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 Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 2:56 pm
What things in fanfiction make you cringe more than anything else? (These can be fandom specific or in general)
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Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 8:29 am
Oh dear, I could make a whole list.
Yuri. Yes, there are certain ones that I can actually stand, but the rest make me cringe.
Harry Potter and Naruto crossover fics. I've seen so many of these, all with almost the same exact plot, that I can't read them anymore.
Yaoi. Not so much as yuri, though. I don't mind reading the yaoi fics that are just mainly friendshippy stuff, but I can't stand the romance. ><;;
It's a shame that everything is extremely popular... x.x
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Lady Sedia Auvryarn Vice Captain
Friendly Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 10:55 am
I agree on the Yuri and Yaoi bit - not because they are bad in general but omg the way the fans take them and turn them into "romance/lusty" fantasy's they wish they could watch just makes me gag xp
Bad spelling/grammar/formatting - yeah everyone will agree with that one hehe
Pure dialogue - if a story has no description whatsoever and only consists of people talking like "Hey" said Bob. "Hey" said Frank. "What's up?" asked Bob. I drop it immediately.
Evil characters not being evil - If I see one more person making Voldie's reason for being evil because he was dumped by some girl I am going to start screaming evil
A lack of character and plot depth - This is YOUR character (OC's and even canon apply) and its YOUR plot! How can you not think them out before you start writing?
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Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 7:09 pm
This is what I wrote for my FF.Net account. Hopefully you find it entertaining at least. I get a lot of hate mail for it.
Top Ten Things I hate In Fanfiction:
1. Spelling errors. They are so easily avoidable that there is really no excuse for you to have misspelled words in your story. Most word processors and internet browsers have spell check built in. Also, this very site has its own spell checker, so quit slacking off and check your damn work.
2. Out of character (OOC). If you love the show so much and this person is your favorite character, why would you want to change them? It just doesn't make any sense. If you think of a story in which that character would not fit in, then find a different character that would fit. If you can't, then create your own character. Write an original story and post it on FictionPress. The only time this is acceptable is when you make the character develop and change throughout the story.
3. Original characters as main characters. What, are the original characters not good enough for you? Is it really necessary for you to create a smarter, hotter version of yourself and stick it in every story you write? Keep your sick fantasies to yourself. We don't want to know about your wet dreams. Minor original characters are fine. Well-developed original characters who play a supporting role are fine; however, they are incredibly hard to find.
4. Grammar. Now, I know my grammar is not perfect, but I know it's better than a great deal of the authors out there. I don't expect every author out there to have mastered every complex grammar rule of the English language, but I do expect them to follow the most basic of grammar rules. Knowing how to pluralize and conjugate and having correct punctuation, verb tenses, and capitalization are all I ask. If you have a comma splice here and there, it's alright. But if your story is riddled with them, it's hard to read. Same goes for run-on sentences. It's really not that hard.
5. Point of view (POV). I didn't even know this problem existed until I came to this site. I've seen again and again that younger authors are oblivious to the proper way to write a point of view. I'm always seeing little author's notes saying when the point of view switches. If you write it correctly, the reader will know whose point of view it is. Not to mention that when writing in first person, you should never switch the person narrating IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CHAPTER. Seriously. What are you thinking? Just write the story in third person. It's much easier than switching the point of view every two paragraphs.
6. Dialogue and monologue. Okay, this one might be a little tricky for the slower authors out there. It is incredibly complicated, you know. When people speak, you use this nifty little tool called the quotation mark. "It looks like this!" said Kirei. Never use an apostrophe. When a new person speaks, you start a new paragraph. That way, we can tell that it's not the same person speaking. It gets really confusing when it seems like someone is having an argument with themself. As for monologue (or thoughts, for those who don't have many), don't put those in apostrophes either. Just because it's a smaller conversation doesn't mean it needs smaller quotation marks. In fact, it doesn't use quotation marks at all. You only use quotation marks if the person is thinking out loud. Instead, thoughts are put in italics.
7. Factual Errors. This is pretty annoying to find in any fanficiton. If you are going to write about school in Japan, you better know your facts because many anime fans do. If you have your OC wearing anything other than the normal uniform and they don't get in trouble, just expect that someone is going to cry foul! If you set your story in Medieval Europe, why would you have Japanese names? I really don't get it. Also... drastucally changing character age differences, home life, and past events that everyone knows about can also be pretty annoying even in AU- kinda depends though. Especially age differences. Sorry but, even in an alternate universe, Naruto is not older than Kakashi and when people write it that way... it is just silly.
