Revived: What Do You Hate Seeing In Fics?

I'll start this off with a statement that will likely get me flamed: I, for the most part, hate Yaoi and most Yuri. There is nothing worse than seeing your favorite character turned into a overly sexual (often even perverted) gay character who does it with another same-gendered character for little real reason.

Another thing I hate is Pokemon-as-a-human characters. I really don't like anthrofics, and the backstories often provided for these "Human-Pokemon Hybrids" are usually shallow and full of plot devices. There doesn't seem to be much of a point to human-Pokemon characters.

Self-insert OCs are also annoying.

What do you think?

Well there is a few:

1) Bait and switches. You get an interesting premise, and about halfway(or maybe even before that). The Plot switches to something different, typically a generic plot.

2) Crossovers that favor one universe over another(say, a Final Fantasy/Mario story where the Mario element just keep having little importance over the FF elements). Of course, It's a guilty pleasure of mine if the universe that's "taking over" is one I like over one I don't.

3) Unnecessary "Original" characters in crossovers. I came to watch characters from my 2 favorite series be on the same screen, not someone unrelated. I don't mind if they're vital to the plot, but that's my personal limit.

4)An overall "rushed" pace. Far too many otherwise interesting fanfics I've read had it ruined by the fic reading like it's going a mile a minute and skipping important things while doing so.

The first thing I thought of was bad spelling and grammar. It's hard to read mainly. It also gives me the slight connotation that the author was too lazy to run their story through some kind of spell check and didn't really read through it either.

i dislike it when there is too much emphasis on what the character is wearing. and when i say "too much emphasis," i mean an entire paragraph full of clothing and accessory brands.

OK Interesting to see this thread return.

Elgyem said:

I'll start this off with a statement that will likely get me flamed: I, for the most part, hate Yaoi and most Yuri. There is nothing worse than seeing your favorite character turned into a overly sexual (often even perverted) gay character who does it with another same-gendered character for little real reason.

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Characterization also gets sacrificed in some het romance fics. Characters suddenly become focused on sex only, and developing the relationship past "let's do it" doesn't happen in those fics. It's not just fics focused on same-sex characters that don't get the characters right, tossing together two characters (no matter their physical sex) for "little real reason". The Pokemon fandom is known for this, where most ships are of people who have never met, but they're shipped, and fans write about them.

And I'll just side-eye the fact that some yuri gets accepted by you but all yaoi is bad.

As for what I hate in fanfics: fics where it's obvious that the author is trying too hard to impress people in fandom. Instead of writing a fic that they would care about, the author becomes so focused on being so different and "right" in the eyes of everyone that could possibly read their fic. And the whole thing becomes a mess as the writer tries to please everyone.

And overly-confusing plots because the author wants to be mysterious. If readers can't even keep the characters straight because the author thinks it would be impressive to never use any character's name (instead just relying on over-the-top descriptions), there there's a slight problem.

Gothitelle. said:

Characters being treated poorly due to a ship or just hatred of them.

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I'll admit, seeing a character I hate getting treated horribly can be a guilty pleasure, but it can get a bit annoying sometimes.

Astinus said:

As for what I hate in fanfics: fics where it's obvious that the author is trying too hard to impress people in fandom. Instead of writing a fic that they would care about, the author becomes so focused on being so different and "right" in the eyes of everyone that could possibly read their fic. And the whole thing becomes a mess as the writer tries to please everyone.

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Pretty much this. Write what you want instead of trying to impress others. With the fic I'm doing now at first I was doing just that because I'm worried certain people won't like it, but then I decided to forget about them and just write the story I would like to read. As long as I still at least have the plot decent and the characterization right I don't care if they don't like the story.

And Elgyem, I too am going to eye-side over your yaoi and yuri statement. If you don't like either of them that's fine, but wondered why you hate all yaoi while some of yuri you're okay with.

