Things Fanfic Must Stop Doing - A series of arrogant rants and grumpy mutterings. - Rant #3
Things Fanfic Must Stop Doing - A series of arrogant rants and grumpy mutterings. - Rant #3
I should have known that being all complainy would be the only thing that could get me to make daily entries here. Why have I been cursed with the ability to whine so incessantly?
Today we look at something a little less glaringly awful than The Burly Detective or avoiding said. Today we look at a simple little crutch that most people probably don't think about:
Three-Asterisk-Syndrome. This is more prevalent in fanfiction based on television, but I've seen it elsewhere all the same. It's the tendency to have very short scenes that cut away to a new scene after just a few paragraphs, or worse, a few sentences. Pick up a published book and see if you can find one that has this many "scene jumpers" in so few words:
Mom had asked Xander to stay with her and Buffy while Mom was at some conference thingy. That was fine with her, cause Xander was like the coolest guy she'd ever met, and never treated her like a babysitter when he was there. After all, she was fourteen now, and didn't need to be treated like a kid anymore.
Buffy was there too, with Spike. The two of them seemed to go on patrols a lot, which Dawn thought was weird, but good. It meant that Xander wasn't spending time with Buffy out on patrol. She'd much rather he spent it hanging out with her.
It was after dinner that the demons attacked, the fight spilling out into the street. Xander stayed back in the house with her, an old short sword in his hand as they watched Buffy and Spike fighting the demons. She stared in awe as Spike spun through the fray, laughing when one of the demons punched him in the face. He responded with a haymaker of his own, sending the demon sprawling across the street.
He was incredible. He had to have killed almost half the demons himself. He dodged and weaved through the battle with ease, and seemed like he was having a great time during it. She looked over at Xander, who stared out the window with her.
She wondered why he didn't help.
Here's an example:
***
"Bloody solid bit of a tussle there, eh Slayer?" Spike said as the two of them came in the door. "You see when I knocked that poor sod halfway up the street?" He laughed, and re-enacted his punch in slow motion.
"Pow! Right inna kisser. Bloody brilliant, it was," he grinned. Buffy rolled her eyes, ignoring him.
"Ugh, this is so gross" Buffy sighed. Her hair was covered in demon blood, and she was sure her blouse was ruined. She lost so many good blouses this way.
"Well look on the bright side Buffy, at least it's not acidy blood like those things you killed last week," Xander said helpfully.
"Don't remind me," Buffy said as she trudged up the stairs to work at cleaning the gunk out of her hair.
"Kinda funny, innit? How Buffy and me does the killin' and you does the...well, you don't do much of anything at all, do ya?" Spike said cheerfully, looking at Xander.
"Hey I'm the fort holder! I hold down the fort!" Xander said. Dawn felt a little embarrassed for him. He really didn't do anything but sit and watch like she did. Not like Spike, who could beat a whole group of demons by himself.
***
Sir Spike of Dawn strode into the hall, staring down the army of demons assembled there. Each was menacing and horrible in the extreme, with claws and fangs and gross drippy things. Some had swords, and others big giant axes.
"What's all this ruckus?" he asked. His polished black armor gleamed under the firelight. He grinned wickedly, cracking his knuckles and drawing his greatsword, Bloodletter. The demons all screamed their battle cries at the same time, and the battle was on.
The Dark Knight moved through them like a shadow, cutting and slicing his way through wave after wave of demon. His Princess sat in corner of the room, a prisoner of the demon horde. She was unafraid, Sir Spike, her Knight of Dawn had arrived to save her.
He cut them all down, laughing heartily as he did so. He was supremely confident, and the demons were no match for him. The last one dropped with a clang of armor and sword.
"What, izzat all then?" Spike asked to the now quiet hall.
"Dawn Adams?" Xander asked.
Dawn sighed. Xander and his stupid nicknames for her. It was so juvenile.
"Yeah?"
"Pizza, or pizza?" he asked, grinning.
"Ugh, can't we have chinese? I'm so sick of pizza." Spike said he ate a pint of Sesame Chicken, extra spicy, once a week.
"Sick of pizza? Does not compute," Xander joked.
"Not everyone can eat pizza every day like you Xander, some of us like variety," she snapped.
"Hey that's fine, chinese it is, I guess." He looked at her questioningly for a moment before going back downstairs.
***
And yes, that's from one of my first stories, which I'm using as an example so people don't think I'm claiming to be above such things.
Scene jumping like that probably occurs because of television. In a TV show, you don't have long scenes focusing on one character, one pov, or one event. You skip around from one scene to another, twisting them together and making sure a lot happens at once. In fiction, however, it usually comes across as tacky and amateurish. The above section certainly seems that way to me.
