Jump to content

Click Here!

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/12/2011 in all areas

  1. This topic has probably been done few times already, but as I am new and this is the place for rants, here we go: Ok, I've been reading fanfiction for a few years now. Every time I try to quit, after few days/weeks/months I come back to it. I don't write it, because I don't have the strength/ambition/tenacity or whatever else to do it. Every attempt ended at few hundred words. So I gave up and having done that I don't really get why some other people won't. Sometimes you can find great fics, but sometimes, it's just a waste of time and disk space and bandwidth and, yeah, it's gets really bad. What I absolutely hate in fanfiction (based on HP fics): 1. incorrect spelling of names - how many times it's been Luscious, Grimold, Arthuor. There's no excuse! Dont's say that you don't have anywhere to look it up. If you can post the story on the internet - it means you have internet access -> use the freaking Google! 2. grammar and spelling errors, bad formatting - can forgive some minor mistakes, but major ones give me a headache and no matter if the plot is great, i won't read it. There's no excuse for bad spelling if english is not your native language than welcome to the club. You are on the internet, so use it wisely. There are online spell checkers, communities dedicated to writers, websites describing most common errors and so on. Use them! If you don't want to, then find a beta-reader or an editor, a good one. If you don't know how, then ask. A hint: a beta-reader who allows you to spell: Ascher, prad, Netheniel (in AB fandom) or Grimald, Poter (in HP) is not a good one. Find another one! Quickly! I think that it's all about respect, if you respect your work and respect your readers, then you want to do write the best story possible. Saying that you(author) are doing your part by writing the story and if your readers don't like your atrocious spelling, it's their problem means that you are basically telling your readers to kiss your behind. After few chapters, all your fans will leave. Nobody likes to be disrespected. If you spent few days writing a story, spend few more minutes to read it again and check it. Spell checker is not enough! And it's 'might have', 'would have', 'could have' and not 'might of', 'could of', 'would of'! 3. bad summaries - writing in summary: 'summary is bad, but the story is good' - no, it's not. 4. ignoring reviews and ignoring advice - if you're asking for reviews and somebody tells you that there is something wrong with your story (most often bad spelling), it's their right. You can answer them, change the bad bits and go on. It's not a flame when somebody tells you the words are a jumbled mess and asks you to correct your spelling and find a beta reader. This is how a flame looks like:'You will burn in hell for pairing Harry with Hermione' or 'If you write one more slash story, I will find you and...'. You can't expect that every review will be extremely positive. If you want that, then say so, so that people who want to help you become a better writer won't bother and you'll be left with a bunch of sycophants. Besides, many authors say that they want to be published in the future. If you are one of them, then take serious reviews seriously. 5. unfinished and abandoned stories - you build a fanbase, abandon the fic, then after few months come back and promise to update it soon and then leave it completely. Come on! Have a decency to at least put a note in your profile that you won't finish it. 6. alternate universe - if you take HP universe, but take the magic away and add few OC characters and the canon characters that are left are acting diffrently then in the original books, some of them change their names, their appearance and the pairings are all diffrent -> it's not a fanfic anymore, it's an original story and you should say so in the summary and place it in a diffrent archive. You can't take away everything the original story consists of and still call it a fanfic. 7. pretend crossover - where you take one character from a fandom, change everything about them, make them forget about the past and you put that character in a diffrent universe. It's not a crossover, it's just adding an OC character to your story. Don't lie to your readers. 8. everyone is gay - I like slash stories, but what's with making everyone gay? Suddenly there are no women at all or the ones that are there are stupid and not worth writing about. What's up with that? 9. undeserved bashing - if you don't like a character, that's okay, but continuously calling him/her a useless cow makes no sense, especially that there usually is no reason for it. You want to add bashing, that's okay, but don't do it just because someone else did so. And if you're doing it, than don't go calling other characters names that were used so many times, that they lost all their appeal: Dumbledork, Bumblebee, Bumbledork, Voldie-pants, order of the dead/headless/flaming chicken. 10. tattoes, piercings - hate it when Harry or other character shows his independence by doing a make-over. There's no logic in that: Dumbledore is bad and manipulative. I'll show him, I'll get my tongue pierced. Yeah, that'll teach him. 11. describing layout of every room and the colour of every outfit - it doesn't bring anything new to the story, why do it so often in such detail? Few times in a multi-chaptered fic is okay, but few times in a single chapter is not. 12. beautyfing the characters - according to canon, they are all average: Harry is a scrawny kid with messy hair and glasses, Hermione has bushy hair and big teeth and Snape has a crooked nose and greasy hair, don't keep saying that they look completely diffrent and keep describing their petal rose lips and silky hair and so on, there are still some ugly people in the world. And besides you don't have to be gorgeous to be sexy. 13. inheritance fics where characters change overnight - they go to sleep 5'2 and wake up 6'2 with hair that reaches the middle of their backs and glowing skin and if they change sex, they are the most beautiful specimen ever, if the character was malnourished and scrawny why say that he now has a sixpack and superhuman muscles, or when changig gender he has very big breasts and small waist and all the right curves. Makes no sense. 14. name changing - don't keep changing names. Even if Harry turns out to be someone else's son, let him stay 'Harry'. Call him Harry Riddle, Harry Snape or what not. Don't start calling him Kian, Raven, Amadeus, Damien, Devlin or whatever else. It's just silly, especially that after that you go on with this: 'Kian(Harry) stood up and then Kian(Harry) sat down' for at least few chapters. He changed his name, we get it! Changing names makes sense only if he is going into hiding, but even then don't you think that people looking for him would have some common sense and could figure out such a clever ruse as the name: 'Evan Black', 'James Evans' or a combination of those? 