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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Discussion Fan Fic Pet Peeves?

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction and Writing Resource' started by alienyouthct, Jul 30, 2002.

  1. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    I didn't know we were still talking about Jude Watson. :p

    And Valairy, I've totally run into Obi-Wan taking a plural verb. Can't think of whether I've spelled Dark Side as a compound word though.
     
  2. TrakNar

    TrakNar Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 4, 2011
    I'm surprised that your spell-check thinks "Sith" is a word. Mine doesn't. Among its suggestions? "Smith."
     
  3. Skywalker_T-65

    Skywalker_T-65 Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2009
    Mine thinks its lowercase for some reason...
     
  4. Admiral Volshe

    Admiral Volshe Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    I always said dark-siders or darksiders. But never Darkside. That's just silly. Sounds like some fad clothing brand to me. :p

    My phone is the #1 culprit for all of that auto-correct nonsense. It corrects Padmé to Pad Thai, Sith to sits, Vader to Vadee (it likes Spanish more than Dutch, evidently.). And as you said Valairy, Obi-Wan is absolutely fine, but he must take on the plural. :rolleyes:

    My pet peeve of today is people who write in simple sentences, with no variation. And use the same words to start each sentence. (Be it "he" or "Jar-Jar")
    Sometimes it's worse than run on sentences. :(
     
  5. Skywalker_T-65

    Skywalker_T-65 Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2009
    I try and make it a point to be creative. I won't even use the same structure. For example:

    It could go from this: "I wonder when Leia will arrive," Luke thought aloud.

    To this: Luke shook his head as he mused, "I wonder when Leia will arrive."

    To this: The Jedi Master sighed, "I wonder when Leia will arrive."

    And...oh you get the point.:p
     
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  6. Valairy Scot

    Valairy Scot Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 16, 2005
    Gosh, yes. The key to readability is variance in sentence structure.
     
  7. Admiral Volshe

    Admiral Volshe Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Skywalker: I don't even know why I kept reading that FF. It was to the point of headache.
    It would have been great, with some extra sentence structure help.

    For example (sort of analogy) If the Ruminations scene was written in the author's style:

    Padmé was upset. She got up from the couch. She walked over to the window. She looked outside at the sky. She sighed. She looked at the Jedi Temple. She could almost feel Anakin's presence. She knew he was sad.

    :p
     
  8. Skywalker_T-65

    Skywalker_T-65 Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2009
    Remember this though...it could always be worse.

    At least the author (I assume) can spell correctly.:p
     
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  9. Dantana Skywalker

    Dantana Skywalker Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Apr 7, 2002
    Challenge accepted! :cool:

    Padmee was, like, sad and stuff! She got up from teh coach. She walked over-

    Okay, no, I can't do it. My teeth try to turn around in my head and eat my brain in self defence.
     
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  10. Valairy Scot

    Valairy Scot Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 16, 2005
    New game!?

    Padma was on the edge of tears. (Don't you want to cry with her?)

    She stood up. She took several steps. She stopped by the window and saw the Jedi Temple. She sighed. She fixed her gaze there.

    Anikin sat in a chair in the Council room. He was obeying Mace Windu's orders. He didn't want to obey those orders.
     
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  11. Skywalker_T-65

    Skywalker_T-65 Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2009
  12. Jedi_Lover

    Jedi_Lover Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2004
    I just want to scream when I see Anakin spelled as Anikin. I think the nickname Ani throws people off.
    This is one of my problems. After I write a chapter I then go back and try to piece together three sentences into one.

    I'll tell you though, in this day and age of video games, I would love to see my sons writing anything. I applaud anybody who is attempting to write a story. Hopefully they will become better writers and students (if they are in school).

    If you really want to see bad writing look at any reviews for a YouTube video.
     
  13. Skywalker_T-65

    Skywalker_T-65 Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2009
    Or go to Yahoo comments. Bad writing AND morons (though that's neither here nor there).

    My brother tried to start writing a while back. But he lacks the patience for it, and if anyone flamed him he'd hack the website. (no joke)

    Which is the problem...a lot of people who WOULD write are too thin-skinned for it. I certainly had the same problem way back when, but I'm over it now. And now I have an actual, honest to the Force, fanbase for my stories over on FF.N.:D

    (not here though...still no reviews as of yet)
     
  14. Jedi_Lover

    Jedi_Lover Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2004
    If you are a professional writer you should have thick skin, but fanfic writers shouldn't have to. I see no reason to flame anybody either here or FFN. If you don't like the story, stop reading it. I never understood why a person would read 50K words of a story I wrote and then tell me it was the most awful thing they ever read. My last flamer's biggest complaint was I made the characters look stupid and I didn't stick to canon. I wrote the flamer back and asked if he noticed it was listed as a AU parody.o_O

    Another thing I hate is when the reviewer says they think the writing is good, but they didn't like the plot. I have had people say I was a sick and twisted individual. [face_laugh] But they put down similar reviews for five or six of my stories. Stop reading them if you hate it so much.
     
