Fan Fiction Pet Peeves

Saturday, January 11, 2014 0 Comments A+ a-

Lately I’ve been spending my free time reading a lot of Fan Fiction. For those of you who don’t know, Fan Fiction are stories created by fans of a certain fandom, thus the name, mainly to have their share on how a book would end, or how two characters should’ve been, and all that. It’s anything under the sun, really. But, after all this reading, I noticed how many things annoy me when I read these things. So, I present to you, Andrea’s Fan Fiction Pet Peeves! (Yaaaaay!)

Note: This is just a silly little list I want to share with you guys and it is not meant to offend anyone. I also wrote a lot of fan fiction before and I’m pretty sure I did one or two of these things back then. ;)

1.    Summaries

Like almost everyone I know, before I read stories, I look at the summaries first. It’s basically how the authors give the readers a peek of what they would be reading. I know a good number of stories that have these summaries that makes the reader want to read more, and then there’s some that’s just plainly too long or too short, but does not contain much excitement and interest. This is a bit fine with me, because people have different ways with words, so I don’t mind long or short summaries.

What I do mind, is the people who tend to put “I suck at summaries, but the story is good!!1! I swear!!! READ!!” It puts me off when I see these kind of things on summaries. If you can’t write a decent summary for your story, then how could we expect you to write a decent, or moreover, good story?


2.    Mixed Up Tenses

I don’t really mind what tense a story is in, but I do read a lot of which are in the past tense. These kind of things depend on the writer whether past or present may their tense be. Many of my buddies at some online forums say that writing in present tense gives more action and definition to what is happening, rather than in past tense wherein you’re narrating what has happened. But, writing in present tense is a bit harder. Like I said, it all depends on the writer.

What I hate about this though is how some writers tend to mix up the tenses. It’s confusing and not to mention blinding! Please, please stick to the tenses. If it’s past tense, it’s past. If it’s present tense, it’s present. It stays the same.


3.    IS YOUR CAPS LOCK BROKEN??!

I don’t think I’ve ever written a sentence like the one above. Whenever one of my characters scream something, the capitalization is still the same, and the only difference is that I put an exclamation point at the end. I don’t really understand how people can stand reading sentence by sentence of Caps Locked conversations. I get that the writer may want to project the anger in the conversation more, but I really don’t find the need to do this. Usually, when I want to put emphasis on a word, I italicize it.

“You just don’t get it, do you?” She asks me angrily.

“You just don’t GET it, do you?”

“YOU JUST DON’T GET IT DO YOU?”

I don’t mind the first two, but the third one?
Maybe it’s just me. Haha.
J


4.    Short Chapters

I’m the kind of reader that patiently (Haha) waits for an author to update when the story I’m reading is still a work in progress. I fully understand, of course, that people do have a life other than the one they have in online writing sites. I was once a writer of one on-going stories too, and I loved how my readers wait for my next update patiently. So, basically, I don’t mind slow updates.

What bugs me, is the short chapters.
I get that that’s the only thing the author managed to write in between his schedules and all, but if it’s a slow update, it’s kind of disheartening for the readers who wait days, weeks, even months! I’m not exactly against short chapters, but I really love it when some authors posts a short chapter, but also posts a long one the next week, just to make up for it.
I’m not against filler chapters. But they kind of are a bit frustrating when you’ve been waiting for weeks and weeks for an update and then when one is given to you, it’s just a filler.


5.    Paragraphs

I’m going to keep this short because this probably annoys me most; Stories with no paragraphs.

Yes, those exist. And to add to my growing frustration, the story is actually really good, but the writer is, I don’t know, too lazy or too busy or too cool for paragraphs, apparently. It hurts readers’ eyes and is just plainly frustrating. L


6.    Author’s Notes

Now, before you say anything, hear me out, okay? I’m definitely not against Author’s Notes at the beginning or the end of the story. I actually enjoy reading them sometimes, because I get to hear from the author. The thing that annoys me about these, are the really long author’s notes that end up smack in the middle of a story or sometimes everywhere in a story. A/N’s, for me, are supposed to be short notes that the author may have forgotten to add or usually some kind of thank you for the readers. Not a part of a story that’s longer than the chapters.


7.    Covers

I don’t judge a book by its cover, but we can’t deny that a really good cover would attract more people, compared to a photo from Google topped with a random font with a neon green font color. I know, I know, not all are great at editing, and I swear I’m not one too. But, I take effort in making my covers or I ask people to make it for me and in return I give them credit and dedicate a chapter from the story to them.

Covers reflect what the story holds, so a good cover won’t hurt. I actually love looking at covers. It gives me inspirations on making my own. But, of course, I know a good number of stories that are great, but the covers, not so much. This is a minor thing, rather than a pet peeve actually. I just really fall in love with the covers sometimes. Hahahaha.

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Alright, That seems to be the end of it! This idea actually came from FanFiction(.net) forums wherein a person started a thread sharing his Fan Fiction pet peeves and then a lot of people shared theirs too. So, it’s your turn! J I tag everyone who is reading this write now to also create their own Fan Fiction Pet Peeves list and share them! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you again soon!

The Sempiternal Reader,
Andrea

A Veterinarian in the making. She loves dogs, turtles, pastries, books, and videogames.

May the comments be ever in my favor (or not)