Fanfic Pet Peeves

[iamdragonrider]

I think I may have read the story about the guys shopping for maxipads, and I all but fell on the floor laughing over that. It may be out of character or whatever it's called, but that was just plain hysterical. I could almost visualize it - as one of the rare funny episodes that were done throughout the series.

I was referring to one of my own fics about the maxipads

So, from your explanation, even though a beta has read and suggested changes, it doesn't mean the author will actually "correct" actual mistakes? If so, I don't understand that. Why bother to have a beta if an author isn't going to make the necessary corrections? Or am I misunderstanding your explanation?

Having had betas and acted as beta for others, I'll take a try at answering. Personally, I think if your beta (or you as the beta) point out a spelling or grammar error, you should try to correct it... But sometimes with all the back and forth emails and conversations, stuff still gets missed or forgotton. As for suggestions in content and characterization, as you can see from this thread everyone has thier own interpretation of things. What one person sees as perfectly in character, another completely disagrees. For instance, I've gone into long debates about Daniel's childhood with my friend who's work i'm beta reading. She feels strongly that Daniel was abused in childhood, and nothing I said can sway her. We've agree to disagree on the subject.

On the other hand, she has several times pointed out things she didn't agree with in my stories that she was unhappy with. Some, I didn't agree with, but otheres made me think, and in the end, I believe the story turned out differently.

When I wrote Growing Pains, both my betas were like-minded Sam fans, and that story ended up being heavily Sam-centric, despite my intentions to the otherwise. I think if I had had my current set of betas, one a Sam fan with S/J leanings and a Daniel fan with S/D leanings, I think that Growing Pains would be a different story.

For me, a beta does more than just check for typos (and even professional editors let mistakes slip past, I've yet to pick up a book that doesn't have at least one minor spelling or grammatical error in it...) but for me personally I find the back and forth conversations and debates just as much fun as the writing and posting. I've found that one needs to have a good ability to take constrictive crtisism, and give it, when acting as beta or being beta'd. Yeah, I don't listen to them all the time having my own ideas of how the story or characters play out, and they don't always listen to me, but hey, that's life. Can't say many actually listen to me in RL much either

[iamdragonrider]

I have to say I don't mind crossovers all that much, even if they aren't necesarily on the same plane of existence so to speak. I've read some pretty decent SG/LotR crossovers, and some with Star Trek. Of course, the ones set in the same time period and the same planet do work a bit better. I've also seen one or two crossovers with JAG, and one or two that semi worked with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even found a few Harry Potter crossovers that worked. SciFi/Fantasy seems to mix easiest if it's not in the same time/planet.

I prefer well written crossovers, especially if I follow both series, but I have enjoyed a few where I didn't follow the other series, simply because the author wrote so well.

However, when an author starts to cross three or more series, it starts looking a bit dubious. I think it would be rather difficult to do all the main characters justice, and the more series in the crossover, the less likely it is the reader will follow all if any of the crossed storylines. Personally, I think those with multifandom crossovers are just shooting themselves in the foot.

But I can't condemn crossovers, because I really wanted to write a SG-1/Dragonriders of Pern crossover, but I was afraid McCaffrey's lawyers would come after me, her work being on the restricted list. I also had a friend, who knew someone that sewed little dragons for selling, and made the error of calling them fire lizards, and got sued. She changed the name to something along the lines of winged flying flitters of no particular origin or something like that...

I'd also love to do a Star Trek/SG-1 crossover, right after I write that body swap fic I've been wanting to write... Aw heck, so it's cliched and done to death, but it's so much fun! I think they made a huge mistake swapping O'Neill with Teal'c... And I so want to do my own What If...

[Skydiver]

i've written stargate/pretender and then a stargate fic that had a Profiler cross over, and i thought that they worked. but generally if i read 'sam runs into kara thrace....' i tend to just pass it by

when i beta for people, i actually put corrections in the fic. they're marked of course - unless it's a really good friend who i know won't get upset if i stick in a few commas - but i'll put the corrections/notes in the fic. I'll point out plot mistakes or what does/doesn't work...but if it's something that's purely subjective - like me not thinking htat sam would act one way - i make it clear ' well, my sam wouldn't do this....' and let the author make her own choice.

i'll even beta out britisms or aussieisms in fic if the author wants me to.

