Fanfic pet peeves and other things...
May. 7th, 2003 03:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandolin*yawn* Getting into the swing of things today. Had to bump my passport appointment up to next week because I have to get my passport pictures done elsewhere. Bleah. Still, 3 1/2 months should be long enough for them to process the sucker, so I'm not worried. :)
Other stuff: Swiped this meme from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yahtzee63 because it satisfied my need to vent.
1) Certain types of Mary Sues. There are some writers good enough to throw in MS-ish characters and not make me smack them because they work to make the character... not likable so much as relevant to the universe, I suppose. But for those who aren't, here are some of the common types:
1a) Out of the Blue - Been best friends/partners with the main cast for years. You must have missed the episode where he/she became a main component of the show. (I don't want to hear about it second-hand in a paragraph of exposition. If you're going to throw a new character into the core group, darn it, take the time to SHOW how he/she got integrated and build up to it.)
1b) The Mary Sue Show - When the story becomes UNNECESSARILY all about this character (does it have to focus on him/her?) to the point that the characters we know and love become useless cyphers. You can focus on your character, but in an ensemble cast it helps to show how the characters bounce off one another.
1c) Love at First Sight - Your fave character immediately falls for the MS, without explanation, with only the barest nod to any previously-established relationships. Saying offhand that "they broke up" is not going to cut it. I'm not a big romance fan, but I believe in showing the relationship - hell, even the attraction - build up gradually.
2) I run into enough spelling and grammar errors, I'll cut and run. If I catch maybe one or two tense switches, and a typo here and there, okay, I'll let you know about it. But if it gets in the way, I can't possibly read the story any more. The one grammar error that drives me absolutely crazy? Verb tense switching. Constant switches from past to present tense for no reason (flashbacks are fine, but make sure it's clear) make me grit my teeth and want to hit something.
3) Character-bashing... unless it's a parody. Even if it's a character I don't like - yes, even Kennedy - if you're trying to belittle a character unnecessarily just to make someone else look better, don't bother. If a character is not normally that bitchy, then don't make him/her that bitchy. Stay in character.
4) AU fic that exists purely to hook up characters who can't really get together due to the laws of their universe. This is personal preference, yeah, but making Spike human and the world vampire-free just so Buffy will jump him with no qualms is kind of a waste, in my opinion. Now if you used an AU for a different spin on the characters that entailed more than simply hooking a couple characters up (exploring the parallels, bringing in other connections from the show in a different way), I might read it.
4b) Blatant AU fanfic that pretends it's in canon or tries to hide that it's AU. Come on, folks, put up an AU warning at the beginning. If you're not sure if someone will read your AU story and are afraid to label it as such... then go back over the story and examine WHY you don't think the general public would read it. If it's well done, I'll give it a shot.
5) Unlikely crossovers that don't even TRY to work around the difficulties of their universes. If you want to cross over two shows that are incredibly diverse, you need to WORK at it to mesh them together well. You can't just put them side by side and ignore the implausibilities and potential continuity flubs that causes. Buffy/Roswell fics where NO ONE notices that Max looks like Ford, Stargate/Star Trek fics that ignore the fact that the timelines are COMPLETELY different, Highlander/anything fics that make a character previously Immortal despite evidence to the contrary... I know it's tempting to ignore the plot holes and fundamental differences, but your readers won't. (For an example or two of how to do it RIGHT, see Bruce's The Scarab, Selma's Opposites Attract series and Christina's Runaway Trains at 3 A.M.)
6) Crossovers that fall into the "trading secrets" trap way too easily. That is, having all your characters reveal what's "special" about them to everyone else too quickly, without reservation, when it's really not necessary. (Okay, I have been guilty of this in earlier crossovers, and have learned my lesson.) I mean, at some point in a crossover, the characters may be in a situation where they have no choice but to spill. But even so, they're not going to be all that free about revealing it to someone they just met. There's a reason secrets are secrets.
7) Okay, I've touched on this in earlier parts, but there's one tendency that I can understand but cannot tolerate - what my Creative Writing prof calls "telling instead of showing." Yes, I know you want to get on with the story, you don't think you have the time to go into major changes and backstory, but just saying "Spike had realized long ago that Anya was the one for him" and moving on with that big change noted doesn't cover it. If you're going to rewrite relationships, add in a new character, change the state of canon for the purposes of the story, then I want to see the transition. I don't want to be told after the fact in a sentence or two, especially if it's something big. You can resort to flashback if you must, but don't cheat your readers out of the kind of character development they're missing out on. And if you can't figure out HOW this big change could have come about, if you can't simply construct a scene to show how it happened... should you be writing it at all?
