Dirty Unicorn

The gentleman who wrote that article made some pretty broad generalizations. I wouldn't draw the conclusion that a writer is lazy or simplistic just because they had an angry character slam a door or whatever, especially if the rest of the story itself is just fine. If I was reading a book where some characters were having a heated argument, then generally I would expect someone to have a physical display of anger of some sort (and sometimes you just don’t want to stick around after a fight).
I actually don’t see anything wrong with cliches because you can always put your own twist on them.

What’s so bad is about all this that he just goes around posting the same rambles everywhere. Reviews that aren't actually reviews bug me. He’d be better off just getting a blog and posting his deep thoughts on superheroes and comics there.
I’m not even sure what this devolved into towards the end there…

What’s so bad is about all this that he just goes around posting the same rambles everywhere. Reviews that aren't actually reviews bug me. He’d be better off just getting a blog and posting his deep thoughts on superheroes and comics there.
I’m not even sure what this devolved into towards the end there…

Is it cool to share WTF reviews left on other peoples’ fics? I like reading reviews just to see what’s being said about the story, and oh man have I seen some stuff.
For example, there’s this guy who goes around reviewing Marvel/DC superhero fic, and this is his handiwork:
This is real, and it’s not the only one he’s posted. There's more, but they’re also very long (and rambling), hence why I just linked to them.

@Desiderius Price Thanks! Yeah, I prefer realism too, to an extent. IE: In a medieval fantasy I'll look the other way if the princess smells like flowers as opposed to b.o. because she hasn’t bathed in days, versus a story where a parent visits a school where his child’s being bullied, finds the kids in question, and threatens them. I certainly understand wanting to smack the bullies, but that is in no way plausible, more so in this case because the parent is an important political figure.
I guess I look for realism in how people react to things around them and how the world responds to their behavior. So the whole “the world bends over backwards to accommodate my precious cinnamon roll” stuff annoys me greatly.
I admit to be willing to ignore spelling mistakes if the story’s engaging enough and the author’s aware of the problem (“I know about the spelling errors, but I don’t have a beta and I’m trying my best to catch them” – I can sympathize. It can be hard to find a beta, especially if you don’t write in a popular fandom). But if there’s enough of them I will max out. Just haven't run into any that have made me do that.The ones that have a ton of spelling errors also tend to have other problems too, so I don’t really get too far with those.
Yes, yes, yes. I see that quite a bit too, and it drives me loco.
Joe looked angry. “I am mad, Max.” Then he went home.
His dog Bart looked at him and said “Woof.”
Joe sat down.
Suddenly Mom walked in. “Joe, let’s go to the movies.”
That’s not much of an exaggeration of the fics I've seen that are like this. Can I get some more story in my story, please?

Wow, such an old topic, interesting find @Dirty Unicorn.  In my stories, I want things to be realistic/plausible, so I excise anything that isn’t.  Guess that’s a pet peeve of mine, unrealistic/highly-improbable.  (Though, I’ll overlook it on a story/movie if it’s otherwise very, very, interesting.)

Well that’s unfortunate, unrealistic and highly improbable are my forte.  The rules of writing are more like stable observations, everything is ultimately circumstantial.  I guess my biggest personal peeve is lack of detail.  A lot of internet fiction I’ve read take place in a vacuum, with the setting only vaguely described and characters who lack motivations or identities.  Fan fiction tends to be especially guilty of this because novice or lazy authors may just assume we know the characters and setting.  Failing to fill in the blanks makes immersing the reader into the story difficult.  This makes the story inaccessible to newer readers, doesn’t convey what the author has in mind, and ultimately doesn’t build upon the established lore.  Which I think is the whole point of fan fiction, never mind original works that need to be engrossing right out of the gate.  Other than that, basic literacy errors that should have been corrected in grade school will turn me away.  Such as spelling mistaiks, poorer grammar, missplaced!punctuation, verbing, run on sentances that go on and on and on, and sentences that end before they.

I'm not going to argue that there are some crossovers that beg to never meet (Twilight / Muppets would be right up there with Sin City / Teletubbies) . . . but a (hopefully, reasonably) talented writer can take two seemingly unrelated sets of books or movies and cross them into something interesting and palatable if they have good writing talent and a proficient imagination. I've actually seen Star Wars crossed with Leave It To Beaver done WELL, but by an extraordinarily talented writer.
Crossovers in general get a terrible wrap because many canon bible beaters think no one has the right to pollute the pristine little imaginary worlds some writer was gracious enough to create for them - gee - that's too bad (and tough shit). I'd much rather see one well done crossover than hmmmm . . . FIVE HUNDRED more Twilight one shot suck faces . . . or FIFTY more Southern Vampire Series Eric / Sookie have the "talk" scenerios . . . or any more poorly written Haldir / Glorfindel / insert favorite elf's name here fucked someone up the ass slash that was attempted by someone who's probably never had sex before and wouldn't honestly know what a realistic orgasm or a well described blow job was if they were given a lifetime subscription to a porn channel
I personally like crossovers, and I'm not ashamed to say that. I read them - and I write them - and I write them about vampires too, although MY vampires are real bloodsucking disembowling types who do NOT sparkle - ever. (Perhaps in my next crossover I'll send some over to the meet up with the sparkley ones . . . bet I could stop that scintillating nonsense!)