[jz9]

I would *love* to read a Star Trek TNG/SG-1 crossover!!! Fascinating idea.

And swapping O'Neill with Carter sounds fun!

Unfortunately you are only "wanting" to write, which means when? I'd better not hold my breath.

[hedwig]

I would *love* to read a Star Trek TNG/SG-1 crossover!!! Fascinating idea.

And swapping O'Neill with Carter sounds fun!

Unfortunately you are only "wanting" to write, which means when? I'd better not hold my breath.

I actually came across a story that was about "swapping O'Neill with Carter". I wish I could remember the title. I didn't get to read it at the time because my computer decided to misbehave badly - as in it froze, and I had to shut the darn thing down and turn it back on again. And the whole process took quite awhile , and then I got interrupted, and by the time I got back to my computer it was several hours later and I hadn't written the name of the story down ... I think you get the picture. I was quite annoyed, and I still haven't remembered where I found the story or the name of it , but I keep looking!

iamdragonrider: Yes, indeed, it was your story "A Personal Favor" (about the maxipads). I thoroughly enjoyed that story. And now that I've "discovered" your website, I have more "new" stories to read that I hadn't been aware of before now.

Thank you all for explaining about betas. I spent most of my working life doing work that required proofreading all sorts of documents and I got pretty good at it, but did occasionally miss something. Even though I'm not doing that work anymore, I still notice misspellings, grammar, punctuation problems, etc. and just find it sort of distracting from whatever I'm reading. Not so much if there are only one or two "errors". However, several years ago, I read a novel by a new author who had been a professor at a college in Eugene, Oregon, and while the story was good, there were misspellings on every single page of that book, and I was sorely tempted to write a letter to the publisher of the book and complain about their proofreading. (I somehow had the idea a Professor at a college would have better writing skills than to let that happen, but I guess not.) I didn't do it, though. I think of things like that, but rarely follow through. Don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I did notice his next book had fewer typos, though. So maybe somebody else said something.

[jz9]

However, several years ago, I read a novel by a new author who had been a professor at a college in Eugene, Oregon, and while the story was good, there were misspellings on every single page of that book, and I was sorely tempted to write a letter to the publisher of the book and complain about their proofreading. (I somehow had the idea a Professor at a college would have better writing skills than to let that happen, but I guess not.) I didn't do it, though. I think of things like that, but rarely follow through. Don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I did notice his next book had fewer typos, though. So maybe somebody else said something.

Yeah, misspellings can be quite distracting. Maybe the professor got a better Word Processor when writing his second book

[Mousie]

[B][COLOR="Green"]

But I can't condemn crossovers, because I really wanted to write a SG-1/Dragonriders of Pern crossover, but I was afraid McCaffrey's lawyers would come after me, her work being on the restricted list

I could be wrong but I'm sure she was going to relax her restrictions. I know she kept a tight control and no fan fiction was allowed but I'm sure I read on her site a while back that she was going to allow it. There has been talk for years about making the books into tv series/films. The last I heard was that it was gathering steam but they needed to show how popular it would be with the fans, other than book sales, and allowing ff would show that. That could have changed again though.

Just looked on her site and here is the link to her rules. http://www.annemccaffrey.net/index.php?page_id=20

I like xovers, I've read a lot that work and a lot that don't. It always comes down to skill of the author really. If they can explain the xover and how the character from show A is in show B's universe in a logical way it can work, if they have a poor explanation it won't.

On the subject of betas. I think some people don't know what the role of a beta should be. You get a young fan girl/boy who writes a story, show it to a like minded friend and they both go "oh my gosh it's so kewl, post it" They are the ones who can't deal with any helpful comments from readers and launch flames back if you dare say anything more than "oh my gosh I loved it rite more"

I beta'd a while back for someone who from the get go wrote good stories and went on to pretty much beta well for herself and write some even better stories.

