TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

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

Go To

FOFD Since: Apr, 2013
#401: Oct 26th 2013 at 6:57:23 AM

Overly explanatory author notes:

No plot armor here.

No Mary Sues here.

No canon-nonsense here.

There is no weakness in the dojo. Let the story commence.

edited 27th Oct '13 6:42:42 PM by FOFD

Windona Beetle Brained from At the intersection of eternity (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Non-Canon
Beetle Brained
#402: Oct 27th 2013 at 10:35:29 AM

Shipping an underage character with an adult many years older than them, and not playing it for creepiness/drama or showing how messed up it is, but instead having it being seen as ~tru luv~ with the underaged character's friends all being fine with the relationship with few misgivings.

Heck, there's only one fic that shipped an underage/overage character that I read and enjoyed, and it was because a decent portion of the plot was finding out what was going on and the friends of the underage character stopping the overaged character.

My AO3
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#403: Oct 27th 2013 at 10:48:12 AM

Incest and/or relationships in a family even if the participants are not related by blood. There is just something deeply wrong with someone having a relationship with a dependent.

ScorpioRat from Houston, Texas Since: Jan, 2013 Relationship Status: Forming Voltron
#404: Oct 27th 2013 at 10:50:01 AM

Really, I only get annoyed by that if there is no real solid evidence suggesting that the related characters are attracted romantically to each other at all. Usually they only get paired up because "Forbidden romance is hot!"

JapaneseTeeth Existence Weighed Against Nonbeing from Meinong's jungle Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
Existence Weighed Against Nonbeing
#405: Oct 27th 2013 at 11:17:30 AM

I've never liked romance fics where they introduce new characters solely to create a Love Triangle. If that's the only way you can think of to introduce conflict into the story, you have some problems. It's passable if the story is about a Love Triangle, but I've run into too many fics that are straight X/Y pairings, where suddenly Z is introduced for no reason other than to add tension. It's passable if Z has feelings for X or Y in canon, but other than that it annoys me.

Reaction Image Repository
Windona Beetle Brained from At the intersection of eternity (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Non-Canon
Beetle Brained
#406: Oct 27th 2013 at 12:32:48 PM

@Swanpride I'll second that.

I also hate fics that take a morally gray decision, character, or situation, and flatten it out to either black or white.

My AO3
SapphireBlue Since: Jan, 2001
#407: Oct 27th 2013 at 6:19:16 PM

Seconding minors with adults, and DEFINITELY seconding incest. Do the people who write that stuff even have siblings?

Also, anything remotely resembling Die for Our Ship. Even if there is a canon love triangle, fanfics have an alarming tendency to reduce the outlier to a one-dimensional parody of themselves who has no purpose besides getting in the way of the author's preferred pairing. Newsflash: most people involved in unrequited love will eventually get over it. Having them be upset is fine, but making them cartoonishly evil and spiteful out of nowhere is not. And if there was no love triangle to begin with, then there really is no excuse.

Windona Beetle Brained from At the intersection of eternity (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Non-Canon
Beetle Brained
#408: Oct 27th 2013 at 7:25:15 PM

[up]Oh god that a million times. I've stumbled across way too many fics that make a decent guy with one manipulative moment into an abuser.

My AO3
rockmanx Since: Jun, 2011
#409: Oct 27th 2013 at 7:27:13 PM

I hate fics where one character from a universe tries to godmode away another universe's problems.

Ellowen My Ao3 from Down by the Bay Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: Crazy Cat Lady
#410: Oct 27th 2013 at 9:39:44 PM

yes to all of the above. particularly twinsest

Oh gosh no why. It's not ok. it's not.

also- and this happens in books all the time- a love triangle ending by one character ~suddenly~ turning into a bag of dicks. like out of nowhere he (almost always a he) becomes abusive, sexist, evil... it's one thing if character C has always been a bit morally grey/ a bit of a jerk, but for a White Knight, Purity Sue, perfect bf that the girl loves to suddenly be EVILE (tm)... yeah, no thanks.