It was short and it hurt the point that he wanted to get across, I agree completely. “Hey, don’t do this because it’s bad. Kthnxbye!” Okay?...

Pet PEEEEVES, omg you guys do not want to get me to start bitching because I will literally never stop, lol. I agree with so, so many of these. But here’s one that doesn’t happen too often but when it does, it pisses me off SO MUCH: writers who tell you not to describe your character’s physical appearance because it ‘ruins the reader’s mental image’. Fuck your image, my dude  
I mean look, I’m not the kind of girl to go off on three-page character descriptions from hair and eye color all the way to the single, curly hair on their left big toe, but firstly, I’ve had readers say they wish they had more physical description to picture the story better in their head and secondly, I tend to write stories set in metropolitan cities with lots of ethnic diversity. That diversity happens to be important to the story and to me! Now unless I give every POC character a ridiculous caricature of an ethnic name, that  is just not going to get across without a physical description so PLEASE LET ME HELP YOU

It was short and it hurt the point that he wanted to get across, I agree completely. “Hey, don’t do this because it’s bad. Kthnxbye!” Okay?...

The gentleman who wrote that article made some pretty broad generalizations. I wouldn't draw the conclusion that a writer is lazy or simplistic just because they had an angry character slam a door or whatever, especially if the rest of the story itself is just fine. If I was reading a book where some characters were having a heated argument, then generally I would expect someone to have a physical display of anger of some sort (and sometimes you just don’t want to stick around after a fight).
I actually don’t see anything wrong with cliches because you can always put your own twist on them.

The gentleman who wrote that article made some pretty broad generalizations. I wouldn't draw the conclusion that a writer is lazy or simplistic just because they had an angry character slam a door or whatever, especially if the rest of the story itself is just fine. If I was reading a book where some characters were having a heated argument, then generally I would expect someone to have a physical display of anger of some sort (and sometimes you just don’t want to stick around after a fight).
I actually don’t see anything wrong with cliches because you can always put your own twist on them.

The gentleman who wrote that article made some pretty broad generalizations. I wouldn't draw the conclusion that a writer is lazy or simplistic just because they had an angry character slam a door or whatever, especially if the rest of the story itself is just fine. If I was reading a book where some characters were having a heated argument, then generally I would expect someone to have a physical display of anger of some sort (and sometimes you just don’t want to stick around after a fight).
I actually don’t see anything wrong with cliches because you can always put your own twist on them.

The gentleman who wrote that article made some pretty broad generalizations. I wouldn't draw the conclusion that a writer is lazy or simplistic just because they had an angry character slam a door or whatever, especially if the rest of the story itself is just fine. If I was reading a book where some characters were having a heated argument, then generally I would expect someone to have a physical display of anger of some sort (and sometimes you just don’t want to stick around after a fight).
I actually don’t see anything wrong with cliches because you can always put your own twist on them.

So, so true. What about the reverse of this? One time this other writer approached me to beta her fic with the promise of fan art for me. I accepted because hey, fan art, plus the plot was centered around a character I love. But then the more it progressed the more I began to dislike it due in part to how she approached the cast. I wasn’t sure if that was enough for me to critique, because it seemed to be a case of differing interpretations. She winds up not even finishing it and leaves for another site altogether without a word. I only discovered that she set up shop elsewhere when I happened to stumble across her account on the second site. Haven’t heard anything from her since.
Anyways, I agree with a lot of things a bunch if people have said here already , but I have some of my own to add:
Character bashing. I refuse to support stories that do this. What’s so bad is that the term character bashing itself is so misused now that people don’t even understand what it actually refers to. There are people who literally think if you do anything to a character that isn’t making life daises and sunshine for them, you must be bashing them. The character gets sick? You’re bashing them. Another character dislikes another character for perfectly valid reasons? That’s perfectly normal, happens all the time in real life. Nope! You’re a character basher. I remember this one girl who was trying to defend bashing Twilight characters by saying that critics bash characters all the time when they give negative film/book/etc reviews. That’s… no. I don’t even like Twilight and it’s clear to me you don’t understand what you’re talking about.
Badly-written romance. And the funny thing is, when I once stated how awful many shipfics are (I’ll call them shipfics to differentiate them from a good romance story), this one person now thinks I hate romance. No, I hate stories where we get stuff like this:
Mature grownups suddenly start behaving like dumb kids in middle school or characters in a CW show when it comes to love. People who write about children (when I say “children”, this character can only be 8-11 years old) having sex with adults and teens and having the older party be so impressed by their maturity/or physical attributes. Yeah, that’s realistic. Unhealthy relationships being treated like they’re normal. At least have the self-awareness to point out that one or both characters are bad for one another. There are romances that have made me tear up or feel joy that the couple’s finally gotten together. The crap I just described made me tear up, but not from happiness. Also it’s just annoying to see the exact same ships be written about the same basic way over and over again. Can we mix it up please?
Writers who can’t make characters act like real people. This is a big issue with several canons I like. It’s not just OOCness, it straight-up feels like the cast exists purely to be the writer’s mouthpieces/tools. If it’s a character(s) the writer likes, then they’re always depicted as Good, Honest, and Noble, even though more though more often than not they act like complete turds instead. Any character who challenges the author’s pets (especially if they’ve clashed with them in the source material) exists to be an obstacle that must be demonized and humiliated at every turn. Whether it’s a villain or a good-aligned character who committed the crime of simply disagreeing with the pet character in the original material, under the fanboy/girl’s pen they’re transformed into vile monsters that do everything from abusing animals to committing rape. Look, I don’t care about what characters you wanna project yourself onto or date. I just want to read a normal story.

