Fanfic Pet Peeves

[Skydiver]

Just look through a couple of pages of FF.net story summaries and you'll find plenty of examples

Originally Posted by Skydiver

Just look through a couple of pages of FF.net story summaries and you'll find plenty of examples

how true

Then again, most of those that say "Summury sux" aren't very long or require a level of disassociation with one's own brain that you're really not missing much.

This is purely personal, but as an anti-Sam/Jack ship fan, i totally prefer knowing beforehand when i read an SG1 fic whether or not Sam/Jack end up together.

I remember one fic that was about DANIEL, and after the whole cool story (had to do with Goa'uld tech being found in Peru) the story ends with Daniel going to Sam and Jack's wedding. i know many will love that and i don't deny you guys your fun, but that totally soured the entire story for me

i pretty much have to know what teh shipping will be before i invest the time to read a story. Doesn't matter that i know they end up together, it's teh journey that counts for me

[Infinite-Possibilities]

You know "Crater" sounds like it could be an actual character in something.

Titles are sometimes difficult for me too, because it's fairly easy for me to think of a basic idea to call my story, but the exact words to use often stump me.

I went through all possible variations of "The Price of Struggle" I could think of before I tentatively chose that one. I even made a small typed list of them all one above each other to try to make a decision. It didn't help as much as I hoped.

[Skydiver]

i'll often do that coming up with a title, i'll think and brain storm and make a list...and sometimes i've even gotten the beta into it 'hey, any ideas for a title???'

every once in a while, i have the title, i just need to write the fic to fit it

[slurredspeech]

Originally Posted by Skydiver

Just look through a couple of pages of FF.net story summaries and you'll find plenty of examples

Ah yes. That site is a reliable source of amusement on a rainy day.

[Skydiver]

almost as much fun as peopleofwalmart.com

seriously though, as much of what i call drek there is on ff.net, i have also found some new authors and hidden gems

and it's one of the few websites out there that'll accept anything, regardless of pairing.
the only real restriction is 'no smut' (which many people ignore)

[slurredspeech]

Originally Posted by Aragon101/Loneranger-1

I remember one fic that was about DANIEL, and after the whole cool story (had to do with Goa'uld tech being found in Peru) the story ends with Daniel going to Sam and Jack's wedding.

Ahahaha. Sorry. It's just... the way you wrote that, and knowing how you are, and this picture I have in my head of you reading it... Awww. IT'S LIKE THEY PUT IT IN THERE JUST TO TRICK YOU.

I do like to know the (main) ship when reading the story, too, it has to be said. Not necessarily if they end up together or not (such a sucker for tortured complicated relationships and resolved-but-not-quite endings) but I do want to know if the fic deals with the pairing I like.

Though I'm pretty meh about secondary drive-by pairings. As long it's not one of those fics where the author feels the need to pair everyone up with their soulmate, and end it with a triple wedding on a cliff of a faraway island of romance. Then they might as well all take a dive.

Originally Posted by Skydiver

seriously though, as much of what i call drek there is on ff.net, i have also found some new authors and hidden gems

True, true. Though most of the time I'm far too lazy to go through all the drek as you say. However, it's been known to pay off and there are a few authors there I have bookmarked.

Originally Posted by slurredspeech

Ahahaha. Sorry. It's just... the way you wrote that, and knowing how you are, and this picture I have in my head of you reading it... Awww. IT'S LIKE THEY PUT IT IN THERE JUST TO TRICK YOU.

to paraphrase, it went something like this.

- Daniel hands off the goa'uld device to Area 51
- Next scene is Daniel and Jack talking, and Jack's like "Good thing you survived, Sam would revive and kill you if you were late." and Daniel's like "Sorry." and fishes out the ring as Sam's heading down the aisle like a princess with Hammond giving her away. And of course, Cassie's her maid of honor.

It quite literally felt like getting hit with an errant baseball in the middle of a hockey arena! like.. where the HECK did this come from!?

Originally Posted by slurredspeech

I do like to know the (main) ship when reading the story, too, it has to be said. Not necessarily if they end up together or not (such a sucker for tortured complicated relationships and resolved-but-not-quite endings) but I do want to know if the fic deals with the pairing I like.

Ohhh i LOVE those too! In fact i kinda don't like the "resolved" ones because then it's like... Okay... the story is over and it's over for GOOD.

Originally Posted by slurredspeech

Though I'm pretty meh about secondary drive-by pairings. As long it's not one of those fics where the author feels the need to pair everyone up with their soulmate, and end it with a triple wedding on a cliff of a faraway island of romance. Then they might as well all take a dive.

