Fanfic Pet Peeves

[Womble]

I really, really, really hate fics like that! They're almost as bad as the ones were Sam breaks down into tears for no apparent reason every 5 minutes! Aaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhh!

I discovered a peeve the other day, I was reading a fic where the author had the characters swearing, but couldn't bring themself to write the words, so it was full of d*** and c*** and h***. Now I know that some people don't like writing swear words, but my feeling is if you can't write the words, don't have the characters use them. It just bugged me a bit!

That actually has to do with the use of censorship software. People accustomed to post on forums where one can get in trouble with the mods for naughty words even though the auto-censor stars them out, get into the pre-starring habit that is then hard to kick. Some forums use auto-censors with settings that star out not just words, but parts of words that coincide with swear words. Then you can't write "grass", "asset", "peacock", "saltwater"- and God forbid you make a typo in "don't forget to turn back your clocks tonight".

[fems]

That actually has to do with the use of censorship software. People accustomed to post on forums where one can get in trouble with the mods for naughty words even though the auto-censor stars them out, get into the pre-starring habit that is then hard to kick. Some forums use auto-censors with settings that star out not just words, but parts of words that coincide with swear words. Then you can't write "grass", "asset", "peacock", "saltwater"- and God forbid you make a typo in "don't forget to turn back your clocks tonight".

I really doubt that's the reason people use asterisks in fics.

[Kunoichi]

That actually has to do with the use of censorship software. People accustomed to post on forums where one can get in trouble with the mods for naughty words even though the auto-censor stars them out, get into the pre-starring habit that is then hard to kick. Some forums use auto-censors with settings that star out not just words, but parts of words that coincide with swear words. Then you can't write "grass", "asset", "peacock", "saltwater"- and God forbid you make a typo in "don't forget to turn back your clocks tonight".

I really doubt that's the reason people use asterisks in fics.

I have to agree with fems on this. I post on a number of forums that use auto-censor features (and moderate on one) but I don't think this is the reason these fics have the **** in them. Even if these authors do post on forums like this, I don't think it is a valid excuse for using that technique in a fic posted to a site that allows profanity. A decent author should be able to adapt their writing for the purpose it is intended and, therefore, avoid using profanity on sites that are against it, write it fully in fics if their characters are going to use it or, if its use makes them uncomfortable, not use it at all.

[SF_and_Coffee]

A decent author should be able to adapt their writing for the purpose it is intended and, therefore, avoid using profanity on sites that are against it, write it fully in fics if their characters are going to use it or, if its use makes them uncomfortable, not use it at all.

*nods* I actually have two versions of my fics. All of my fiction (original OR fanfic) is essentially rated T for everything except profanity and the very occasional love scene that might skate close to the edge of an M rating. So I publish the no-holds-barred versions of my fanfic on my website, AO3 and Symbiotica, while Fanfiction.net gets a scaled-back version that has a slightly lower and milder level of profanity, and less detail in the love scenes (it's made clear what's happening, but most of the action is left to the reader's imagination).

[Skydiver]

I always shake my head at those that write fic full of profanity with the excuse 'well, it is Jack after all'....ok, so I know that Jack O'Neill, a 30 year vet certainly knows his way around the cuss wagon...but CANON Jack isn't a profane potty mouth. He's not going to drop the F bomb every sentence.

Cursing is like commas....put it in as needed but don't cram it in just cause you can. I certainly don't shy away from putting it in my fic, but it has also been said that keeping cool under pressure and not swearing can be a sign of control, and a good officer is in control.

[SF_and_Coffee]

Well, yeah. I don't mean that I have him cussing in every sentence. He uses profanity for effect and emphasis, which means he doesn't use it gratuitously. But he does use it in situations where I can easily imagine most people with his background and job using it -- including people I know in real life who were USAF personnel and officers in ground action during the Persian Gulf War. I actually use such people as partial templates for my characterizations and as resources for details when I'm writing my current fic series.

As an example, here's my personal take on the mission in Iraq where Jack got captured. It's a flashback scene and Frank Cromwell is the POV character; this is Frank remembering it, or rather, having a nightmare in which he re-lives the event. But Jack has quite a lot of dialogue in it, and this is characteristic of how I envision his speech patterns under extreme stress. Yes, he does use some profanity here. (This scene contains no spoilers for anything in my fanfic, by the way, even though it is actually part of an upcoming chapter.)

[Princess Awinita]

In terms of profanity, I try to not write it, but it is hard because characters are like that, nomatter WHO the character is, they just have ot swear once in a great while, in fact, for an example, my character of Lake swears in Chinese, and everyone thinks she watched too much Firefly, which, she never heard of before. So it is actually also quite silly.

So should a character swear, it should not be constant, If my characters swore so much they'd be like Geroge Carlin in a fanfic.... that..... I hate my muse......

