What are your personal "red flags" before reading any fanfic?

After reading several pages of this thread (there's 129 pages, gimme a break! XD) I really got to wondering how many "Red Flags" my own fanfic Tails of the Old Republic might be hitting for people.

Being a Sonic the Hedgehog / Star Wars crossover is probably offputting enough for a lot of people. Sonic fanfiction is infamous for being bad, though that's mostly Sturgeon's Law at work. Give teens and preteens the internet and a word processor...

As for the flags brought up so far... I was surprised how often I Suck at Summaries came up. That was honestly something that I never thought of before, though it seems obvious in retrospect. A lazy and/or error-filled description certainly won't inspire confidence in the actual story. Both the Deviant Art and Fan Fiction Dot Net versions of SW:TotOR at least have a brief "official summary" in their respective description boxes, though. If a summary is short, does it still suck?

Another surprising one (to me, anyway) was chapter length. Indeed, the first few chapters of SW:TotOR are brief (I was still new to the whole "fanfic" idea back in 2010), by FF.Net's word counter the story has 176,435 words with 49 chapters, averaging right about 3,600 words per chapter. I guess I'm in the clear on that one! ;P

Although some people might find the *length* offputting...

On the DA version of the story, I have the Standard Copyright Disclaimer at the top. Do people really find those irritating? I mean, I really include it so readers instantly know which fandoms they're getting into. Not because it'll shield me from Sega or Disney suing my ass into oblivion if they got cranky. ;P

Also on the DA version, I do sorta-kinda-slightly beg for reviews. A little. Typically it's just a single sentence asking for a comment at the bottom of the DA description box. Do people find those irritating as well?

Other flags... well, I guess Darker and Edgier is in play here, though its more than balanced out with happy moments. There's a one-sided Crossover Ship I'm still mostly playing for giggles. And since my aged-up version of Badass Bookworm Tails wakes up on the Endar Spire and basically replaces the Player Character for the time being, he can feel like an OC to some people. I guess. No-one's actually said so.

The problem with receiving universally positive comments on both DA and FF.Net is that I can't tell where my writing might still suck.

edited 31st Aug '15 9:50:15 PM by PyreVulpimorph

Tails of the Old Republic: Longest running Sonic/ Star Wars crossover on the net! (that I know of XD)

Yeah, not gonna lie, that's definitely raising alarm bells.

Fanfiction I hate.

Well... no one on DA or FF.Net has complained about it yet. *shrugs*

I rather enjoy reading the Wild Mass Guessing that turns up in the comments section, particularly on DA.

Red Flag #12785: Wait, it's better than it sounds!!

I should probably point out that, in January 2010, this fic began as a silly mashup because I thought Chaos powers and The Force were similar enough to warrant it. The fic has, fortunately, grown into something better than a silly mashup. At least, that's what my reviewers tell me. :p

Precisely **how** Tails was drawn into the GFFA forms a key Driving Question of the story.

edited 1st Sep '15 12:21:56 AM by PyreVulpimorph

Tails of the Old Republic: Longest running Sonic/ Star Wars crossover on the net! (that I know of XD)

Not automatically. It can, if it's so short that it says nothing about the fic, but at the same time, brevity is the soul of wit (and similar pithy words). So your fic grew up along with you - that's not a bad thing, though depending on how the shift in writing is done, it could come off as more shocking to readers who Archive Binge it.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

See, usually when I write summaries, I usually write them short and a little vague as to not give too much of the plot away.

SUPER POOPER SCOOPERS ARE JUST LEGENDEH!

A good piece of advice I once heard is that a sentence from your first chapter can usually serve as an excellent summary. For example, a fic I read in the Ouroborous series, Wake The Storm, did that, and the sentence managed to serve as something extremely intriguing to get me to read the story.

edited 1st Sep '15 5:07:15 AM by Windona

My AO3

This here is my "official summary", as found on FF.Net and in chapter 01 on DA:

An adolescent Miles "Tails" Prower mysteriously awakens aboard the Republic capital ship, Endar Spire. Stripped of his memory and his possessions, the young Mobian must now come to terms with his new circumstances... and find his way home.

Brief, but let's the reader know what he/she is getting into, at least.

Probably the biggest Red Flag here, I gather, is an Audience-Alienating Premise. Unless you're already a Sonic fan, seeing Tails take the place of the Player Character is going to ring alarms, as Pannic stated above. (Do check it out though... if you can get through the first 5 chapters, you're probably golden!)

I just worry how many people hit the Back button thinking NOPENOPENOPE without even giving it a look.

edited 1st Sep '15 12:46:36 PM by PyreVulpimorph

Tails of the Old Republic: Longest running Sonic/ Star Wars crossover on the net! (that I know of XD)

I wouldn't read it, but that's because I have no interest in the premise.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

I like Sonic decently. I am currently majorly into Kot OR. But you're right in the audience alienating premise. The best way around that, honestly, is hope that it's good enough that those who aren't alienated say to others that it's actually really good. You, the author, can't generate that word of mouth, because as the author who published it you obviously like it enough to feel it worth publishing.

