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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. WIERD_GREEN_MAN

    WIERD_GREEN_MAN Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2010
    Next time "schutta" may work.
     
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  2. Jedi_Lover

    Jedi_Lover Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2004
    I would agree if I could actually have my characters swear real Earth profanity. But, that will get me banned. So until then I will use Kriff, shavit, stang and whatever canon terms are used in the EU. I cannot imagine a realistic scifi universe without some human swearing.
     
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  3. TrakNar

    TrakNar Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 4, 2011
    One of my characters, Tuffass, does use some Earth profanity, namely****. It was later explained away by it being an adaptable Gand expletive and only Tuffass, my Gand character, uses the word. If anyone else around him uses the word, it's because they picked it up from him. However, I've made it a point to not allow any of my other characters in other time frames (ABY) to use the word. They were never around Tuffass and his potty-mouth, as he died three thousand years before my other characters came to be. And Zuckuss isn't allowed to use it because he's too polite for that. It's not in his nature to do it. Even his Corellian personality isn't allowed to use it, mainly because any swearing that one does is Corellian in nature and won't be any Gand-centric slang.

    Mav Edit: the whole word has to be starred out.
     
  4. The Corellian

    The Corellian Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Sep 16, 2012
    I can't stand it when fics have either poor grammer (Spellcheck? What's that?), things are completely out of character or simply don't go with the way the universe is set up for no reason, or when dialogue isn't written out "Like this".
     
  5. smuggler_vola

    smuggler_vola Jedi Padawan star 1

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2012
    "I suck at summaries."
    Saying "I suck at summaries" is completely unnecessary in the summary for your fic, and it drives me crazy. If you suck at summaries, maybe you suck at writing too I shouldn't bother reading.

    No spacing between paragraphs.
    If it's just a giant blob of text, who's going to be able to read that? Especially if you have dialogue thrown in there, it's just confusing.

    Complete OOC-ness without warning.
    If you're going to write a fanfic, the least you could do is at least TRY to write it in character. Seriously, would Yoda go drinking at a bar and curse at Jedi that walk by (even though that sounds...interesting)? If it's for humor purposes, then go ahead, but make sure you state that it is not supposed to be taken seriously and that it was fully intentional, not just bad writing on your part.
     
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  6. ardavenport

    ardavenport Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2004
    I agree on no spacing between paragraphs. A solid block of text is just an eye strain. It is the simplest thing for authors to do to make their stories reader-friendly.
     
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  7. TrakNar

    TrakNar Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 4, 2011
    I'm going to backtrack for a moment to touch upon a couple other psychiatric peeves.

    Twice that I can recall off the top of my head, I've seen the term "schizoid" used improperly. One time was a throwaway comment by Peter David, in which the context of his sentence, he was claiming it to be synonymous with schizophrenia. The other was in the Kathol Outback, in which a character was given the diagnosis of a schizoid personality. He was described as having paranoid ideations, eccentric and erratic behavior, and delusions that influenced it.

    To sum it up, a schizoid is a loner. Schizoid personality disorder describes a pervasive pattern of social detachment. A schizoid would not have many friends, aside from close relatives; they would not show any emotion from comments or such; they would be aloof loners. A schizoid would not show any of the symptoms that were described in the Kathol Outback.

    The paranoid ideations, eccentricity, delusions, and erratic behavior are more akin to schizotypal personality disorder. It is not the same as schizophrenia, though it may share some characteristics.

    Another "schizo" disorder that may come under misinterpretation is schizoaffective disorder. Now, I personally haven't seen it being used incorrectly (if at all), but I doubt it's immune from confusion. Essentially, schizoaffective disorder is "Schizophrenia Lite". It shares many of the same symptoms, but it differs from schizophrenia with the presence of a mood disorder.

    My rant is done. Back to your regularly-scheduled peeving...
     
  8. Briannakin

    Briannakin Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Feb 25, 2010
    I agree with all these things, but the 'I suck at summaries' just gets under my skin. There is a simple formula for summaries if you honestly can't sum up your story in a creative way: [CHARACTER 1] does this.... It's THAT simple, and if you can't do that, you have obviously not put any thought into you story, therefore, it's really not worth reading.
     
