Fics You Avoid In Your Favorite Fandoms

[Guest Pepperedjack]

I stick to the video game section exclusively, the idea of trying anything outside this category turns me off for some reason.

Typically, if it seems the “story” is going to be very one-dimension from the start, I skip it. Examples would be an author swearing that OMG this is funney!!! in the summary; those summaries where the author tries to make readers wonder if things will ever work between what’s his butt and soandso.

If wacky hijinks even threaten to ensue, I’m outta there.

I enjoy PWP and stories, but I demand that the writer get down to business fast, whatever that business may be. In other words, I loath a boring first chapter. I rarely care about pairings. The pairings I like are the ones writers are able to sell me. A good enough writer could make almost any pairing believable, I think.

Scat, bloodplay, rape, and other such things I stay away from. No children under any circumstances. Sex acts you’d see in a typical porno one can rent at Family Video are the kind I like.

Last but certainly not least, bad/careless writing is the ultimate killer.

QUOTE 

The rain fell on the roof, singing her to sleep as she watched over him. Her last thought, drifting to rest, was if he would be closer to living in the morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~THE NEXT DAY~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.....

Sorry...that just ruins a story for me. I'm literate, so if you've done your job as a writer, I can tell if it's changed times, scenes, or characters.

Interesting...I sometimes do that to mark off author's notes from the rest of the chapter, but never within the narration itself.

[Guest Knorg]

I'll read anything if the summary or occasionally codes grab me. That tends to mean I avoid anything wiv "I suck at Summaries" along with quite a few others.

But as someone who often disgusts others, I'm rarely disgusted meself. So meh.

[NightScribe]

As a personal preference, if I read a story where the author chops things up with little squigglies or dashes, I'll stop reading. Example below, not a real quote.

The example you gave, I would have to agree with, however, in defense of the squiggle, I have seen them in traditionally published novels, (or the good ole asterisks). I hadn't used them before, but in my last fic, I did. I had two main plots running simultaneously; two different groups of people in different locations, plus a sub-plot with another group of people in yet another location, but all happening at approximately the same time. I used them as a kind of subliminal visual cue that a decent chunk of time had passed, or the setting had shifted.

Sorry...that just ruins a story for me. I'm literate, so if you've done your job as a writer, I can tell if it's changed times, scenes, or characters.

Guess lots of writers, including myself, aren't as literate as you.

[Guest Masatar_Torlyl]

For scene dividers and for my stories-- even then it depends on how long and how funky.

~*§*~*§*~*§*~*§*~*§*~*§*~*§* <<-- Stuff like that is too funky.

-------------------------------------------- <<-- Stuff like that is just too long.

I usually just use two dashes for me and everything's okay because it's not like people can do anything more to show you that the scene has change or time has passed. This actually better than most dividers I've seen in classic works other than doing this...

Once upon a time...

[Guest Enchanted Faery]

I always avoid any rape fics (sorry that just doesn't float my boat), beastiality and MPreg (that's just dumb).

There are tons of other things too, but these 2 are the main thing! I used to hate Draco and Harry pairings, but after reading one they've kind of grown on me, but I only read those on occasion. I don't like Snape/Lucious pairings, that just grosses me out (I don't know why) and I hate any pairing with Voldemort.

[redsliver]

I avoid reading fics about canon pairs. I find its like getting a package of legos and building the spaceship/castle/jeep/etc. according to the directions instead of having fun with it. Its also why I got out of Naruto and moved to original.

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

I avoid reading fics about canon pairs. I find its like getting a package of legos and building the spaceship/castle/jeep/etc. according to the directions instead of having fun with it. Its also why I got out of Naruto and moved to original.

See, this is one of the reasons I read M/M and F/F stories ^__^ Rarely will you find canon pairings. HOWEVER, like in Naruto, Harry Potter and many other fandoms, for each taste, there is a "fanon" pairing. And those pairings are CHOCK full of HORRIBLE writters. Is it just me or do larger fandoms have a higher rate of shitastic stories? It's like the bigger a fandom gets, the higher the shir percentage gets.

[EveKnight75]

Heh, I personally love the rape fics (depending on severity. Snuff is not my thing) and when it comes to the whole "40 year old with a minor" thing, it depends on how younge the minor is and the psychology of the situation.