Sometimes i wonder if such a thing has happened in real life without the brides and grooms being celebrities.

Secondary ships i'm a little more lenient on, but when it's just a gratuitous ship moment that has nothing to do with the story (like a wedding at the end of hte Fic after the main story is done!) i just shudder.

[slurredspeech]

Originally Posted by Aragon101/Loneranger-1

It quite literally felt like getting hit with an errant baseball in the middle of a hockey arena!

One man's errant baseball is another man's... homerun? I don't even know. Not being American, I fail at baseball analogies.

*pets you*

Ohhh i LOVE those too! In fact i kinda don't like the "resolved" ones because then it's like... Okay... the story is over and it's over for GOOD.

They just feel more... real to me, if that makes sense. In real life, nothing is ever resolved, as in they lived happily ever after. You know what I mean? It's all about trying and succeeding, and trying and failing, and working it through day after day. Save for feel good fluffy fics, aim of which is to make you smile, I like the endings to wrap things up in a way that leaves us with that feeling of open resolution. If done well, it's even more gratifying. There a sense of inspiring hope; imperfect, even jaded people - emotionally and/or otherwise - having the will and the incentive to see it through.

I'm probably making zero sense here, seeing as it's 6am and J.S Mill has eaten my brain. Woe.

...but when it's just a gratuitous ship moment that has nothing to do with the story (like a wedding at the end of hte Fic after the main story is done!) i just shudder.

Hee. It's Sam and Jack. They have everything to do with everything. <3<3 When the author decided to mention they were together, (s)he was probably just striving for realism.

*runs away*

Originally Posted by slurredspeech

One man's errant baseball is another man's... homerun? I don't even know. Not being American, I fail at baseball analogies.

*pets you*

lol well i guess you could say that the writer's home run smacked me in my hockey arena And i'm Canadian damit! Just cuz i was MVP in grade 6 baseball doesn't mean i'm biased *shifty eyes*

Originally Posted by slurredspeech

They just feel more... real to me, if that makes sense. In real life, nothing is ever resolved, as in they lived happily ever after. You know what I mean? It's all about trying and succeeding, and trying and failing, and working it through day after day. Save for feel good fluffy fics, aim of which is to make you smile, I like the endings to wrap things up in a way that leaves us with that feeling of open resolution. If done well, it's even more gratifying. There a sense of inspiring hope; imperfect, even jaded people - emotionally and/or otherwise - having the will and the incentive to see it through.

I'm probably making zero sense here, seeing as it's 6am and J.S Mill has eaten my brain. Woe.

Nope, totally understand you. in an insane world, being sane makes you insane and yes, that's what i LOVE It's a sense of realism added to a fairy tale workd

Originally Posted by slurredspeech

Hee. It's Sam and Jack. They have everything to do with everything. <3<3 When the author decided to mention they were together, (s)he was probably just striving for realism.

*runs away*

I know you won't believe me until it happens, but i will slap you silly with a penguin before our lives are over

[sbz]

Originally Posted by slurredspeech

They just feel more... real to me, if that makes sense. In real life, nothing is ever resolved, as in they lived happily ever after. You know what I mean? It's all about trying and succeeding, and trying and failing, and working it through day after day. Save for feel good fluffy fics, aim of which is to make you smile, I like the endings to wrap things up in a way that leaves us with that feeling of open resolution. If done well, it's even more gratifying. There a sense of inspiring hope; imperfect, even jaded people - emotionally and/or otherwise - having the will and the incentive to see it through.

Seconded.

I'm all for the resolved but not quite kind of ending with issues still up in the air and the sensation that the characters will keep on living. I think if a fic ends and you have that feeling then the writer has accomplished something fantastic: they've crafted a world that feels real enough that the reader believes - and wants to keep believing - it exists.

Plus, real life never ends with roses and sunshine and perfectly bow-tied resolution to problems. Some people will say they read fic to get away from that reality, which I can understand, but for me an unrealistically happy ending taints the whole fic (and TV shows, movies, books). If it's just snap everything's better, exactly like it was at the beginning, I sort of hold out my hands and ask... "what was the point of reading that, if there weren't any consequences to anything?"

[Cagranosalis]

Originally Posted by Aragon101/Loneranger-1

how true

Then again, most of those that say "Summury sux" aren't very long or require a level of disassociation with one's own brain that you're really not missing much.

This is purely personal, but as an anti-Sam/Jack ship fan, i totally prefer knowing beforehand when i read an SG1 fic whether or not Sam/Jack end up together.