When I offered to beta I mainly consentrated on grammar, spelling and structure, rather that polt points. If I'd seen any big probs I would have informed her but I was hesitant to question something when the whole point of ff is that the author writes the story how they want it to be.

Sometimes my corrections would slip through, especially if she had sent me a large file to edit. The correct placement of a comma can easily be missed.

[Alipeeps]

Yeah, when I beta I correct grammar and spelling etc and beyond that will make suggestions on things like style (e.g. if the phrasing of a sentence is a little clunky) or content (if I feel things don't read well/are out of character/aren't realistic etc). But I make it clear they are suggestions cos, as the end of the day, it's not my story and not how I would write it and those choices are down to the author. The only time I would correct content as an actual correction as opposed to suggestion would be where there are critical innaccuracies/mistakes - like if the author forgets themself and in one paragraph has a gunshot wound to the left arm and later on has it in the right arm or (unless the story is clearly an AU) directly contradicts known canon.

Luckily the main writer I beta for is great on content and only needs a bit of tidying up of spelling and grammar.

[pilgrim soul]

^If you're talking about me Ali I think "a bit" is being far too kind.

I have a lot of pet peeves most of which have already been mentioned here but I feel the need to vent. These are my personal opinions so, please, no one take offence besides I'm probably guilty of a whole bunch of things other people hate.

• Fic that obviously hasn't been betaed properly. At least use a spell check and if you're writing fic then you must surely have read fic by other people, or at least have had some minor involvement with the online fandom and if that's the case there is really no excuse for misspelling the names of the main characters.
  
  
• Fic that isn't marked properly. If its ship (het or slash) or features, violence/sex/swearing then be fair to your readers and say so up front. Personally I'm pretty open minded but not everyone is and even I've found myself reaching for the brain soap a few times.
  
  
• OOC behaviour. Bad characterisation can ruin a great idea and just because you personally don't like a character or, alternatively, are completely besotted with them, don't twist them into something they are not.
  
  
• OOC dialogue. Just stop and think, can you really imagine the character saying that line on the show? If not, then maybe you should rethink it.
  
  Also, I think further up the thread someone, Skydiver perhaps, talked about swearing and although I agree its not something that should be over used I would rather read the characters using an occasional curse than them saying things like "gosh" or "golly" which just sounds plain ridiculous (unless they're being sarcastic).
  
  
• Mary Sues - There's this wacky young girl with a quirky name who's related to/is the love interest of one of the main characters, she turns up in Atlantis and gets into all kinds of trouble and hilarious scrapes but its all okay because in the end she saves the day and everyone loves her because she's so great. If that sounds like the story you are writing then just stop, seriously just don't go there.
  
  
• People who write summaries along the lines of "I'm not good at summaries" or "Better than it sounds" - if you can't even write a one sentence summary then how am I supposed to have confidence in you authoring an entire story?
  
  
• Song fic - I have nothing to add to that, its just wrong.
  
  
• AU's - now I don't mean an AU such as those that appear on the show I mean the type where they take the characters and transport them into a completely unrelated universe. Like a western fic where the characters are cowboys or something. I want to read about the characters we see on screen, not characters who just share a name and physical appearance with those in the show.

Okay I've finished venting.

[Alipeeps]

That's it hon, let it all out. Don't you feel better now?

[SamJackShipLover]

^If you're talking about me Ali I think "a bit" is being far too kind.

I have a lot of pet peeves most of which have already been mentioned here but I feel the need to vent. These are my personal opinions so, please, no one take offence besides I'm probably guilty of a whole bunch of things other people hate.

Spoiler:

• Fic that obviously hasn't been betaed properly. At least use a spell check and if you're writing fic then you must surely have read fic by other people, or at least have had some minor involvement with the online fandom and if that's the case there is really no excuse for misspelling the names of the main characters.
  
