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I have many things to get mad about in fanfiction, so I decided I might as well complain about all of them in the first post...
Got a little wordy...felt good nonetheless. Whew...
I always write my rants as lists, so here we go...
1. Slash. Some people love it, some people hate it, some people really could care less...personally, I don't care. As long as the author writes the pairing well/realistically, I'm fine with it. In fact, I love crack pairings, if they're written well. Badly written, they suck. They're one of those touchy things, kind of like a parody. But I'll expound on that later. What I can't stand, however, are the people who complain about slash because it's slash. Not on the basis of bad characterization or badly written ficness, just because it is slash. I understand if your personal tastes do not lean toward slash, but nonetheless, does that give you the right to say that people should not write it? I say, if you can write it well, go ahead. But pay attention to concrit - if many people say eloquently that your story sucks, you should probably ask someone with an objective opinion (i.e. not your mom, dad, sister, bff, etc.) to read it over again.
2. Funny Fics that Aren't Funny At All. I see this all the time. It can be because of an overused plot/idea, OOC characters, nonexistent conventions, or anything else - but it isn't funny. Often you get this with character bashing, where the characters are morphed so badly that they are unrecognizable, often incredibly stupid, so that the author's least favorite character falls off a cliff/bleeds to death by paper cut/dies in some other inane manner. But that is still another rant. If you don't have sufficient skill to pull off a badfic parody, so that it goes beyond mocking yourself into simply another badfic, don't write it. There's no point in adding to the heap of bad fanfiction for people looking for good stuff to wade through.
3. Rabid Canonists. This is almost as bad as those people who rape canon horribly. You know them. Those people who spot the tiniest error in your fic and immediately leap upon it and proceed to rip you and your fic to shreds. Or, if someone writes an AU fic, they proceed to condemn it and bury the author in a deep, dark hole to be gnawed on by vengeful dolphins. I am the first to admit that all too many AU fics are very, very, bad. But not all. Don't just condemn an AU fic just because it's AU. Find something wrong with it, and then go ahead and condemn it. But give people a chance to alter the fandom just a little. I'm not going to use the "it's fanFICTION" argument, because that bugs the hell out of me, but I personally am writing a story dedicated to crack pairings for Wheel of Time. If I do say so myself, it is well written, and the characters are actually in character. But it rapes the hell out of canon. Doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. Doesn't make it original fiction. Just means that I messed with the love lives/thought processes of various characters. Read it if you want to: Love is Blind, by Min Daae. I'll find a link...later. Yeah. Later.
4. People Who Write Depression Who've Never Experienced It. Even outside of fanfiction, this is one of my all time worst pet peeves. I HATE IT. Nothing pisses me off like this. I am depressed, clinically, and it is nothing like badfic writers make it out to be. In my experience, depression does not involve weeping and wailing, or crying single tears of Terrible Sorrow to express your Horrible Pain That No One Understands. That's angst. Depression is quieter, more silent, and more deadly than that. It's insidious, and creeping, and all those other good adjectives. Okay, I'm going to stop babbling about depression now, and continue with my rant. Also, cutting is not something you just do. Trust me, I've come close to doing it myself. I was scared out of my mind, and out of control, and it's freaky. It's not something you just come home and pick up a knife and DO. Did that make sense?
I warned you about incoherentness.
5. Character Bashing. This. Pisses. Me. Off. Incredibly.
Oh, I don't mind the kind people do where they subtly make fun of all the character's faults and annoying tendencies while keeping them in character. Just the kind where they are wildly out of character just so the author can have the people get married who they want to get married, and have all the characters they hate die in ridiculously improbable ways. It's supposed to be funny, but it is not. Not by a long shot.
Characters with faults are all the more interesting, and it is not entertaining to read them stretched out and mutilated beyond recognition. I see this all the time in Wheel of Time, and I would expound on that, but I won't...suffice it to say that if you must make fun of the characters, at least keep them in character.
