i blame the dubbing/translation of Naruto on CN, and i blame viz media, because they really don't care if they beaten this show to death, because if they make money at the end of the day... they could careless... They are destroying this show by making it a kids show... it was never intended for kids... but Viz doesn't really care about that... they will do whatever it takes to make it kiddy.. by making toys (By Mattel, but Viz has a part of it), and making the show watered down by crappy scripts.. they barely stick with the original source material..

Offtopic stuff --Click here to view--

You have no idea what you're talking about. Have you ever seen Viz talk about the series in interviews and such? They care about it and the fans very much. So much that they've released uncut DVDs with the original Japanese. And they stick to the original script a lot, maybe not exactly, but the gist of what the characters are saying is the same. Almost all dubs do that.

And this goes for anyone who says otherwise: Naruto IS. FOR. KIDS. The titles in Jump can be enjoyed by people of all ages, but it's main demographic is boys 8-13 (putting Bleach on Adult Swim was one of the dumbest things CN has done). So of course they're going to edit it so that it appeals to the same demographic in America. And "kiddy" merchandise? There's oogles of that in Japan as well.

I've come to the point where if I read in the summary of a fic "I suck at summaries" that I just ignore it. Sorry, but if someone doesn't want to take five minutes or so to come up with a theme or at least a description of what the story will entail, then what is that saying?

QUOTED FOR TRUTH. I hate seeing this. Learn to write a summary of your story before the actual thing -.-;;
I'm sick of AU stories as well. Just not my cup of tea.

The only solution I see is to have the good writers write more...
But hey, at least there still is some good NS fics. There are pairings of other anime/manga I like that get no love at all.

[desaix]

(quote snipped to avoid clutter)

But hey, at least there still is some good NS fics. There are pairings of other anime/manga I like that get no love at all.

Just pairings of? Try being a fan of Patlabor, desperately wanting Patlabor fanfiction, actually offering to give hundreds of complete outlines for Patlabor fanfiction to anyone who is willing to write a Patlabor fanfic but just doesn't have an idea, and still not getting any Patlabor fanfiction? (At one point, I could claim indisputably that I had three of the ten best written English-language Patlabor fanfics in the world... because there were only\less than ten Patlabor fanfics at the time. That number has grown slightly over the past six or seven years since I was making that claim, but I think the same justification could be used to claim I have one of the top 25)

[catsi563]

What's your user name?

catsi563 the links in my signature

[FullmetalNinja25]

I don't think so in fact I think they are better than they were say a year ago, and in greater number since then too.

[Cloud]

I've come to the point where if I read in the summary of a fic "I suck at summaries" that I just ignore it. Sorry, but if someone doesn't want to take five minutes or so to come up with a theme or at least a description of what the story will entail, then what is that saying?

^ I have to agree with Denim. Everytime I search for fics, its always a non-sensical, grammar-less, full-of-error summary, and then the author saying: 'I suck at summeries.' <- exact spelling too.

Or just the ridiculous titles. Like: Naruto's big adventure in konoha!