Got a degree in Emotional trauma via fictional characters aka creative writing. hosting S'mores party in Hell for fellow (evil) writers
SapphireBlue Since: Jan, 2001
#411: Oct 27th 2013 at 10:13:11 PM

[up] Twincest is pretty creepy.

Just thought of another one: fix fics. Especially if the summary actually contains the phrase "what should have happened." They're usually garbage.

Going off that, I've seen a few FFX fics that were basically the Macalania Spring scene except with sex. That bothers me - not because I'm a prude or anything, but because...well, lemme explain. Yes, the scene was romantic, but the romance wasn't entirely the point. The point was that they were comforting each other and trying to cheer each other up. It starts with them talking about a fantasy that would never happen, knowing that that was the case, because it was what they both needed in that moment. It wasn't about "I love you so much and I've been dying to get all over you," it was about "I'm here for you no matter what." Throwing sex into that seems completely unnecessary.

Then again, I prefer to avoid lemons, so I'm probably not the best one to ask.

edited 27th Oct '13 10:20:02 PM by SapphireBlue

Watchtower Since: Jul, 2010
#412: Oct 27th 2013 at 10:16:24 PM

There is only one time I'll accept incest, and that's if it was already established in the source material.

Regarding language, I seriously don't understand why people who can't speak English try to write stories in English. That just doesn't sound wise at all. It gets especially awkward if said author is one of those guys who apparently learned English from advertisements, and thus everything he says sounds like a sales pitch.

Enthryn (they/them) Since: Nov, 2010
(they/them)
#413: Oct 27th 2013 at 10:26:20 PM

It gets especially awkward if said author is one of those guys who apparently learned English from advertisements, and thus everything he says sounds like a sales pitch.
Wait, this happens?

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#414: Oct 27th 2013 at 10:47:31 PM

[up][up]Because it is a good exercise. Naturally it works better with a beta, but I learned a lot just by reading and writing English.

Watchtower Since: Jul, 2010
#415: Oct 28th 2013 at 3:32:20 AM

[up][up]Well, let me put it this way: I've seen it more than once. And oddly enough each time was from Spanish speakers, so I'm unsure if it might be a South American thing or something.

RN452 X-ALL! from Kakiland Since: Nov, 2011
X-ALL!
#416: Oct 28th 2013 at 5:45:04 AM

Well, I learned English by playing videogame, so I can more or less understand this. I know a person, who's a pretty cool guy, that writes in English but doesn't have it as the first language. His grammar was so bad (at Half Life Full Life Consequences level) that I actually feared that if trolls found his work, he could become an internet meme (said person also improved).

It also has to do with the fandom. When I wrote my first work, a Kingdom Hearts/Total Drama fanfic, no one complained about those issues. But when I started writing for Gurren Lagann (promotion here), I received a lot of comments urging me to improve my grammar, so I contacted a beta. In hindsight, it was a mostly excellent decision, I still have to learn better how to use grammar, but my fic is among the best of the section (granted it's a relatively small fandom).

The reason why people write in English it's because there is more people to read and I guess this is independent of one people is actually good enough with English. Heck, one reason that made me write start writing fanfic was that I used to read a lot of Total Drama fanfics and I said to myself: "I can actually do better than that!"

My work is here. Current main fic: Tengen Toppa Gurren Solvernia
JapaneseTeeth Existence Weighed Against Nonbeing from Meinong's jungle Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Mu
Existence Weighed Against Nonbeing
#417: Oct 28th 2013 at 7:16:44 AM

@Watchtower: I think it's a combo of 1. it's good practice 2. It greatly increases the size of the potential audience.

