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

Another green flag for me is when authors try and fill in things that happened in a Time Skip. That is a window of time when virtually anything could have happened, and if the premise is interesting enough, I will read all the way through to see how the characters got from Canon Point A to Canon Point B some time later.

I actually thought of taking on one of these for Discworld. Writing about Ponder Stibbons and how he returned to Ankh-Morpork after his study-leave in Lancre. I think I could pull it off.

edited 22nd Nov '13 9:07:16 AM by Misuki

you mean missing scenes, right?

When I find a new fandom that I like, I don't care too much about cliches or much else. I pay attention to the chapter - review ratio.

It's my general rule of thumb, but if a story has the same amount of reviews as it does chapters, it's probably not that good. Twice as many reviews as chapters? It's beginning to float.

More than that? Prime. Go for it.

Interesting summaries are another one of my good flags. I hate stories that are just romance-centered and nothing else.

I give leeway with the first three chapters. Sometimes premises are hard to start off with, but if the first 1 - 5 chapters are a dud, then the story isn't really to my taste. There's more, but I can't think of them right now.

You know, you might want to rethink that Chapter-review thing. You'd be surprised at what kinds of stories get crazy amounts of reviews despite having terrible grammer or other mechanics problems.

Oh, no, I've run into those. That's normally why I go through the reviews first. If a story has 500 guests all saying, "pls review. i like. great story."

Then I know an author is sockpuppeting. Hardcore.

Likewise, a lot of authors seem to have fanclubs lately where 5 - 6 people will basically review every chapter saying how great it is.

I remember when critiques were a thing. . .

I tend to get a few somewhat positive reviews that at least says what they liked about it, but I recently got one with actual genuine criticism and possible concerns. It was a good feeling.

Another green flag: A story taking a canon premise and putting just enough of a spin on it to be interesting again but still be familiar enough to not turn me off. Basically, a well done AU.

I know dat feel. I always ensure that each one of my reviews is a critique, and I try to remain as objective as possible, but some people just see a long list of, "what I really think you could have improved on and here are the reasons why" as a flame.

Another green flag: when it's an author you love and they write your ship.

No shame.

I really, really love fics for my OTP—which, sadly, is usually either ignored in fics or relegated to a side pairing (despite the ship itself being at least somewhat popular; plus, it's not a crack ship and there's a ton of canonical evidence). And most of the fics for said ship are of mediocre quality, unfortunately. But still, if that ship is listed as the main pairing, I WILL read it.

Also, if there's a fic that a relatively diverse number of my friends enjoyed, I'll at least give it a shot.

edited 22nd Nov '13 1:44:18 PM by AceyEnn

Eh, the review ratio also has to be tweeked for fandom; big fandoms like Merlin and Doctor Who have tons of reviews on even obscure fics, but smaller fandoms barely have anyone to review.

Huge green flags are explanation fics; fics that tie in a bunch of canonical evidence in order to make something coherent. It gives the sense that a person really thought about the source material, and how it all works together (like someone writing on how Arthur, Morgana, and Morgause are all related, or why a person with revenge as a motive seems to do some odd, widespread damage). They also usually lead to great character introspection/moments, which is always a plus.

A well-paced story with good English, reasonable length, minimal OOC, and reads like an actual story rather than a plot summary. Maybe I don't have enough references since I have too many red-flags, but such writings are quite hard to find.

Fics in small Fandoms are a green flag in itself, because those writers surely don't do it for the reviews. Unless there is an obvious red flag, I tend to read everything in the smaller fandoms I am interested in.

Yes! If I see a fic for one of my smaller fandoms, such as Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Not MS Tings) or Bill And Ted, I will at least consider reading it most of the time.

Also, crossovers with other fandoms I'm in.

I'd have to weigh in on interesting/strange crossovers as well. I kind of have addiction to random crossover fics.

Crossover fanfics that partly fuse worlds/use both fandoms equally and well are pure treasure.

So I think Badass Garfield stories are becoming my Green Flags.

Shakespeare Hemingway?

Yeah. Someone else made one crossing over with Kill la Kill.

My god...you have to link us to this.

Here you go!

edited 30th Mar '14 8:33:23 PM by Psyga315

My green flags?

An explanation of how someone like Bernie from Gundam 0080 or Kou from Gundam 0083 could be even more badass.

Characters who use their canon powers in clever ways that not even the author used them.

Implied Love Scene. But that's more in general.

Romance being done right.

Crack fics like MSG: Gran Tomino.

Decent SI fics.

Here's one.

Stories centered around relatively minor characters, because they tend to be more likely a work done from genuine affection for both the character and the source.

edited 25th Apr '14 10:56:55 AM by Night

Depends on how minor though. In my experience, they tend to be OC Stand Ins that are paper-thin disguises of the Author's Mary Sue.

As for my own green-flags, I generally prefer stories that are more character-oriented than plot-oriented, since the latter frequently degenerates into "lists of things the author finds cool/hot/kinky/whatever".

I have a few... fetishes.

Not even NSFW ones... I actually don't like those, I'm talking just weird little things I'll seek out in fanfics that will have me even reading bad ones for fun if they press one of my buttons.

- As a general rule, I am a Gen fan. I'm also predominately a Gen writer. While I don't mind ships, I tend to seek out fics that are light to none on the ship-focus over ones that are most of the time.

- Hurt/Comfort fic. It doesn't matter who is involved - romantic, non-romantic —- Friends caring for friends and family caring for family I like even better, but I'll even slog through weird romantic-schmoop, even for a pair that makes no sense to me if one character is saving the other's life or caring for them through an injury or something on that order.

- Dark stuff and sad things. I don't know why other than "maybe it's cathartic" but I seek out stuff that's similar to what I write. I like blood, death, angst... not overblown, though, as there's a point when it stops being frightening or dramatic and starts being comical. Of course, I'm not adverse to dark comedy now and again, but I'm sure you know what I mean when I say that there is a difference between well-written darkfic and the stuff that makes you want to laugh at an author for trying to be "edgy." (I'm also fairly certain I've crossed that line at least once).

• Is the grammar legible and not so terrible that it's worthy of being made into a youtube parody?

• Is it actually a story and not just shipping without plot or Porn Without Plot?

• If it's intended to be in the canon universe is it believable and likewise does it state that it's in a non-canon universe?

• Are the characters diverse and not just Author Inserts or shallow expies/parodies?

• Is there a fine balance between Beige Prose and Purple Prose?

If answered yes to most/all of these questions, I find it a worthy read.

I know what you mean about the weird little quirks. I don't know if I'd call them fetishes in my case, because they're not sexual at all, but there are a few things that I have an odd sort of interest in.

Seconded.

edited 23rd Jul '14 8:23:21 AM by SapphireBlue