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Topic:
Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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alienyouthct
Registered:
May '02
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Date Posted:
7/30/02 4:04pm
Subject:
Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
- Date Edited:
6/8 7:52am (2 edits total)
Edited By:
VaderLVR64
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I figured I'd start this as a place both to vent, and let newer writers see what people think about various things, so they know what do avoid. So, what are your pet peeves?
#1: 2nd person storytelling. I got no clue why, but it just makes it look like the author was too lazy to develop another character, and is therefore injecting you into it to cover his/her own laziness.
#2: Hybridized/barely-modified names. Yoda Skywalker? Chevacca? I stumble onto this in a lot of fics on FanFiction.Net, and it annoys the crap out of me. Grow some innovation!
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Talon Squad Leader
Title: Former Manager
Registered:
Dec '99
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Date Posted:
7/30/02 4:58pm
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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Itsy bitsy cutsie wootsie romance where the characters fall endlessly in love after some traumatic event that brings them together. Talk about been there, done that.
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Lt_Jaina_Solo
Registered:
May '02
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Date Posted:
7/30/02 4:59pm
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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Mary Sues
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Daphne
Registered:
Jun '00
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Date Posted:
7/30/02 5:14pm
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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If the author didn't take the time to run spell check and proofread for blatant grammer errors, then I quit reading. I figure it's safe to assume they didn't take a lot of time perfecting plot and characterization either (especially since those are much more difficult than the difference between to, too, and two).
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zeekveerko
Registered:
Apr '02
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Date Posted:
7/30/02 5:16pm
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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hey, i wrote a second-person short story once. maybe you've just never seen it done right. just cuz it's second person doesn't mean the 'you' in the story can't be an original character.
on the other hand, it was only a page long, and i've never written another...
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DarthSnuggles1121
Registered:
Apr '02
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Date Posted:
7/30/02 5:22pm
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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1. I think Mary Sues are pretty much a given. 
2. Plagiarism - Makes. Me. SICK. Though often times it's purely unintentional, which I can respect, since there are a lot of similar ideas flying around in the fan fic world; but when it is intentional, well, it just irks me that someone would be that lazy (as a replacement for some other undesireable words ). Fortunately, this has yet to happen to me yet, but I know it's happened to others.
3. Excessive vulgarity. I dunno, sometimes a person can go too far, especially in Star Wars fan fiction. I doubt some of the words I've seen even exist in the GFFA.
Well, that's all from the peanut gallery.
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zeekveerko
Registered:
Apr '02
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Date Posted:
7/30/02 5:39pm
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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"If the author didn't take the time to run spell check and proofread for blatant grammer errors..."
in the context of this sentence the word 'grammer' is very funny.
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Lt_Jaina_Solo
Registered:
May '02
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Date Posted:
7/30/02 5:51pm
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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i agree
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TrinityDay
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
7/30/02 6:28pm
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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It's amazing how many people hate poor spelling and grammer. I used to, too, until the humour was pointed out to me one too many times and I finally caught on.
What do I hate? Many things. One of my biggest peeves is in presentation - lack of paragraphs. There's nothing worse that trying to make out one big blob of text.
Lack of capitalization. This one is probably because I find people who do not know enough (or care enough) to capitalize also do not know (or care) enough to use basic grammar. Nor do they utilize that lovely invention called the "spellcheck". (It's almost worse when they *do* use the spellcheck, but end up correcting their mistakes incorrectly.)
Over-used plots. This one does not happen so much in the Star Wars fandom (or at least, I don't *see* it as much in the Star Wars fandom). But some other fandoms I am involved in . . . *shudder* You have three basic plots and three thousand stories from these plots.
I have some other pet peeves - many, actually - but I can't think of them, and I'm sure you're all getting quite sick of me by now.
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Chimeran Dreams http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=21038154 Anakin Skywalker could fall asleep listening to his wife talk about plans for the future, for their family; such talk made him feel at peace with himself.
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Various
Registered:
May '02
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Date Posted:
7/30/02 6:48pm
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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Some writers don't seem to understand what Jedi are. I see them getting angry, feeling despair and breaking into tears. Not that they don't feel anything or that any of this has no place, but some of the excesses this is taken to is unrealistic. If a Jedi was unable to fight the sorrow within that they were breaking down into tears every ten minutes, they'd soon find themeselves on the dark side.
It's just a small peeve. I don't really care if they misspell things, I do it all the time. I also hate the one giant paragraph thing and lack of capitalization.
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Uuta_Shetai
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
7/30/02 7:02pm
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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Technobabble. SW fans are NOT stupid, so don't explain how your Meson Taloscope analyzes, refresherizes, and femfriendizes your blood samples (just as an example). I really hate those made up words like refresher station, felinx, femfriend, etc. Just call the thing what it is. Imagine the story of Star Wars is an ancient history, and we have a storyteller giving it to us now (George Lucas, of course). He has to explain things that happened way back then and way back there in terms that make sense to us. In the novelization of Star Wars, he uses words like dog, robot, etc. because that's stuff we understand. Technobabble and stupid made-up words are the most incredible insult to that idea of "our own terms."
