Supernatural Fanfic Nitpics and Pet Peeves

[Sparky She-Demon]

I should get to writing then. So you can decide on what you think of her!

[RodneyIsGodney]

Yeah sorry, I was rushing to get to work and didn't noticed I'd typo'd 'hate' to 'have.' Glad you got it in the end though

Me too.

[RodneyIsGodney]

Okay, here's another one...


Changing scenes without warning...just NO! You cannot go from one scene to a totally different scene without some sort of transition, or a line break, something! Specially if the next scene starts with dialogue...so confusing! You think you're still reading the same scene until you realize, a few seconds in, that WAIT A MINUTE, THIS IS A DIFFERENT/NEW SCENE! UGH!!!

Is it really that hard to write "Five minutes later." or "Back at the motel"? I mean, really!


The fic I'm reading now is chock-full of this but it's too good (for me) to let the above flaw stop me from reading it.

Here is a sample what I'm talking about:

Spoiler:

"We just ate like two hours ago," Dean says, glancing over at his daughter who is giving him a 'seriously?' look. Dean sighs. "Fine, we'll stop to grab something to eat."

Dean pulls into the parking lot and parks the car. He and Gracilynn climb out of the car and make their way to the door. Dean holds the door open, trying to hide a smirk as his daughter begins to enter the diner.

"Careful, there's a spider hanging there," Dean says off-handedly.

"What?" Gracilynn yelps, springing backwards and looking in the doorway for the spider. She hears her dad laughing next to her and she looks over at him, sending him a glare.

"Jerk," Gracilynn says, punching her father in the arm before she enters the diner. Dean chuckles as he follows her inside, rubbing his arm where she punched him. Damn, she packs a punch. A proud smile finds its' way across his face. That's my girl.

"Okay, so there's been ten missing persons within the past six months. All male, all in the marshes," Gracilynn says, reading the research her dad did early, sprawled out on the bed.

"Yeah," Dean says.

"So, what? Is it like a Maid of the Mist?" Gracilynn asks, scrunching up her face, "Or whatever it's called."

"I think that's a boat up in Niagara Falls," Dean says, smirking.

It's painfully obvious where the scene change is.

[The Urban Spaceman]

Ugh, tell me about it! I just don't understand why some writers can't factor in a simple transition. They've managed it on TV, in film, and on the stage... an actor's script will provide the transition, and then later in post-production all the fade-ins or fade-outs, or black-outs, are put in place... hell, in some films/TV, they actually tell you via text where the current scene is taking place! (<3 the X-Files way of doing it).

So why is it so hard for fanfic writers to do it??? Hell, even Terry Pratchett, who doesn't write in chapters, manages to add in scene transitions.

Saying that, though, back in "the old days" of fanfiction.net, I used a particular series of characters (* * * * *) to indicate a transition between scenes (because their old horizontal line was butt-ugly) and they randomly decided one day, "hey, let's make it so that asterisks no longer appear in peoples' fics, just to piss off everybody who ever uses them to transition between scenes!" and when I found out I was like OHMYGODWHERETHEHELLAREMYASTERISKS?!? By that point my main story was at about 65 chapters and some 400,000 words and I had to go aaaaaaall the way back through it from the very beginning and put in a new transition sequence that I hoped to god they wouldn't screw with again (I chose the more boring combination of alternating o - o - o - o - o as I thought the chances of them filtering out the letter 'o' and hyphens was very slim, despite their overall idiocy).

So yeah, sometimes bad stuff like this happens. What I learnt: Don't make your transition breaks non-essential characters like * or ~ because the second your host starts filtering those out, your story is ****ed.

But yes I agree with you. Thus ends today's angry spaceman rant.

[Sparky She-Demon]

Is there anything angels can't do?

[Gatefan1976]

Is there anything angels can't do?

Not be D**ks?

[Sparky She-Demon]

Not be D**ks?

Funny, but I meant in terms of powers.

[RodneyIsGodney]

They can't bring someone back from the dead. Only their father has that power.

Although, Cas did rescue Dean from hell...and he was dead, so...now I dunno.

[The Urban Spaceman]

They can't bring someone back from the dead. Only their father has that power.

Although, Cas did rescue Dean from hell...and he was dead, so...now I dunno.

Actually, they brought back Adam. And the arch-angels continually comment that if Sam/Dean were to die, they would simply be brought back. Michael also brings back Sam (in 1970-whatever) and Mary (so that Sam can be born), and Cas brings back Bobby.

I believe angels can't bring back other angels; once an angel bites the dust, it's forever, unless said angel happens to be Castiel, who is brought back (twice) by God, and believes he is cursed with not being able to die.

That said, Sparky, there is a buttload of wiki information dedicated to angels and their abilities when at full-power or when cast out of Heaven, or when fallen. I suggest you utilise said source as I really CBA to type out everything I know about angels off the top of my head. And frankly, you shouldn't base your 'facts' of message-board hearsay.

