I've almost stopped reading gen Buffy-fic (anything that doesn't mention Xander as a major character) because of the tendency to portray him as either evil or stupid, or totally unimportant to the group. An additional set to this is the Xander-centric stories that portray him as the poor, mistreated Scooby that the girls abuse and mistreat, either to pair him with Spike or some cross-over female.
Okay, so I love my Xander... when portrayed genuinely.
I like POV changes, if done skillfully, both as a reader and a writer. I often write series where the POV changes from chapter to chapter.
I think canon believability is very important. I do feel fic has to go beyond canon or we might as well just reread/rewatch canon. It's the fanfic author's job to convince the reader that this could be canon. I'm not sure if that's what you mean by "canonicity" though. Some people decry slash as anti-canonical, but I see it as extra-canonical if done well, which all fanfic is.
Egregious misspelling or grammar/punctuation errors will make me stop reading a fic. Errors in the *title* will prevent me from reading the fic. In my main fandom (X-Men) there are a bunch of writers who misspell characters' names, which I find beyond sloppy. "Rouge" for "Rogue" is pretty common. Another one is Scott "Cyclops" Summers, who is sometimes called "Summer" - I guess on the assumption that the final S in his name is plural?
Angels and ministers of grace preserve the English major when it comes to fic reading at times. *shudder*
Rampant misspellings will get my back button. The occasional there/their/they're I can ignore, but when a writer obviously doesn't know the difference between then and than, I'm gone.
POV switch will bug me in the same paragraph; I can overlook it if it's not too obvious, though. Lack of vocative commas or question marks will bug me, but I'll just start reading the fic aloud in a monotone if the plot is good. :)
Canon/fanon depends on the fanon involved. If it's the fanon that Angelus raped William into submission over a hundred years (despite the fact that Angelus and William were only together for 20 years and Spike is hardly submissive in "School Hard") I can shrug and let someone's kink be their kink. However, if it's the fanon that Buffy smells like vanilla or that Xander was repeatedly gang-raped by his Dad and Uncle Rory every other Saturday night, I roll my eyes and hit the back button until it pops off the keyboard.
My biggest problem (and this may not sound like much to others, especially non-U.S. readers) is the Anglicanization of very American characters like Dean Winchester, Xander Harris or the RPS version of Jared Padalecki. I sighed and got over Xander tying his trainers before he left his flat to check the post on his way to the chemist before he met Willow for a pint at The Bronze.
However. Having Jensen and Jared attend a Tarts and Vicars party as a plot device to get them into the priest costumes from Nightmare is just...shoddy craftsmanship. Primarily because, while there are a few Anglican (Episcopalian) churches in the U.S., they're not so much in Texas. You know, on account of that big honkin' Hispanic population and all of those Catholic missions (hell, even Taco Bells!) there. They're most likely to know the word vicar if they're an Eddie Izzard fan. Not to mention that the unlikelihood of anyone under 60 in the U.S. using to word "tart" without the prefix "Sweet" or if referring to something they'd watched Martha Stewart make.
I have no idea who wrote the above scenario or in which fic I read it (and it wasn't a deal breaker, the fic was fun overall, but that STILL bugs me) but I do remember a comment was left about the unlikeliness of J2 attending a T & V party, it being so English and all, and the author saying someone else (non-Brit) had suggested the scenario. I looked up the person in question and they were like, Swedish. Or Swiss. Or Scandinavian. It was an S country. In other words: not even close to Texan.
The reason this bugs me so is that I have written fic that involved English characters (Wes, Giles), characters who spoke almost solely in created California slang (Buffy, Xander) and vampires of various origins (Darla, Angel) and I have NEVER had any of them say, "Hey, y'all, I'm fixin' to go kill a mess of vampires, yownto? Well, shitfire, I done tumped over this here jug of holy water. Sumbitch!"
(Okay, the likelihood my saying "this here jug" is slim but I will cop to "fixin' to" and "shitfire" as common staples of my vocabulary.)
The main point is that I tried to get the rhythms of Giles' speech which were nothing like Xander's and write them accordingly. It wasn't that hard because, you know, I watched the show and was able to suppress my "shitfire" tendencies. ;)
Well that was a lot of sound and fury signifying finickiness. I should get out more.
It drives me *batshit* when you're reading a fic that is from, say, Sam's pov and suddenly you have three or four lines of what *Dean* is thinking/feeling, and then you go back to Sam....that drives me *nuts*. Just - no.
And i hate it when my boys - any of my boys - are made into weepy messes, or get hysterical over nothing, or can't actually *do their job*. Gah.
Also, screeching Americanisms in Spike's mouth make me say bye-bye, as do screeching Britishisms in Sam'n'Dean's mouths. Spike might mock someone by using an American word or term, but he doesn't talk like a California surfer-dude, and never will.
