Warning about Pairings in Fanfiction

And female.

Eh, all I can say is the vast majority of 'epic plot-driven' fanfics that think they are writing something cool is mostly completely stupid. Most of the better works I've read have included romances, whereas most of the completely non-shipping fics tend to just be boring, if they aren't ridiculous. I hate it when fanfic writers try to turn the work into something it's not through fanfic. And I'm not talking about A Us, I like them, I'm talking about suddenly the slice-of-life manga is a space opera, or the space opera thinks its Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. It's mostly male fanfic writers writing these, too. They seem to think they can't write a good story without infusing it with epicness that is hard to believe because it's just not canon and trying to top the canon when really, it's just invasive and difficult to accept.

One of the good things that shipping has going for it is that often such stories can take place in the 'in between' sections of canon so they aren't too invasive or difficult to believe.

Also I tend to like character-driven stuff, romantic or otherwise, and these 'epic' plot-fics tend to have crappy characterization. They are basically 'stuff happens' and has little emotional or uplifting content. It's just a way to give everyone new, cooler powers or gadgets or whatever or introduce a cool Villain Sue.

Really, my main preference for fics is when stories have both a ship and a plot. Best of both.

As someone who does not write any fanfiction and reads little, I'm probably not the best-qualified person to make value judgments on it... but my personal feeling is that what Noir Grimoir describes is as bad as shipping fanfiction, in that it radically changes the focus of the original canon work for no other purpose then what is basically Author Appeal.

Someone writing an "epic" fanfic for a work that is "epic" in canon as well is fine, as is someone writing shipping fanfic for a work that canonically is about romance. What bothers me about shipping, again, is that there is going to be far more shipping fanfiction about works that are originally "epic" then there is "epic" fanfiction about works that focus on romance.

tl;dr: I dislike most stuff that isn't Original Flavor (of whatever sort), but I complain much more about shipping because it tends to make up a lot more non-Original Flavor stuff then anything else.

"I complain much more about shipping because it tends to make up a lot more non-Original Flavor stuff then anything else."

I highly disagree with that, but...eh. Believe what you want. I think of shipping fics (except for crack pairings) as more filling in on the characterization/romance we don't get to see in the main series because we are so focused on plot. They are much less likely to outright change anything about the story in shipping fics, where-as in other fics, they add all kinds of things that aren't present in the canon. They have to, because they usually have to introduce a new villain and problem that wasn't in the original to continue on in a similar vein as the early series. This is usually even weirder because the endings generally have a sense of finality so it's just annoying when the guy who lived happily ever after upon finally ridding the world of the ultimate evil is told, "oh wait, there's an even more evil guy you have to fight!" no retirement for you! It's not Original Flavor in the least. Assuming it's canon-pairings, or pairings which are given reasonable justification and development in the fic to seem believable, shipping actually tends to be closer to Original Flavor IMO.

Eh, I think people, mostly males (no offense, guys, it just usually is you), pick on shipping because there's just plain more of it than anything else. Just get more guys and non-ship writing females into writing fanfics and you won't have this problem. It's not like most shippers complain about non ship-fics (well, except for me, though I don't know if I'd call myself a shipper, even though I do prefer romances, and I'm only complaining because it's the topic, I don't routinely just bring this up out of the blue), why are you guys allowed to complain about them?

Besides, if this is what you believe about romance-fic then obviously you're just reading the shitty ones. I think most people who dislike fanfiction or some type of fanfiction, just suffer from the inability to be able to tell whether a fic is going to be good or not just by looking at the summaries, so they end up reading a lot of crappy fanfic and just get tired of it.

edited 6th Nov '11 2:53:11 PM by NoirGrimoir

Isn't this what I've been saying? Shipping doesn't interest me personally, but the reason I complain about it is because of how it's so disproportionately common in fanfiction. If it was balanced out with everything else, I wouldn't like it, I'd probably be irritated at it for being non-Original Flavor, but we could coexist peacefully enough.

I'm female and don't like shipping. I want to read stories, not what two characters do with their reproductive organs.

That's not shipping, that's just porn.

Romance, porn, I don't care for either.

