I can't remember when I last posted my pet peeves in this topic and I apologize if I sound redundant or repetitive in any way. But there turns out to be a lot of pet peeves that has made me a very picky reader... which I'm not quite sure is a good thing or not... probably not since it's that much harder for me to find a story I find tolerable enough to enjoy
1) Mary-Sues
No words can express my hatred for these horribly unrealistic characters. Who wants to read about an impossibly beautiful, well-endowed, athletic, intelligent and otherwise perfect character? Pretty much no one, I think. Personally, I like to be able to relate to a character through their struggles to overcome one of their flaws. With Mary-Sues, that's pretty much impossible.
2) Bad spelling, grammar etc.
Sure, not everyone can have perfect spelling, grammar and punctuation, but that's no excuse to not put in the effort to proof-read your own work. Even when you don't want to proof-read, at least get someone else to do it for you. Is it really too much to ask for someone to help you make your fiction at least readable?
3) Too much description on what a character is wearing.
It's nice to know what a character is wearing, but a full-out description is just tedious and usually totally unecessary. We don't need to know what exactly your character is wearing and how they are wearing it.
Just some pet peeves of mine when it comes to fanfiction.
Ebonydreads has probably pointed out some of my biggest pet peeves. Too many times have I come across a story that has extreme Mary-Sues that it completely takes away the enjoyment factor. Most of the time a super powerful main character is such a put off. I don't exactly care that exchanged their clothes for these awesome black robes or that they're dressed like a ninja complete with face mask and powerful sword that slices through buildings. I also am very picky about the fact that when a writer writes a story they make everything run so smoothly and perfectly that it's the same as watching wallpaper dry. Plus, I'm a realist, so that may also be one of my downfalls. It's like Murphy's Law says "What can go wrong, will go wrong."
There's also the problem dealing with grammar and such. I personally don't use a beta reader anymore, but that's more out of laziness and not wanting to waste other people's time due to my inconsistant update schedule. The last time I sent anything to my beta was probably three or four years ago and he's probably forgotten about me
But even so, I always try to write with the best grammar I have to the best of my abilities. I even check it over again before posting, so I don't really understand how sometimes people have time to write a story but no time to actually spend a few more minutes to proof-read instead of posting stuff hot off the press?
Another point made my Ebonydreads is over describing. It's good to flesh out your story and add in more description so it's not plain, brief, and dull... but feeling the need to describe every little thing so that you get an exact picture in your head of say, a side table a character bumped into? That's just madness. I'd actually review and comment on the use of descriptions in certain cases to authors if I weren't so lazy.
Right, but doing it on every chapter gets pretty annoying, you would only have to do it one time anywhere in the fic preferrably at the beginning or end, not every chapter.
Hey, you have to take into consideration that some people stick to a format. I personally have a format that I use for every single chapter and I'd occasionally tweak a few things, but I generally don't. So please excuse people like me who use formats.
First and foremost, the 'Beat the Demon Brat' plot device. Mobs with pitchforks, massive physical abuse on Naruto before canon starts. This is unsubstantiated, as canon has no evidence of this. You can make the argument for this, but it has to be reasonable. The Sandaime's law isn't just a set of guidelines, after all. Keep in mind that if Naruto had experienced this level of abuse, his mannerisms would be very different. Sasuke and Hinata are the only ones of the rookie nine to experience any form of abuse, mental or physical, and Hinata's is considered minor.
Second, 'Kyuubi attacked because ____ kill his/her kits/lover/pet/whatever' plot device. Kyuubi has basically been shown a nothing more then an animal with a whole lot of power and the equivalent of, if not greater then, human intelligence. Most likely it attacked because it felt like it or because it could. Although knowing Bakamoto, Madara probably had something to do with it using his Deus-Ex-Machinagan.
Third, Kyuubi being Nice/Helpful/Compassionate/HumanMaleForm/HumanFemaleForm/Etc. Kyuubi is a extremely powerful and very intelligent animal, a wild animal that's trapped in a cage. Nuff' said.
