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

Ah, yes, Roxas x Xion will always be my OTP. It's so fluffy...

New red flag: Summary is "I dunno what to say, I guess the title gives it away?"

Seeing a fic categorized as dark, tragic and depressing when the show it is based on was mostly comedic and cartoony. The quote "Drama is Easy. Comedy is Hard." comes to mind.

Seeing a fic be classified as 'dark/deppressing/serious', because the author is going to try so hard to be grimdark that they'll overshoot it and wind up writing Grimderp.

Some darkness is okay, but once it gets to My-Chemical-Romance-lyrics or typical-live-journal-post dark then it tends to lose me.

Dark can be done well.

Can be.

I really only read and write WAFF anyway.

If the title can serve as the summary of a story, it is either a shitty title, or you're writing something humourous.

A title should have significance to the story, but not be a description of the plot. It shouldn't be a random poetic phrase or line from a poem/song unless you're actually referencing said phrase, and it's referencing is significant.

Overly poetic titles are usually a red flag though.

(buries head in sand idly)

I'm finishing reading this thread finally. Some of the stuff is hilariously funny, but others... make me want to apologize for ever posting the one fanfic I've done and still work on.

Since it probably trips flags for a few people. The chapters get continually longer as the story goes further, the first one wasn't very long but others after have been. It's only at 48,000 words in 10 chapters though, and chapter 10 was eleven months after chapter 9, and only got one review. (saw two comments here about wanting 50-60k words and two reviews minimum a chapter). And yes, my fic is 'somewhat' AU, only in the sense that it splits halfway through issue 353 of Negima. Which is after an arc that some don't like (though touches on it very little), but basically in the middle of the last chapter of the 'main' manga (354 and 355 are set in some crap future that may or may not lead to UQ Holder).

I'll also admit that chapters 1-5 are markedly more depressing than 6-10. And I worry that in terms of pace, it rather clunks along. Not to mention using the variant third person method I saw mentioned, showing POV character's thought's seemingly more, quite a bit. (apologies for that).

It also likely commits the cardinal sin of being relatively boring for 10 chapters.

I now feel like I should at least apologize for this fic. Thanks. :p

edited 6th Mar '15 3:45:35 AM by CarrieTheTroper

Try not to take it too hard, with so many people and so many different tastes it's virtually impossible to avoid all red flags, write what you want to write, not what they want you to write.

I suppose that some who know the fic would probably point out another 'red flag' potentially with it. Because of when it's set, the 'main' character of Negima (Negi himself) is going to often not be nearly as 'present' as normal. Mostly because they made him stupidly overpowered for the rest of the setting by that point. Also justified in that he has a second project that will need most of his attention, going on in the background. Character focus is thus switched to a character who was the co-lead until she was black holed for a whole arc. The fic picks up with her departure and unexpected time jump back from the 130 year sleep (Chapters 350-mid 353), adds fill between that and the middle school graduation in 353, and launches from there into the 'new' era.

Not really a high school AU, though, even if they are going to high school. It's not about that. Though, considering setting... a lot of things happen at that place, too. ^_^

Anytime someone changes canon because he/she wrote it without reading the entire series.

I can forgive that for insanely large canons (if you accidentally contradict something in Doctor Who, Marvel comics, DC comics, or the Star Wars Legends material... well, there's over 300 books in the Star Wars old EU, not counting video games or other supplemental media) or if it came out before later installments contradicted it. Can't forgive not doing basic research on wikis, but sometimes wikis are wrong (there was a point when Black Lightning and Static were listed as having the exact same powers. Black Lightning is basically a human battery, Static has electromagnetic powers). If it's something where it was a major episode/installment that came out a year ago, it can definitely be a red flag though.

Sometimes fics are written earlier in a series. So, than later episodes will contradict the story. So, an old fic probably should get a break for that.

Yeah, sometimes it's impossible for a fic to see where canon is going and it can't really account for that. Like all the MLP fics that were written before Season 2 established Luna's actual personality.

I have some Simpsons fics that contradicted canon at the time they were written but I didn't notice because they were consistent with all the episodes I had watched (such as not realizing Kirk and Luann had been remarried or that Comic Book Guy had a revealed full name). Of course, no one seemed to notice, but I was slightly embarrassed to find out.

I gotta point out that it's not always possible to get your hands on everything. Modern stuff, sure, unless it's untranslated, but if you come into a series from the '80s then there will be material that's all-the-way-gone unless we're talking about MS Gundam.

I mean, I'm still trying to assemble a complete set of the Patlabor franchise right now. I've never found a copy of Bubblegum Crash, only the original Bubblegum Crisis. I've almost given up on finding any part of Dougram.

edited 6th Mar '15 9:57:57 AM by Night

The great thing about, say, comics, is that canon is constantly being ignored, retconned, or revised, so you'd hardly be the first to change things up a bit.

Indeed. One's story would be set in it's own universe in the multiverse. All fanfics are a bit AU, right?

Especially crossovers.

But if you are someone who has read the whole thing and someone changes things, and often this is in a drastic way, then it isn't entertaining at all.

It is especially bad if someone changes the ending at that.

edited 6th Mar '15 12:14:30 PM by Bk-notburgerking

Another thing: Sometimes a series is so darn long and confusing that it's impractical to try and see everything before you start writing. I've run into this problem before with Kingdom Hearts, which is why I generally stick to the time period I'm most familiar with.

My opinion of a fanfic is that it should follow canon. If something is that complicated, write interquels between stories instead.

What, no A Us or What-Ifs at all?

Usually people tend to specialize- for example, there are plenty of people who write Star Wars fics set only during the prequel era, or only during the OT, because that's what they know best- in gigantic fandoms, so the issue does resolve itself somewhat. I get that it's annoying to have a fic set in canon contradict canon, and there are major lines. However, nothing is absolute, and frankly canon can contradict itself a lot. As long as you have read/watched the most important material to read/watch (ex Star Wars movies) and done research on the things you're going to incorporate into your fics on wikis as best you could (ex: do the Jedi have mental health workers/institutions/policy beyond 'meditate on it'?), I don't think it's a major issue if you do your own thing in a fic (ex: apparently there are none, you can either make one up that they choose to go to or work out the implications of that in fic).

If the summary has any grammatical errors or mentions the word "harem" and "Dark!Character Name".

I don't really mind Dark!(Insert Character here), as long as it has a good reason for being such, and not for Wish-Fulfillment. Hence why I can easily tolerate Alternate Universes as long as it has a good plot.

Just don't make me read stories with really horrible grammar and spelling. They make me sick. Unless it's a Troll Fic, of course.

A title should have significance to the story, but not be a description of the plot

I think that's debatable. Just look at stuff like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea or Around The World In Eighty Days or The Fall Of The House Of Usher.