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Fanfiction petpeeves?

Actually, if I may say so, that kind of thing amuses me because, yeah, it's just as ignorant to our language as what we do to theirs, if that makes sense. In other words, I just find things like this to be hilarious because it's just that ridiculous. Most likely, the Japanese think the same thing about our abuse of their language, which means you just won't be respected all that much either way.

But to add, mostly, what pisses me off about abuse of Japanese (incorrectly at times, no less) in fanfiction is just the fact that it makes you sound like a smug little twerp who doesn't realize that not everyone in your audience speaks the language. For example, "Urusai nai yo"? Means absolutely nothing to me. And no, don't define it for me. That's not the point. What the point is is the fact that your average reader will come in and not understand your writing, especially given the fact that they can't hear the tone of voice it's being said in or what expressions the characters have when they say it. Which means you've failed at storytelling because your readers have no idea what was just said. After all, Ash could just have called Misty a whore who needs to get back in the kitchen, which of course adds a completely different meaning to the fact that she just walked off.

It's annoying, pretentious, and inconsiderate, in other words. To everyone.

(So, yeah, even if you are fluent in Japanese, please stick to one language only when you're writing, kthnx.)
 
Jax Malcolm said:
I just find things like this to be hilarious because it's just that ridiculous.
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Man, I'm laughing my butt off with that page... Those are funny!

And, I would have to agree on this. The only situation I can imagine where writing Japanese or any other language on a fic would be accepted would be when there's only one character speaking the said language. For example:

"Aki, I don't like this at all", John whispered.
"Urusai", Aki, the exchange student, growled, "I mean, shut up. They'll hear you."

Or when a character can't speak certain language at all and therefore cannot be understood by the reader. For some reason the writer decides that the character must still speak:

"Te olette suuressa vaarassa, nuoret ystäväni", the crazy old lady yelled all of a sudden, speaking a strange language that nobody in the village understood.

But I wouldn't recommend this either. In this case, however, there's a way to explain why the character speaks another language all of a sudden. It can be even good for the credibility of the character if used moderately and with style.
In any case, it becomes annoying if misused.

(By the way, the crazy old lady speaks Finnish. "You are in grat danger, my youg friends" is what she said. Now, if someone ever asks you, you have heard of the language of Finland..!)
 
My main pet peeve is chatspeak/text speak or a lot of spelling errors. On spelling, I understand English not being your first language; but it's still a good idea to have someone spellcheck it.

As for chatspeak/text speak, the only place it should be used is for comic purposes, or if the character is online/texting
 
One of my serious pet peeves is in relation to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. People almost always feel the need to follow the game's plot, right down to using the same exact dialogue from the game. Seriously, why not come up with something original, such as your character's life before he/she went into the Pokemon world, or an original PMD story involving Pokemon that were actually born as Pokemon.

Heh, sorry, it just kinda gets annoying after seeing a bunch of PMD plotline ripoffs. XD

~StarryLatiasGirl
 
Midnight Jasper said:
To start a new topic...
My pet peeve is when random Japanese terms are used in the middle of a fic that is otherwise quite good. Honorifics (-san, -chan), okay. What I can't stand is:

"Kasumi-san!" cried Satoshi. "That's so smart!"
Kasumi shrugged. "Baka. Urusai..."
"Urusai nai yo!" Satoshi complained. "Kasumi-san!"
Just as she walked off, he burst out: "Watashi wa aishiteru!"

WTF???
If you're not a Japanese speaker, don't abuse the language. Do you hate it when they randomly insert English into Chinese/Japanese songs, normally in a grammatically uncorrect and stupid fashion? It's the same here.
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Hey, I like the Engrish in my Japanese music! How would the Lucky Star opening be the same without that little "Darling, Darling, Please!?" Besides, since I don't understand the rest of the song, it doesn't really matter to me anyway. XD

Anyway, I'm so glad that I just remembered that "Ashiteru" is "I love you". But this person apparently forgot that Satoshi is either a Boku or an Ore person, I forget which. XD

Ah, yes. I do think that having a character who frequently uses snippets from another language can be fun to play around with, but suddenly having someone go into an entire sentence in broken Japanese makes no sense, unless you translate it ten seconds later. I'd say that it can be done, but in very specific areas, and only when treated right.

Like a rattlesnake. XD

Oh, and my personal pet peeve is shoving copious amounts of ridiculous violence, blood, and profanity into fanfiction and failing to understand that turning Pokemon into a snuff film does not substitute for an actual plot or a developed character. I mean, I read Pokemon fics that are violent and have some questionable content, and I've enjoyed them, but that's because the plot was good and the characters were well-developed. *pokes Midsummer Knight's Dream*
 
My main pet peeve is chatspeak/text speak or a lot of spelling errors.
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This is doubly annoying when somebody who can write perfectly well does it, completely knowingly but just in this I-Can't-Be-Bothered way. Paired up with endless dialogue and no description/visible plot, it's enough to make me want to scream. Here is a passage explaining exactly what I mean.