HOWEVER, anyone under 12 I won't read unless it's a rape situation and not a PWP (I get nothing from that.) There needs to be a believable plot or forget it.

It's not that I don't like rape fics. If it's handled realistically and doesn't become wangsty, I can actually enjoy it.

The problem is that way too many people equate incest to rape, then take the stigma of rape and apply it to incest. They don't bother to differentiate. That's why I prefer to read consensual incest. It deals with just incest without adding rape to muddle the equation, and allows readers to discern the difference between the two. If they don't like it, fine, but at least it's the incest they'll be disliking rather than rape or sex between minors.

[NightScribe]

In regards to incest, it doesn't bother me, but then again, I've only read one that was intelligently written. In fact, it was extremely eloquent, intelligent and actually quite moving. The others I've read played out more like two best friends finally getting it on. Basically just smut with sibs; with no real thought behind it. That doesn't squick me, it just annoys me; there's something much deeper going on in that kind of situation. But then again, I've been reminded before that this is all just fanfic, it's not supposed to be Shakespeare.

[Guest Madame Satine]

I can't stand Mpreg, and I will avoid it at all costs. I'm sorry, I just can't take it seriously.

Also, I don't like scat, water sports, underage, and rape.

[Guest Nympho]

I have not yet found a story that changes my view on scat, watersports, or necrophelia- the very idea of them makes me shudder simply from a sanitary point of view. The idea of anything that exposes someone to that many bacteria completely repells me.

On the other hand the very thought of incest used to give me pause, but I recently found a Star Wars fic that changed my view on that subject and while I have absolutely no desire to pursue that particular venue of sexuality I no longer view it with automatic disdain. I don't favor Mpreg for it's improbability and I've seen first hand the damage rape can do to someone's psych, so I avoid those fics as well.

It suppose it all comes down to how a person percieves a subject based on own experiences that shapes their view of a particular subject.

Ok, I'll cut the phsycology bullshit now, it sounds pretentsious even to my own ears. I've been watching far to many movies involving presise language lately and I've begun mimicing it. It's hard to break the habit.

BTW- If anyone's interested in Star Wars the fic was Forbidden.

[Guest Pink Lace]

Hey, I noticed that! Recently I posted a SO2 story lol and had to look twice since all the stories in it seem to be SO3.

A bit off topic, but I've never been good at PM-ing folks outta the blue. I recently took the initiative to request an SO:3 sub-cat. It's up and all the SO:3 stories have been evacuated from the SO:2 sub-cat.

Yay! Thanks for telling me. This might be the reason I actually got reviews even though I have yet to get 400 clicks/views on my story.

Most of the time I just spend my time wistfully wondering where all the good het stories have gone.

[Guest Big Samurai]

A bit off topic, but I've never been good at PM-ing folks outta the blue. I recently took the initiative to request an SO:3 sub-cat. It's up and all the SO:3 stories have been evacuated from the SO:2 sub-cat.

You are my new hero(ine), Iggy. Thank you!

Here's one more: I like Street Fighter 'fic, but, somehow, most of it is very far from canon, so I have to do a lot of sifting. (Really, folks, Ryu and Chun Li barely know each other.) Then again, that's not so much the fault of the 'ficcers as it is the fault of Capcom for making SF canon so bloody confusing.

[Guest Jackie_Boi]

I haven't read too many fics with incest in em, but I think the best one I've ever read was one in the Troy fandom. It was a Hector/Paris. It was very well written and I was surprised that I didn't get uncomfortable when they described the sex scenes. I then figured it out afterwards that I think I was just seeing Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom. Not Hector and Paris...so yeah, I really dunno if I could handle an incest fic that FELT like incest.

I guess I just don't like MPREG mainly because it's simply impossible. There's a MPREG fic in the Alexander fandom and it's at like chapter 50 or something with over 100 reviews. I tried it and go overwhelmed by how many chapters I had to read, but with over 100 reviews, it HAS to be at the very least, decent. Right?

[Guest Altari]

Eep!

I didn't mean to offend anyone. Gomenasai.

The scene switching breaks don't bug me. The author's notes at the end/beginning don't bug me. The basic

-----------------------

I do that myself. It's similar to in a novel the triple space. It's a courtesy to the reader to say, hey, we're switching gears, watch out!