  15. Skywalker_T-65

    Skywalker_T-65 Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2009
    Oh, I agree about the problems there. Really, flamers are the more insecure jerks who like to take it out on others. But it does make it to where the more thin-skinned writers can't get off the ground.

    And I've seen that happen. I haven't HAD it happen to me, but that's because people think ploting is my best point. Which is hilarious when I just make it up as a I go along (aside from a very brief outline).:p
     
  16. Mayla

    Mayla Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Sep 4, 2012
    I have had people say I was a sick and twisted individual. [face_laugh] But they put down similar reviews for five or six of my stories. Stop reading them if you hate it so much.

    So what does that say about them if they keep reading sick, twisted writing? :p

    I don't think I've ever gotten flamed for my writing, though I've gotten a bit of harassment for my worldbuilding. I guess the stories themselves aren't interesting enough to flame? Heh.
     
  17. Valairy Scot

    Valairy Scot Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 16, 2005
    Ah, who can explain flaming? It's drive by destruction through words; someone who feels empowered by "depowering" another. I'd almost rather be flamed than receive a review that was just negative, because one can ignore flamers. Negative reviews can often sink one's self esteem because the intent is not to crush and to belittle.
     
  18. TrakNar

    TrakNar Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 4, 2011
    The thinking-the-writing-is-good-but-disliking-the-plot can vary for me. I've happened upon a few stories where I thought that the writing was excellent, but there were aspects of the plot that just drove me crazy! I'd be reading the story (and this goes for profic, too) and enjoying the writing, but the whole time, I feel as if I'm pushing a shopping cart with a bad wheel; the plot keeps pulling to the right.

    On the other end, I've read stories where the writing was great, but I found the plot to be laughable. I still read those stories, as they were an enjoyable guilty pleasure.

    Just because you like the writing and hate the plot doesn't mean that you hate the story itself.
     
  19. Jedi_Lover

    Jedi_Lover Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2004
    I don't like it when the writers don't give you a heads up that they intend on killing all of your favorite characters. Oh wait, that's profic, not fanfic.
     
  20. Skywalker_T-65

    Skywalker_T-65 Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2009
    Fanfic too. I've been happily reading a fic, right up until they go off on some random character purge.
     
  21. TrakNar

    TrakNar Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 4, 2011
    Or, when a character is merely a moving piece of background with perhaps three lines of dialogue, and a few chapters later, the author offs that character. The next chapter is then spent explaining how Lujayne Forge was THE HEART OF THE TEAM THAT WILL NEVER BE LIKE PORKINS!

    If that character was the heart of the team, show us. Up until that point, Lujayne was the appendix; just sort of hanging off of the team's colon.
     
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  22. Admiral Volshe

    Admiral Volshe Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    [face_rofl]
    You definitely have a way with words, TrakNar. :p


    I agree!
    Too many times, people just don't want to write a character, or just want to/need to kill them. So they make up the absolute lamest and most nonsensical things to get it over with.
    GL is guilty of this one. And so are many profic writers.
    Can't people just plan things out before killing somebody off? :rolleyes:
     
  23. Dantana Skywalker

    Dantana Skywalker Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Apr 7, 2002
    I hate fics where people kill characters just to make room for their 'ship, even when the 'ship getting massacred is one I don't like. When I killed Jag off in "Still Be There", I left him with his dignity and didn't have his widow skipping off to be with the next guy. Was it easy? No. Did he deserve respect? Certainly.
     
  24. Mayla

    Mayla Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Sep 4, 2012
    I think that when an author portrays a character completely OOC and shoehorns their personality into a form more convenient for the 'ship they want to write about, it's already pretty obvious that they don't respect the characters they say they like, much less the characters they don't like. :p
     
  25. Jedi_Lover

    Jedi_Lover Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2004
    Most of the time I am sure I'm writing Luke OOC. He is such a sweet, shy farm boy in most of my stories...but as I write the fanfic I am thinking, "This is a guy who decapitates and eviserates people with his lightsaber!"

    If I found out a friend chopped the head off a psycho dude trying to kill him I would be wary of somebody that could do that even in self defense. Maybe it is me and light sabers. They give me the creeps.

    My brain tells me he should act more like a hardened warrior...but then that wouldn't go over well with the L/M 'shippers (which I am).