First month….
" I'm cold." May murmured.
" I know cause I am too you know." Drew grumbled.
"This is bad." May said.
" I realized." Drew mumbled.
Two month….
" Is it spring yet." May said one day her belly slightly bigger.
" One more month May." Drew grumbled coming in from a search for more firewood.
" Man…" May grumbled.
Three month….
" It's spring!!" May cried bursting out.
One minute later…
" It's COLD!!" May cried coming in.
" See? Told ya." Drew yawned.
" Humph."
Four month…
" Is it warm yet." May mumbled.
"You go see." Drew said.
"No… You go."
"No, You go!" Drew said.
" Please?"
"Fine." Drew grumbled.
" Always works." May smirked.
"I heard that!!"
"Heard what?" May said.
"Grr…"
Five month….
Imagine your mum's tummy at six month than make it as small as possible and fit it in May. And you have a picture.
" I'm hungry," May whined.
"You always are." Drew grumbled.
" Hey…"
" Even before you were pregnant." Drew said twitching.
May twitched,
Six month…
" I'm hot." May complained.
" No you're not." Drew said annoyed.
" I meant… Temperature wise!!" May cried.
" Oh." Drew said simply.
Seven month….
" I hate this." May grumbled.
" Two more months." Drew grumbled.
" I know. I know. Don't have to rub it in." May growled.
" Grouch." Drew murmured.
" What??"
"Nothing."
" Good."
Eight month…
" I REALLY hate this." May grumbled.
" What does it feel like?" Drew asked curious.
" Try sticking a watermelon in your tummy. You'll get the idea." May grumbled.
"Ouch."
" I know. And it's all ur stupid hormones fault."
"I agree."
" Rare."

Uh, excuse me? Where is the story? Where is the plot? Where is the description? Why is this just dialogue? What is 'ur' doing in a piece of fiction?
This is not a story. This is a script. And a badly written one at that.
And this isn't just a one-off thing. The rest of his/her story is like this, too. It's awful.

Please, please, please, let's just try and get these 'stories' off the internet.
 
@Jasper - I...I remember that. Wasn't that the inane "May-and-Drew-become-Luxray" story that Twopaw wrote ages ago? o////o

My biggest pet peeve would have to be bad plots. Seeing things happen for no discernable reason...gives my perfectionist mind these little seizures. This includes nearly every AAML written, ever (except for a few really exceptional ones that should just about be worshipped.) I am veryverypicky when it comes to the events of a story. Which is probably why I haven't updated anything in months. -facepalm-

Confession time. Because I feel like pushing whatever ego I have into a well.

Jax Malcolm said:
16. Once the Pokemorph is created in a lab, it always escapes somehow.
16a. And then begins a life on the run/full of angst/attempting to destroy its own creator. Inexplicably.
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...I...did this once. For my first fic. -headdesk- Remind me never to write morph-fics again. At least one good thing came out of that pile of crap...-huggles Scorch and Lugia-
 
Hmmm... my biggest pet peeve is that the story is usually rushed right after the antagonists are defeated... I mean, while the big threat is beaten, it doesn't mean that the story is over... unless the big threat was the final opponent. But in a lot of Hoenn/Sinnoh rewrites I've seen, most of them were rushed at the end. Also, there is usually little to no character development through the story. There are only a couple of really good stories that I would read from fanfiction.net.
 
My biggest pet peeve is when Mods just close Fics or give warnings without contributing anything constructive to the post or giving any pointers, other than 'read the rules', or some other spam remark that would get normal members in trouble for saying (not that some authors don't have it coming). This hasn't happened to me (yet), but it seems to happen an awful lot, especially on big Pokemon sites.
 
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Hahahahahahaha...oh you.

What would be the point of writing up this big giant really constructive review for the 'tards that don't listen? Sure, I could spend my time explaining everything that's wrong with the story, giving oh-so-helpful advice and helping them along when they could just be one of those people who smacked their head against the keyboard and posted it? Why do that when I could just smack the 'tard with a post that says "Learn to read the stickied rules and the guides and the other reviews that you got from other people", give them their chance to improve, and use that time for more productive means, like giving a review to someone who would actually appreciate it.

Your complaint seems to be geared more towards the "big" Pokemon boards. Have you actually seen the amounts of new posts in these sections? Look at SPPf for example. Hell, look here. I just have one little section to watch over, and the amount of posts and amount of stories that would need reviews is a lot. I don't have the time to take these little members by the hand and guide them on the path to "good writing". Not when I have other stories by people who want reviews to review, and a little fun thing called "life".

Besides, half the time, these moderators just get frustrated by the amount of illiteracy in their sections. I'm sure that when we all (those who are fanfic mods on big sites) started out reviewing stories, helping others, being nice. But pretty soon, you start to see the amount of rampant stupidity on these forums, and there's not much more you can do than close the thread, smack the member, and hope that they'll get some message or move on. Because most of the time, telling people nicely that their story needs improvement isn't a message that's always heard. These people can possibly only understand that "closed thread" means "bad writing and I better start listening". It's the same thing with those who break the basic rules. I can tell people nicely "SPAM is bad, kids!" but after a while, when people consistently spam, it's time to use a tougher message.
 
Wow. You responded alot better than I thought you would...

That said, this isn't only about this site. Actually, this site isn't that bad compared to others (cough SPPF cough). As I've said, it happens on many sites. And alot of times it isn't as warranted as it is here (I've seen some of the really bad Fics here and Carlos Mencia would have a field day with them).

Thus, it remains a pet peeve of mine.
 
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2. Going off topic
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*blinks* How does a fanfic go off topic? Unless you mean people who carry out conversations in the fanfiction thread instead of actually reviewing, in which case I'd have to agree.
 
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