Bay Alexison said:

Pretty much this. Write what you want instead of trying to impress others. With the fic I'm doing now at first I was doing just that because I'm worried certain people won't like it, but then I decided to forget about them and just write the story I would like to read. As long as I still at least have the plot decent and the characterization right I don't care if they don't like the story.

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This is pretty much the main reason why I'm having so much trouble writing my own fics, particularly my journey fic based on Black and White (and maybe Gray). I've been worrying about readers being turned off by the story the second they come across what they deem even the least-bit "cliched" in a Pokemon fanfic, especially a Journey fic. I'm worried that I'll get careless and make a bad move that I'll pay for dearly. Not just in adapting the source material but in writing my story overall.

Even though I'm putting my all into this story, my doubts keep gnawing at the back of my brain, causing me to constantly question myself on what I'm doing right or wrong. I don't want to be at the receiving end of negative reviews (who does?) if all they have to say is how bad my fic is. I know these forums promote constructive criticism and no bashing of any kind (without reason) as well as how pointing out the bad helps me correct errors but I'm still nervous about harsh reviews that make me doubt myself. I mean, what if the whole story is really utter garbage? What would be the point in writing any more chapters?

But of course, if you can learn from your mistakes and get yourself to try again, then you'll write better and even feel better about yourself.

Well, I certainly feel better now.

What bothers me is mostly when an author contradicts their own established canon. If you say something early on, stick to your story.

Describing Pokemon that doesn't need describing.

Example: A Magikarp appeared. It looked liked a scaly red fish with a whisker on each side.

Anyone reading a Pokemon fic should be expected to know what most if not all Pokemon look like. There are exceptions of course such as special features about a certain Pokemon or trying to conceal the identity of a Pokemon. If you don't have a good reason, then it's just a waste of a sentence.

I hate it when authors insert notes during the story itself instead of including them in the Author's Notes at the start or end of the chapters. I really disrupts the flow.

I also dislike the script format. But it's mostly a newbie thing and I fell prey to it myself when I first started.

Plus, when an author shows that he barely researched certain details on the series he's writing about bugs me.

Gothitelle. said:

I also hate when people mindlessly praise someone's work.

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Well, it's really all opinion but yeah, people should be constructive when criticizing or praising one's work. But we all can't be like those guys on TGWTG.

Twiggeus said:

Describing Pokemon that doesn't need describing.

Example: A Magikarp appeared. It looked liked a scaly red fish with a whisker on each side.

Anyone reading a Pokemon fic should be expected to know what most if not all Pokemon look like. There are exceptions of course such as special features about a certain Pokemon or trying to conceal the identity of a Pokemon. If you don't have a good reason, then it's just a waste of a sentence.

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Really? When I started writing pokemon fanfiction, everyone told me to describe the pokemon.

People keep telling other people to describe Pokémon simply because somebody else told them to. I did it too for a time until better writers snapped me out of it.

Usually it's justified with "But what if the reader doesn't know what Pokémon look like?!", but if that is actually the case and they're choosing to read Pokémon fanfiction anyway, it's their responsibility to try to figure out what's going on, not yours to make sure they do - just like, say, books written in and about the US don't labor to explain the utter basics of US culture in the narration in case somebody not from the US happens to read them. Besides that it's not as if the reader is going to get an accurate image of the Pokémon in their head either way if they've never seen a picture; lengthy descriptions of the species don't actually accomplish that.

Which isn't to say describing Pokémon at all is some kind of taboo, just that lengthily detailing what the species looks like simply because somebody else told you you had to describe Pokémon is a silly idea. Describe them when there's something interesting about them that genuinely warrants the POV character's attention - the same way you describe anything else in the story (or should, at any rate).

Oh look, it's me again, quoting half the thread. And yes, I'm still alive, but I'm busy building my wiki (now also in (bad) english!), making the Dating Sim and having exams the next four weeks.

Elgyem said:

I'll start this off with a statement that will likely get me flamed: I, for the most part, hate Yaoi and most Yuri. There is nothing worse than seeing your favorite character turned into a overly sexual (often even perverted) gay character who does it with another same-gendered character for little real reason.

