check in, day 10

[lilly_c]

How's the fic coming along today?

Poll #10418 day 10

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9

View Respondents

how's it going today?

View Answers

great
1 (11.1%)

good
3 (33.3%)

not good
4 (44.4%)

awful
1 (11.1%)

waht did you do?

View Answers

wrote
3 (37.5%)

edited
3 (37.5%)

posted
1 (12.5%)

sent to beta
1 (12.5%)

researched
2 (25.0%)

planned
2 (25.0%)

outlined
2 (25.0%)

something else
4 (50.0%)

Discusion: When you're searching for new fics to read what, if anything, is likely to put you off reading?
For me is it when I see author notes with (I had to use facebook for this example) plz reed dis ah fink it gr8. Not a great one but seeing texting speak in notes puts me off.

Comments

[wintergrey]

I laughed out loud when I saw your example. That's near the top of my list with this: http://fanficrants.livejournal.com/10986316.html I cannot put it better than that. Other things that put me off:

* warning for gay/lesbian/bi sex, especially when we can all see the character names right there. Seriously, why are we warning for TEH GAY in 2012 & also we're looking at an R-rated fic that says Thor/Iron Man. We can operate under the assumption that there may be some point at which two penises are involved at the same time. Okay?

* character bashing in the summary, with bonus NO for misogyny anywhere. That bitch Hermione gets put in her place in my fic! Minus ten enthusiasm points for bashing, plus two for spelling, minus infinity for misogyny. Not only am I not going to read that but you've also broken math. Way to go.

* any kind of 'ship bashing. I don't care how awesome your Jack/Sam is—if you're going to tell me why Jack/Daniel is wrong and JAM is the only way to go, then I'm not reading. Also, your homophobia may be showing. Yes, even if you write other slash pairings. Especially if it's because Jack's too much of a man to do that.

* anything at all that makes me think that you've written another tropefest: damsels in distress, weepy bottoms, slutty non-virgins, incompetent dis/abled, etc....

* slut-shaming. 'Nuff said. I already know I will hate your fic and I can't afford to replace this computer.

* trans* fail. The monkey is disappointed with you. You've been voted off the island.

[roane]

Did I mention I got yelled at for not warning for het sex once? :)

[wintergrey]

Dude. Was it obvious that there were both a penis and a vagina in play? I guess I assume sex is a possibility at any time. I am PREPARED for the SUPRIZE SECKS, baby.

"Let's have waffles, Joe!"
"Waffles sound grea—"
*BOWCHICKABOWBOW!*
"—t, Bob, and thanks for the sex!"

ETA: GDI, I still can't get the email from that account to open in this window!

[roane]

Heh. See, that's where AO3's tagging system is SO MUCH BETTER than anything FF.net has to offer. Here's what I was able to include on FF.net (where I got sent the message):

dis·place·ment dis-pleys-muhnt : Psychoanalysis. the transfer of an emotion from its original focus to another object, person, or situation. John meets a woman who looks oddly familiar. This is rated M for a reason. 1st story in Defence Mechanisms

Here's what I was able to include on AO3:

Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, John Watson/OFC, Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, John Watson, Sherlock Holmes, Pre-Slash, Genderplay, Sexual Identity, John is a horndog, Queer Het, Dirty Talk

dis·place·ment [dis-pleys-muhnt]: Psychoanalysis. the transfer of an emotion from its original focus to another object, person, or situation.

SO much clearer what one is getting into, really. :P

[wintergrey]

I have NEVER posted on FF.Net nor have I (I think) ever read anything there. *laughs* I was an LJ only guy for a long time. :)

[amaresu]

Pretty much everything wintergrey said and also:

Misspelling character names in your header. Misspellings in the header period, but character names are particularly awful.

Lack of summary. It's not 100%, but there's a really good chance that if you can't be bothered to put a summary on your fic that I won't be bothered to read it.

Summaries that end with some variation of 'better than it sounds, really' because you should be able to tell me how good it is in the summary.

Summaries that are just song lyrics. Not only do I probably not know the song in question, I probably have different feelings about it than you. This tells me nothing.

Saying that your fic is unbeta'd. I don't always use a beta and I don't think they're necessary on every piece of writing, but there's no reason to say so in your header. I feel like saying your fic is unbeta'd is just a way to feel okay about not looking over your fic for blatant errors.

Unnecessarily long author notes. I tend to read the full header and if I get bored before I start the fic you've got a problem. This tends to happen when the author notes are filled with useless information and amount to stories about the author's inspiration. Not necessarily information no one wants to know about, but almost always nowhere near as fascinating to me as it clearly is to you. That being said I feel like I should mention that language_escapes does the best long form author notes ever. There are 'here let me make a separate post' author notes and they are fantastic.

Disclaimers that says 'I don't own this, if I did X and X would've happened' tend to be very off putting. Especially if they talk about how X event wouldn't've happened. Sure they sound cute, but there are always tons of people who actually liked X event and hate the idea of X and X happening. It just seems unnecessary and off-putting.

These of course will go completely out the window for a sufficiently small fandom or pairing. Clearly.

[roane]

JKFLD:SJKFLDSJL I finished the chapter I thought was going to KILL ME. Sent it off to betas, whee! Probably got about 2,000 words today, which is amazing for a work day. Final chapter word count was 9,100. Word count for the whole piece right now stands at 34,000.

I get put off by summaries or author notes that are very self-deprecating or insecure. Don't tell me it's your first fic. Don't tell me you're not sure if you like it. If YOU don't like it, why would I want to read it?

[linaewen]

I had time to write today and nothing happened -- kept getting interrupted by Real Life. Now I'm having trouble getting motivated to start while there's time before bed. Maybe some coffee would help.... ;-)

I will turn away from fic with a groan and an exasperated sigh if the summary consists of the author saying variations on the theme of "this summary sucks." Also begging for people to read and review in the intro is not cool -- I don't mind it once I get into the fic, but not in the intro, please! Bad spelling and grammar in the intro make me feel very suspicious, so I'm unlikely to look any further. Texting speak is definitely a no no! :-D Also, once I'm in a story, the minute I see characters referred to by their hair color rather than their names, I'm out of there.

[crowdog66]

I came up with a new character who promises to be a lot of fun, AND produced my own piece of fan art for my ficverse. No actual fic, though. Woes!

As for what puts me off reading... mostly things that other people have already mentioned. And the word "chapie" instead of "chapter" in a summary. I don't know why, but it positively makes me see red. It's so. Damned. CUTSIE! *seethes*

[lullabymoon]

Managed a little bit of tweaking in my sgagenfic, with I'm happy with given that the last two days I've basically faceplanted into bed without any energy for even thinking about writing.

Things that put me off reading are basically what every one else has said. :)

[meridian_rose]

Anything along the lines of "I don't usually waste my time writing fanfic because I'm working on my awesome original fic, BUT" gets my heckles up because all unpublished fic is "worth" the same amount. If the author thinks they're somehow above writing fanfic but this one exception is okay, and I should waste my time reading their fic but not other works, I'll give them a pass and read someone who is writing for genuine love of the material and of writing in general.