15. extreme abuse - you want to describe abuse, then go for it, but please have some common sense. There's only so much a human body and mind can take. Most abuse victims have serious scars: physical and psychological. You don't just get over it in a singe night. The 'rescue' is only the first step in a long road to recovery. A good meal, few bandages and a pat on the back can sometimes do more harm than good. As to graphical description, first check how much blood can a person loose and survive before you start describing pools of it all around the room. And don't forget the smell. In a clean neighborhood, where there are no factories around, the stench from a 'torture room' would be unbelievable during summer. Has any of you ever been in a fight or at least seen one? Hitting something tires you out, very fast. That's why boxers go only few rounds few minutes each, and they are in excellent shape. So let's now take Vernon, an obese man who suddenly has the stamina to hit Harry for a few hours everyday for the whole summer. Come on! He would have a heart attack after only one day. And as to 'torture devices': bullwhips cost a lot of money, so do all the other 'appliances'. That's why most criminals use simple tools: knives or gardening tools, they get the job done just as well. 16. names for the children - it's usually something like: Lilliana Draconisa Luciana Rosalinda Henrietta Potter-Snape-Malfoy. Those poor children, they will be the laughing stock of all their school. Simple is better, choose no more than two first names and one last name and stick to it. 17. mpreg and preg fics - I get the mpreg, don't have anythig against it in fiction, but remember that a pregnant person is not sick, don't go on describing that they are 'waddling' or have a 'bulging stomach' at 2 months, morning sickness is dependent on the person and some don't have it at all, and not always in the morning, some don't have any weird food cravings, especially that strong smelling foods make many pregnant women sick. Hormones don't make you a completely diffrent person, sure than can be a tantrum from time to time, but otherwise it's still the same person. And in mpreg what's with trying to explain exactly where the womb is located and how male pregnancy is possible and than just making a whole mess of everything. Just say that it's magic and don't go inventing some scientific mumbo-jumbo. And remember if you were not pregnant or never lived with a pregnant person, first read a leaflet about pregnancy and then write m/preg. 18. unnatural birth and babies - have the feeling that many authors never saw a real newborn, only the tv-version. Newborns usually don't open their eyes, so there is simply no way to know what colour their eyes are. They are ugly, smelly and all they do is cry, poop and sleep, but we love them anyway. A natural birth takes a really long time and then there is the umbilical cord and the placenta, but in most fanfics you get the feeling that it's just about 15 minutes from the first contraction and than you have a beautiful toddler. When writing mpreg, you're not giving birth, you're not filming it than what's the harm in at least keeping it truth-adjacent. 19. unrealistic sex and having sex all the time - if it's a pwp, it's okay, but otherwise, remember that after few times during a single night, it simply hurts, body is oversensitive and any kind of stimulation designed to make you feel good has a completely diffrent effect. Also don't go writing that somebody has an erection for a few hours and they just keep pounding all that time, possibly in diffrent positions, because after some time it's not pleasant for either party, not to mention that such an erection may be caused by a serious medical condition. Okay, there are few more things that I don't like, but I think that I vented enough for now.
    1 point
  2. (in this, things aren't going as bad for the runners as they did in the game) For thrillseeker Faith, jumping from rooftops was starting to get boring, but then she found a secret club, secret even between runners, and now she gets her fix every night (and day) by doing random strangers hiding in plain sight in precarious positions all over the city. So basicly, looking for a stronger rush Faith gets involved in this club of anonymous runners that rendezvous on the rooftops (and on cranes, and on window ledges etc) for sex, doing it hanging dangerously, or in otherwise dangerous spots (like where there is the risk they be found, like on rooftops in plain sight of police choppers if any comes around) and somtimes even doing it while running (one runners holds on while the other does the actual running, while fucking each other); they're so good at plain parkour that they spice things up with sex and an increased threat of getting caught to make it interesting. Perhaps also add some sexy wrestling for flavor
    1 point
  3. I agree with JayDee, can't see why you would be so mad about it, especially after two years. It is a bit harsh, but truth is better than 'I liked it, update soon'. If you are asking for reviews, there is a possibility that not all of them will be nice or next time, just state: 'Only people who liked my story may review'. As to Carrie, the book was published in 1970's, movie adaptation few years later. There were many works 'inspired' by that story. So I think that it is reasonable to assume that anyone who is older than 15 would know at least parts of that story. If I were you and someone wrote 'its like carrie without the awesome parts', I would read that book, see the movie or at least google it. If you don't know Stephen King's book, how can you know if your reviewer isn't right about this? As to silver hair, Raea and all that - I would have to read the story to judge who is right. Even in the craziest universes there are some rules and some introductions or explanations should be made, especially if it was a fanfic we are talking about and not an original story. There is no justification for bad spelling, but understandable that everybody makes some mistakes. If people are pointing them out, you should make corrections and not put blame on your spell-checker. Still, based on your post, I would have to agree with your reviewer: "Its Gotham", "for all intensive purposes", "be able too". And besides, I'm sure that your reviewer didn't mean to offend you. He just had strong feelings about your story and he cared enough to try to make your fic Iin his opinion) better, which you should be proud of. Not every author can provoke such feelings.
    1 point
  4. BronxWench

    Funny Typos

    Come to the Dark Side... we have accessories...
    1 point
  5. Asexual Biped

    Funny Typos

    XD That actually makes me think of Darth Vader running around with a pink, frilly purse and smacking people with it.
    1 point
×
×
  • Create New...