Discussion Fan Fic Pet Peeves?

I love substantive comments too, but they are rare, because we are all lazy, but I try to remember to do them if I know the person appreciates them.

 

And then sometimes you get comments that are wayyyyyy too substantive. lol! I have a couple readers that love to write a whole lot about my stories. Just check out my page long review over at FFN for one of my L/M stories. It got to the point where I ask the reviewer, "Please stop reading my stories."

 

Ooh, FFN is interesting when it comes to reviews, that's for sure! I've had ones where the reviewer speculates about every possible ending to the story ever and then proceeds to describe why each hypothesis could be correct and then highlights the theories he/she likes the best. It was like an elbow nudge going "Hey, you should do this with your story!" That's all nice and good and I'm glad you're thinking about things, but I write my own plot bunnies, thank you.

This is a pet peeve against myself - I feel the most inspired and therefore do the most writing when I am really busy and have multiple RL projects going on. This helped contribute to why I eventually stopped writing fan fic altogether; I found I had such limited writing time that I had to spend it on the stuff for the projects, rather than fan fic. And yet when I have absolutely nothing to do, it's really hard for me to feel inspired. Clearly I need to work out some kind of balance.

 

I hate it when they are right with their speculation. Maybe not so much at FFN, but here people usually read the reviews.

 

I've seen that taken to the extreme... one time I had four or five other writers develop an entire conspiracy about something they thought was going to happen in my story. They were so sure of it that they started saying how they "couldn't wait" for such-and-such to happen... and boy would the character be surprised when it did, wink wink, nudge nudge.

It kind of worried me at first, because I knew they weren't going to get what they were looking forward to so much. But it was hilarious how surprised they were when I finally posted the chapter in question. "I can't wait to see X" quickly turned into "omigosh Y happened!"

 

Lol. I've never really had very many speculative reviews. But I'm currently doing a re-write of a fic. I think people are expecting the exact same story. Oh boy, are they WRONG.

 

Now and then I leave a review on ff.net that's basically 'I really like it' or 'interesting, I can't wait to see what you do'. But other ones I will leave a true review if you will. Most of the time I have been following the writer for some time and I will tell them things that I found amusing and things that were shocking to me ect, ect, ect.

A couple of reviewers on ff.net told me what they think should happen in my fic Dark Angel which kind of annoys me.

Now I have a great reviewer that doesn't have an account that leaved reviews with great advice or thoughts. His/her advice doesn't sound/feel mean or anything along those lines; he/she is trying to be helpful and tries to help.

Sorry Briannakin for the poor review on ff.net.

But I hear you guys; hundreds - THOUSANDS of hits, dozens of favorites and about that many following and only a few pitiful reviews to show for all those stats??? What the heck is wrong with this picture?!?!


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"The Starman and Moon Goddess."

 

I personally don't mind if I get reviews that say 'oh I'm expecting X to happen' or 'I want you to have Y happen'. If anything, it shows they are interested in the story enough to leave something aside from 'great story, update soon' (I have one reviewer on both of my FFN accounts who only posts that). I've just learned that its very fun to surprise them

 

My pet peeve is when you really get into a story and 20 chapters later the updates stop. You PM the author and ask if they plan to complete it and they say, "Sorry, I got writers block." or "I can't figure an ending" or "Darth Real Life has prevented me from finishing".

I'm not saying those are not great excuses, but it is disappointing not being able to see a story you are following get finished. It's almost like when your favorite TV show gets cancelled mid season.

 

I think unfinished stories are my biggest pet peeve. I always know before I post the first chapter 1) that I can finish it and 2) how it's going to end (the ending may change as I write, but I always have an ending in mind). I wrote one story that WAS going to be an epic, but I just fell out of love with the plot, so the last chapter I just wrapped everything up so it still had an ending. Even if DRL gets really evil or writer's block gets in the way, a short post saying blah, blah and blah would have happened if I could've finished the story.

 

^This^

 

oops,,,

 

Are you the guilty party?

My fanfic Second to None was actually RedGold's unfinished fanfic. She did two chapters and stopped. I loved the plot of the story. Finally, about five years with no progress I asked if I could have the story and she said I could. I have written almost four stories with her OC that covers over 300K words...so I guess he's mine now.

 

I think RedGold had much more evil ideas for Mark.

 

This. So very much this. I'm horrible.

 

True...I think she was going to kill him.

 

I eventually finish my stories. It might take a really long time, but I do it. Mostly. I have a couple I've abandoned because I came to hate the story and what I was doing with it. Just about everything I was doing when I left the boards in '05, I've abandoned. I started a novel in my break from the boards, and I think my writing has improved so much since then.

Pet peeve I just discovered: When readers say "I have a theory where this is going, I wonder if I'm right!" and then don't tell you what it is! Maybe I've spent too much time with cats, but it's so annoying when people speculate and constantly bring up that they're speculating, but keep the specifics to themselves. I'd rather have a lively discussion of theories than this!

 

I'm horrid about finishing stories. I get a really great idea...post it...and go a couple chapters before getting another AWESOME idea to work on.

Probably my biggest writing flaw really.

 

I admit I do have 2 partially posted, languishing stories - and a lot more thankfully never posted. I probably have finished posting over 80% or higher of my stories - and I'm sorry that the muse deserted me as well as other factors. But I DO plan to finish them (if I can ever get a beta to stick and actually kick me in the plot behind, but my wonderful beta is immensely busy herself) hence I hesitate to outline the remainder. Actually, 1 of the 2 languishing is a prequel so in a way the finish has already been posted.

 

My biggest fanfic pet peeve in general is when someone writes an OOC canon character. So far, my biggest peeve in Star Wars fics are when people overdo it on evil Obi-wan Kenobi and abusive Owen to make Vader look better. Since the majority of fics I read are Vader-centric, it gets pretty sad and blatant when this starts to happen.

I think Obi-wan gets a really hard time and bashed altogether too frequently, like someone can’t simultaneously be an Anakin/Vader fan and an Obi-wan fan.

 

And I look forward to it, Bri!

 

Join the club. I tend to do that too...So far I have ALOT of stories I'm working on and everyone who reviews asks me, how do you do it. Honestly? Have no idea. lol jk but really I don't have any idea how I can juggle so many, I rotate or try to. "try try not" yeah yeah, Yoda, go away.

 

I know I will be wrong. Already I posted a review saying, "I can't wait to see what changes you bring." Then the next person reviewed, "I love the changes." LOL! Okay, I admit, I usually skim a story searching for romance scenes.

 

I'm with you on this one! I love to hear reader theories, but it seems like I more often get "I thought you were going to do something completely different" without further explanation.


But OOC characters will always be my biggest peeve.

 

I haven't a problem with unfinished stories. Granted, they're annoying because I'd like to see them be finished, but I have so many damn unfinished stories that I can't be mad at other authors without being mad at myself.

I've encountered similar disappointment in comments with my fics, and while the fic may lead up to something, I'll go and write something different. The reason for that is simple: I wrote myself into a corner. Thus, my escape is messy and stupid. There's not much more to it than that.