Discussion Fan Fic Pet Peeves?

We know that some characters have issues. Anakin experienced and expressed regret or guilt when he slaughtered the village of Tusken Raiders and later when he killed Dooku.

But just because it doesn't show Leia seeing someone or using something to come to terms with Alderaan I would assume that she did.

In parts of the EU it's implied that even years later the destruction of the Death Star haunted Luke even though it needed to be destroyed.

I understand when you experience a traumatic situation it stays with you until the end of time. You can leave it behind but sometimes it comes back to haunt you.

To brush someone's actions aside by saying it wasn't them when the person remembers everything. They ENJOYED killing their victims and showed little to no mercy.

Spoiler

Do you think Bucky Barnes is going to be able to put his past as the Winter Solider behind just because everyone tells him that he and the Solider are different people when he remembers killing all those people in cold blood? Most likely there will be nightmares, mistrust of people he doesn't know and unintentionally attacking people.

Spoiler

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"The Starman and Moon Goddess." Han Solo - Dark Angel

 

Lady_Misty your spoiler tag is not working

 

Try "spoiler" "/spoiler" but with brackets instead of quotes.

 

Fixed it. Thanks Gamiel for letting me know I needed to fix it.

 

Glad to be of help

 

I don't like fan fics that mostly copy the story or movie word for word. That is not creative at all. Why bother writing it and call it a fan fic? If your going to make only tiny changes, why not write only that part?

 

If you must use words from a movie/book, I like when the author makes it a point which ones come from the source, generally by doing this for the original author's words. This is most notable in the HP fandom, since a lot of times you will (at least at first) have some of the same material by default.


Now when most of the fic is just the original work, that is very annoying.

 

It's one thing to use dialogue from a canon story or movie so as to move the fic along. It's another thing to basically make small edits of canon works and call it fanfiction.

Sent from my stupid little astro droid using TapaTalk 2.

 

As in, the oft-used "I've got a bad feeling about this"?

 

This may or may not be my favourite line

I try to only use the film dialogue occasionally in AUs.

I have seen other fanfic writers use it as a crutch (using it more than their own dialogue), and some not try at all to add their own words. I can understand the first instance - it can be difficult to be confident in your dialogue if you are a new writer. It's a bad habit, but as long as they grow out of it I don't mind.

The second just frustrates me. Usually because I see other stories (into which the authors actually put effort) getting very few reviews, and these almost-plagiarism stories get more. It's extremely dishonest and IMO should not be promoted.

 

Well, I don't write AU myself; OCs with canon character cameos or alongside CCs that are canon-friendly are my forté.

 

I had a bad habit of basically using the same dialogue way back in my second/third fanfics (both of which are up for rewrite when I find the time). Mostly broken that habit these days, with the notable exception of the SG/Halo one, since the beginning of that story was set in the start of the first book and it wasn't really possible to change a whole lot. It's seriously diverged since then.

 

In terms of dialogue, I have a small peeve. It's minor and you really only notice it when you pay attention. When all the characters talk the same way.

Whether consciously or otherwise, I try to give my characters little vocal tics and nuances. They will have certain catch phrases, word their statements a certain way, use slang, etc. Some fics I've read, however, seemingly make no attempt to give each character their own style of speech. All the dialogue is the same. I could switch the speakers and the effect would be the same.

It's more of an issue with beginning writers and those whose forte isn't dialogue. But, it becomes a major issue when those writers decide to write a featureless plane of disembodied dialogue, and I can't tell who is saying what.

 

I share this one while freely admitting that dialogue isn't my strong suit.

 

I was reading a fan fic series that was AU but ninety percent of the time everything mind as well been ripped from the pages of the book series. I realized this while I was reading one of the fics and at the same time reading that particular book since I am also writing an AU of the same series and I was at the book. Yes, an OC was added and three characters personalities were rewritten and a few other things but for the most part it was word for word.

I worry about that a lot when writing fan fics whether or not I should rely on lines from the Verse I am writing in.

 

I love writing dialogue. Not sure how dstinct my chrarcters voices are when you read them from outside my head. But dialogue...

If you want to improve on that, I suggest writing a play. (Writing for the lazy, as I call it. You can leave out all the annoying stuff and JUST WRITE DIALOGUE! Erm, sry.

Bad tagging is a pet peeve I have with dialogue. Also, not tagging anything if there are more than two people involved this is only confusing. Few authors manage voices distinct enough to make it work. Readers will usually overread the occasional 'x said' anyway.

