Is Author Appeal a bad thing?

I took a look at the AuthorAppeal page in order to see what the conventions are on that, and from what I gathered, it seems to be written in a slightly negative light, in which author appeal can only lead to bad things. While I do believe that TropesAreTools, many times I get the creeping feeling that if I do a certain thing with writing (using Author Appeal for example), that I'll be breaking the rules and my work (or myself) will be despised/criticized for it.

So, in regards to Author Appeal, does TropesAreNotBad apply to this? If so, where is the line drawn between good Author Appeal and bad Author Appeal? What is permitted and what isn't?

I'll reply to any requests of examples if necessary, but in short, I have a NinjaPirateZombieRobot situation with a Neutral Good Vampire Sheriff as well as a Chaotic Good little shit Werewolf mage who do all sorts of cool stuff in a Magical Community Dimension filled with all kinds of things. The vampire drives around in a '96 Caprice, carries a magically enhanced SPAS-12 (that fires non-lethals) and having a fondness for Oreo cookies and Siberian husky puppies.

I have a slight feeling that I may have gone too far but I hope that if I string together a good story I might be able to get away with anything. But I do have a sneaking feeling that there's still a limit as to what I can do. What are the thoughts of the Tropers here? I'd love to hear them.

Edited by TactiusTSI on Aug 26th 2018 at 6:35:10 AM

Avoiding Author Appeal altogether seems impossible. Why would you write about things that don't interest you?

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with it as long as you don't falsely market your dark fetish porn as serious relationship advice or things along those lines. Writing is meant to be fun after all, so write what you want.

Edited by Corvidae on Aug 25th 2018 at 10:54:47 AM

"Bad" Author Appeal is when the author inserts things they really like in a way that detracts from the overall product. As that page states, proper Mary Sues that actually, honestly bend the story to their will, Author Tracts, and poorly-done Mega Crossover fanfics are all examples of Author Appeal gone bad. If you have a general idea of how to construct a believable, entertaining story and keep it moving, I don't think you'll have too many issues avoiding bad Author Appeal.

I don't see anything inherently wrong with any of the things you spoilered-out. If you write the story in an engaging and interesting way, it doesn't matter that these are things that appeal to you. If you wrote them as universe-warping Mary Sues, it would be a separate, but related, issue.

Personally, I like the idea of having people from different eras thrown together and women who ride motorcycles and can shoot really well, so they're turning up in my story.

Author appeal generally starts to become evident when you look at an author's many works and notice that they always seem to include [[creator/Joss Whedon lengthy close-ups of barefooted women]] or some such. You'd have to read a number of my works in progress to work out the motorcycling/firearm-using women thing if I hadn't mentioned it.

Otherwise, you mostly don't notice - even though all authors include things in their works that they find interesting or appealing (or they wouldn't include them).