[Kunoichi]

I always shake my head at those that write fic full of profanity with the excuse 'well, it is Jack after all'....ok, so I know that Jack O'Neill, a 30 year vet certainly knows his way around the cuss wagon...but CANON Jack isn't a profane potty mouth. He's not going to drop the F bomb every sentence.

Cursing is like commas....put it in as needed but don't cram it in just cause you can. I certainly don't shy away from putting it in my fic, but it has also been said that keeping cool under pressure and not swearing can be a sign of control, and a good officer is in control.

I agree completely! If an author is going to do something with a character, it must fit in with how that character has been created and portrayed in the show. To me that means they don't swear constantly (but can get away with it in an appropriate scene) and if a character is going to cry or lose it or in any other way act 'out of character' in a scene, there must be a pretty good reason for it within the context of the fic.

[mathpiglet]

However it could be argued that since the show was on television, profanity would not be permitted. However, there are some characters you might feel would use language like that if not for network censors.

[Goose]

However it could be argued that since the show was on television, profanity would not be permitted. However, there are some characters you might feel would use language like that if not for network censors.

Sounds like a good explanation.

Either way, if you're going to have swear words in your fic, actually write them out, don't censor them. Either have them or don't, don't have some half-arsed in-between compromised; it just looks ugly.

[Princess Awinita]

However it could be argued that since the show was on television, profanity would not be permitted. However, there are some characters you might feel would use language like that if not for network censors.

Well said!

[Skydiver]

Sounds like a good explanation.

Either way, if you're going to have swear words in your fic, actually write them out, don't censor them. Either have them or don't, don't have some half-arsed in-between compromised; it just looks ugly.

I agree. If you can't type out the curse words, then your characters don't need to have them....or get creative:

Jack muttered a string of four letter words under his breath. "Daniel will explain them later," Sam muttered, not in the mood to define expletives to the Jaffa.

Jack raised his eyebrow as Carter muttered several words that his mother would have definitely deemed 'unladylike'. He couldn't wait to see how she put that in bullet points.

etc.

I've often had Daniel swearing in foreign languages 'off camera' so to speak....mention that he does without spelling out the words. Or Teal'c curses in Jaffa of course.

Then again singular curse word can sum up the 'we're frakked' feeling.

All depends on how you're writing it and the mood you're setting.

[SF_and_Coffee]

However it could be argued that since the show was on television, profanity would not be permitted. However, there are some characters you might feel would use language like that if not for network censors.

Yes, that's basically my take on it as well.

[Cold Fuzz]

Well, yeah. I don't mean that I have him cussing in every sentence. He uses profanity for effect and emphasis, which means he doesn't use it gratuitously. But he does use it in situations where I can easily imagine most people with his background and job using it -- including people I know in real life who were USAF personnel and officers in ground action during the Persian Gulf War. I actually use such people as partial templates for my characterizations and as resources for details when I'm writing my current fic series.

As an example, here's my personal take on the mission in Iraq where Jack got captured. It's a flashback scene and Frank Cromwell is the POV character; this is Frank remembering it, or rather, having a nightmare in which he re-lives the event. But Jack has quite a lot of dialogue in it, and this is characteristic of how I envision his speech patterns under extreme stress. Yes, he does use some profanity here. (This scene contains no spoilers for anything in my fanfic, by the way, even though it is actually part of an upcoming chapter.)

Very well written! I liked how everyone disliked the night vision equipment and the descriptions of the desert environment--nice and realistic. But the biggest amount of realism was with the profanity use. They're military. Of course they're going to use profanity when a tactical situation falls to pieces like it did in that chapter. That's true to life there. I liked the call signs too, like Stardust and Java. Sorry I can't green you for this just yet.

It's interesting this subject's been brought up because profanity is something that's been notably absent for the most part in Broken Silence. I say for the most part because the main character started using "God damn it" and such recently in a very heated situation. But here's the thing about the story: In Doctor Who I've never heard the characters utter any profanity. I made a conscious choice that the Doctor wouldn't and neither would certain companions. To me, it's simply not in their character to do so.

But the main character has no such restriction. Yeah, he's running around in a blue box with a large group of time travelers but he's still a sheriff's deputy. He and his two buddies have been holding back parts of themselves that the other characters haven't seen yet because direct contact with their adversaries has been avoided for the most part. That's about to change. The main character has grown weary of holding himself back and he has absolutely no qualms about how coarse he can get, especially when a bunch of aliens and their self-righteous human thralls try to kill his friends. He and his buddies aren't the type to drop F-bombs in every other sentence but there will be F-bombs, some telepathically and some not.

[SF_and_Coffee]

Thanks, CF! I'm glad you enjoyed it! That scene was actually very interesting to write.