Creative Writing Most common mistakes in fictions?

Hi all! I was chatting with some ficwriter friends who wanted me to review their stories. So assumming that you're fanfic fans, what are the most common mistakes (i.e. things you don't like) that you've seen in fics?

 

if they take perfectly good characters from loverly shows and make them all twisted and perverted and gay and such and completely change the characters it just ruins it for me i just cant stand it!! fanfics should at least keep a little of the characters personality yes? sigh but thats the biggest thing that ticks me off

 

When they make the plot too deep. What I mean is that some fics' plots are meant to make the fic a short story, but a good one. Sometimes, the ficwriters want to prolong their fics and they keep adding and adding til the story gets all confusing and really boresome.

Actually, the manga Miracle Girls is one that just like that. Well, kinda. When I got to the 3rd book, I already felt that the thing was getting old, so I lost complete interest in it.

 

One of the greatest mistakes i've seen are:

1) Using REALLY REALLY REALLY LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG paragraphs.

It's exhausting!!!

2) Not being descriptive enough about the new characters, like crossfics with rare/unknown anime shows. Hey guys, not all of us have instant access to hundreds of animes!

3) The script-like fics, where for all sentences there is a name before the sentence. That might be fine for comedy fics, but for other fics, it makes you sick. :dizzy2:

 

Unless it's actually supposed to be a script, script-like fics sometimes annoy me, but are tolerable for the most part. Also the twisting of a copyrighted character into something different, and dependant upon certain things, likeness/relations between certain characters bothers me. Lack of description can be a slight down-side as well, but that's me being hypocritical since I don't do much with desc. in my writings. That's pretty much all I can think of at the moment.

 

I think the most common mistake is grammar, and I would know since I'm one of those people who makes many grammar mistakes. Script, I don't, I mean I write in script format, the novel format whatever you call, well I have a hard time writing like that.

 

I think it's basically:

a) LOOOOOOONG Paragraphs & stories. (Hey, I have the long story problem myself. Working on it...)

b) twisting the characters around and making them gay when it's not clearly stated in the anime. (ex.: Trowa & Quatre, it's implied, but not clearly stated...Quatre could be with Dorothy...)

 

I agree with luvweaver... For me the number one it's grammar i see those errors most the time, so i'm geting used to it...

 

I agree with Energizer Bunny in alot of fanfics I've read the storys are not possible, and don't seem right.>_<

 

I'm late, so you should all applaud me...^^

I find lots of errors, but I often forget them, especially since i never rant.

That's another thing. How do you spell "(e)specially"? With or without the e at the beginning? I get confused, since in Spanish you have an e there...

Here goes:

1) Grammar, spelling, and punctuation. All in one, since they're pretty much joined at the hip. -_-; I despise seeing errors left and right. If there are only a few errors here and there, that's fine. We're all human, we all make mistakes, myself included. But please... Don't go around saying "I suck at spelling plz dont flame me saying this sux cuz i dont care." and then tearing apart words left and right.

Apart: One or two p's? I always forget...^^

2) OOCness. !! >.< If you're gonna write a fic about something, keep the characters in character! Take Saber Marionette, for example. Don't have Luchs smiling gleefully left and right. If it's gonna be a parody, what I do is take the characters' personalities to an extreme. Case and point: Tiger from Saber Marionette. She orders the others around a bit, right? In a humorfic, she's a near-tyrant. (See Terra II's Weakest Link ^^; )

3) This probably applies to punctuation, but it's infuriating enough on its own: SEPARATE PARAGRAPHS. >.>;; I'll admit that it can be passable at times, but seeing just ONE HUGE paragraph containing changes in scenes, speakers, and the like is utterly annoying.

4) She did this. He walked here. She saw him. "Hi, my name is She." "I'm He." They liked each other and walked to the mall. That's a no-no. Descriptions. Descriptions can make or break a story. HUGE descriptive paragraphs can be tiring. Each paragraph should have its main point. I recently finished the first part of a fic I'm gonna go on with for a while, and I'd like to show you the format:

>>[ten space indentation per paragraph/quote/whatever]
>>Desription
>>Thought
>>Speech (finishing the thought)
>>Description
>>Speech. Description.
>>Reply
>>Seech. Description. Speech.