 

Way back in high school, I developed an aversion to "said," and since then, I've grown into the habit of making all my dialogue tags actions. Every now and then I'll throw in "said," or a similar tag, but all my dialogue is spoken with an action. People nod, purse their lips, shake their heads, smile, frown, contemplate, look up, look down, look away, roll their eyes, sigh, growl, huff, scoff, heave, breathe, snort, chuckle, shrug, throw up their hands, turn away, sit, stand, and hit things. I find that it helps to make my dialogue more animated.

Also, when writing dialogue, I keep in kind things that I've observed, and will model my dialogue after that. People stutter, repeat themselves, cut themselves off, talk over themselves, go off on tangents, hedge, hint, dance around a point, are blunt, snarky, interrupt themselves and others, and refer to anything as "a thing." "There's this thing I gotta do." "Here's the thing." "Well, he has this thing." "It's now a thing." "Good luck with that thing."

People also have dialects, which I try to use on occasion, along with poor grammar. In dialogue, poor grammar is perfectly fine, as that's how people talk. "I seen some things." "I'll go take the cats outside some food." "It ain't nothing."

If a character has a distinct style of speaking, then dropping the dialogue tags is fine, so long as their dialogue is distinct from the other character. Otherwise, it's confusing.

It also brings me to another peeve concerning dialogue and lack of character descriptors. When a story is written with only gender identifiers and absolutely no names until the every end, all the dialogue reads exactly the same, and all the characters are the same gender, with nothing else to set them apart. It smacks of an experiment gone horribly wrong because the writer simply doesn't know any better, or the writer thinks they're being clever. It's one thing to experiment, but for the sake of your audience, give them something to differentiate the characters! I might as well be reading a story about someone talking to themselves.

 

Ever since someone mentioned to avoid "said" in one of the creative writing classes I took, I have avoided it like the plague and I notice it every time it's used.
I don't mind the occasional use, but I much prefer the author use more description.
I think "said" sounds more nonchalant, like the character is not concerned or truly involved in the conversation. It can pull me from the story when used frequently - the only exception being when it's accompanied by good description.

As you said TrakNar, there are so many ways to describe someone speaking. No need to use the same word when we have many others at our disposal.

I also can't stand when people use the exact same identifiers throughout. I make it a goal to avoid repeating their name/he/she/they/etc. more than twice in a row.

Another thing similar I really don't like is when an author uses "you guys" or other slang in their writing more than occasionally. It makes sense for some characters and/or if they use it once in a while, but more often than not it doesn't fit!
I guess it's a mix of lack of formality/OOC-ness/bad dialogue.

 

I've lately read a raging defence of 'said' and can actually agree with it. If you put 'said' the dialogue has to do the work.It has to convey more of the feelings because there is no descriptive speech-tag to help it. Also, most people didn't notice the 'said' until somebody pointed it out to them. Why? Maybe because 'said' is indeed the invisble tag.

(I need to find that article again. It had brilliant examples.)

Action-tags are a good alternative, but they can get very annoying. I noticed it in my own writing. There was an impossible amount of nodding and shrugging and doing-things that had absolutely nothing to do with the dialogue/story and was just there so I could use action-tags.

Edith adds: not the article I was looking for but my point exactly:

(Looks like a good article to me overall, too. Only have time to skim now, must off to work...)

 

Pet peeve of myself is being scared to take a chance in the story and with the characters.

 

Do you mean take a chance at writing an AU or taking a chance at posting it online and it not being reviewed well?

You don't have to worry about trolls here. The worst that will happen is nobody reviews, but that doesn't often happen.

 

A litte bit of both actuallu, but the above post I was referring to Take a chance at writting an AU.

 

AU is kinda tough to define, though. I would argue that anything that isn't explicitly published would be AU in some way. Posting here is a pretty big limb for people to go out on...I confess that I had a HUGE fear of posting my story on the boards--I'd gotten into a couple of 'debates' over on the SOS, and left feeling like it was a shark feeding-freenzy.

 

Posting my sole joint OC fanfic was pretty scary as well. There are some here that make it rather disagreeable to post. Thankfully it hasn't been here in my experience though. Fanfic at least since I've been back has been one of the nicer areas except for when I seemed to unintentionally ruffle some feathers.

 

You should know better than to go over there. Lit can be a bit too rabid. Nobody likes to post their views on the SW Universe only to have a fanatic respond with a five paragraph rant letting you know how wrong you are. And when you post FACTS from canon sources to prove your point then SILENCE. They pretend you no longer exist. I have never had anyone say, "Hey, you are right. Sorry about that rant."

Grade, fanfic is probably the most mellow forum that I have visited. I am sure there are other mellow forums, but I am familiar with fanfic the most. Harsh comments are not tolerated. If you read the rules of fanfic you will see that NO criticism will be tolerated. If you don't have something nice to say, then don't say anything. As for AU. There are tons of AU stories here.