Fanfic rant from a reader

[marenpaisley]

So, I've only ever posted one ficlet in my entire life, but as an avid reader, I still have some

Fanfiction is a labor of love for a lot of people, and often times I see people asking for concrit so that they may improve their writing. I'm not very tactful, and I struggle with pointing out these things to people (even if they are specifically asking) because I'm always afraid that I'm going to hurt someone's feelings. I feel fortunate beta-ing for seraphtrevs because after being friends with her for over 16 years, we know each other well enough that I feel like I don't have to beat around the bush when I'm going over her drafts and find myself questioning story elements. It's actually very liberating.

Anyway, after many years of online fandom-related shenanigans (over 13 years now - whoa), here are some things that just drive me utterly insane when it comes to fanfic writing. I'm not even going to get into improper comma usage, not making new paragraphs when a new person is speaking, or general lack-of-editing issues (this time!), but rather those things that pull me out of a story as I'm reading. So in no particular order, have some rants!

* Stop having characters say each other's names in conversations when they are the only two in the room! It's completely unrealistic. Just "listen" to this:

"Hey, Sally. It's great to see you."

"You, too, Mac. How's life treating you?"

"Oh, you know how it is, Sally. Same old, same old."

"Aw, Mac. So there's nothing new?"

Gah! Look, normal people don't talk that way. The next time you have a conversation with a friend or family member, take note of how often you say their name or they say yours to each other's faces. It doesn't happen often at all, and why? Because you know who you're talking to, and the other person knows that you're talking to them. Unless their attention is wandering or they hear voices that aren't there, you generally don't say their names. Moving on.

* Dialogue that is choppy or unnatural. Like constant name-dropping, other things that characters are meant to say can come across like fingernails on a chalkboard. Recently I tried reading a story, but I couldn't get through it because the characters (who were meant to be totally modern, every day people) didn't use contractions in their speech. I'm not saying that everyone should be writing in dialect (::shudders::), but no contractions? "I am very pleased." "I do not like rhutabaga." Erm... no. If it helps, try reading the characters' dialogue aloud to get a sense of its rhythm and how realistic it would be coming out of the mouth of real people.

* Feminizing male characters in slashfic - oh god, please no! I saw this happen a lot more in previous fandoms (X-Files, Highlander, various and sundry Star Treks, etc.), and every time it'd make me cringe. Out-of-character-ness in general is often hard to stomach, but this is especially annoying. For me, fanfiction is all about exploring the canon characters and how they react to different situations - even AU settings. But just because your story now takes place in a space colony on the moon or during the California gold rush doesn't mean the characters' personalities are open for assassination. If they don't cry at the drop of a pin in canon (or behave in some other, OOC way), why would you make them that way in fanfiction?

Pet names also fall into this category; there was a time when tons of stories in the aforementioned fandoms would have characters referring to each other as "Love" or their "lover". Yeah, I'm sorry, but a ruthless assassin isn't going to refer to his FBI agent arch enemy as his "lover", even after a mind-blowing one-night-stand. ::gags::

* And finally (for now), do some research! For instance, I've read in many a Heroes story where Mohinder supposedly put curare in Sylar's tea, thus knocking him out and rendering him unable to move. However, if one were to do a simple Wikipedia search, one would learn that curare is never given orally - it is only given by injection - otherwise, it's ineffective (we can't metabolize the compound). Mohinder had to have used something else in the chai to knock out Sylar. As the fiction writer, now you can get creative in Mohinder's choice of drug.

I'm sorry, but there's really just no excuse for lack of research when one is posting things to the internet - that magical place that is also home to search engines and Wikipedia. And if someone's not sure what to look for, they should ask their beta reader or post the question to a comm. Guaranteed there will be some helpful responses that can point writers in the right direction.

So that's all that I can think of off the top of my head. I'm always curious about other people's thoughts on these things, too. And, of course, there are tons of things that I love about fanfiction, but if I were to post about them, the entries would just go on for far too long. : )

Comments

[aurilly.livejournal.com]

not making new paragraphs when a new person is speaking
Pet peeve of the century!!!!!!!!!! Each new speaker should have his or her own new paragrah. No two people talking in one paragraph. NO! Also, if the person hasn't finshed speaking, and there's some narrative in between two streams of dialogue, it needs to be super clear that the same person is going to speak some more and not another person if a new paragraph is started.

*am really drunk, but still really passionate about this issue*

[marenpaisley.livejournal.com]

Yes x infinity! Otherwise, you have to stop where you're at and re-read the dialogue to try to parse who is saying what.

And that's just not right. ;D

Also - and this just drive me bananas - if someone is addressing another person, there's supposed to be a comma before the addressee's name. "Put your shoes on, Peter," is a lot different than, "Put your shoes on Peter." The unintentional laughs I've gotten from stories over the years are too numerous to even remember these days. :D

[babel.livejournal.com]

I find it just as annoying when female characters are "feminized" (as in, given stereotypical female traits instead of their own) in het fic. I will never understand the need to turn one character into macho man and one into silly girl.

[marenpaisley.livejournal.com]

Good point! There are so many portrayals of strong women characters in television and movies today - why would anyone want to change that? It might be one of the reasons that I tend not to read a whole lot of het fic...