1. Slash. Some people love it, some people hate it, some people really could care less...personally, I don't care. As long as the author writes the pairing well/realistically, I'm fine with it. In fact, I love crack pairings, if they're written well. Badly written, they suck. They're one of those touchy things, kind of like a parody. But I'll expound on that later. What I can't stand, however, are the people who complain about slash because it's slash. Not on the basis of bad characterization or badly written ficness, just because it is slash. I understand if your personal tastes do not lean toward slash, but nonetheless, does that give you the right to say that people should not write it? I say, if you can write it well, go ahead. But pay attention to concrit - if many people say eloquently that your story sucks, you should probably ask someone with an objective opinion (i.e. not your mom, dad, sister, bff, etc.) to read it over again.
2. Funny Fics that Aren't Funny At All. I see this all the time. It can be because of an overused plot/idea, OOC characters, nonexistent conventions, or anything else - but it isn't funny. Often you get this with character bashing, where the characters are morphed so badly that they are unrecognizable, often incredibly stupid, so that the author's least favorite character falls off a cliff/bleeds to death by paper cut/dies in some other inane manner. But that is still another rant. If you don't have sufficient skill to pull off a badfic parody, so that it goes beyond mocking yourself into simply another badfic, don't write it. There's no point in adding to the heap of bad fanfiction for people looking for good stuff to wade through.
3. Rabid Canonists. This is almost as bad as those people who rape canon horribly. You know them. Those people who spot the tiniest error in your fic and immediately leap upon it and proceed to rip you and your fic to shreds. Or, if someone writes an AU fic, they proceed to condemn it and bury the author in a deep, dark hole to be gnawed on by vengeful dolphins. I am the first to admit that all too many AU fics are very, very, bad. But not all. Don't just condemn an AU fic just because it's AU. Find something wrong with it, and then go ahead and condemn it. But give people a chance to alter the fandom just a little. I'm not going to use the "it's fanFICTION" argument, because that bugs the hell out of me, but I personally am writing a story dedicated to crack pairings for Wheel of Time. If I do say so myself, it is well written, and the characters are actually in character. But it rapes the hell out of canon. Doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. Doesn't make it original fiction. Just means that I messed with the love lives/thought processes of various characters. Read it if you want to: Love is Blind, by Min Daae. I'll find a link...later. Yeah. Later.
4. People Who Write Depression Who've Never Experienced It. Even outside of fanfiction, this is one of my all time worst pet peeves. I HATE IT. Nothing pisses me off like this. I am depressed, clinically, and it is nothing like badfic writers make it out to be. In my experience, depression does not involve weeping and wailing, or crying single tears of Terrible Sorrow to express your Horrible Pain That No One Understands. That's angst. Depression is quieter, more silent, and more deadly than that. It's insidious, and creeping, and all those other good adjectives. Okay, I'm going to stop babbling about depression now, and continue with my rant. Also, cutting is not something you just do. Trust me, I've come close to doing it myself. I was scared out of my mind, and out of control, and it's freaky. It's not something you just come home and pick up a knife and DO. Did that make sense?
I warned you about incoherentness.
5. Character Bashing. This. Pisses. Me. Off. Incredibly.
Oh, I don't mind the kind people do where they subtly make fun of all the character's faults and annoying tendencies while keeping them in character. Just the kind where they are wildly out of character just so the author can have the people get married who they want to get married, and have all the characters they hate die in ridiculously improbable ways. It's supposed to be funny, but it is not. Not by a long shot.
Characters with faults are all the more interesting, and it is not entertaining to read them stretched out and mutilated beyond recognition. I see this all the time in Wheel of Time, and I would expound on that, but I won't...suffice it to say that if you must make fun of the characters, at least keep them in character.
Got a little wordy...felt good nonetheless. Whew...
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1) Agree.
2) THANK YOU. Humor fics should be at least marginally intelligent.
3) *hides in a hole* I'm seeking therapy! Seriously, though, I love AUs. :) AUs that are not labeled as such (crack pairings are kind of inherently AU, so they don't need a label, and if something was clearly published before new canon came out, it's fine as well) sometimes throw me off a bit, but if it's justified I'm thrilled. AUs created through lack of attention to the source (like that one fic where Tuon has "the whitest skin Mat had ever seen", written after Winter's Heart came out) send me into slightly irrational fits of anal-retentiveness.
4) I can see how that would be rather irritating. :(
5) Agreed. Mean-spirited character bashing is really never funny, and if it's not even accurate... yech.