8. Romance that starts out of nowhere. Unless they got together in the show (or it was heavily implied), then you have no business just sticking them together and saying they fell in love at some point in time, but it's apparently not an important enough event for you to actually write about. One would think that would be extremely important. What the hell happened? Why is Sesshoumaru having sex with his brother, and why is his brother going along with it? This requires some serious explanation. Stop being lazy. If it's too hard to get them together in a way that makes sense, then you probably shouldn't be writing it. Now, straight up, no-strings-attached sex is a completely different story. Keep writin'. ;D
9. Amateur sex scenes. I can't stand it when people who have no knowledge of how sex works write about it. I'm not saying that you have to have sex to write about it. I mean, I've seen virgins who have been able to write a good sex-based story because they did their research. If you want to write about two guys going at it, you had better look up how it's done. Also, it wouldn't hurt to study the male anatomy. It would probably benefit you to ask a gay guy about how it's done. Yaoi fanfiction is ridiculously inaccurate. As for yuri, it's kind of hard to do that wrong...unless you're retarded. Or you're doing futa. Then you just need to be shot.
10. Formatting. Sticking random bold, italics, and underlines in your story is so goddamn annoying. You use italics to emphasize certain words and portray thoughts, memories, and flashbacks. You can also use bold to emphasize words, but it's not suggested. It's better to use italics for that. Bold is primarily used for titles. You can also use it to differentiate your author's note from your story. I actually prefer it when you do it that way, so I don't suddenly go from some intense scene to you rambling about reviews to the voices in your head. Then there's underlining. This is good only for titles. NOTHING ELSE. Also, spacing. Both keeping the entire story in one paragraph or creating a new paragraph after every sentence are wrong on so many levels. Just don't do it.
Honorable mentions: Using Japanese words in your stories. Unless the entire sentence is in Japanese, you have no business using the language. I don't mean just a one-word sentence, either. There will be no calling anyone baka, hentai, or kawaii. You just sound retarded. Nor should you use honorifics. I don't want to see any "Sakura-chaaaan!" or "Kaiba-sama" anywhere. The only time it's really acceptable is when it's already a part of the English version of the anime/manga you are writing about. For example, Chio-chan from Azumanga Daioh. Since they always call her Chio-chan, it's okay to do that. When you write in English, write it all in English.
Basing a fanfiction off of a fanfiction. This includes not only other fanfiction stories, but also animated fan creations, such as abridged series. I'm tired of reading Yu-Gi-Oh fanfics and seeing nothing but "screw the rules!" or Marik calling Bakura "fluffy" all the time. Have you no originality? It's just not funny. I love YGOTAS, but that doesn't mean I want to read shitty fanfiction that rips it off. Just stop. It's even worse when people write fanfiction from other series using the jokes from YGOTAS. It just...doesn't apply. What is wrong with you people?
**Personally, I am a huge yaoi fangirl. I love yaoi and it is primarily what I read. It is not the yaoi that makes a story bad, it is other the other stuff. Trust me, I have read some pretty fantastic yaoi stories.
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Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 7:57 pm
People who write fanfic, but completely change the characterizations of the characters they use for no discernible reason. For example, My Immortal.
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 3:45 pm
Katsuya Jyonouchi Honorable mentions: Using Japanese words in your stories. Unless the entire sentence is in Japanese, you have no business using the language. I don't mean just a one-word sentence, either. There will be no calling anyone baka, hentai, or kawaii. You just sound retarded. Nor should you use honorifics. I don't want to see any "Sakura-chaaaan!" or "Kaiba-sama" anywhere. The only time it's really acceptable is when it's already a part of the English version of the anime/manga you are writing about. For example, Chio-chan from Azumanga Daioh. Since they always call her Chio-chan, it's okay to do that. When you write in English, write it all in English. 
I have words to say on this point.
First, let me just begin with saying that overall I agree that random Japanese words that don't make sense are annoying and to one whom actually knows Japanese offensive at times. However, there are ways to use Japanese (and foreign languages in general) in fan fiction that can actually enrich the story. Manly in the case of series that have characters from multiple countries of origin rather than just one.
If a cast of character are from different countries and different parts of the world (like in the King of Fighters series) it would make sense for a number of them to sometimes flip-flop between their native languages and English. It would also make sense for other characters not necessarily from that country to speak a little bit of that language because their friends/enemies/frienemies speak that language and they sort of just picked it up.
Now, I'm not saying that this justifies stories where the author insists on making the characters talk like this: Quote: "Like oh my god! Stop being so baka you baka! That's so totally un-kawaii."
No, because that's just terrible and shows that the author has no idea what they're saying and displays a decisive lack of respect for the Japanese language and culture.