My AO3

I personally think Pyre's writing is good but admittedly I might be biased in that case though. I do recall that premise raising an eyebrow at first. But after reading it my initial hesitance started to change.

I like Sonic and Star Wars. I wouldn't ever approach a KOTOR fic of that nature without some sort of second hand approval.

I'll give your fic a go. Work's going to be slow tomorrow night, so I might read the first chapter.

My AO3

Well... do comments from readers on DA or FF.Net count?

There's this one by a DA user named Phaenur,

and there's this one by a DA user named Exploder.

They're long, so resist the urge to TL;DR them!

First four chapters are very brief, since I was still new to fiction writing in 2010. And honestly... chaps 3-4 probably represent my weakest work, though the only reason I don't scrap them is because I would lose all the comments on DA. Like I said above, if you can get to Chapter 5 and beyond, you're probably good to go!

edited 1st Sep '15 6:22:47 PM by PyreVulpimorph

Tails of the Old Republic: Longest running Sonic/ Star Wars crossover on the net! (that I know of XD)

I attempted to read it once.

Remained alienated.

Nous restons ici.

Hmm. Could I at least know how far you got before you gave up on it?

If the last chapter you read was still one of the early 2010 chapters, then I know for certain that my early writing is dragging the fic down. That's still potentially fixable, even if the overall premise is what it is.

After going back and reading the first 10-12 chapters again, I see how my early writing is really showing its age. Jeez, hard to believe that was nearly 6 years ago when I started. Even if I'm too invested in what the story is to start over, it's probably safe to say those early chapters are long overdue for an upgrade.

Of course, no one ever tells me these things. They just back away without so much as dropping a, "Hey Pyre! Your chapter SUCKED!"

Tails of the Old Republic: Longest running Sonic/ Star Wars crossover on the net! (that I know of XD)

I've noticed that reviews are very rarely negative on fanfiction.net. Even the fics with horrible grammar and punctuation manage to get raving reviews.

On the topic of summaries, I have nothing against short ones - as long as they manage to entice you to read the story. After all, my own summaries are rarely longer than a sentence and either present what happens in the story if it's short, or the premise if it's longer (a bit like the synopsis of a movie). Red flags summaries for me are those with very bad grammar or those that contain absolutely no indication about the story ("read and you'll like it" or "full summary inside").

By the way, since how long has FFN been down? I can't seem to log in these days

edited 2nd Sep '15 2:23:01 AM by C105

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.

The problem with negative reviews on fanfiction is that it's hard to tell if the author is good with criticism or not. There's one really good author I follow on Tumblr who has anxiety issues and is fine with criticism from betas and discussing whatever ideas she has on her blog- but people telling her that plot points for stories she has planned 100K further than the current chapter posted are horrible really messes with her.

The other thing is that some who are starting out are kids in the 10-14 year old range, like I was when I started writing fic. People's reaction to bad fics can be over the top or insane mockery, so there's a culture of don't scare the newbs away before they can improve.

Some people, like me, will comment on a fic to point out flaws in characterization or plot- but I don't comment that often, and I only do so if the author looks like they need it and would accept it. Or if an author's characterization is racist.

My AO3

Generally, if I don't like a fic, I just don't review it at all. I imagine many people are the same way, which is part of the reason you don't see a lot of negative reviews. The only time I've ever been critical is when reviewing fics of people I know personally that I'm genuinely trying to help.

Yes, I can't seem to log in either. It's getting pretty annoying.

Honestly I like a little bit of racial stereotyping in my characters, just as long as I don't make them out as a caricature for said racism. Like I'm fine with writing a black person who loves to eat fried chicken or barbecue, just as long as they're not CONSTANTLY eating it when they show up; I also won't portray him/her as some hardcore thug wannabe from the Bronx.

SUPER POOPER SCOOPERS ARE JUST LEGENDEH!

You like it? Why?

Oh God! Natural light!

I got a new red flag. Replacing the protagonist of a harem series with either an OC or a canon character from another franchise. Not saying these can't be good, but more often than not the replacement is just a Possession Sue, and even when the original protagonist is present in the fic he's only there to get shat on by said Possession Sue.

Slash, pretty much.

Between characters that have no romantic overtones whatsoever.

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

I'm not a fan of slash pairings that aren't canon. Like Korra/Asami or Ruby/Sapphire? That's fine. Bilbo/Frodo or Batman/Robin? No. Just... No.

It's been 3000 years…

Ruby/Sapphire as in Pokemon? If so, that's a straight pairing.

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?

Ruby/Sapphire as in Steven Universe.

Incidentally, it was fandom shipping stuff that sort of soured me on Korra/Asami being canon. Because I feel that shippers ruin everything. But that's just me being petty.

edited 2nd Sep '15 5:48:12 PM by Pannic

Fanfiction I hate.