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So you can dislike different things about a story, but if you don't like the Genre itself, the "don't like don't read"-rule applies. I wouldn't say I hate it, but dislike Yaoi while I have no problem reading Yuri, maybe I would even like it. I'm a man, sue me. It's just my personal taste.
BUT nevertheless the "don't like don't read"-rule is often abused by fanfiction authors who recive a certain amount of critic for their story in general, not for the genre. Well, these people can choke on their words, because before reading a story, I can not know if it's bad in general.

So I'm backing up the second thing I bolded you, little reason. Generally known as out of character (short: OOC (even in German :D)) this is the cancer to fanfictions. While tendencies are inevitable, the amount I'm speaking of is the amount that makes your brain hurt while reading. Shippings often have a certain amount of OOC, since feelings are still all mysterious to us and so it's not difficult to simply inject a character a "wow, I never noticed what beautiful eyes he/she had"-feeling is all easy. The point is where these things sum up, the character admits his love and the other character directly responses positive (at least after one night of confusion and drama). Generic and unbelievable. How Gothitelle mentioned her story, it seems to be one of these stories where more thought is put into (but I can't know for sure until I read it, you may send me the link?).

And know there is homosexuality. Letting my taste and my believes aside (as one should always do when speaking about a topic he dislikes for no logical reason), there remains the world where the story takes place. I will now speak about Pokémon in specific, but you can apply the following to many other animes/cartoons. They were developed for children. Parents generally don't want their children to watch "homosexual series" (e.g. Spongebob in the USA). So it's just natural to not see homosexual tendencies. But regardless of why the fictional world is a certain way, it still is and thus has to considered as canon. As we never see homosexuality in Pokémon (until someone does funny interpretions), it would be understandable a fanfiction writer considers it as "not normal" in this world (which is good, because writing Yaoi/Yuri would even be more difficult = challanging ~ story gets better). But you have to at least admit it's everything else then common. And that's where the downfall starts: Badfic writers don't give a damn. Sometimes you can see little trys but they will be forgotten soon. Like "Gary: »Oh, Ash has such wonderful eyes… OMYGOSH what am I thinking?!!1!!!!!!!!!?«" But later "Gary: »My love is eternal and herpderp, hurr durr!«" They do not really question their unsual feelings, they just pretend to at the start and never do again. No doubts rising after two weeks of being together. And the bystanders either are totally okay with that, without even wondering, or the characters recive all the hate. Bystanders only have two possible opinions.

That's why writing shippings good is difficult and writing homo shippings good is at least twice the difficulty. But many writers don't know about the difficulty and so they don't notice they're fabricating badfics...
Good Yaoi/Yuri is very, very rare (and I'm not the one to find it)

psyanic said:

The first thing I thought of was bad spelling and grammar.

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If it's only that, and else a masterpiece, I'm satisfied and will have fun finding funny mistakes. But on the other side, yes, it's a thing to make badfics even worse.

Astinus said:

As for what I hate in fanfics: fics where it's obvious that the author is trying too hard to impress people in fandom. Instead of writing a fic that they would care about, the author becomes so focused on being so different and "right" in the eyes of everyone that could possibly read their fic. And the whole thing becomes a mess as the writer tries to please everyone.

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Don't know how to translate Mitmach-Fanfictions correctly, but the main thing is a lot of (teenage) people create Mary Sues / Gary Stues and they will be brought together into a Badfic and it's all herpderp and hurrdurr. Nevertheless the roastings of these fics can be very amusing. I would recommend one, but it's German after all.

Astinus said:

And overly-confusing plots because the author wants to be mysterious. If readers can't even keep the characters straight because the author thinks it would be impressive to never use any character's name (instead just relying on over-the-top descriptions), there there's a slight problem.

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Oh damn, the German Harry Potter and Naruto Fandomes are poisoned with it, POISONED.

matt0044 said:

I don't want to be at the receiving end of negative reviews (who does?)

