For lovers of fanfiction...

[MrsGulDukat]

Inspired by another thread by HensTeeth44, here is a thread for lovers of fan fiction either writer or just an avid reader.

I do have some unfinished Harry Potter fan fic to share but I'm at working at the moment.

Dont be afraid to share your favourites.

And writing is so personal. At least mine is. It's like some of the deepest stuff I have, dragged out and polished and put in front of people for comment, and to have that be responded to with a rousing silence is almost worse than someone saying "I have a problem with it".

Oh, the tortures of the artist probably time for me to go deflate my head and do some actual work.

I've got another day off but still havent actually done any writing yet.

I always leave kudos unless I've really disliked something.

I wish you could leave kudos on each chapter rather than just once.

It would be good if you could do that. If people dont want to comment, then they should at least be able to leave a kudos for each chapter.

Yes, it would be nice if you could kudos a chapter, it would at least be an indication of whether anyone cares whether you ever wrote the next one!

On a related note the FF.net thing where you can only leave one review per chapter drives me batshit. You can't have dialogue with anyone without going to PMs which also suck.

Thats why I like AO3. You can chat with people who leave comments.

I'm not a prolific writer and think I'm rubbish, but did put a couple of short fan fics up, from a historical drama. I never thought about it until I logged back into Ao3 many months later, I had lots of kudos and comments, I was amazed and chuffed as I didn't expect it at all. Was really quite lovely reading the feedback. Ao3 is really good that way, it encouraged me to write more.

@bunglebee

Also, if you can see that a couple of hundred people read your last chapter and not one of them kudosed or commented, it's like... does that mean they all hated it?

In my experience, when somebody hates something they have absolutely no problem telling you about it - people will read chapter after chapter after chapter, week after week after week and then get in touch for the first time to tell you they didn't like X.

If they don't say anything they probably liked it well enough (that person reading through my old series- still plugging away, a third through s4 now [that's more than War and Peace in terms of words of mine they've read] - have they said anything? No). Liked it enough not to criticise, anyway, and so many readers seem to think if there's nothing to pull apart then there's nothing they need to say.

One way FF.net is better than Ao3 is the way it records views and allows you to see them. Whereas Ao3 just records one person as one hit - no matter how much they read, you can see on FF.net if they just read the first chapter and left or if they've kept on going. If they keep on going, presumably they quite like it ... or maybe really really hate it but are too polite to say. I do occasionally read fics just because everything about them is so enragingly awful (not sure what that says about me ) but I don't leave comments about how awful it is. I'm a big believer in 'if you've nothing nice to say...'

Sadly most readers seem to be the opposite, If they have nice things to say they keep schtum. But one tiny, nitpicky little flaw or typo (or them just misreading - I've been criticised for things that never happened before now) and they're straight to the comments section.

@Icantreachthepretzels

You've just reminded me about the time I had a review that told me that I had put "Homely" in reference to a nice house instead of "Homey."

I had to point out that as a brit, "Homely," was indeed correct.

Oh my god. That is my WORST pet peeve, when I've correctly used, say, an archaism or relatively rare word and someone gets in touch to WRONGLY correct me. It gives me the pedant rage.

I honestly don't mind someone saying "I don't buy X character doing that", I love talking about interpretation of characters etc. Nobody yet has just gone "you suuuuuck", it's always been constructive, so I still get a thrill from the comment notification.

I've also said in one fic when a Human was talking to her alien lover about how Humans were meat eaters despite the blunt teeth.

I was strongly corrected about how Humans werent meat eaters at all.

My other pet peeve is when Americans try to write in a UK setting without getting a Britpicker. Some real clangers there. I recall one HP writer who had made a terrible misunderstanding about the meaning of "starkers".

I can't write fiction to save my life, so I just read (a very very niche) fandom. I do leave kudos twice though, once as me logged in, and once as a not logged in guest, if I really like something, and you've all prompted me to start leaving comments as well.

One thing I'm wondering though, how out of order is it to offer corrections (to say eg grammar, or phrasing) where the author has said English isn't their first language? Or where they've used as US turn of phrase/description for something that doesn't exist like that in the UK? There's a couple of authors I like who are obviously American, and it jars a bit to my ears when they mention say a college frat party when in the UK it's more likely to be called just a house party, and it annoys me that that's all I can focus on, rather than the actually very good storyline.

cross posted there with bunglebee

Ha!

Most fandoms set in the UK like Harry Potter and Sherlock have "Britpickers" floating around, basically UK residents or former residents who spot and correct Americanisms or other British English errors. I wouldn't see any harm in an "enjoyed the fic, really liked XYZ, btw X phrase isn't really used in British English, maybe a Britpicker would help?"

So, Its a characters birthday, how likely is it that Lucius Malfoy will be nice to his forced wife of a month?

He's already displayed some jealousy towards other men, particularly his wife's former boyfriend.

Hmmm. I don't see Lucius as indiscriminately or needlessly cruel, just sees an awful lot of people as below him. I think he would be sort of politely attentive and celebrate it in a way he felt befitted his status. Public, correct, but not heartfelt. Particularly if he needed his wife to be helpful to him in the future for some reason.

I agree.

He is secretly attracted to her, (She's a Black after all.) Plus, he knew her mother through her Uncle.

It'll be a bonding thing for them.

Its so hard to keep him as Lucius and not go OOC.

I recall one HP writer who had made a terrible misunderstanding about the meaning of "starkers"

I read an Angel fic entitled 'driving Angel starkers' - in which Spike is attempting to drive Angel nuts. Of course - Spike is a British character so ... that isn't how he would use 'starkers'. I told them (along with nice things I said about the fic) that their title could be interpreted as 'driving Angel naked' - they were very amused.

