- Location
- Earth
Seconded hard. Most of the time I see this I just drop the new stuff because I already know it will die in short order.
Bonus points if the author in question prefaces the new stuff with an Author's Note calling themselves out for it.
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Pet Peeves in Fanfiction
- Thread starter LostHourglass
- Start date
Bonus points if the author in question prefaces the new stuff with an Author's Note calling themselves out for it.
- Location
- hell
I stopped even looking at anything under 10,000 words years ago. Occasionally that number goes as high as 50,000. I also use a words/time judgement in some cases - thirty thousand words in a month, that person is going at a exceptional pace, even for a professional. Twenty thousand over two years, I'll probably forget what the story is about between chapters. Or it is basically dead.
Thread Tax: when an author tries too hard to make the character seem clever. Like making a bunch of "I observed this this and this" statements that can create a vague implication of something and just jumping to some conclusion that the information gap should make impossible. Not even having external knowledge to add to their observations to make it a reasoned guess. Just "I am right because look at me so clever."
Smart people can recognise the things they do not know and ferret out more details to reach a conclusion. 90% of mystery/intrigue type stories are the main character being wrong repeatedly and not knowing exactly what is going on, and getting little pieces of information that they put together to finally reach the correct conclusion. Let the character be wrong, to be ignorant and willing to fix it, and they look ten times smarter and less cringeworthy than this attempt to flex their brainpower on the other character by leaping to unfounded conclusions that are only right by authorial fiat.
- Location
- Nunya, Arizona
... my default minimum on SV/SB is 75k, once I figured out how to filter for it. Back when I was primarily trawling ff.n, it was their 150k bracket (iirc, brought it down to 100k when I figured out a way to set a custom limit). Royal road's currently filtered by >150 pages (varies a bit, but tends to be over 60k words).
It's not any concern about author writing speed or likelihood for completion, though. I just read fast enough anything smaller than that is... unsatisfying, y'know? It's pretty normal for me to read through 100-200k words daily, especially if I'm not otherwise busy with something, so a 10-20k piece or whatev' is, just... it sometimes takes me longer to find something else to read once I'm done with it than it does for me to read something that small. So Is don't.
Probably does count as a pet peeve, over the years I've probably read several dozen (maybe multiple hundred of) times more works over 100k words than I have under 50k. It's just not from a place of denigrating the quality of smaller works or nothin', more from wildly preferring to read something with some metaphorical meat to it.
Khona Moshr
Pink Flamingo Cabal Healer(they/them)
- Location
- Alabama
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Ao I have a personal limit of atleast 1,000 words per chapter on the average for me to be interested in reading a story. Since dmaller chapters just go by so fast when I read them I get thrown for a loop when I have to hit the next chapter button so fast on other sites.
And I have definitely seen too many stories where it has 5000 words and 20+ chapters.
And I have definitely seen too many stories where it has 5000 words and 20+ chapters.
E.I.G.
Robo-Bird
- Pronouns
- It/They
So, story length has always been complicated for me.
A few years back I would rarely search for anything shorter than 30k words, just because you can't trust anything shorter to have gotten anywhere, and more typically looked for 100k at a minimum because I read rather quickly. Those two were good options for the FF.net search functions, as that kind of thing is easier to go by than any other search there.
Since then I have loosened my restrictions to a degree. With a shift towards favoring completed works, and an understanding of how Ao3 has just as many "stories" that are little more than interesting outlines than actual fics.
I have also transitioned almost entirely to using favorite/bookmark lists of people who have written/listed stories that I like instead of direct searches.
Putting my own stories out on Ao3 has helped with that method, as "has bookmarked my story" is a quality that both gives me a stable link to bookmark lists and also a high chance of finding stories like what I write.
A few years back I would rarely search for anything shorter than 30k words, just because you can't trust anything shorter to have gotten anywhere, and more typically looked for 100k at a minimum because I read rather quickly. Those two were good options for the FF.net search functions, as that kind of thing is easier to go by than any other search there.
Since then I have loosened my restrictions to a degree. With a shift towards favoring completed works, and an understanding of how Ao3 has just as many "stories" that are little more than interesting outlines than actual fics.
I have also transitioned almost entirely to using favorite/bookmark lists of people who have written/listed stories that I like instead of direct searches.