And can we get back to the topic instead of turning this thread into "this is why fanfiction sucks"?

(I feel like I'm white-knighting fanfiction in the fora, but I really don't see why this wiki has such a disparaging view of it. I can't remember ever seeing negativity expressed against Touhou fanart from Danbooru, or fanworks like The Abridged Series. But mention written fanworks, and the "it's all icky shipping and porn and written by GIRLS" feelings come out.)

edited 6th Nov '11 3:15:27 PM by DoktorvonEurotrash

I don't have any bad feelings about fanfiction at all. I mean, I make the realistic assessment that 99% of it is crap, but that says nothing about the quality of fanfiction as a medium, that's a reflection of the writing ability of the general population. In which I have no faith whatsoever.

That I can agree with!

You need to spend more time talking with me. Or not, as the case may be.

But I don't think anyone here has been attacking fanfiction specifically (Mr AHR was being facetious), just shipping. And that is on topic, because as I argued earlier, one of the big issues I have with the "pairing warnings" that the thread is about is that they perpetuate the 'fanfiction is for shipping' mentality I've been complaining about this whole time.

Fair enough.

It would appear that it's best to not warn about pairings. On one hand, this is the Internet and if a reader can't bear to see stories hinting at something other than their One True Pairing, that's none of the writer's business, maybe. Also, it might spoil the plot.

On the other hand, it might be a good idea to warn about adult situations, since those can trigger memories or legitimately scar someone.

About the canon issue: It might be an issue if they need to be way out-of-character in order for the pairing to work. But I'm sure a good enough writer could make any pairing work, if they really wanted to (heck, I'm no Shakespeare, but I think I've managed to make something as out-there as Kaiba/Bandit Keith work, sort of). I think if you can explain the pairing, it's fine.

About the "fanfiction is shipping mentality": while I know exactly where it came from, if fanfiction was all about shipping and/or porn (which it doesn't have to be), why would there be genre options other than "Romance" (like Humor, Parody, Horror, Friendship, etc.) on ff.net?

edited 6th Nov '11 9:31:37 PM by BlackElephant

I think adding pairing listings is more a matter of choice, assuming you are only listing Pairings that get a decent amount of scene time, or aren't automatically assumed because they are canon. Though it's courtesy to mention Yaoi or Yuri or crack pairings, I feel, just so people who don't like them don't get caught off guard. Pairing listings can also give the implication that a fic is primarily a ship-fic, but if you're fine with that then there's no reason not to have them.

I always abide to strictly canon pairings and never ship random characters together.

Typically.

My problem w/fanfic isn't shipping, it's just that there is so much of it. I stopped trying to casually browse Fan Fiction Dot Net b/c I tend to not know what I want to read beforehand. Somebody needs to make a general fanfic recommendation thread on here, so I can fix my sad about fanfiction.

TBH, I don't write romance... yet, but if I did, I wouldn't give a damn about warning people about pairings, be they straight, gay, lesbian, or whatever. That's the opinion I've settled on. So, ship on, shippers.

One more thing: by Keith/ Bandit Keith, do you mean the same character? If so, woah.Not That There's Anything Wrong with That, it just sounds a bit cracky.

For the record, that right there was "Kaiba/Bandit Keith" (whoever they are), so no, s/he apparently does not ship some character with himself.

And I'd note that the whole thing I'm bothered by about character pairing warnings is the idea that they are a necessary part of fanfiction in general - if the primary point is romance, then it seems downright weird not to note that in the description. So there's certainly nothing wrong with having them for shipping-focused fanfiction. It's when the mere presence of any romance in the story, no matter how minor, is considered noteworthy that bothers me (and I've seen this on our own Fanfic Recommendations pages, in fact).

edited 6th Nov '11 8:30:09 PM by nrjxll

Yeah, if the story is only about Alice and Bob going on a date, it's just ridiculous to not say that's what the fic is about. But if there's more involved, don't make it seem like there isn't.

"I always abide to strictly canon pairings and never ship random characters together.

Typically. "

Hmm. Well, I never abide to strictly canon pairings and always ship random characters together. Typically.

edited 7th Nov '11 4:18:20 PM by loganlocksley