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.