Putting my own stories out on Ao3 has helped with that method, as "has bookmarked my story" is a quality that both gives me a stable link to bookmark lists and also a high chance of finding stories like what I write.
WhiteNights
Notorious Phoneposter
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Nothing beats
Collections can also be pretty good, but are slightly harder to find. Some stories are in collections, but it's harder to find the bookmark only collections, which can be more impactful. (Because not everyone want the give someone else the power over the work that involves putting it in a collection...)
Xexilf
Oblivion Sempiternum Daemonis
Im often reluctant to judge too much on wordcount, since ive seen stories which have a full developed arc and manage to feel like a complete novel in less than 10k words, while ive also seen stories where 30k words in nothing has happened yet and you feel you're still on the first page. And it can definitely go wrong in both directions.
Anyway, the one thing id definitely agree with is large numbers of very short chapters is probably bad unless the story is specifically written in that style, but thats rare (and even rarer done well). Otherwise, chapters getting shorter and shorter over time is also a very bad sign.
Anyway, the one thing id definitely agree with is large numbers of very short chapters is probably bad unless the story is specifically written in that style, but thats rare (and even rarer done well). Otherwise, chapters getting shorter and shorter over time is also a very bad sign.
- Location
- Earth
Mine generally range between 4k and 6k, so yeah.Me, writing 7k to 8k word chapters:
On that note, pet peeve: superhuge chapters. I know some people read faster than me or do not mind, but I am never all that happy when chapters go past 10k. At that point reading one just becomes a question of "do I have X hours of free time to commit to this right now?", where X grows larger the bigger the chapter is. I do not like breaking in-between.
Sure, it may be impressive to see a sudden 50k colossus hit... but why not split that into five 10k chapters? Or ten 5k chapters? There are few occasions where keeping the whole thing as one is a necessity; mainly in situations where the tension is supposed to stay high throughout (e.g. a final battle).
This goes doubly if the thing only updates once a year or something.
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Khona Moshr
Pink Flamingo Cabal Healer(they/them)
- Location
- Alabama
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I definitely agree too big chapters are also bad.
There was one fic I found that had like a 100k opening chapter and I bounced off it because I didn't get the word break that hitting the next chapterbutton gives.
It's especially frustrating if you're like me and turn off your computer while clearing your browser history at least once a day. I know that some people leave their tabs open forever, but my computer can be slow enough without having 100+ tabs open and 30 days of browser history. So the question becomes - Do I leave my computer on for as long as it takes for me to finish the chapter/one-shot, or do I reopen the story every time I'm ready to continue reading it and hope that I find the spot where I left off without accidentally overshooting and reading spoilers from later in the chapter?
- Pronouns
- Male
Published chapter sizes range on average from 4k to 8k words(you really have to search to find many examples outside this range). It's been standardized over a century of readers deciding that's an amount digestible in a single sitting. If you want to actually be a published author, that's what you need to aim for with your work.
Tax: Stories that don't know when to end. Not that they become badly written or anything, just that they reach a point it's more like a soap opera than a story with plot that matters. Movies don't normally go above 2.5 hours for a reason, seasons don't normally go above 22-25 episodes a season(and now we're going into the 12ish episode size), books are only so big before you have to write a sequel, etc.
But Some fanfic are a million+ wordsand don't actually accomplish anything/75% could have been trimmed for a really well done and streamlined story. It feels more like the author wants to put every single idea they have in this one story instead of writing a few in the same setting that could each explore the ideas they had way better.
And I know this is something I struggle with myself. It's hard to resist the urge to shove every single character/idea into one story.
Tax: Stories that don't know when to end. Not that they become badly written or anything, just that they reach a point it's more like a soap opera than a story with plot that matters. Movies don't normally go above 2.5 hours for a reason, seasons don't normally go above 22-25 episodes a season(and now we're going into the 12ish episode size), books are only so big before you have to write a sequel, etc.
But Some fanfic are a million+ wordsand don't actually accomplish anything/75% could have been trimmed for a really well done and streamlined story. It feels more like the author wants to put every single idea they have in this one story instead of writing a few in the same setting that could each explore the ideas they had way better.
And I know this is something I struggle with myself. It's hard to resist the urge to shove every single character/idea into one story.
