Look People, Articulation!
Ah fanfiction.
The only place I can currently get my outsider fix, so I'm wandering through it. It's MUCH smaller then LotR or HP fandoms were, so I'm dealing a lot less with Mary Sunshine Purple-Eyes and her eye-color-changing superpowers of doom. But still, I've noticed something very common in a bunch of stories I'm reading and it's frustrating me to no end, so here goes:
Bad translation. And I'm not talking about language to language. I'm talking about what they think in their head to what they write on the page. Many times, it's been fairly clear that the ideas are sound, the story has enormous potential. I even tend to enjoy the begining, imagining what might come next. But over and over and over, I've watched ideas suffer from lackluster writing, inability of the writer to properly communicate their ideas. Sometimes they just rush through descriptions, have people talk oddly, clump their inspired, well-written moments next to a awful moments with bad word choice and confusing descritptions.
Not to mention the various grammatical-type issues. Or spelling. I might not spell-check everything I do (this journal post included) but when I really want someone to read something, and review it kindly, you bet I spell-check. I always re-read everything twice for any errors spell-check (or grammar-check which come with Microsoft Word) might miss. And I always put double spaces between paragraphs because ff.net specifically asks for them. But I've seen whole paragraphs clumped up together, which is ugly and distracting. I've seen people not bother to make a new paragraph every time someone new talks - you HAVE to do that!
It's not that some of these people don't care about the story, or the ideas, or the plot. They do. They just can't be bothered, or just arent' able, to get the brilliant ideas in their head to be enjoyable for others to read. Which, honestly, is the point of writing.
(I also don't enjoy it when writers get preachy at me. I'm not becoming Christian, and frankly, I'm pretty sure Ponyboy is as religious as he's going to get, and he seems pretty comfortable there. But I suppose it is your right to preach at me. You have to understand that it's also my right to stop reading your story.)
A last note: The verb referring the the action of lowering the volume on your actions or conversations is quiet. Quite is another word entirely. Thank you.
The only place I can currently get my outsider fix, so I'm wandering through it. It's MUCH smaller then LotR or HP fandoms were, so I'm dealing a lot less with Mary Sunshine Purple-Eyes and her eye-color-changing superpowers of doom. But still, I've noticed something very common in a bunch of stories I'm reading and it's frustrating me to no end, so here goes:
Bad translation. And I'm not talking about language to language. I'm talking about what they think in their head to what they write on the page. Many times, it's been fairly clear that the ideas are sound, the story has enormous potential. I even tend to enjoy the begining, imagining what might come next. But over and over and over, I've watched ideas suffer from lackluster writing, inability of the writer to properly communicate their ideas. Sometimes they just rush through descriptions, have people talk oddly, clump their inspired, well-written moments next to a awful moments with bad word choice and confusing descritptions.
Not to mention the various grammatical-type issues. Or spelling. I might not spell-check everything I do (this journal post included) but when I really want someone to read something, and review it kindly, you bet I spell-check. I always re-read everything twice for any errors spell-check (or grammar-check which come with Microsoft Word) might miss. And I always put double spaces between paragraphs because ff.net specifically asks for them. But I've seen whole paragraphs clumped up together, which is ugly and distracting. I've seen people not bother to make a new paragraph every time someone new talks - you HAVE to do that!
It's not that some of these people don't care about the story, or the ideas, or the plot. They do. They just can't be bothered, or just arent' able, to get the brilliant ideas in their head to be enjoyable for others to read. Which, honestly, is the point of writing.
(I also don't enjoy it when writers get preachy at me. I'm not becoming Christian, and frankly, I'm pretty sure Ponyboy is as religious as he's going to get, and he seems pretty comfortable there. But I suppose it is your right to preach at me. You have to understand that it's also my right to stop reading your story.)
A last note: The verb referring the the action of lowering the volume on your actions or conversations is quiet. Quite is another word entirely. Thank you.