However, something written more like this:
Quote: "Hajimemashite." The boy bowed politely to Terry. "Uh, hi. I mean, dozo yoroshiku." Terry reached his hand out for a good old-fashioned American handshake but stopped mid-motion and switched to an awkward bow instead.
This shows not only a correct use of Japanese language but also a little bit of culture as well. Terry (that's Terry Bogard from SNK's Fatal Fury and KOF game series) is not a native Japanese speaker and he falters over the correct greeting after being introduced to his brother's new disciple. Terry's brother, Andy Bogard (not featured in the quote), spent 10 years of his life between the ages nine and nineteen living in Japan, his best friend is Japanese and his fiancee/stalker is Japanese. It would make since that he taught his older brother a few Japanese words and I think this author's use of Japanese dialogue was just fine.
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Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:48 am
I actually don't mind seeing honorifics in fics where everyone is Japanese, speaking Japanese. A lot of times, honorifics don't translate cleanly into English (I think "san" and "chan" are actually good examples of this). In English, it would be like saying "Mr." or "Ms" or adding a cutesy nickname (anyone read MKR? You know, "Fuuster" and "Umister?"), but in Japanese, it's just a show of respect and status; it can be used towards people who are your peers that you respect or are affectionate with. If the characters use these honorifics in their canon dialog with someone, I kind of want to keep it, because it's showing a certain dynamic (also, it can be indicative of an accent, like if the person is from Kansai, "san" becomes "han"). It is often very awkward to translate it, because then your dialog runs like this: Quote: "Mr. Bob, what a great idea!" Johnny shouted to his chemistry partner. "I know, I'm quite brilliant, Johnnykins." o__o Kind of a big difference, I think.
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Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 1:01 am
Osidiano I actually don't mind seeing honorifics in fics where everyone is Japanese, speaking Japanese. A lot of times, honorifics don't translate cleanly into English (I think "san" and "chan" are actually good examples of this). In English, it would be like saying "Mr." or "Ms" or adding a cutesy nickname (anyone read MKR? You know, "Fuuster" and "Umister?"), but in Japanese, it's just a show of respect and status; it can be used towards people who are your peers that you respect or are affectionate with. If the characters use these honorifics in their canon dialog with someone, I kind of want to keep it, because it's showing a certain dynamic (also, it can be indicative of an accent, like if the person is from Kansai, "san" becomes "han"). It is often very awkward to translate it, because then your dialog runs like this: Quote: "Mr. Bob, what a great idea!" Johnny shouted to his chemistry partner. "I know, I'm quite brilliant, Johnnykins." o__o Kind of a big difference, I think.
I'd say "-sama" and "-dono" translate more awkwardly. But, yes, I agree.
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Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 7:08 pm
Renkon Root Katsuya Jyonouchi Honorable mentions: Using Japanese words in your stories. Unless the entire sentence is in Japanese, you have no business using the language. I don't mean just a one-word sentence, either. There will be no calling anyone baka, hentai, or kawaii. You just sound retarded. Nor should you use honorifics. I don't want to see any "Sakura-chaaaan!" or "Kaiba-sama" anywhere. The only time it's really acceptable is when it's already a part of the English version of the anime/manga you are writing about. For example, Chio-chan from Azumanga Daioh. Since they always call her Chio-chan, it's okay to do that. When you write in English, write it all in English.
I have words to say on this point.
First, let me just begin with saying that overall I agree that random Japanese words that don't make sense are annoying and to one whom actually knows Japanese offensive at times. However, there are ways to use Japanese (and foreign languages in general) in fan fiction that can actually enrich the story. Manly in the case of series that have characters from multiple countries of origin rather than just one.
If a cast of character are from different countries and different parts of the world (like in the King of Fighters series) it would make sense for a number of them to sometimes flip-flop between their native languages and English. It would also make sense for other characters not necessarily from that country to speak a little bit of that language because their friends/enemies/frienemies speak that language and they sort of just picked it up.
Now, I'm not saying that this justifies stories where the author insists on making the characters talk like this: Quote: "Like oh my god! Stop being so baka you baka! That's so totally un-kawaii."
No, because that's just terrible and shows that the author has no idea what they're saying and displays a decisive lack of respect for the Japanese language and culture.
However, something written more like this:
Quote: "Hajimemashite." The boy bowed politely to Terry. "Uh, hi. I mean, dozo yoroshiku." Terry reached his hand out for a good old-fashioned American handshake but stopped mid-motion and switched to an awkward bow instead.