So, so true. What about the reverse of this? One time this other writer approached me to beta her fic with the promise of fan art for me. I accepted because hey, fan art, plus the plot was centered around a character I love. But then the more it progressed the more I began to dislike it due in part to how she approached the cast. I wasn’t sure if that was enough for me to critique, because it seemed to be a case of differing interpretations. She winds up not even finishing it and leaves for another site altogether without a word. I only discovered that she set up shop elsewhere when I happened to stumble across her account on the second site. Haven’t heard anything from her since.
Anyways, I agree with a lot of things a bunch if people have said here already , but I have some of my own to add:
Character bashing. I refuse to support stories that do this. What’s so bad is that the term character bashing itself is so misused now that people don’t even understand what it actually refers to. There are people who literally think if you do anything to a character that isn’t making life daises and sunshine for them, you must be bashing them. The character gets sick? You’re bashing them. Another character dislikes another character for perfectly valid reasons? That’s perfectly normal, happens all the time in real life. Nope! You’re a character basher. I remember this one girl who was trying to defend bashing Twilight characters by saying that critics bash characters all the time when they give negative film/book/etc reviews. That’s… no. I don’t even like Twilight and it’s clear to me you don’t understand what you’re talking about.
Badly-written romance. And the funny thing is, when I once stated how awful many shipfics are (I’ll call them shipfics to differentiate them from a good romance story), this one person now thinks I hate romance. No, I hate stories where we get stuff like this:
Mature grownups suddenly start behaving like dumb kids in middle school or characters in a CW show when it comes to love. People who write about children (when I say “children”, this character can only be 8-11 years old) having sex with adults and teens and having the older party be so impressed by their maturity/or physical attributes. Yeah, that’s realistic. Unhealthy relationships being treated like they’re normal. At least have the self-awareness to point out that one or both characters are bad for one another. There are romances that have made me tear up or feel joy that the couple’s finally gotten together. The crap I just described made me tear up, but not from happiness. Also it’s just annoying to see the exact same ships be written about the same basic way over and over again. Can we mix it up please?
Writers who can’t make characters act like real people. This is a big issue with several canons I like. It’s not just OOCness, it straight-up feels like the cast exists purely to be the writer’s mouthpieces/tools. If it’s a character(s) the writer likes, then they’re always depicted as Good, Honest, and Noble, even though more though more often than not they act like complete turds instead. Any character who challenges the author’s pets (especially if they’ve clashed with them in the source material) exists to be an obstacle that must be demonized and humiliated at every turn. Whether it’s a villain or a good-aligned character who committed the crime of simply disagreeing with the pet character in the original material, under the fanboy/girl’s pen they’re transformed into vile monsters that do everything from abusing animals to committing rape. Look, I don’t care about what characters you wanna project yourself onto or date. I just want to read a normal story.

Uh… *thinks* If I count everything, four stories that are actually posted online, as well as three that haven’t been and which I’ve been working on on the side off and on. Did I say the word “on” enough times? I wasn’t sure if I should count all the Word docs I have in which I've jotted down some scene or bit of dialogue that I needed to get down.

Uh… *thinks* If I count everything, four stories that are actually posted online, as well as three that haven’t been and which I’ve been working on on the side off and on. Did I say the word “on” enough times? I wasn’t sure if I should count all the Word docs I have in which I've jotted down some scene or bit of dialogue that I needed to get down.

Uh… *thinks* If I count everything, four stories that are actually posted online, as well as three that haven’t been and which I’ve been working on on the side off and on. Did I say the word “on” enough times? I wasn’t sure if I should count all the Word docs I have in which I've jotted down some scene or bit of dialogue that I needed to get down.

Wow, I think I’m such a jealous bitch I’d rather kill my babies than let someone adopt them. You can totally quote me on that when I end up on the news someday 
Super impressive, and yes, I love that having multiple projects lets you work on something else for a while if one blocks you out; I’m starting to rid myself of the irrational terror of having more than one active story, haha. You guys with your 7 year hiatuses and I don’t even think I’ve held on to any single idea for that long, lol.