And Sam'n'Dean do not say 'whilst', or pay with 'notes', or do 'maths'. *flails*
To expand on the deal breaker concept: The one that can kill a fic for me has to do with conversation and the lack of a thesaurus...Too often fics, especially ones written in the present tense, use the following phrasing, Dean says, ".." Sam says, ".." Dean says, ".." Sam says, ".." over and over. That word, 'says', kills me in a fic.
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(Anonymous) - 2008-12-18 03:53 (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
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Okay, so I love my Xander... when portrayed genuinely.
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(Anonymous) - 2008-12-18 03:57 (UTC) - Expandno subject
I think canon believability is very important. I do feel fic has to go beyond canon or we might as well just reread/rewatch canon. It's the fanfic author's job to convince the reader that this could be canon. I'm not sure if that's what you mean by "canonicity" though. Some people decry slash as anti-canonical, but I see it as extra-canonical if done well, which all fanfic is.
Egregious misspelling or grammar/punctuation errors will make me stop reading a fic. Errors in the *title* will prevent me from reading the fic. In my main fandom (X-Men) there are a bunch of writers who misspell characters' names, which I find beyond sloppy. "Rouge" for "Rogue" is pretty common. Another one is Scott "Cyclops" Summers, who is sometimes called "Summer" - I guess on the assumption that the final S in his name is plural?
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Rampant misspellings will get my back button. The occasional there/their/they're I can ignore, but when a writer obviously doesn't know the difference between then and than, I'm gone.
POV switch will bug me in the same paragraph; I can overlook it if it's not too obvious, though. Lack of vocative commas or question marks will bug me, but I'll just start reading the fic aloud in a monotone if the plot is good. :)
Canon/fanon depends on the fanon involved. If it's the fanon that Angelus raped William into submission over a hundred years (despite the fact that Angelus and William were only together for 20 years and Spike is hardly submissive in "School Hard") I can shrug and let someone's kink be their kink. However, if it's the fanon that Buffy smells like vanilla or that Xander was repeatedly gang-raped by his Dad and Uncle Rory every other Saturday night, I roll my eyes and hit the back button until it pops off the keyboard.
My biggest problem (and this may not sound like much to others, especially non-U.S. readers) is the Anglicanization of very American characters like Dean Winchester, Xander Harris or the RPS version of Jared Padalecki. I sighed and got over Xander tying his trainers before he left his flat to check the post on his way to the chemist before he met Willow for a pint at The Bronze.
However. Having Jensen and Jared attend a Tarts and Vicars party as a plot device to get them into the priest costumes from Nightmare is just...shoddy craftsmanship. Primarily because, while there are a few Anglican (Episcopalian) churches in the U.S., they're not so much in Texas. You know, on account of that big honkin' Hispanic population and all of those Catholic missions (hell, even Taco Bells!) there. They're most likely to know the word vicar if they're an Eddie Izzard fan. Not to mention that the unlikelihood of anyone under 60 in the U.S. using to word "tart" without the prefix "Sweet" or if referring to something they'd watched Martha Stewart make.
I have no idea who wrote the above scenario or in which fic I read it (and it wasn't a deal breaker, the fic was fun overall, but that STILL bugs me) but I do remember a comment was left about the unlikeliness of J2 attending a T & V party, it being so English and all, and the author saying someone else (non-Brit) had suggested the scenario. I looked up the person in question and they were like, Swedish. Or Swiss. Or Scandinavian. It was an S country. In other words: not even close to Texan.
The reason this bugs me so is that I have written fic that involved English characters (Wes, Giles), characters who spoke almost solely in created California slang (Buffy, Xander) and vampires of various origins (Darla, Angel) and I have NEVER had any of them say, "Hey, y'all, I'm fixin' to go kill a mess of vampires, yownto? Well, shitfire, I done tumped over this here jug of holy water. Sumbitch!"
(Okay, the likelihood my saying "this here jug" is slim but I will cop to "fixin' to" and "shitfire" as common staples of my vocabulary.)
The main point is that I tried to get the rhythms of Giles' speech which were nothing like Xander's and write them accordingly. It wasn't that hard because, you know, I watched the show and was able to suppress my "shitfire" tendencies. ;)
Well that was a lot of sound and fury signifying finickiness. I should get out more.
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And i hate it when my boys - any of my boys - are made into weepy messes, or get hysterical over nothing, or can't actually *do their job*. Gah.
Also, screeching Americanisms in Spike's mouth make me say bye-bye, as do screeching Britishisms in Sam'n'Dean's mouths. Spike might mock someone by using an American word or term, but he doesn't talk like a California surfer-dude, and never will.
And Sam'n'Dean do not say 'whilst', or pay with 'notes', or do 'maths'.
*flails*
:)
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"Shut Up," He Explained
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