Discussion Fan Fic Pet Peeves?

Another thing that bothers me is when people make their OC from Earth, and why? Because they will most likely never explain where Earth is compared to the rest of the galaxy.

I'm dong a Trigun crossover and for people who've never seen the anime (I highly recommend it, it's one of my favorite sci-fi anime right up there with Star Wars for a great sci-fi story, it's a space western) humanity left Earth because they couldn't sustain it and they crash landed their ships on a desert planet named Gunsmoke where the main character Vash the Stampede is a pacifist outlaw gunman with a $$60 billion (double dollar) bounty on his head.

In my crossover story I say that Gunsmoke is located in the Unknown Regions that makes it far, far away from Earth.

In my story Vash the Stampede the main character from Trigun has traveled into the galaxy from Gunsmoke and because people from Gunsmoke originally came from Earth Vash will use "Earthisms" and Star Wars characters do not recognize Earth food, slang or literature (I only make references to classic literature).

If you're gonna connect the GFFA to Earth for some reason, at least let it make sense, and I've always wondered in "Earth stories", does George Lucas exist?! That just weirds me out with that idea.

 

GuaridanSoulBlade that is one of my pet peeves too. I hate it when for no discernible reason Earth is used; unless it is supposed to be humorous like a fic I wrote for Halloween with some of our favorite bounty hunters accidentally landing on Earth with a malfunctioning hyperdrive during Halloween. Usually I will chase people that fan fics that feature Earth in the here and now since Star Wars takes place 'a long time ago' but if it is a humor piece then it is better since that is one of the only ways you're going to be able to inject the humor you want.

"Your Trandoshan costume is so realistic!" Is only possible if it happens post May 1980.

 

When a fic look as if it took fifteen minutes to write, with nothing really going on in it, dialogue tags nonsense galore, meh sentences, corny stuff overall and you don't know how the author would react if you told them so, because you don't know them well and you never spoke to them.

 

Oh yes, I hate that, there's a difference between drabbles, Vignettes and just not putting decent effort into your chapter, my bare minimum is 1,000 words for each chapter I write, but nowdays it's turning into 2,000 words. I also hate it when it's incoherent, if I'm reading something, I want to understand what I'm reading!

 

I would not be *that* exclusive.

 

I try to get at least 1,000 words in a chapter as well. Otherwise, I feel like I'm cheating anyone that reads my work.

 

...heh heh...

My minimum (barring the novel I'm doing) is 4k words per chapter these days


EDIT: Yes, I write a lot...

 

4k ends up being what I do too, I just want to fit things into my chapter and it ends up being that long.

 

This is awkward and I can't even explain.

 

This, only not just one scene, but a whole chapter. I've been breezing through a fan-fiction the past three months (at 300+ pages, it's the longest I've ever written) but I got hung up on one chapter I thought was a good idea and just can't get done. Once I'm through I bet I'll start breezing through again, but I'm just having lots of trouble with this chapter.

 

That's how I am. I'll breeze through chapter after chapter, my chapters will feel great and easy to write...then the Evil Chapter assigned by Darth Writer's Block will attack. I'll be stuck for a bit even after I finish it, because it drains so much creative energy to write through the wall.

Adding to the previous discussion, I try for 3,000-4,000 words a chapter. Though that's a maximum, not a minimum. If I feel a 1,500 word chapter works, I will leave it that way.

 

I tend to measure my chapters by page count and average one-and-a-half to two pages per chapter.

 

Same here, but depending on the size of the text and whatever text program I happen to be using, my goal is usually around ten pages per chapter using 12-point Times New Roman in OpenOffice Writer and the same sort of double linebreak format used on forums and wikis. If it were reformatted for novel purposes (blow up the font, add indentations whilst removing the double line breaks, etc.), I'd speculate that this would probably collapse down to about ten to twelve novel pages, front and back.

I've never kept a running tally for words per chapter, and have no plans to ever start, hence why I can't just slap down a number in response to these sorts of discussions.

 

I used to measure by page as well. I just eventually switched to word count because it was easier for me. Totally understand not everyone's the same way.

On that note, it bugs me when I put my 4k minimum and still get people complaining chapters aren't long enough.

 

Yeah, I also tend to keep track by word count rather than page number. I don't always use the exact same font/spacing, so it's a more consistent marker. I do remember that when I started out I tended to try for six pages per chapter or one-shot, though. Nowadays I'm less concerned about that - sometimes a chapter is finished after 2500 words, sometimes it's finished after 9500 words. Usually I aim for at least 4k, and I'd give it a good look to see if there was a good place to split it if I realized it was going to be more than 8k, but I don't see those as hard-and-fast rules.

 

I tend to write short chapters on the forums, but if I write the story on Microsoft Word and then transfer it over to the forums, they're usually on the longer side (a current fic is clocking in at 12 pages a chapter).

 

-ridiculously overpowered/superpowered characters. Example of this (Fanfics where Harry Potter becomes an animangus before going to Hogwarts, has weird powers only he possesses, heir to all the founders of Hogwarts and can basically tell the castle what to do, has no need to learn anything and is better than everyone else.)

 

And OCs that can or will change the fate of a character by their presence alone.

 

-Extremely immature Luke Skywalker.
-I don't like de-aging fics either

 

Hearing 'you can't do that, it's not credible!' or 'that's trash/no good' like it's blanket fact just because an idea isn't popular or liked by someone else. I doubt many know the full capabilities of others. Thankfully a few here seem to have warmed up to my AU take on the Empire.

 

With the AU tag, one can do everything. Or almost everything. I don't see a problem with that.

Immature Luke, on the other hand, is just calling for parody.

 

Reviewers that are whinier than Anakin, Luke, Wesley Crusher and a host of other whiny characters combined! They complain about everything! And what they're not outright complaining about their demanding to know why character A doesn't do fill-in-the-blank because some other character could do it. Then they insist on beating a dead horse about something that the author chose to do and are just plain old being a word that I will not and cannot type. I wish I could report their trollish behavior! At least on FFNET I can block them if they decide to give me trouble.

 

^^

There are so many things wrong with that comment. You are out of character. Too many smileys. Should've been a neatly ordered list, too.

Spoiler

 

Complainers are the worst. I don't mind if a reviewer wants to make intelligent points, but saying "why didn't he do this? I wanted her to do this! Why why whyyyyy?", then repeating the same complaint later on in the story is not cool. At that point, you should just stop reading the story if you disagree with what's happened.

I have a pet peeve that's a bit irrational too, when someone accurately predicts a big plot point. I don't know why it bugs me, but it happens a lot with someone on FF.N.

 

Thanks Ewok Poet, I needed something to laugh about after stewing about what a jerk that guy is. Thank God that he isn't here and trolling us. On the other hand if he was OUR Mods would have banned his sorry rear-end a long time ago.