  
• Fic that isn't marked properly. If its ship (het or slash) or features, violence/sex/swearing then be fair to your readers and say so up front. Personally I'm pretty open minded but not everyone is and even I've found myself reaching for the brain soap a few times.
  
  
• OOC behaviour. Bad characterisation can ruin a great idea and just because you personally don't like a character or, alternatively, are completely besotted with them, don't twist them into something they are not.
  
  
• OOC dialogue. Just stop and think, can you really imagine the character saying that line on the show? If not, then maybe you should rethink it.
  
  Also, I think further up the thread someone, Skydiver perhaps, talked about swearing and although I agree its not something that should be over used I would rather read the characters using an occasional curse than them saying things like "gosh" or "golly" which just sounds plain ridiculous (unless they're being sarcastic).
  
  
• Mary Sues - There's this wacky young girl with a quirky name who's related to/is the love interest of one of the main characters, she turns up in Atlantis and gets into all kinds of trouble and hilarious scrapes but its all okay because in the end she saves the day and everyone loves her because she's so great. If that sounds like the story you are writing then just stop, seriously just don't go there.
  
  
• People who write summaries along the lines of "I'm not good at summaries" or "Better than it sounds" - if you can't even write a one sentence summary then how am I supposed to have confidence in you authoring an entire story?
  
  
• Song fic - I have nothing to add to that, its just wrong.
  
  
• AU's - now I don't mean an AU such as those that appear on the show I mean the type where they take the characters and transport them into a completely unrelated universe. Like a western fic where the characters are cowboys or something. I want to read about the characters we see on screen, not characters who just share a name and physical appearance with those in the show.

Okay I've finished venting.

Haha, I think I've seen fic that have just about everything you mention in them

Good point on the summary thing!

[pilgrim soul]

That's it hon, let it all out. Don't you feel better now?

Yes, I can honestly say that I do.

Haha, I think I've seen fic that have just about everything you mention in them

The scary thing is I think I have too.

[Mousie]

Also, I think further up the thread someone, Skydiver perhaps, talked about swearing and although I agree its not something that should be over used I would rather read the characters using an occasional curse than them saying things like "gosh" or "golly" which just sounds plain ridiculous (unless they're being sarcastic).

I've read fics where the author want's the character to swear, because it's in context, but won't actually write the words. So they asterisk it out - f***, d*** and the like. That looks silly, if you aren't prepared to type it don't use it!

[Alipeeps]

^If you're talking about me Ali I think "a bit" is being far too kind.

Not at all. You just have a bit of a blind spot where apostrophes are concerned!

OOC dialogue. Just stop and think, can you really imagine the character saying that line on the show? If not, then maybe you should rethink it.

See now that is actually really good advice that many writers could do with stopping and thinking about. I do actually try to envision scenes in my head as I write them and imagine the characters saying those lines. In the first Doctor Who fic I wrote, I had to really think hard about what the 10th Doctor would say and how he would say it - he is so mercurial and exuberant and trying to accurately convey his speech went a heck of a long way towards getting his characterisation right.

People who write summaries along the lines of "I'm not good at summaries" or "Better than it sounds" - if you can't even write a one sentence summary then how am I supposed to have confidence in you authoring an entire story?

Man, that bugs the heck out of me - as do horrendously badly spelt summaries. If you can't write a 15 word summary without 6 bad spelling mistakes, what the HECK is your fic going to be like?!! "Crap at summaries, please just read"? No thanks. If the summary's bad, I won't even bother taking a look at the fic.

[Katkin]

In no particular order...

Jack, Sam and Daniel all meet at university while in their teens.

Jack and Sam have been secretly married all along. Even tho I am a shipper I HATE THIS.

Jack, Sam, and their adorable twins Grace and Jacob, plot immaterial.

Sam/Daniel pairings.

AnYthing that starts by describing who the characters are and what they look like. WE KNOW THIS.

Any mention of sunkissed golden hair and wide blue eyes.