Along that line of storytelling, "bloopers" can be excused as "word-of-mouth mistakes" (Imagine playing a game of "Telephone." You rarely get the same message at the end that you had at the beginning. Same idea goes here.)
Bob Brown's pages go into incredible detail on this (look in the "essays" section, and read away).
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Jedi_Wurth_Skidder
Registered:
Feb '02
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Date Posted:
7/30/02 9:56pm
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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Really stupid cross-overs irritate me and I won't even bother to begin reading.
IE: Vampires in the GFFA, yeah... sure.
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Aanix_Durray
Registered:
Dec '01
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Date Posted:
7/30/02 10:32pm
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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1. 1st and foremost is bad formatting, it screw ups my thought process 
2. Bad spelling and grammar <---(that's how it is spelled)
3. Bad dialogue. "You know I've always loved you..."
4. No desrciption: He walked over. He sat down. He was shot. (I could read the phone book for this kind of riveting action)
5. Cliché characters: the hansome guy with brown hair and great pecks.
6. People who put twins in there story just to have twins. (at least make it triplets or something... there are enough twins)
7. This one's a little wierd, but people who don't put the accent on the names of the Handmaidens. It's not that big of a deal, but I'm a freak and it bugs me. (for future notice Alt + 0233 = é)
~~Aanix
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NarundiJedi
Title: FF Chapter Rep Albany, NY
Registered:
Oct '01
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Date Posted:
7/30/02 11:03pm
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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Oh boy, here we go! My biggest pet peeves. 
Flawless characters. Otherwise known as the Mary Sue/Gary Stu character. Or characters that everybody loves even though they're jerks (usually a male character). At least have them wade through some crap before earning any respect of their peers for being a total jerk!
Grammar and spelling errors. Especially poor spelling. I especially get peeved when I see the same words spelled wrong all the time. Some of the main ones I've seen have been the variations of "your" and "its", but also the word "lose". Surprising, isn't it? It's a common mistake. For anybody that makes this error, the word "lose" and "losing" refer to when you have something and then it goes away, or when you're defeated in a game. The word "loose" or "loosing" (which isn't even a word, I don't think) refers to when a tooth is about to fall out and wiggles around. Ok, rant over. I'm just the grammar police. If anybody needs a beta, I'm here.
Paragraphs also annoy me, when they're not easy to see. I don't mind weird sentence format if I can read it and it's done on purpose. Some authors stray from convention when they get better at their craft. Usually you can tell a good author straying from convention from a newer writer. Like somebody else said, more eloquent description clues you in.
The twins thing also peeves me. Just because there are two sets of Skywalker twins doesn't mean their descendants need to be twins. I would even stand for identical twins as opposed to fraternal twins. But single births are better.
Jae Angel
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Crazy_Vasey
Registered:
Dec '01
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Date Posted:
7/31/02 4:28am
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
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#2: Hybridized/barely-modified names. Yoda Skywalker? Chevacca? I stumble onto this in a lot of fics on FanFiction.Net, and it annoys the crap out of me. Grow some innovation!
That puts me off a 'fic straight off and unless the writing is truly excellent otherwise I won't bother.
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Kit'
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Oct '99
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Date Posted:
7/31/02 4:50am
Subject:
RE: Fan Fic Pet Peeves?
- Date Edited:
7/31/02 4:52am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Kit'
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Out of all the pet peeves that people have put up so far. The only ones that actually annoy me personally are the badly done characters and occasionally the grammar spelling.
Badly done characters annoy me. People have faults, therefore characters should have them. This works two ways, to me a badly done character is one who is always having emotional breakdowns and hurts. The other are the ones who seem to have no feelings, no emotions at all. They are badly done drones... This extends to Jedi too. Jedi might be stoic, solid and dependable, but even they would have moments of insecurity and heartbreak. It doesn't mean that characters should always be crying or getting angry, that goes against the Jedi code and training. However, they will have moments of doubt and insecurity. They will question themselves (if they are young enough). Being a Jedi doesn't necessarily have to wipe out all the humanity and emotions from a person.
However, my boyfriend disagrees. He says that Masters should be boring to write and read because they should be at peace. It is the padawans and young knights who are still struggling to find the exact right path. I just thought I should put his point in because we just had a five minute debate on it.
Also in the badly done characters are (to me) ones who seem to have been dealt the worst set of cards that life could give them. They are constantly oppressed and go from one bad moment to another. By the way I know I'm guilty of this too
As for the grammar and spelling, this is a lesser misdemeanor. I hate obvious ones that an author should have picked up just by a quick read over. However, for many people on this board english isn't their first language. For other people, (like me) english is a struggle for many reasons. So unless the mistakes are loud and obvious it doesn't generally bother me.
Kithera
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