Fourth, Bad Guy Danzo. Danzo is a strong Nationalist with the best interest for Konoha at heart. A man who truly represents fighting for the greater good by using lesser evils.
Fifth, The Council™. This is just a weak plot device, that is horribly abused.
Sixth, Sennin and Sannin. Sennin is used as part of Gama Sennin or Ero-sennin, which are for Jiraiya only. Sennin is not a rank and Tsunade/Orochimaru are not Sennin. The three of them together are the Legendary Sannin, I can't recall the word Bakamoto used for Legendary, or the Legendary Three Ninja. Jiraiya is a Jounin, Tsunade was a Jounin before becoming Hokage, and Orochimaru was a Jounin before becoming a missing-nin.
Seventh, Kages. There are five Kages, not one for every village.
Eighth, unrealistic romance. I don't know about you but, an average person doesn't just date one person and magically spend the rest of their lives together. People need to use some common sense when doing romance in fanfictions.
Ninth, the Clan Restoration Act. Seriously folks, this has been abused enough. Find some originality.
Tenth, Lack Of Creativity. Just because you want to give Naruto a sword but because your not creative enough to think up something original or can't mentally grasp the fact that not all ninja need a legendary chakra super weapon, doesn't mean it's cool to just give him a zanpakutō and have him learn Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryū from Kenshin.
Eleventh, Japanese Usage. It's cool to use for jutsu, titles, and character names. However, if your going to use Japanese then do some research or ask someone in the know to check and make sure your using it correctly.
I'll probably add some more later.
I can't believe it, but Echoside has perhaps summarized 80% to 90% of my pet peeves. Overused plot lines done in an uncreative way really takes away the enjoyment factor for me. Who wants to read about Uchiha Naruto all the time? Or a high school Naruto story that's been done thousands of times already (which is possible considering the size of the fandom).
I'm not even going to touch the other points except the last one, because Echoside has described them very well. I just have to add to the last point about Japanese usage because for some reason it really annoys me now. I admit that I used to use it, but now as I've gotten older and have seen and written more, I find the need to input random Japanese phrases into the story a little pointless. Sure it might not work quite as well or sound as in character as I'd like, but at least it won't feel out of place to have a "arigato" in the middle of an all English text. Perhaps I've been spoiled by desaix's writings or something since he also made it a point to stick to as much English as possible, even to the point of using "stupid" instead of "baka." But like others have mentioned, I can now only tolerate names, locations, and jutsus in Japanese with translations either in parenthesis or a note on the bottom of the story/chapter.
I also like to add in, like others, that it's really annoying to see author notes appear randomly and quite frequently in the middle of the story.
Really? I love them
Biggest fanfiction hate...Ugh...
"ZOMG! NARUTO IS 7-YEARS OLD AND KYUUBI IS TEACHING HIM! HE IS UBER SMART AND CAN HAVE ADULT-LEVEN CONVERSATIONS WITH JUST ABOUT ANYONE! AND...HE MADE ANKO TEACH HIM DESPITE HAVING GOOD OL' UNCLE KYUUBI AS HIS TEACHER!" Or, the, as I like to call it, 'I will believe' syndrome... Seriously, these people lack creativity...
Point 3 in Echoside's post. "
Kyuubi is a extremely powerful and very intelligent animal, a wild animal that's trapped in a cage. Nuff' said." So I definitely feel your frustrations, MBKon.
-Ahem.- I have a new one:
Naruto leaving the village at any age, and joining Orochimaru. Gets it on with Kin, Tayuya, or both.
Or, hell forbid, he turns into Orochimaru's successer, and Konoha and Oto have a huge war, with our favorite Emo Gary Stu getting Hokage, and, like, 10,000,000 mistresses.