I remember one fic that was about DANIEL, and after the whole cool story (had to do with Goa'uld tech being found in Peru) the story ends with Daniel going to Sam and Jack's wedding. i know many will love that and i don't deny you guys your fun, but that totally soured the entire story for me

i pretty much have to know what teh shipping will be before i invest the time to read a story. Doesn't matter that i know they end up together, it's teh journey that counts for me

From a shipper point of view I can say it's not different. I'd be fairly peeved to find a wedding tacked onto the end of a fic when it make no sense. The most frustrating thing for me is badly developed ship in a story. Me personal preference is a good SG-1 style story with a bit of romance/UST/ship in it that makes sense in context to the plot. Ok think Lost City and you get my drift.

I will and do read PWP fic and pure fluff / romance only and that's fine provided they are labelled as such in the summary. Nothing irks me more than a mislabelled summary.

Originally Posted by Skydiver

i'll often do that coming up with a title, i'll think and brain storm and make a list...and sometimes i've even gotten the beta into it 'hey, any ideas for a title???'

every once in a while, i have the title, i just need to write the fic to fit it

I was going to say "ask the beta" but you beat me to it. If you ask a beta to summarise what the fic is about then you can usually have a pretty good idea of what to put in it. The key things for me is to make any pairings clear, to make any permanent main character death clear and any mature content (sex or violence) clear. Aside from that a quick and catchy one sentence to sum up what the fic is about.


As for titles. I do that too. I once spent an age trying to think up a title for an X Files fic I wrote - it was full of UST - in the end I came up with a name that abbreviated to UST. I was quite proud of that.

[hedwig]

Originally Posted by Cagranosalis

I was going to say "ask the beta" but you beat me to it. If you ask a beta to summarise what the fic is about then you can usually have a pretty good idea of what to put in it. The key things for me is to make any pairings clear, to make any permanent main character death clear and any mature content (sex or violence) clear. Aside from that a quick and catchy one sentence to sum up what the fic is about.


As for titles. I do that too. I once spent an age trying to think up a title for an X Files fic I wrote - it was full of UST - in the end I came up with a name that abbreviated to UST. I was quite proud of that.

One needs to find a really good beta, though, because there are apparently a lot of them out there that don't know much more about reviewing/editing a story than the writer does. I've read stories where I (and other reviewers) have left a little comment about how the story could use a good beta, and the response has been "it has been read by a beta", ... though maybe that's the problem. It's been read by a beta, but not edited, corrected, reviewed or anything else, since it's still full of problems. Yet the author seems to feel that just because a beta has read the story, all problems with the story have magically been resolved.

[slurredspeech]

Originally Posted by hedwig

One needs to find a really good beta, though, because there are apparently a lot of them out there that don't know much more about reviewing/editing a story than the writer does. I've read stories where I (and other reviewers) have left a little comment about how the story could use a good beta, and the response has been "it has been read by a beta", ... though maybe that's the problem. It's been read by a beta, but not edited, corrected, reviewed or anything else, since it's still full of problems. Yet the author seems to feel that just because a beta has read the story, all problems with the story have magically been resolved.

This is very true. Finding a good beta is extremely important and not as easy as it might seem. Myself, I'm lucky to be good friends with a few fantastic fic writers and lovely people, and can turn to them for beta duties. But when one is new to the fandom, they often won't know where to look or who to seek out. This is why, in a different fandom, a co-mod and I made a concrit type of comm on LJ where people can go prior to posting their fics in the main fic community and bounce their ideas off people, ask canon-related questions and browse through the list of writers - and their work - volunteering as betas.

The most important thing though, IMHO, is having a beta that won't sugar-coat it for you. 'OMG it's so great, I love it, post rite away, pls write moar' does not constitute as betaing. It may be an ego boost but in the long run, it does the writer no favors. If there are parts that don't work or are just downright rubbish, they need to give their concrit without reservation. And the writer, of course, needs to be open for constructive criticism, something not all writers are that keen on.

[iamdragonrider]

So, how come when Sam and Jack get together, finally, Jack turns into this caring, considerate, romantic, tender, etc individual?

Of course, the relationship is generally instanly perfect from both angles, no matter how it starts, despite the years of baggage and failed relationships. (I won't even get into the perfect, mind blowing sex, among other perfect things...)

Maybe I'm just hopeles, since good gen non-ship fic is sooo hard to find. You end up reading the ship stuff for something to read and trying to ignore the sap.

Ok, I admit it. I couldn't help it. I had to write an S/J piece (coming from someone that doens't usually do more than S/J UST) that looks at the early relationship, with a realistic view. You can find it on the S/J Always and Forever site if you want something that doesn't paint our couple in an absolutely perfect glow. I wrote it despite threats, and actually got a grudging thumbs up from a hard core sappy romantic. If you read Interruptions, you can maybe think of it as a sorta pre-quel.