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I do. A lot of negative, constructive critic is better than no one, and believe me, constructive critic itself is very, very rare. You can throw a party for everyone you recieve. I have to look desperately for readers to critize me. (Or for readers in general, lol, but I would rather have no comments than "Thiz story is sooooo~~~ good, please write on quickly" comments. These have no soul.

matt0044 said:

I'm still nervous about harsh reviews that make me doubt myself. I mean, what if the whole story is really utter garbage? What would be the point in writing any more chapters?

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Doubting yourself is, from one point of view, the thing you want. If you would never doubt yourself you're most likely to become resistent to critic and as such, a badfic writer. But as I see, you are already doubting yourself enough, so don't worry and post it :D
And it won't be utter garbage. You can make a good story out of everything! Just image how ridiculous it would be to write a story about Nazis on the moon. Well, see how there's Iron sky coming? (But I'm sad it's sure the good guys will win by default.)

Feist's Corollary to Watt-Evans' Law said:

There is no idea so stupid that a sufficiently talented writer can't make a readable story out of it.

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The point in writing more chapters? Well, obviously no one, as long as you haven't corrected the big mistakes in the previous ones. That's what I'm doing right now. I was currently writing Chapter 6, then someone came and told me Chapter 3 is utter garbage (of course in a constructive way). And even if Chapter 3 isn't that relevant or anything, I would like to rewrite it before going on.
So, post it so you can improve, unless you don't think but know a chapter is garbage. I rewrote my Chapter 1 like 6 times completely before posting it.
(not 100% true, I rewrote it 3 times, posted it, noticed it wasn't very exiting and decided to start the story 6 years later (in story time), where I rewrote the new chapter 3 times again. And now that are 20 pages (A4) with little (but existing) logic mistakes and just above average writing.)

Gothitelle. said:

I also hate when people mindlessly praise someone's work.

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Hey guys, you must totally read White Night Imagination (and therefore learn German)!
Reasoning cancelled due to low budget.

Dragonfree said:

Usually it's justified with "But what if the reader doesn't know what Pokémon look like?!", but if that is actually the case and they're choosing to read Pokémon fanfiction anyway

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And that's why I won't read anything here anytime soon :(
(Damn creators, why did they changed names of Pokémon for different languages!)

Ayutac said:

I do. A lot of negative, constructive critic is better than no one, and believe me, constructive critic itself is very, very rare. You can throw a party for everyone you recieve. I have to look desperately for readers to critize me. (Or for readers in general, lol, but I would rather have no comments than "Thiz story is sooooo~~~ good, please write on quickly" comments. These have no soul.

Doubting yourself is, from one point of view, the thing you want. If you would never doubt yourself you're most likely to become resistent to critic and as such, a badfic writer. But as I see, you are already doubting yourself enough, so don't worry and post it :D
And it won't be utter garbage. You can make a good story out of everything! Just image how ridiculous it would be to write a story about Nazis on the moon. Well, see how there's Iron sky coming? (But I'm sad it's sure the good guys will win by default.)

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You're right. With the correct execution, anyone can make the most ridiculous of concepts great.

Doubting yourself? Why would you want that? What's wrong with a writer with complete confidence in their work and still have the ability to read over what they wrote? Having confidence has almost nothing to do with taking criticism. That's a load of crap. You can have confidence and still acknowledge your story isn't perfect.

Ayutac said:

I do. A lot of negative, constructive critic is better than no one, and believe me, constructive critic itself is very, very rare. You can throw a party for everyone you recieve. I have to look desperately for readers to critize me. (Or for readers in general, lol, but I would rather have no comments than "Thiz story is sooooo~~~ good, please write on quickly" comments.

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Funny you should mention that since I haven't seen you post a story here before, but please correct me if I'm wrong. I could have just blind-eyed it, or you posted it somewhere else. Either way, I have yet to read anything of yours, as I can remember anyway.