What bothers me is authors who feel the need to narrate ever nth degree of what is going on. Specifically, the ones who say

---------------NEXT DAY-----------------------

~~~~~~~~~~~DREAM SEQUENCE~~~~~~~~~~~

I think it just adds a bit of a highschool english project feel. Personally, I don't get much time to read fan fics anymore, so I like to read high quality ones. And, on the whole, it seems that the over narrating leads to more of a dialogue (and he said, then she asked) and less of a story.

[NightScribe]

Altari, I was just busting on you a little bit.

Yeah, doing the ~~~~LATER THAT SAME DAY~~~~ is, what would you call it? Overkill?

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

The most I ever do is a "--" if at all. When they do the big ones telling me that it's later in the next day, I wonder how old the author is.

[Guest Masatar_Torlyl]

In regards to incest, it doesn't bother me, but then again, I've only read one that was intelligently written. In fact, it was extremely eloquent, intelligent and actually quite moving. The others I've read played out more like two best friends finally getting it on. Basically just smut with sibs; with no real thought behind it. That doesn't squick me, it just annoys me; there's something much deeper going on in that kind of situation. But then again, I've been reminded before that this is all just fanfic, it's not supposed to be Shakespeare.

I can stand incest... it doesn't bother me as much as it used to and I don't see anything wrong with it much (unless there's an adult taking advantage of youthful innocence and naivity of love).

[NightScribe]

Gosh darn you Altari! *shaking fist in mock anger* Now you've planted the evil, wicked seed to write an intentionally bad fic, where after every second or third paragraph, a series of unnecessary squiggles is used to change settings, etc.

~~~~DREAM SEQUENCE~~~~

blah, blah, blah...blah, blah, blah, blah

yada, yada, blah.

~~~~NEXT MORNING: DR. TICKLEDICK'S HOUSE~~~~

blah, blah, blah...

[EveKnight75]

In that case, we can call it a social experiment where the readers are the test subjects. I, for one, would love to read more about every dictated moment of Dr. Tickledick's exploits.

[NightScribe]

Yeah, but you just know that there are people out there who wouldn't know that it was a parody, NightScribe. And some will probably actullay LIKE it.

Ain't it the truth? Even if you say in the summary & author note it's a crack!fic/parody.

And EveKnight, as for the mysterious Dr. Tickledick...that just sort of popped into my head as a joke, but now...hmm... Once I actually finish the fic I'm half-assedly working on at the moment, I may write an original about the good (bad?) doctor. I'm getting crazy ideas about it already. Which is exactly how I came to write my first crack!fic; through a forum thread. That was a blast.

[Guest Masatar_Torlyl]

Hmm... another thing I avoid in fandoms I like are the popular pairings because just about everybody likes (insert pairing) and just about everybody will try to write for (insert pairing) and not everyone has stellar writing so (insert pairing) is screwed.

[Bargle5]

I read/write in the Harry Potter fandom.

I avoid MPREG, Slash (though I like Femmeslash), scat, watersports, BDSM, blood play.

I avoid the bad boy/good girl pairings. I just can't buy most Slytherin/Other house character stories. Draco/Hermione and Draco/Ginny, especially.

I occasionally read Non-con fics, but it's not a favorite type of mine.

Incest, as long as it's consensual, usually doesn't bother me.

Snape/Hermione I like, if it's well done. (Ladyofthemasque and Swooning are usually quite good)

And for some unknown reason, Hermione/Weasley twins stories irritate the hell out of me, no matter who writes them.

[EveKnight75]

And for some unknown reason, Hermione/Weasley twins stories irritate the hell out of me, no matter who writes them.

That's because too many of them are "marriage law" or "truth or dare" fics. Then there are the fics where Hermione gets both of 'em.

Personally, I'd rather read a Fred/George, leave Hermione to Ron, and hope that the twins didn't give Ron any advice. Those two lovebirds argue enough as it is, and it's time to channel that pent-up sexual tension into a more pleasant form of foreplay.

[Squallfan]

I avoid snuff fics, anything with children being raped, scat(really gross), urine play(eew gross), male pregnancy(cause it just doesn't make sense)menstual blood play(gag). Basically, anything really gross in nature.