Reaction Image Repository
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#418: Oct 28th 2013 at 7:32:42 AM

I also haven't gotten a lot of negative comments concerning the fact that I am not a native speaker. Most people are either way too nice and say that they didn't even notice (which I doubt) or they gently point out some of the worse mistakes. I think the most helpful comment I ever got in this regard was someone pointing out to me that I overuse the ing-form. It is, in a way, a win-win situation. I learn and the readers get a story they wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Windona Beetle Brained from At the intersection of eternity (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Non-Canon
Beetle Brained
#419: Oct 29th 2013 at 5:12:11 PM

[up]Just from your posts on here, I would think that you were a native speaker if you did not indicate otherwise.

What I don't understand are people who are native English speakers and apparently are unable to even use spellcheck.

Or authors who ask for a beta and basically has the beta just edit for spelling/grammar mistakes and doesn't take any advice on characterization, plot, or logic. (Yes I have beta'd for someone like that why do you ask?)

My AO3
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#420: Oct 30th 2013 at 12:20:17 AM

[up]I only do "plot beta" because as a beta for spelling and grammar I am mostly useless.

But in my experience as a writer it is really difficult to find Betas who do more than spell-check in the first place. It is like most of them are afraid to point out anything else. And not every Beta and writer click...the last times I worked with a writer though a story was really fruitful, but I also had some encounters in the past which didn't really work out. For example I once had a writer who would send me a chapter...and if I didn't answer immediately, the chapter would be up three hours later. Or I did all the work and when the chapter went up everything I did, even wrong homophones I pointed out, had been ignored.

I am currently searching for a Beta for a Harry Potter Story I reactivated. I have a really outstanding Beta (and I mean outstanding...the best one I ever had!) for my White Collar stories and she is nice enough to look over stories for other fandoms for me, but I don't want to demand too much from her. Plus, for Harry Potter it is better to have someone who is really familiar with the books.

Windona Beetle Brained from At the intersection of eternity (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Non-Canon
Beetle Brained
#421: Oct 30th 2013 at 3:24:12 PM

[up]I understand that some beta's and writers don't click... but I do try to tell everyone I beta for that I will be highly critical of things that I think are plot/logic/characterization flaws... and it once ended up to the point where a person point blank asked me to rewrite their chapter. It makes finding someone you click with like a godsend.

(I have had amazing beta's, and beta'd for amazing writers before, though, so I'm not completely embittered. It's just frustrating to see someone ask for your advice/help, just to take advantage or ignore it completely and feel like that work was for nothing)

My AO3
ScorpioRat from Houston, Texas Since: Jan, 2013 Relationship Status: Forming Voltron
#422: Oct 30th 2013 at 3:27:51 PM

I'd offer to beta more, but I'd feel like I'd take too long to do it for someone and would slow them down. I'd like to get a good plot focused beta though.

Oh, and I just got thrown off a fanfic a few hours ago when it kept bringing up the character's traits repeatedly with the grace of a baseball bat. Oh, and they gave off a bit of an ignorant vibe on how females and males were different. It felt really stereotypical and just annoyed me to no end.

Windona Beetle Brained from At the intersection of eternity (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Non-Canon
Beetle Brained
#423: Oct 30th 2013 at 6:08:41 PM

[up] phrases like 'curvy in all the right places' and comparing eyes to orbs (ex: her sapphire orbs glistened) should be stricken as bad fanfic descriptors. But out of curiosity, exactly how did they suck at describing?

My AO3
ScorpioRat from Houston, Texas Since: Jan, 2013 Relationship Status: Forming Voltron
#424: Oct 30th 2013 at 6:15:37 PM

I don't really have it in front of me at the moment, but one of the descrpitors involved mentioning their huge man part while in the bathtub, and that was jarring as crap. [lol] The character was supposed to be an overly feminine male, but they tried to sell it too hard instead of just building it passively with their actions within the first part of the story. And their feminine personality was just stereotypical girliness anyway, so it didn't feel real to me.

Enthryn (they/them) Since: Nov, 2010
(they/them)
#425: Oct 30th 2013 at 6:39:33 PM

Now I want to read a fic with the phrase "Her glistening orbs were curvy in all the right places."


Total posts: 6,759
Top