  9. Skywalker_T-65

    Skywalker_T-65 Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2009
    If you can't do a summary at all, then it is probably going to not be good. As I said back when I posted the horrid Harry Potter summary...if you don't put work into what people are seeing first, are you even bothering with the story?
     
  10. TrakNar

    TrakNar Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 4, 2011
    At least that horrid summary was a summary. A poorly-typed summary, but a summary nonetheless.

    Dun dun DUUUUUNNNN!
     
  11. Briannakin

    Briannakin Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Feb 25, 2010
    I don't normally do summaries, since on these boards, you don't need one, but for my next fic, I'm going to put a summary, and write DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN! at the end, just for you guys.
     
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  12. Skywalker_T-65

    Skywalker_T-65 Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2009
  13. Jedi_Lover

    Jedi_Lover Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2004
    My summeries are usually like this: "Mara and Luke get into a weird situation that leads to bootknocking." That seems to bring in the readers. LOL!:p
     
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  14. Dantana Skywalker

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

    Registered:
    Apr 7, 2002
    But given how many of our current curse words are directly tied to things on Earth, that doesn't make sense. They wouldn't have the same vocabulary there. That we're even writing in English is for convenience because we're primarily an English-speaking audience. They speak Basic, which sure as heck ain't English. And why shouldn't they have their own set of curse words? There are thousands, if not millions, of languages in a galaxy far, far away. Restricting it to our piddly pool of profanity is silly, IMO.
     
  15. Jedi_Lover

    Jedi_Lover Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2004
    Yeah, but I am writing it in english, for English speakers. If 98% of basic can be written using English words, why not profanity. And most of our Earth curse words have something to do about sex, sexual organs, defecate, urine, or a combination of the above...all of which is found in the EU. Although I am just making the assumption about urine or defecate since I never read of an EU character using the bathroom.
     
  16. TrakNar

    TrakNar Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 4, 2011
    Note to self: Put more bathroom breaks in fics.
     
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  17. JediMara77

    JediMara77 Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 5, 2004
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  18. Briannakin

    Briannakin Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Feb 25, 2010
    For the love of god, YES! I know I'm not perfect and sometimes I do make mistakes with my dialogue punctuation, but 99% of the time I get it right. That's because 99% of the rules can be learned by looking at a children's book.
     
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  19. Skywalker_T-65

    Skywalker_T-65 Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 19, 2009
    New peeve...extremely OOC characters.

    Specifically, where someone justifies it by writing 'Powerful! Intelligent! Independent! *insert character name here*' like they were weak morons who can't make choices for themselves...thus I have to make them overpowered, a genius, and 'independent' (read: TRUST NO ONE!!):rolleyes:

    As you can tell, this really annoys me :p
     
  20. Mayla

    Mayla Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Sep 4, 2012
    I'm obviously too grammatically inept to understand the entry. What point precisely are they trying to make?
     
  21. JediMara77

    JediMara77 Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 5, 2004
    That putting commas outside of the quotation marks, or using a period instead of a comma, or capitalizing dialogue tags, or other such things are grammatically inaccurate.
     
  22. Valiowk

    Valiowk Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Apr 23, 2000
    Actually, I get the feeling that that entry might also be hard for people used to doing proper dialogue punctuation to follow, simply because everything is already the way one expects it to be and hence one doesn't actually see an example of the peeve in concern. One actually has to think of an example of that peeve that one saw recently in order for the entry to have meaning. :rolleyes:
     
  23. TrakNar

    TrakNar Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 4, 2011
    The inversion of dialogue tags annoys me. It just doesn't look right.

    A fun little peeve that I am also guilty of: No one using the interrobang. Why doesn't anyone use this thing‽ It has so many uses! I demand more interrobangs in writing!
     
  24. Valairy Scot

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

    Registered:
    Sep 16, 2005
    The "whatsis"?
     
  25. TrakNar

    TrakNar Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 4, 2011
    Interrobang. This: ‽

    It's a combination of an exclamation point and a question mark, developed to replace "?!"