Fandom unpopularity
Nov. 20th, 2003 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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heidi8, the ten unpopular fandoms meme. Long, but I did type it all out so no cut.
1. Read the fucking books. Read them, re-read them, re-re-read them. Of course, depending on fandom, this could be watch the show/film, but the essence of this comment remains the same. And having done that, keep characters in-character. No, Draco Malfoy is not going to have a complete hundred-and-eighty-degree reversal in his character and start shagging Hermione just 'cause you want him to. If you're gonna do it, consider motivation. Then, spend a long, long time building up. I've lost count of how many times I've stuck those words into a beta. Consider motivation.
2. Spellcheck. Grammar check. And never, ever trust a computer to grammar check. There are some things only humans can do. It's amazing how many people believe what their computer tells them.
3. Don't beg for reviews. Don't ever beg for reviews. For the love of god don't say stuff like "Review or I won't post the next chapter lol". It's not polite, it's not nice, and above all, it's not dignified. Some people seem to think they're running a make-friends-and-influence-people enterprise. Um, no. You're writing a fic. There's a difference. And if you were a credible writer, you wouldn't post stuff like this.
4. Don't focus on the pairing. I mean, I know pairings are important, in slashfic particularly. And I know FAP has an entire forum devoted to shippers and slashers. But I hate it when people write fics primarily to get X to sleep with Y, for no other reason than "it would be cool." Whatever happened to plot? To atmosphere? To filling in canon? To all those wonderful things that I used to love gen for? (Incidentally, I am above all a gen writer. I've written more gen than slash by a long way.) But yeah... a good pairing well written is a wonderful thing, but there's such a thing as plausibility.
5. WIPs. Oh, I know this will be a majorly unpopular opinion. But I can't help that, because I don't like them. Unless the fic is novel-length, I don't see why people must do this. I don't want to keep checking back, so in the end I won't bother. I especially hate it when people publish the first few parts of their WIPs without knowing where the fic is going. Urgh. I don't object to chaptered fics. Just chapter-by-chapter fics.
6. TyPiNg LiKe ThIs. It's a given, I know, but people who do it... just urgh. Especially when it creeps into review boards and author's notes and just about everywhere except the fic itself. Argh.
7. Dialogue fic. Well, not exactly. I don't mind dialogue fic where it isn't clear which person is speaking, just that someone new has begun to speak. I actually think that kind of fic can be very cleverly done. What I don't like is script fic. It's so bland when put into text form. There's a reason why scriptwriters write scripts - so they can bring the story to life visually. A writer can't do that, but has so many different tools - description comes to mind! - that why limit yourself like this?
8. Author's notes within the story. Breaks up the narrative flow, is facetious and superflous and fucking annoying. It smacks of teenage inanity. Don't do it. Ever. There are no mitigating circumstances.
9. "This is my first fic so be nice." Why the hell should I? If your fic is good, I'll respond accordingly. If it's crap, the same. If you had any confidence as writer, you wouldn't say anything so stupid. And you will have confidence, because you wrote to the best of your ability and you employed a beta, didn't you? Didn't you?
10. "Alternative ending for..."
"Missing scene from..."
Um. No. This is fanfiction. This is not the making of a DVD. Presumanbly you scrapped that alternative ending or that superfluous scene for a reason. If it were good, you'd have left it in the final cut. As you didn't do that, there's no real need to inflict it on us.
Ah, this is only me being contentious. Although I do believe all these things.
Meh. Want to go to bed now.
heidi8, the ten unpopular fandoms meme. Long, but I did type it all out so no cut.1. Read the fucking books. Read them, re-read them, re-re-read them. Of course, depending on fandom, this could be watch the show/film, but the essence of this comment remains the same. And having done that, keep characters in-character. No, Draco Malfoy is not going to have a complete hundred-and-eighty-degree reversal in his character and start shagging Hermione just 'cause you want him to. If you're gonna do it, consider motivation. Then, spend a long, long time building up. I've lost count of how many times I've stuck those words into a beta. Consider motivation.
2. Spellcheck. Grammar check. And never, ever trust a computer to grammar check. There are some things only humans can do. It's amazing how many people believe what their computer tells them.
3. Don't beg for reviews. Don't ever beg for reviews. For the love of god don't say stuff like "Review or I won't post the next chapter lol". It's not polite, it's not nice, and above all, it's not dignified. Some people seem to think they're running a make-friends-and-influence-people enterprise. Um, no. You're writing a fic. There's a difference. And if you were a credible writer, you wouldn't post stuff like this.
4. Don't focus on the pairing. I mean, I know pairings are important, in slashfic particularly. And I know FAP has an entire forum devoted to shippers and slashers. But I hate it when people write fics primarily to get X to sleep with Y, for no other reason than "it would be cool." Whatever happened to plot? To atmosphere? To filling in canon? To all those wonderful things that I used to love gen for? (Incidentally, I am above all a gen writer. I've written more gen than slash by a long way.) But yeah... a good pairing well written is a wonderful thing, but there's such a thing as plausibility.
5. WIPs. Oh, I know this will be a majorly unpopular opinion. But I can't help that, because I don't like them. Unless the fic is novel-length, I don't see why people must do this. I don't want to keep checking back, so in the end I won't bother. I especially hate it when people publish the first few parts of their WIPs without knowing where the fic is going. Urgh. I don't object to chaptered fics. Just chapter-by-chapter fics.
6. TyPiNg LiKe ThIs. It's a given, I know, but people who do it... just urgh. Especially when it creeps into review boards and author's notes and just about everywhere except the fic itself. Argh.