[Cagranosalis]

Originally Posted by iamdragonrider

So, how come when Sam and Jack get together, finally, Jack turns into this caring, considerate, romantic, tender, etc individual?

Of course, the relationship is generally instanly perfect from both angles, no matter how it starts, despite the years of baggage and failed relationships. (I won't even get into the perfect, mind blowing sex, among other perfect things...)

Maybe I'm just hopeles, since good gen non-ship fic is sooo hard to find. You end up reading the ship stuff for something to read and trying to ignore the sap.

Ok, I admit it. I couldn't help it. I had to write an S/J piece (coming from someone that doens't usually do more than S/J UST) that looks at the early relationship, with a realistic view. You can find it on the S/J Always and Forever site if you want something that doesn't paint our couple in an absolutely perfect glow. I wrote it despite threats, and actually got a grudging thumbs up from a hard core sappy romantic. If you read Interruptions, you can maybe think of it as a sorta pre-quel.

Link please?


Incidently, as a shipper I can tell you I'm not overly keen on fics that alter their core personality or paint a picture of perfection. One of our regulars (VSS - who writes under the name podbaydoors on FF.net) wrote a couple of beautifully well thought out fics that deal with Sam and Jack getting together and their ongoing relationship. I would heartily recommend As the World Doesn't Turn and The Theory Of General Relativity for a couple of it's-not-a-perfect-world fics.

[iamdragonrider]

Originally Posted by Cagranosalis

Link please?


Incidently, as a shipper I can tell you I'm not overly keen on fics that alter their core personality or paint a picture of perfection. One of our regulars (VSS - who writes under the name podbaydoors on FF.net) wrote a couple of beautifully well thought out fics that deal with Sam and Jack getting together and their ongoing relationship. I would heartily recommend As the World Doesn't Turn and The Theory Of General Relativity for a couple of it's-not-a-perfect-world fics.

I will have to look for those other fics. I'm always open to stuff that shows our super!characters as mere human ones. Especially if they are humorous and well written.

I'm not sure I can direct link to the story, since it contains adult content. (Pron warning!!!) You can find it on this site, the title is After the Honeymoon, under my usual pen. I'm waiting for the complaints that Sam and Jack would never act like that. really, I almost can't believe I would write such complete and utter sacriledge. I must enjoy being a target

Well I'm off to see if I can turn my story of how I just locked myself out of my own house into an SG story. Keep a look out!

[jckfan55]

Originally Posted by Infinite-Possibilities

You know "Crater" sounds like it could be an actual character in something.

hmm... Caption Crater, Kernel Onkeel...

[iamdragonrider]

You know I was reading the earlier posts from the last time I managed to get around here, and the conversations about wedding/engagement rings struck a chord.

There's been a lot of weddings at work recently, and someone mentioned how that beach trip during the honeymoon they get a lot of reports of lost wedding and engagement bands, because of the ocean water, and the lack of familiarity with wearing one. and then there are lots of stories of leaving one on the sink, only to knock it down the drain, or otherwise leaving it lying around somewhere.

And then there are those other mishaps. I know more than one person that had to have thier ring cut off after a minor crushing injury, and we saw Sam wearing her ring on the show.

I just wonder if anyone has ever written a story where Sam loses or damages her engagement ring, maybe off-world (now that would be hard to claim on insurance! the aliens took it!) during a lab experiment gone wrong, or in a more mudane, human fashion. It could be pete's or Jack's.

Just curious if anyone has done it, it would be rather funny I think!

[hedwig]

Originally Posted by iamdragonrider

You know I was reading the earlier posts from the last time I managed to get around here, and the conversations about wedding/engagement rings struck a chord.

There's been a lot of weddings at work recently, and someone mentioned how that beach trip during the honeymoon they get a lot of reports of lost wedding and engagement bands, because of the ocean water, and the lack of familiarity with wearing one. and then there are lots of stories of leaving one on the sink, only to knock it down the drain, or otherwise leaving it lying around somewhere.

And then there are those other mishaps. I know more than one person that had to have thier ring cut off after a minor crushing injury, and we saw Sam wearing her ring on the show.

I just wonder if anyone has ever written a story where Sam loses or damages her engagement ring, maybe off-world (now that would be hard to claim on insurance! the aliens took it!) during a lab experiment gone wrong, or in a more mudane, human fashion. It could be pete's or Jack's.

Just curious if anyone has done it, it would be rather funny I think!

Are you volunteering???