And so on.

5) Chances are that someone has only read about the series, or has just begun to watch it, so they aren't familiar with who's who. In a series with so many characters, like Sailormoon, character physical descriptions are vital. And, like luvweaver said, if you're doing a crossover, or if you're just introducing characters from another, possibly rare series, describe. (This one's given me headaches...almost. ^^)

6) Script format is fine, but if you're planning on writing a semi-serious epic, it tends to be comical. Unless, of course, you're writing the script for something, or if your fic/original is supposed to be a play or something of the like. Otherwise, I'd stick with prose.

7) This is annoying: People writing about something they barely know anything about. I must say I'm guilty to a certain extent (human self defense kicking in ^^), but at least I watch the series and read around a bit before I jump into my theories. And y'know what? I was actually right in a few of them! But I was dead wrong in others. (Namely Megami Kouhosei, since it's the thing I'm newest to, excluding Princess Nine, which has no ffnet category...yet)


I'd say that's it... Um... I hope that didn't come off like a rant. I'm not the type to go around making people feel bad. They're just suggestions, and I myself am guilty of having committed a few of them. I won't even go into Mary Sues and their male counterparts (what do you call male Mary Sues? ^^;; That sounds odd...).

^^; :catgirl:

 

I personally don't write fanfiction as I find it quite difficult to work with the characters of other people, but I do read it and appreciate the good fics when I find them. Sometimes it takes a fair amount of work to do that though.

I would have to say that the most common mistakes in fanfiction (from my own POV) are as follows:

1. Not knowing the plot/story well enough. Just because you've seen one episode or read a couple of fanfics doesn't mean you can accurately portray the characters you are using.

2. Extreme cases of OOC behavior. This is pretty basic....you don't have an uber-good character suddenly go on a spastic killing spree just because you feel like putting it in the story. You had better have a darn good reason for every single time a character acts contrary to canon behavior. Even if the reason is "the character is growing up". (Note: This reason is not a valid one to give in stated example.)

3. Random slash. I'm sorry to all the yaoi/yuri fans out there, but randomly pairing two characters of the same gender together just because it's fun doesn't make a fanfic good. In fact, it will generally ruin a fic. Also, pairing two obviously straight characters together.....no. Just don't.

4. Any other pairing that cannot be justified. Now, if you can come up with a reason that Lina Inverse would hook up with Zelgadiss instead of Gourry, that's great. If you just throw Zel and Lina together because you feel like it....no. Sorry, ruins the story. Would work.

5. Poor spelling/punctuation/grammer. Yes, mistakes are acceptable. They happen, and it's part of life. However if you can't take the time to run your fic through a simple spell check....


Yeah....I have to say that I more or less agree with the other people who have posted here so far.

~Anki

 

Here's my complaint:
When a story is originally written in one language (i.e. English) and is then translated into another (i.e. Spanish), but some words remain the same because the translator is too damned lazy to look the things up in a dictionary ... I read a lot of translations into Spanish for a class in school this past year, and that can be freakin' annoying.

 

My number one complaint is mangled prose. It goes beyond bad grammar, I am talking about the times when the author wants to express something, but just doesn't know how. You end up with a sentence that trips over itself on the way to the period.

Spelling mistakes bug me too. Spell checker ffs! (or third grade for cryin' out loud)Sometimes I really wish I were an editor for these things so i could rip them apart. I have been tempted at times to rewrite some sentences, correct spelling errors, and issue a 'gold' version.

Crossovers tend to suck as well. I can stand it if I know all the characters and have seen their shows. Too often this is not the case. This is not the author's fault per se, but they are asking for it by doing a crossover.

Self inserts suck too. Luckily I haven't seen many. Cliches also annoy the tard outta me. Revenge fics had their day it seems like a decade ago. No more!!

I don't mind long, if it is well written. Most fanfic writers however can plainly not do novels. This makes a succesfull novel length fic a real gem. My favourite fic of all time is Bitter End by Zen. At 300 pages, it kept me going for a while, looking forward to what was to come, then.. well, it inspired a very strong emotion at the end, intensified by the amount of time he had built up to it with engaging storytelling.

Now, what I hate in reviews is another matter.
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reckless, irresponsible, dishonest flattery anyone?