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- Location
- Home
Totally, especially if it's paired with them taking ages to update. Why update only once every six months and drop a 50k chapter? It feels like you're threatening your readers. Update once a month for 8~10k and it'll be much smoother.
A pet peeve I've recently discovered is when everyone in a story speaks/expresses themselves identically.
The most common version I've seen is where every character sounds like a stereotype of 18 to 25 year-old snarky, californian, youtuber. Everyone is sarcastic, everyone uses the same slang, etc, etc.
As a specific example there was a Worm fic where Kaiser, Piggot, Taylor and Amy all had exactly the same tone, only the subjects they were talking about were different.
The most common version I've seen is where every character sounds like a stereotype of 18 to 25 year-old snarky, californian, youtuber. Everyone is sarcastic, everyone uses the same slang, etc, etc.
As a specific example there was a Worm fic where Kaiser, Piggot, Taylor and Amy all had exactly the same tone, only the subjects they were talking about were different.
- Location
- Home
I would say that's pretty common for new writers, getting a character's voice becomes easier with time and experience.
But yeah, it's definitely not fun to read when the high and dignified character sounds like a random teen in the street.
I think the whole point of magic schools for children is to, er, magically give them autonomy on par with mundane adults. Ditto mutant power schools for children, supernatural investigation gangs for children, pretty much all YA fiction.
[ at least Spiderman acknowledges that adult autonomy comes with adult responsibilities and financial obligations]
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To clarify, I was aware that real life children have even less autonomy.
So it is better no model your plot driver after University rather than Boarding School? Sounds fair, although many young writers are unfamiliar with the former.
I like both. I like the world setup in the novel Metaworld Chronicles on Royal Road, where magicals go to a magical highschool, then afterwards a magical university which would be the "magic school for adults." However, they are clearly training all the magicals for essentially combat considering all the monsters in the world.
- Location
- Dallas
This is more general than anything, but stop having your characters stick their tongue out at people. I don't think anyone actually does this aside from children less than 5 years old. I've never seen a teenager or adult do that in my life.
It's not playful, not immature, just cringe.
It's not playful, not immature, just cringe.
- Pronouns
- Male
This happened to me yesterday actually. It's like finger guns, some people do it and they do it a lot. Some people never do it.
- Location
- Right Where I Am
Authors directly calling their fic shit, or warning the reader that they're about to read something bad.
Don't do that. Don't warn, don't try to lower my expectations, and don't denigrate your work. If it's as bad or worse than you're saying, then forewarning isn't going to make me like it more. I'm just going to be annoyed that I wasted my time with it. If it's better than you're making it out to be, then what you said is just wrong and annoying, and probably primes me to see flaws even where they aren't, resulting in my enjoyment of a decent fic being less than it should be.
You saying that your fic is shit just helps make it shit. Stop it.
Don't do that. Don't warn, don't try to lower my expectations, and don't denigrate your work. If it's as bad or worse than you're saying, then forewarning isn't going to make me like it more. I'm just going to be annoyed that I wasted my time with it. If it's better than you're making it out to be, then what you said is just wrong and annoying, and probably primes me to see flaws even where they aren't, resulting in my enjoyment of a decent fic being less than it should be.
You saying that your fic is shit just helps make it shit. Stop it.
Sonifri
Is this the face of a villain?
- Location
- Texas
Plagiarizing iconic quotes and scenes.
I've dropped a couple fics simple because they used the Full Metal Jacket opening drill sergeant scene like they invented it. It's one thing if an SI is throwing out quotes without characters in-world knowing they're quotes. It's another when those same in-world characters still respond in accordance to the ripped off scene at which point it ceases to be spouting of quotes and becomes plagiarization.
I've dropped a couple fics simple because they used the Full Metal Jacket opening drill sergeant scene like they invented it. It's one thing if an SI is throwing out quotes without characters in-world knowing they're quotes. It's another when those same in-world characters still respond in accordance to the ripped off scene at which point it ceases to be spouting of quotes and becomes plagiarization.
- Location
- Elsewhere
In this case it might be they genuinely don't know better.
If I had to plot out people entering Boot Camp, the only reference points I would have would be this or all the other scenes copying it in later movies.
I couldn't come up with an "original" or "more realistic" version even if I tried.
I would have a similar problem with courtroom scenes, since basically any way of making those interesting is already done a thousand times.