I once read a HP muggle au fic where, bless them, they had heard that 'public school' meant 'private school' and so had come away with the idea that therefore state schools were called 'private schools'. They even left an author's note about how this was a correct Britishism. I left that one alone ...

I find graduation ceremonies at Hogwarts pretty irritating.

But I've been pulled up on stuff that isn't a small mistake (or a non-mistake they think is a mistake) I've recently had someone leave a review saying 'I didn't like it when Angel allowed all those people to get massacred.'

I went back to check - I figured maybe I'd written it in a way that was unclear but ... I dunno, I think the way he tells his team to 'kill them all' (the demons) and then later all the demons are dead is pretty clear. Literally no humans die once Angel turns up.

I also once had a person insistent that I must be writing an AU because The Initiative in Buffy already knew about vampires before Buffy joined them. ..They're a vampire hunting unit!

I pointed this out - they insisted The Initiative did not know they were hunting.

I pointed out that in the show they refer to vampires by name as early as episode 7 (and my story was set past that) he (of course he was a he) insisted that they didn't really know they were vampires they were using that word as a joke.

I pointed out that people in The Initiative have heard of the slayer before they meet Buffy - they just don't believe in her. He ignored that.

I pointed out that in an Angel flashback we find out that the 'Demon Research Initiative' has been around since the war and they knew Angel was a vampire back then. He insisted they weren't the same people. As a teacher, he said, he taught his students critical thinking and why would the Demon Research Initiative and The Initiative be in any way linked?

I said that I was a teacher too and my critical thinking skills told me that they could have used any word in the world, they used 'initiative' so the fans would link them with the ones in Buffy. It was an easter egg. But it was now also canon that the government and military knew about vampires since at least the 40s.

He also demanded to know why I didn't write that the mayor had been stopping The Initiative from being in Sunnydale before s3 and they were only there now because he was dead ... I was just ... BECAUSE THAT'S YOUR HEAD CANON.

It's a good enough theory, but there's nothing in the show to actually support it as being true.

I just ... sometimes silence is actually preferable, you know?

I read an Angel fic entitled 'driving Angel starkers' - in which Spike is attempting to drive Angel nuts. Of course - Spike is a British character so ... that isn't how he would use 'starkers'

Very similar. Ron was declaring his intention to go starkers here, there and everywhere. Half of Hogwarts appeared to be starkers before long.

I've never had such Aggressively Right readers, so I take your point I have had some genuinely good feedback on stuff that was a bit implausible because I'd underexplained it.

Very similar. Ron was declaring his intention to go starkers here, there and everywhere. Half of Hogwarts appeared to be starkers before long.

I wonder where the source of confusion comes from? in fairness to the Angel writer, I think Spike does use the word incorrectly in the show - so it's a mistake by Mutant Enemy that the writer has picked up on and followed.

Maybe that's where the HP writers got it too.

Though it makes you wonder what they think is happening in GoF when Ron sees his dress robes and announces he'd rather go starkers than wear them. And Molly says 'fine - go naked then. Harry takes some pictures, I could do with a laugh.'

If they're interpreting Ron as saying he'd rather go crazy than wear them (which is a pretty nonsensical thing to say) then his mum telling him to go naked instead must come completely out of left field for them.

I do try to check if I'm using words/phrases that I'm not familiar with.

@MrsGulDukat

I do try to check if I'm using words/phrases that I'm not familiar with.

I think it's probably easier for us to write Americanisms than the other way around as we get so much more of their stuff than vice versa. I know they get some things, and yes they're very popular, but it's a countable number of shows where as we have wall to wall American T.V shows, plus films.

Though I know I occasionally make mistakes - use the British word rather than the American one and don't pick up on it until after it's published. Though I've never had someone complain.

And I refuse to not include 'u's in words like colour and favour.

@Icantreachthepretzels

Oh I write in British English as its natural for me to write that way. I only use Americanisms for dialogue of an American character.

Although, I refuse to add an accent to character dialogue. Like a french or german character saying "ze" instead of "the."

Because I'm writing about an American show I tend to use Americanisms in narration because that is what makes sense in the world and because most of my readers are Americans. I know the British readers will understand the Americanisms but if I call a the trunk the boot, the hood the bonnet or the sidewalk the pavement the Americans might get lost ... and I'd be pretty irritated if HP walked down the sidewalk in London, so Angel can't put his broadsword in the boot in the L.A.

When it comes to Wesley, Spike and Doyle though (English, English, Irish) I tend to have them say Americanisms if they're talking to Americans but use the proper British/ Irish English words if it's their internal monologue or they're speaking to each other. (As Angel is the least convincing Irishman in all the world he just speaks American. Well - he's been there since 1900, he's the most American person in the world.)
I used the transcripts to do my rewrites and I did 'correct' a few of the Americanisms that Wesley and Spike said along the way, though - even when they were talking to an American. There's a bit in a first season episode where Wesley referred to a jelly doughnut. It had to go. And they never ever - no matter who their audience is - miss the s of the end of 'maths'.

I do use accents in character dialogue - though all main characters are native English speakers. But all the Angel characters have such distinctive voices and it would destroy a lot of the cadence and rhythm of how each of them speak if I wrote all their dialogue out in correct form.
Obviously the types of words they use and how they put those words together is a big part of getting their voices right, but which words they ennunciate properly, which they rush over, whether or not they say 'y'all' or if they say the 'g' at the end of an ing verb is also important for the sound.
Besides - Wesley speaks very properly. It would be a lot harder to convey how much more proper he was if everyone else was recorded as doing the same.