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

Well, 90% of everything is shit, so...

Is that Godwin's Law or Finagle's Law?

Sturgeon's, actually.

edited 9th Sep '17 10:25:53 AM by TobiasDrake

....Huh.

Please no more "Wow Im surprised this thread isnt locked" or it WILL be. Also, I think its turning more into "Stuff I hated" instead of "Stuff that makes me wary" which would make it into a complaint thread and it would get locked that way.

Good point. In that case, would it be best to define "red flag" as anything that rubs you the wrong way in fanfics, rather than just full-on dealbreakers? We seem to use it both ways, but it's definitely a problem if we only talk about things that fall into the second category.

It's probably also worth pointing out why something is a red flag for you, since a lot of them are subjective. If someone posts just to complain about something like Alpha/Beta/Omega (which has come up several times) and the next ten posts are just people joining in and talking about how stupid it is, then we do end up verging into complaint thread territory. As polarizing as that kind of stuff is, it clearly appeals to some people - otherwise there wouldn't be so many fics using it as a premise.

Anyone want to add anything, or should we get back on topic?

I apologise if I've ever come off as too complain-y in this thread. I'll try to be more cautious.

edited 9th Sep '17 8:16:02 PM by Psychedelicate

I didn't have anyone in particular in mind. Pretty sure we've all contributed.

True.

Anyway, fanfics with script dialogue tend to be a warning sign for me. I've seen some fics where the rest of the story is just fine, but then you have the dialogue in this format:

Alice: This is an example of the type of dialogue used in such fics.

It's honestly kinda weird.

I've seen script-esque formats work when they're presented as characters in a chat room.

I don't know. A red flag is more or less by definition as a "Stop! Do not proceed any further!" sign. You can run into these right in the summary but it is possible for them to get further into the story before encountering them at which point you back-button the hell out of there.

The problem there is though that it's a fine line between an actually red flag and "the straw that broke the camel's back" where smaller errors accumulate to the point where the fic is no longer worth reading.

We can ALSO discuss fics that had lots of redflags but turned out good too.

Actually, I ended up reading a fic where the main character became a prostitute recently, and the subject was handled with care and treated seriously. I was worried it would be just for author's indulgence, but it ended up being really good and not for shipping.

Now that I think about it I think shipping fics in general might be sort of a red flag for me.

I don't know why, but it's very difficult to get myself to read a fanfic about any pairs... Including ones I like.

I don't know why. It just seems like they all seem to be off in some way or another. Whether it be OOC, awkward story telling, a premise that only exists to ship the two characters, or whatever.

If it's a subplot I don't mind. In fact romance can enhance a story and I don't mind when it's only part of a story... It's just fanfics that are basically exclusively about the romance that I can't stand.

I prefer stories that are in a similar genre of the original work. Unless the original work is known for having multiple genres. I also don't care for romance stories. The people who do, seem to not be on Tv Tropes. Or not on this thread. Does anyone one this thread actually like shipping?

Yes. I, for one, am an unapologetic shipper.

If it works well, then yes.

I don't go out of my way to look for shipping stories, but I'll give them a try if the description looks interesting.

-raises hand- I almost always go for shipping fics, and I specialise in writing shipping fics myself, or just character or relationship-driven fics in general. I often feel like an outsider in this overall subforum because of that though, especially since many of my ships are slash and/or noncanon

If it helps, my ships also tend to be noncanon. I started writing because I was tired of seeing romance commonly depicted in both fanfiction and official works as a really complex and arduous Will They or Won't They? courtship followed immediately by happily ever after. I wanted to explore the complexities of actually building relationships rather than spending entire stories on what I've always considered the easiest part of the relationship: going, "Hey, you want to go do something?".

Writers put so much emphasis on this. There's this weird expectation in fiction that by the time two characters even go on a single date, they should already be "married for twenty years" in love with each other. So I wanted to write more about the drama of being in a relationship instead of what I see as the horribly overinflated drama of starting one.

Of course, I'm only halfway decent as a writer so my themes don't always come across well. ^.^;; I'm a much better critic.

edited 10th Sep '17 4:27:13 PM by TobiasDrake

I kind of like Will They or Won't They? because it does set up why and how these two characters decided to get together, especially if the chances of them ever getting together in canon is highly unlikely without butchering their personalities. But yeah, I hate it if it goes on for way too long, especially if the story just throws in a ton of sexual tension for the sake of keeping fans interested.

Though, I did spend the first 10 chapters of my fanfic just setting up the friendship, and the whole “oshit we like each other” shebang will happen in chapter... 15 maybe? And then after that will be the drama involved with those two characters actually being in a relationship. So I hope my pacing’s okay.

That's YET another good point of this thread, How to do "Red Flag Stuff" right and or how to avoid it.

I like both, probably with a preference for having the couple actually get together.

Although even once in a while I get a hankering for a good 300K super slow burn fic.

I'm not a shipper, but I like reading romantic stories.

Depends on the fandom and the pairings in question. I don't really do shipping, and while I do have preferences, I'm very low-key about them. I tend to lean towards canon ships, or at least canon-compliant ones. I don't typically seek out fics specifically for shipping reasons, but I'll read romance-oriented fics if they look good and I'm in the right mood.

I don't read smut, though. Somehow it's way more awkward for me to read sex scenes in fanfiction than it is to read them in regular books, even if it's a pairing I like.

What I do mind is that shipping tends to be the single most important part of any fandom, regardless of how prominent (or not) it is in the source material. I really wish genfic was more common, or at least fics that put the romance on the back burner.