let's discuss!

[drasticbarbie.livejournal.com]

this if for those of you who read fanfic, which is hopefully most of you.

what are your fanfic pet peeves? is there a pairing or genre you won't read? do you hate mistakes in canon?

for me it's more about grammar. i get irritated with bad spelling (use spellcheck!), poor use of punctuation (besides commas because there are about 40 rules. you should know the basics), and capitalization. in posts i don't bother with caps. but when i publish i try to make it as correct as possible.

other things are the use of certain words. there/their/they're, we're/ were/where, bare/bear, lie/lay/laid etc., i/me, overuse of italics and bold. to me italics are good for emphasizing certain words that should be stressed, either in dialog or narration, sounds coming off the television/phone or written words read by the narrator or out loud in dialog, musical lyrics. it just makes it easier to understand that it isn't normal sounds. i only use bold in my author's note, disclaimer, and warnings.

also, i won't even read a fic that has all the text bunched up because someone didn't press enter. or something with only about 200 words.

also, when you address someone it should be like,   Person, blah blah. with the comma there. that just bugs me.

for specifically CM i won't read Morgan with anyone but Garcia. i don't know, i just think they belong together and i love that Garcia is one of very few average sized women on television. in spite of what hollywood wants us to think, most women are more Garcia's size than JJ's.

Comments

fanfic pet peeves

[navycrockett.livejournal.com]

I certainly agree with previous posters that poor grammar and spelling will dissuade me from reading even the most interesting plot. It's not that hard to find a beta-reader; most fan communities have members who will cheerfully help new writers improve their skills. One specific grammar error that makes me crazy is inappropriate and excessive ellipsis abuse. The ellipsis is not an appropriate transition between sentences or clauses. There are periods and commas for that sort of thing.

I find that helpless summaries instantly discourage me from reading fanfic (e.g. "I can't write summaries."). If a writer cannot summarize her/his fic in one concise sentence, it's likely the fic itself is neither better organized nor comprehensible. (subcategory: "summery sucks". Perhaps the writer prefers springlike, autumnal or wintry stories? :>)

I cannot read text walls or fics that contain capslock, italic or boldface abuse. Such embellishments are seldom necessary, as we intuitively place emphasis on those facets of dialogue that require emphasis. I also dislike reading fics in which the characters' accents are written into the text. As fen, we know these characters and our brains will provide the correct "voice" or accent for that character as we read.

I too intensely dislike songfics. I rarely know the songs, and even more rarely see the connection between the song and the fic. If a writer is inspired by a song, terrific. But please, writers, don't feel obligated to reproduce the entire song within the fic (especially when you interrupt your fic for what often seem to be irrelevant lyric segments). Music tastes are very individualized, and what one person finds deeply moving and inspirational may well be viewed by another person as puerile and annoying.

Mary Sues (or Marty Sues): [shudder] Nothing will send me fleeing a fic faster than a blatant projection of the writer into his or her story. OCs should be low-key, only used when necessary and should not be central to the story. I read fanfic so I can enjoy more adventures with my favorite characters, not with some random OC.

Other peeves include the previously-mentioned OOC-ness. Unfortunately for me that often includes pairings of many sorts. If the characters aren't attached in canon, I don't want to read about it in fanfic. UST is fine, as that is frequently present in canon; fic aimed specifically at pairing up two characters (or their happily-ever-afters, their inevitable pregnancies, offspring, and AU futurefics) is strongly avoided. Again, I want the characters that I know and love from canon. My apologies to those who adore ship fics and the like.

Genre faves? I'm a whumper from way back, usually alpha males. I enjoy reading h/c stories in which the team leader has to deal with injury or infirmity and his team must step in and take care of him. I tend to avoid the major angst-fests, introspectives or despair fics, though. I love good casefic, wherein our heroes are doing what they do in episodes. Unfortunately that is one of the rarest beasts in CM fanfic; any takers to create more?

Enough rambling. Kudos to this post for allowing some venting and some virtual nodding and vehement agreement. Now if I could only channel some of this energy into writing something besides random Hotch injury scenes I would be much happier.

Re: fanfic pet peeves

[drasticbarbie.livejournal.com]

you crack me up with the summery thing. that's hilarious.

i'm glad people like my entries. i love to discuss, but often there is no one around and i get lonely living in this crappy little town. all my friends are elsewhere. i've been on the threads on ffn, but they are often dead and there are too many of them for some fandoms anyway.

long live LJ!