Fanfiction: A Love/Hate Relationship

[alixrianne]

I love fanfiction. It is a huge part of my life that I will never want to give up. There are so many amazing writers out there and they all have such amazing stories to tell.

However, there is a dark side to the world of fanfiction. This is my list of all the things that are horribly wrong with fanfiction.

1.) Mary-Sues. These little bitches are everywhere. Seriously. Now, I don't mind an OC as long as the OC isn't some super perfect, main fandom character who has the cannon character fall completely and totally in love with the OC. It's freaking annoying as hell. An example of a RENT fanfiction summary that heavily features a Mary-Sue. Mark's long lost sister goes to live with Mark and Roger. Roger can't help but be so completely and totally attracted to this amazing young girl. Will he leave Mimi to be with the love of his life?

Excuse me while I go throw up all of my internal organs. Seriously? Stuff like that makes me extremely frustrated with fanfiction. First off, the only sister that Mark has is a sister named Cindy, who is very briefly mentioned in the play. That's it. No distant cousins or aunts or grandmothers or whatever the hell else. Mary-Sues are simply self-inserts of the author. And it's stupid and immature. I have a theory that mainly middle school girls write that crap. This theory has been proven correct on occasion. (Jennifer, you know who I'm talking about.)

2.) People who type like thisssss. It'sssss soooooo annoyinggg. It'ssss nottt cuteee youuu knowww. There's only one good excuse for typing like that, and that's only if every single one of the keys on your keyboard sticks only on the last letter of any word. And that's not very likely, is it?

3.) People who don't know the difference between then and than, their, they're, and there, to, too, and two, your and you're. There is a huge freaking difference, people. If you are writing in English, please know the basics of English grammar. Please. I beg of you.

4.) This one mainly applies to fanfiction.net. Here's the deal, people. If your story isn't complete, don't mark it as such. It kind of pisses me off when I see a story that's been marked as complete pop up on the top of the page with two new chapters added on. It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't happen multiple times, over and over. When I filter for complete fics, I seriously mean complete fics only.

5.) I'm pretty open with pairings. Really. I'll read just about anything at least once. (I've even read a Snape/Hermione fic. Of course, I haven't even gone near one ever since because it was just so wrong. I'll read Fred/George, though. I'm thinking that my morals may be a little skewed.) However, I'm not too fond of pairings between people who have never even met in cannon. Take these Glee examples: Blaine/Jesse. Finn/Jesse. Santana/David. It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

6.) Authors who decide to rate their fics M because of a same sex pairing. Not because of smut, just because of a same sex pairing. I don't understand that. At all. In fact, it's kind of offensive. Just because there is a pair of pretty boys or girls kissing each other in your fic, it doesn't mean that it needs an M rating. Would you rate a fic M if it were just a simple romance fic between a boy and a girl?

There's probably many more to add. However, I can't quite think of anymore at the moment. If any of my (nonexistent with the exception of Jennifer) readers have their own fanfiction annoyances, feel free to tell me about them in the comments!

Comments

[whreflections.livejournal.com]

1. haha, yes, I know who you're talking about, XD So many people start with Mary Sue's, because to them, why wouldn't the world want to, say, read about them having sex with Legolas multiple times in a Victoria's Secret dressing room? Yes, btw, that was an actual fic I stumbled on once years ago. I was in 8th grade, and I thought it was atrocious...and also that it must have been written by someone who was like, 12. T.T But yeah, I think people have to realize that they're writing Mary Sue's because they: a. Are too hung up on just writing out their own fantasies or b. Don't want to take the time to create an adequate character and for some reason don't want to use a ship already available. Either way, it's ridiculous.

Also, this: "Excuse me while I go throw up all of my internal organs." made me burst out laughing in the computer lab, XD People looked at me funny; it was awesome. I love you. :D

2. The one with the ggggg's really irks me. I mean, ok, I am, when talking to FRIENDS on like, AIM or something guilty of doing the "soooooo" or "haaaaate" but rarely and usually used humorously or only to make a point. People who type like that drive me crazy, too. It's the same with the rampant text speak...some abbreviations? Totally fine in comments. Tlking lyk tis? NOT OK. My poor eyes...

3. hehe, yes, agreed. If you can't work it out, find a beta who can. Granted, I'm not one of those people who think everyone needs a beta, I actually disagree with that, BUT if you know you can't pick apart basic english word differences, then you need one.

5. Oh. God. Yes. Maybe then I wouldn't have to run into fics like Sirius/Bill where I have to be all "I...I don't even...they don't even really know each other!!!" Sigh.

6. Oh, that pisses me off too. Especially the people who will give something and M rating for two guys briefly kissing and then give something a T rating with fairly non-descriptive het sex. It's ludicrous.

[whreflections.livejournal.com]

And hmm, let's see, things that drive me nuts in fanfiction...

7. AU's where the 'characters' act NOTHING like the characters they're supposed to be. For instance, writing Jensen/Jared RPS fics is huge in the Supernatural community, particularly in AU's. Now, I love J2 AU's, but every now and then among the good ones you get a fic where someone is essentially writing their own characters and just using familiar names because they have nothing in common with their source. If you wanna do that, go write a book. I mean, I'm pretty open minded, and I think it's ok to make changes and such...I just don't think it's ok to change EVERYTHING.

8. People who think they are OMG THE BEST EVER. So good, in fact, that they can be condescending to every other author in the fandom and act like they're better than everyone else. The first House/Wilson I ever read was written by a woman like that, and while I love the story, I can't stand her at all. It's fine to be confidant in your abilities without being an arrogant ass...not fine to treat everyone else like they're crap.

9. People who change characters to write them super dark, and then don't fix it. I mean, I wrote a story where Cas was a demon(lol), but then I fixed it...which is why it became a full story, cause I couldn't leave him as a demon, lol This one, I get that it's just a personal thing, but like...it really bugs me, say, to have Dean suddenly rape Sam and turn into an utter asshole overnight and that's it, that's all the story's about. I guess some people go in for that kind of thing, but I can't stand it. I guess that ties in with...some people see characters different ways, so they write them different ways, and I think that's fine. But blatant OOC-ness, not so much, not unless you warn for it.

...and...I have no idea what else, XD I know there's other stuff, probably actually stuff that bug me more than these but for some reason, I just can't think of it, haha

[ajago359.livejournal.com]

You bring up some excellent points. Lol. I might have to do a part two and add some more. :)