Whew. Had to get that off my chest.
Other stuff: Swiped this meme from
yahtzee63 because it satisfied my need to vent.1) Certain types of Mary Sues. There are some writers good enough to throw in MS-ish characters and not make me smack them because they work to make the character... not likable so much as relevant to the universe, I suppose. But for those who aren't, here are some of the common types:
1a) Out of the Blue - Been best friends/partners with the main cast for years. You must have missed the episode where he/she became a main component of the show. (I don't want to hear about it second-hand in a paragraph of exposition. If you're going to throw a new character into the core group, darn it, take the time to SHOW how he/she got integrated and build up to it.)
1b) The Mary Sue Show - When the story becomes UNNECESSARILY all about this character (does it have to focus on him/her?) to the point that the characters we know and love become useless cyphers. You can focus on your character, but in an ensemble cast it helps to show how the characters bounce off one another.
1c) Love at First Sight - Your fave character immediately falls for the MS, without explanation, with only the barest nod to any previously-established relationships. Saying offhand that "they broke up" is not going to cut it. I'm not a big romance fan, but I believe in showing the relationship - hell, even the attraction - build up gradually.
2) I run into enough spelling and grammar errors, I'll cut and run. If I catch maybe one or two tense switches, and a typo here and there, okay, I'll let you know about it. But if it gets in the way, I can't possibly read the story any more. The one grammar error that drives me absolutely crazy? Verb tense switching. Constant switches from past to present tense for no reason (flashbacks are fine, but make sure it's clear) make me grit my teeth and want to hit something.
3) Character-bashing... unless it's a parody. Even if it's a character I don't like - yes, even Kennedy - if you're trying to belittle a character unnecessarily just to make someone else look better, don't bother. If a character is not normally that bitchy, then don't make him/her that bitchy. Stay in character.
4) AU fic that exists purely to hook up characters who can't really get together due to the laws of their universe. This is personal preference, yeah, but making Spike human and the world vampire-free just so Buffy will jump him with no qualms is kind of a waste, in my opinion. Now if you used an AU for a different spin on the characters that entailed more than simply hooking a couple characters up (exploring the parallels, bringing in other connections from the show in a different way), I might read it.
4b) Blatant AU fanfic that pretends it's in canon or tries to hide that it's AU. Come on, folks, put up an AU warning at the beginning. If you're not sure if someone will read your AU story and are afraid to label it as such... then go back over the story and examine WHY you don't think the general public would read it. If it's well done, I'll give it a shot.
5) Unlikely crossovers that don't even TRY to work around the difficulties of their universes. If you want to cross over two shows that are incredibly diverse, you need to WORK at it to mesh them together well. You can't just put them side by side and ignore the implausibilities and potential continuity flubs that causes. Buffy/Roswell fics where NO ONE notices that Max looks like Ford, Stargate/Star Trek fics that ignore the fact that the timelines are COMPLETELY different, Highlander/anything fics that make a character previously Immortal despite evidence to the contrary... I know it's tempting to ignore the plot holes and fundamental differences, but your readers won't. (For an example or two of how to do it RIGHT, see Bruce's The Scarab, Selma's Opposites Attract series and Christina's Runaway Trains at 3 A.M.)
6) Crossovers that fall into the "trading secrets" trap way too easily. That is, having all your characters reveal what's "special" about them to everyone else too quickly, without reservation, when it's really not necessary. (Okay, I have been guilty of this in earlier crossovers, and have learned my lesson.) I mean, at some point in a crossover, the characters may be in a situation where they have no choice but to spill. But even so, they're not going to be all that free about revealing it to someone they just met. There's a reason secrets are secrets.
7) Okay, I've touched on this in earlier parts, but there's one tendency that I can understand but cannot tolerate - what my Creative Writing prof calls "telling instead of showing." Yes, I know you want to get on with the story, you don't think you have the time to go into major changes and backstory, but just saying "Spike had realized long ago that Anya was the one for him" and moving on with that big change noted doesn't cover it. If you're going to rewrite relationships, add in a new character, change the state of canon for the purposes of the story, then I want to see the transition. I don't want to be told after the fact in a sentence or two, especially if it's something big. You can resort to flashback if you must, but don't cheat your readers out of the kind of character development they're missing out on. And if you can't figure out HOW this big change could have come about, if you can't simply construct a scene to show how it happened... should you be writing it at all?
Whew. Had to get that off my chest.
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Date: 2003-05-08 07:41 am (UTC)Ending digression now . . .