[RodneyIsGodney]

Actually, they brought back Adam. And the arch-angels continually comment that if Sam/Dean were to die, they would simply be brought back. Michael also brings back Sam (in 1970-whatever) and Mary (so that Sam can be born), and Cas brings back Bobby.

Oh, that's right! I forgot about poor Adam. My bad. And, I think I had a brainfade that day, totally forgot about Michael. Silly me.

I believe angels can't bring back other angels; once an angel bites the dust, it's forever, unless said angel happens to be Castiel, who is brought back (twice) by God, and believes he is cursed with not being able to die.

Sounds about right to me.


Okay, I have another pet peeve and this one might be just me but...I hate that, in every kidfic I read where Dean or Sam is de-aged or when they have to take care of a child for whatever reason, they always go to Walmart or Target to buy some clothes/toys for the kid/wee Dean/wee Sam. I mean, if these writers knew Dean, really knew Dean, then they would know he would never set foot in those stores, I don't think. Also, they've never gone to those stores on the show so why would people have them go to these places in fanfics? I can't imagine where they get there own clothes from. Certainly not Walmart or Target. I just can't picture them walking the aisles in those stores. Unless they're working a hunt.

Also, McDonald's. In said kidifcs Dean almost always stops at McDonalds to get the kid something to eat. They've never been to McDonald's on the show. They frequent diners, not fast food giants.

I guess what I'm saying here is that these writers aren't being true to the show and it's characters by having them go to these places. IMHO. But, as I said, it's probably just me.

[The Urban Spaceman]

It's not just you, but then, I don't tend to read much Sam & Dean fic, preferring to read and write about supporting characters rather than the main duo. And I'd never read any kidfic, so I've missed that privilege

You're totally right, though, about the little details being 'off'. I'm so conscious of making these sorts of mistakes (as a non-American, I'm not all that familiar with Americanisms beyond what I see on TV) that I've hired mrscopterdoc as my official unofficial person to run America-related questions past, and she's been a great help so far

That said, even though I've heard of Walmart of course, I would never include it in a fic about Sam & Dean, just as I wouldn't put McDonalds or Burger King in it. Like you said, diners are their staple, not fast-food joints. I share your irritation about such minutiae. I don't think a lot of authors care about preserving the integrity of the show... not when it's so easy for them to make up details like that on the spot, because very few people will call them out over it.

[RodneyIsGodney]

Another pet peeve...in fics over all fandoms...

I am so sick of writers using the grammatically incorrect "should of" when they should be using "should've"...or "should have". IT DRIVES ME NUTS. It's so obvious that they are going by how it sounds when spoken. Also, to me anyway, it's obvious that the writers in question are quite young. Possibly teenagers still attending English classes in high school. I guess they don't use Betas...or spell check. SMH.

[birthsister]

As the mother a teenager I can't fault the teens. The state of English classes is deplorable, with new curriculum standards citing "instruction manuals" as acceptable reading to prepare students to be career ready upon graduation. Thankfully, I homeschooled a good long time so she already had a love of literature and thought most of her english class was crap anyway...but most students don't even realize this. (And now that she's home again, hopefully we can repair some of the damage the schools have done...not all students are so lucky.)

[RodneyIsGodney]

As the mother a teenager I can't fault the teens. The state of English classes is deplorable, with new curriculum standards citing "instruction manuals" as acceptable reading to prepare students to be career ready upon graduation. Thankfully, I homeschooled a good long time so she already had a love of literature and thought most of her english class was crap anyway...but most students don't even realize this. (And now that she's home again, hopefully we can repair some of the damage the schools have done...not all students are so lucky.)

You make a valid point. I...think I spoke rather hastily in my previous post and I apologize for that. I didn't even have good English classes when I was in high school...I had English Lit classes more than I had proper English classes, the kind where you have a textbook. That didn't happen until college. I would have rather had a creative writing class than an English Lit class because I hated reading back then...and all the books we had to read were boring (The Cay) or DEAR GOD WHY? (Lord Of The Flies). The only book I enjoyed reading was The Catcher In The Rye. I love reading now though, much more than I used to.

[birthsister]

I think when you expose children to quality literature (I actually enjoyed Lord of the Flies) they learn to pick up on the nuances of the language. Like "should have" instead of "should of". When they never see it written down, but hear it everyday as "shoulda", their own attempts at writing sometimes produce interesting results. We also have to expect a certain amount of evolution of language. Look at "spittin' image". It originally came from the phrase "spirit and image", as in "She is just the spirit and image of her mother." Of course, when the Webster dictionary is getting new words like twerk every year, I fear for the English language.

My own pet peeves aren't so much about word usage as writing style. If you make a statement in your story, then have to take a paragraph to explain it practically with bullet points (ahem...Laurell K. Hamilton..ahem) it pulls me out of the fantasy and makes me feel like I'm reading a...an instruction manual.