Other Fanfiction pet peeves.

[jeaniebug]

there are so many good answers on here!

- i dont like the miscommunications trope because most of them are done poorly. i dont want conflict just for the sake of conflict, make it make sense
- stories with major plotholes. im not someone who will always pick up on this stuff, but if i do, then your writing has to be lacking
- unnecessary character deaths. they should be for more than shock factor
- handling sensitive topics poorly. i like dark stories but theres a difference between writing a dark story and just using dark situations to make your story seem more interesting or deep
- fast burn
- bad dialogue
- improper punctuation more than a few times in a chapter/every chapter
- forgetting about side characters and their stories. i want the ending of the story to wrap EVERYTHING up, not just main character/cast
- filler chapters or scenes when they dont add to anything. i have strong opinions about filler scenes and whatnot (in short; they serve more good than bad when done correctly), but theres a difference between writing scenes that seem like nothing but still add to the story/become something or just writing a bunch of what should have been one shots and jamming them all into one large story that isnt cohesive
- improper tag use. please use the right tags and put trigger warnings for readers!
- using the word "mate" in place of boyfriend, girlfriend, romantic partner. the word is fine when referring to a friend
- unjustified character bashing (i am a fan of it if theres a reason for it)
- when the ending is already established at the start of the fic. ive read one. one fic where it was fine but all of them were disappointing because of the spoiler at the beginning

 

[AlexneushoornTheGreat]

There's two things I hate the most in fanfiction: Misongyny and misandry. I absolutely can't stand rapey pricks who have little respect for men and women as people.

 

[Cogwork]

So a pet peeve that is exclusive to fanfiction I have is when stories rewrite certain scenes from canon and then go out of their way to mock how the original one was. We get it, you're a better writer than the author but you don't have to be so smug about it.

 

[Nine.]

I always click off of a fanfiction if it's first person perspective. I don't think there's anything wrong with those types of fanfictions, I just don't mesh well with them. Other reasons I'll click off a fanfiction is lack of punctuation and a lack of spacing, but as for actual tropes? I dislike when the story feels like it's dragging on too long and it repeats beats too much (ie: you're reading a Hurt/Comfort fic and one of the characters keeps ending up being hospitalized), when it's too OOC, and when characters are dumbed down or made weaker for plot reasons.

 

[davy]

When its tagged or described as something I'd like, but the element showed up for doesn't get a lot of detail.

A lot of the time its hurt/comfort fics where the writer either doesn't know how or doesn't want to go too in-depth on the hurt part. Though I've been told I have the opposite problem with that genre.

 

[SavannahSmiles]

When the dialogue is written 'like this' instead of "like this".

Or if there are a lot of run-on sentences or over-use of commas.

 

[snicker_sage]

I remember roleplaying as a canon character and my partner used an OC.

For weird reasons, i found a fanfic of her character, it also had the character i used, and the character i used was.. Submissive, her character was being jealous and toxic towards him, but it was him who apologized..

It was only the character i used, not me, but it’s still disturbing.

 

[AaronMk]

I don't read enough fan-fic to have beef with fan-fic as an art form. But I do have beef with a particular fic that's been simmering for years.

For context, Fallout Equestria (FoE) is crossover fan-fic of 4th Gen MLP and the Fallout franchise, adding Fallout elements and world themes to MLP lore post-season 1. I don't have beef with the fic itself. Despite the rather mid-rate writing style it's slop I like. It's fun. It's good B-type stuff. The ironic twisting of early show and fandom lore in the first year or two of bronies being a phenomenon in its time was fun. And I'm not the only one to believe so too. The fic inspired a whole sub-genre of MLP fanfiction. Tons of Fallout Equestria fics were written by other authors to varying success and levels of completion afterwards and are still being written to this day. It's its own self-identity within the Brony community, or even outside of it; much the same way Equestria at War is in itself a sub-fandom within the brony community and a fandom to itself within the Hearts of Iron 4 freaks.

However, I must rightously beef with FoE fic generaally considered the Number 2 in the Trinity of "Core" FoE-fics: Project Horizons. And namely how no one, the readers, the characters in the fic, the main character herself, and by virtue the author themself that the main character, Black Jack is a serial sexual abuser to the point her hobby of sexual abuse be in and of itself a the whole main plot point of a fully realized story. And despite going on a development arch in which she supposedly reforms herself as a serial sexual abuser to apologize to her companions for being a Piece of Shit, never really stops; which is more evident when you realize in the story itself the entire 1.7 million word story is somehow no longer than two months, involves maany characters smart enough and observant enough - including in the main cast - to point this out. But all the same, the story continues along its purely Shonen inspired plot and sweeps up what is in any normal circumstance the more self-evidently important character dynamics that would otherwise be a fully fledged plot in and of itself.

 

[motleyroses]

A big pet peeve for me is when they make backstories for characters that don't have a lot of backstory, but it doesn't fit the character at all. I'm all for interpreting characters' backstories, but when it doesn't fit them at all and doesn't make sense it bugs me a lot.