Or, this plot device:
Naruto does some well-deserved ass-kicking, like on, say, Gaara, the elders suddenly have, like, 12409105fasirpoiwOVER9000 percent support from every single square-inch of Konoha to throw Naruto out. Kakashi and the Jonin, being as dense as ply-wood in this fanfiction, completely ignore it. Naruto leaves in complete emo-ness, hooks up with random character, most likely Ayame from the Ramen Shop, goes off to the Sand-village, Gaara allows him in and gives him protection, as well as a bed to share with Ayame and Tayuya(<-lol, when did THAT happen?).,
THEN, Naruto starts transforming for absolutely no god-dern reason into Mini-Kyuubi, he can break the sound-barrier and light speed times Rick Roll's view count, and he can open holes into Star Ship Enterprise from six universe's away, him being that strong. He fights Kakashi, and kills him, and steals his Sharingan. However, the author is given the choice: GIVE HIM THE SHARINGAN, OR MAKE IT FADE AWAY? In one case, the sharingan disappeared, due to some crazy thing.
Yeaahhh....
Again, one of the dozens of now overused and misused plot lines that create more aggravation than entertainment. Being a realist bites. It makes unrealistic plots that much more annoying.
Hm...I can name one thing I hate more than fanfiction that doesn't appeal to me:
Reviewers who tell me what I should and shouldn't do with my story.
I recently updated a NarutoxTemari fic of mine, and I my main focus on the current chapter was to tweak things a bit while keeping some major canon points, and let the minor details affect things later.
One reviewer left me like...3 paragraphs of utter nonsense (it was more like rambling than a flame) on how he was SO dissapointed by keeping some canon points, and that it was a 'rookie' mistake. Now, I may not be a pro, but I've been doing fanfiction for almost...five or six years now?
My point is this: I CANNOT stand it when authors rely on the reviewers to decide how a story goes. What is the point then of calling it your own creation? Even then, fanfiction borrows elements from previous ideas, so to go and ask a majority what they want to see is just a degrading thing to do for a fanfic author. I can understand if they want to figure out what a group thinks of the fic, but to have a fanfic run completely by those who are NOT writing it?
It's sad...
That's why I can't stand it when reviewers SAY that 'this and that' should be done. To SUGGEST that this could be done in case the author runs into a block, I guess it's a different story. I may suggest things in a review, but I never tell them to do it blatantly. No, in the end, I like a fic that is original with NO major decisions made by a majority. Makes things more interesting, and often at times better.
Maybe this is why original ideas are hard to come by these days on fanfiction.com...everyone is doing the same thing over and over again. I'm sure this point has been covered before on this thread, but I just thought I'd reiterate my feelings for it. Original fanfics are the reason why I'm a fan of pairings like NarutoxTayuya; there's so few that reviews are not that expected for them. Melody of the Fox is probably one of my favorite Naruto fics right now, it's a NarutoxTayuya pairing, and the author Jetslinger has kept it original the whole time. I seriously hope they keep that mentality of their own ideas going. I'd hate to see a poll decide how the fic goes.
Okay...ranting done...
I hear you, denim. I recently removed one of my stories from ff.net because I couldn't stand how people were reacting to how I ended the story. Some say it's refreshing and they like it, others are wielding torches and pitchforks. Granted I rushed the ending a bit, but I wanted the story over and I wrote the ending the way I see fit, but instead I get a mob of angry readers. Now I remember why I decided to stick to one-shots for the time being... readers are less likely to rip your head off because the story is shorter and they strangely learn to accept it more than longer stories.
another hate of mine when people have naruto hate the yondaime when he finds out he is his father.
I've been fortunate to have not come across those stories, but that's just sad, though it sort of makes sense in a way. I can see Naruto hold a grudge against his father for a while for what he did, but then ultimately forgive him because it was for the good of the village and it's shaped him into what he is today.
Besides, I was originally against the idea because that'd seem too perfect if Naruto was the son of the Yondaime. I actually wrote a story on Naruto's heritage where he wasn't the Yondaime's son, but a illegitimate child instead. But alas, Naruto wasn't the son of a couple who died fighting the Kyuubi, a family's illegitimate child, or even the son of some couple in another village. I guess I can accept that, but it starts to grate on my nerves when Naruto somehow gains the ability to talk to his dead father and then he magically becomes a Gary-Stu.
Edited by Onionhead Attacks, 25 January 2009 - 12:58 AM.
This topic is locked