7. Dialogue fic. Well, not exactly. I don't mind dialogue fic where it isn't clear which person is speaking, just that someone new has begun to speak. I actually think that kind of fic can be very cleverly done. What I don't like is script fic. It's so bland when put into text form. There's a reason why scriptwriters write scripts - so they can bring the story to life visually. A writer can't do that, but has so many different tools - description comes to mind! - that why limit yourself like this?
8. Author's notes within the story. Breaks up the narrative flow, is facetious and superflous and fucking annoying. It smacks of teenage inanity. Don't do it. Ever. There are no mitigating circumstances.
9. "This is my first fic so be nice." Why the hell should I? If your fic is good, I'll respond accordingly. If it's crap, the same. If you had any confidence as writer, you wouldn't say anything so stupid. And you will have confidence, because you wrote to the best of your ability and you employed a beta, didn't you? Didn't you?
10. "Alternative ending for..."
"Missing scene from..."
Um. No. This is fanfiction. This is not the making of a DVD. Presumanbly you scrapped that alternative ending or that superfluous scene for a reason. If it were good, you'd have left it in the final cut. As you didn't do that, there's no real need to inflict it on us.
Ah, this is only me being contentious. Although I do believe all these things.
Meh. Want to go to bed now.
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no subject
on 2003-11-20 01:31 pm (UTC)Often, there is good material written that simply doesn't fit into the overall flow of the story. It's not useable elsewhere, but it's interesting material and folks might like to see it and hear the reasons it was cut.
no subject
on 2003-11-21 09:38 am (UTC)no subject
on 2003-11-20 02:04 pm (UTC)I started reading your list (bad me. Should go to bed), and I thought the first one, about "considering motivations" is just so true. I couldn't have said it better. What's more, isn't the fun part in actually thinking up realistic reasons and actions to make X go with Y (or do sth, if you're talking gen)? What's the point of writing "Malfoy woke up and was submerged by a feeling of goodness, and a strong urge to repent for his past sins. He cried from the sheer beauty of it all. Hermione walked in, saw him cry, forgot that he was a bastard that used to call her mudblood, and fell in love with him." It's so much more interesting to read if Draco is actually fighting against his feelings, and still being his smart-ass self.
But anyway. I just found two points with which I actually tended to disagree, and thought, what the hell, let's tell her why.
First, WIPs.
...
Shit. I had written a twenty-lines long argument, and it's all for nothing because I just realized I had actually gotten it wrong. Hadn't noticed you had said "unless it's novel length". So you mean serial fics, right? Coz for long fics (not always novel length, but at least 10 chapters), I understand very well the need to start posting before the whole thing is written. Reviews can give counsels, encouragements, and the ego-trip boosts inspiration. But then, with my one WIP, I have a lot of the future chapters already written and/or mapped out, including the end, so I do know where I'm going and how.
...what was the other one...oh yes, the alternative endings and missing scenes. Alternative endings I agree with. What's the point of giving two different endings?! Just ruins the first one, if you want my opinion. But missing scenes, well, sometimes you only think of something much later, or just miss that scenery you had created and want to dive back into it. I don't mind this. As long as it's well written...
There. I don't know what's gotten into me, I feel like debating these days! First on the Wolfstar thread, now here...phew.
Bed time now.
Cheers!
Maddy.
no subject
on 2003-11-20 02:34 pm (UTC)So who am I to talk, right?
And I think alt-endings are a little weird, but sometimes posting a missing scene to lj or as a message on one's yahoogroup is fine, imo, because just because it doesn't fit with the narrative flow doesn't make it 100% useless...
no subject
on 2003-11-21 09:56 am (UTC)I suppose I'm not really against missing scenes, per se - I'm against the kind of BNF-ism that dictates "anything that I write will be eagerly pounced upon by the myriad fangirls who hang off my every word, so here's a missing scene." Maybe I'm wrong in assuming this is the mentality that lies behind all missing scenes, but the pet peeves don't have to be rational. :) I will concede that it's cool to put missing scenes on LJ or a mailing list, but I don't like it when they're uploaded to an archive. Sets my teeth on edge.
no subject
on 2003-11-21 09:46 am (UTC)WIPs, then. Novel-length I do understand. But even novel-length, people should know where they're going with it. They really should. Otherwise I wonder if the earlier chapters really are as high a quality as they should be; if you don't know where you're going, then the one thing you're definitely not doing is considering motivation! And I totally agree with you inasmuch as that is the fun part!
Missing scenes and alternative endings; well, I already said this to
I won't say good night, as you'll have been to bed and got up again since then, but I hope you slept well. :)
no subject
on 2003-11-20 03:40 pm (UTC)I think you've just hit my biggest pet peeve in the entire fanfic writing world. It makes my jaw hit the floor every time - the horror, the horror! The worst is when some teenage Mary Sue fic drops in an authors note like;
"Her emrald green eyes filled with tears [A/N I have grey eyes so how is this a Mary Sue? ;-P] and she looked prettier crying than any other girl he had eva seen."
GAAAAAAAAHHHH!
Emoticons and textspeak also entirely and irredeemably reprehensible. Also anyone who feels the need to type 'Dream sequence' above a dream sequence in a story and 'end of dream sequence' at the end of it. Just...NO.
no subject
on 2003-11-21 04:55 pm (UTC)And talking of Mary-Sues, there's always those fics where the main character (original, female) has the same name as the author. Save me, please.