This shows not only a correct use of Japanese language but also a little bit of culture as well. Terry (that's Terry Bogard from SNK's Fatal Fury and KOF game series) is not a native Japanese speaker and he falters over the correct greeting after being introduced to his brother's new disciple. Terry's brother, Andy Bogard (not featured in the quote), spent 10 years of his life between the ages nine and nineteen living in Japan, his best friend is Japanese and his fiancee/stalker is Japanese. It would make since that he taught his older brother a few Japanese words and I think this author's use of Japanese dialogue was just fine.
Yeah I agree with stuff like the second example it is fine. I just have issues with the Baka baka baka Kawaii desu desu desu! And "You're a Hentai!" *rolls eyes*
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Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 7:16 pm
Osidiano I actually don't mind seeing honorifics in fics where everyone is Japanese, speaking Japanese. A lot of times, honorifics don't translate cleanly into English (I think "san" and "chan" are actually good examples of this). In English, it would be like saying "Mr." or "Ms" or adding a cutesy nickname (anyone read MKR? You know, "Fuuster" and "Umister?"), but in Japanese, it's just a show of respect and status; it can be used towards people who are your peers that you respect or are affectionate with. If the characters use these honorifics in their canon dialog with someone, I kind of want to keep it, because it's showing a certain dynamic (also, it can be indicative of an accent, like if the person is from Kansai, "san" becomes "han"). It is often very awkward to translate it, because then your dialog runs like this: Quote: "Mr. Bob, what a great idea!" Johnny shouted to his chemistry partner. "I know, I'm quite brilliant, Johnnykins." o__o Kind of a big difference, I think. It probably wouldn't be such an issue for me if people did their research... I think I have read one too many fanfics where Jyonouchi added honorifics to people's names he doesn't use honorifics for. AKA most people- Jyo is a rude little s**t. It is just better if you have them talk in a more polite way with people they respect, than to use the honorifics if you are unsure of how to use them. I am mostly addressing people on FF.NET who come to my troll account. LOL. I give out some harsh criticism, usually with no positives about the author's work. (Jounouchi, Jonouchi- all are accepted spellings- but my Japanese friend pronounces it like the Jyo-no-u-chi- being couched to say it right is a b***h.)
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Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 12:25 am
Katsuya Jyonouchi It probably wouldn't be such an issue for me if people did their research... I think I have read one too many fanfics where Jyonouchi added honorifics to people's names he doesn't use honorifics for. AKA most people- Jyo is a rude little s**t. It is just better if you have them talk in a more polite way with people they respect, than to use the honorifics if you are unsure of how to use them. I am mostly addressing people on FF.NET who come to my troll account. LOL. I give out some harsh criticism, usually with no positives about the author's work. (Jounouchi, Jonouchi- all are accepted spellings- but my Japanese friend pronounces it like the Jyo-no-u-chi- being couched to say it right is a b***h.)
This happened to me just recently in the Golion fandom. I got a review from someone saying that if I'm gonna use the characters Japanese names instead of the American ones (Kogane instead of Keith or Fala instead of Allura etc.) then I should add honorifics on to the names. Kogane-kun... Fala-hime, etc. But anyone who's ever seen an episode of the Golion series can tell you that they just don't use honorifics in the series. (Well... they do use "-hime" for Fala a bit. But not regularly, not enough to justify using it every single time a character addresses her by name.)
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 2:55 am
Renkon Root Katsuya Jyonouchi It probably wouldn't be such an issue for me if people did their research... I think I have read one too many fanfics where Jyonouchi added honorifics to people's names he doesn't use honorifics for. AKA most people- Jyo is a rude little s**t. It is just better if you have them talk in a more polite way with people they respect, than to use the honorifics if you are unsure of how to use them. I am mostly addressing people on FF.NET who come to my troll account. LOL. I give out some harsh criticism, usually with no positives about the author's work. (Jounouchi, Jonouchi- all are accepted spellings- but my Japanese friend pronounces it like the Jyo-no-u-chi- being couched to say it right is a b***h.)
This happened to me just recently in the Golion fandom. I got a review from someone saying that if I'm gonna use the characters Japanese names instead of the American ones (Kogane instead of Keith or Fala instead of Allura etc.) then I should add honorifics on to the names. Kogane-kun... Fala-hime, etc. But anyone who's ever seen an episode of the Golion series can tell you that they just don't use honorifics in the series. (Well... they do use "-hime" for Fala a bit. But not regularly, not enough to justify using it every single time a character addresses her by name.)
Yeah. I don't even know what fandom that is. But, I am just going to guess if someone had them screaming "Naruto Chaaaaannnn!" It would be soooo OOC. PFFT. and Hilarious.
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