When you're writing fanfiction, part of the challenge is taking whatever medium your fandom was originally presented in and changing it to fit into written fiction. It does mean you change the format most of the time, unless you're planning on writing script-fics.
Now what the above section doesn't illustrate is the problem that a lot of fanfic has in that you're cutting away to some other point of view for a split-second to show something about to happen. Typically it's while Hero-Character is fighting something only to suddenly:
***
Evil-Badguy stood in the shadows and drew his SuperMagicSword. It was all going according to plan.
***
And then back to Hero-Character fighting a bunch of monsters or something. Perfectly fine if you're writing a screenplay. Not so fine if you're writing a story.
Now as with the last two rants, this doesn't mean you can never use a page break like that. As with any literary tool, it can be used to good effect. I would hope that the excerpt I posted does not seem too terrible, and I kind of wish I had a better example since that story kind of needed that because it was switching into a fantasy inside a character's head, but hopefully you can also see how the asterisks are kind of a crutch.
What you can do pretty easily is simply let the narration flow to a new scene without the need for an artificial boundary. The Harry Potter books are actually a pretty good example of this. There are often many scenes per chapter, and some of those scenes take place at different times. Rather than delineate when a new scene has started with asterisks or some other visual indicator, the author simply lets the narrative explain that we've moved on to another scene.
So it's not wrong to use the three-asterisks. There are times when it may be neccessary, like when you're switching character POV, or when you're creating a cliffhanger within a chapter. You can use them, but when you do just ask yourself: Do I really need this artificial break, or could I fit the next scene into the narrative without having to resort to that?
So Fanfiction, please stop writing a story where you switch POVs between eight different (usually Crossover) characters every three sentences. Try writing a single coherent scene from one POV, or even from a complete third-party omnipresent POV, rather than forcing a halt in the narrative through artificial means.
As with any "rule" in fiction, the question always comes down to: Can I get this job done without opening up my toolbox? Try to save literary tools like the asterisks for a time when you really need it.
I should have known that being all complainy would be the only thing that could get me to make daily entries here. Why have I been cursed with the ability to whine so incessantly?
Today we look at something a little less glaringly awful than The Burly Detective or avoiding said. Today we look at a simple little crutch that most people probably don't think about:
Three-Asterisk-Syndrome. This is more prevalent in fanfiction based on television, but I've seen it elsewhere all the same. It's the tendency to have very short scenes that cut away to a new scene after just a few paragraphs, or worse, a few sentences. Pick up a published book and see if you can find one that has this many "scene jumpers" in so few words:
Mom had asked Xander to stay with her and Buffy while Mom was at some conference thingy. That was fine with her, cause Xander was like the coolest guy she'd ever met, and never treated her like a babysitter when he was there. After all, she was fourteen now, and didn't need to be treated like a kid anymore.
Buffy was there too, with Spike. The two of them seemed to go on patrols a lot, which Dawn thought was weird, but good. It meant that Xander wasn't spending time with Buffy out on patrol. She'd much rather he spent it hanging out with her.
It was after dinner that the demons attacked, the fight spilling out into the street. Xander stayed back in the house with her, an old short sword in his hand as they watched Buffy and Spike fighting the demons. She stared in awe as Spike spun through the fray, laughing when one of the demons punched him in the face. He responded with a haymaker of his own, sending the demon sprawling across the street.
He was incredible. He had to have killed almost half the demons himself. He dodged and weaved through the battle with ease, and seemed like he was having a great time during it. She looked over at Xander, who stared out the window with her.
She wondered why he didn't help.
Here's an example:
***
"Bloody solid bit of a tussle there, eh Slayer?" Spike said as the two of them came in the door. "You see when I knocked that poor sod halfway up the street?" He laughed, and re-enacted his punch in slow motion.
"Pow! Right inna kisser. Bloody brilliant, it was," he grinned. Buffy rolled her eyes, ignoring him.
"Ugh, this is so gross" Buffy sighed. Her hair was covered in demon blood, and she was sure her blouse was ruined. She lost so many good blouses this way.
"Well look on the bright side Buffy, at least it's not acidy blood like those things you killed last week," Xander said helpfully.
"Don't remind me," Buffy said as she trudged up the stairs to work at cleaning the gunk out of her hair.
"Kinda funny, innit? How Buffy and me does the killin' and you does the...well, you don't do much of anything at all, do ya?" Spike said cheerfully, looking at Xander.
"Hey I'm the fort holder! I hold down the fort!" Xander said. Dawn felt a little embarrassed for him. He really didn't do anything but sit and watch like she did. Not like Spike, who could beat a whole group of demons by himself.
***
Sir Spike of Dawn strode into the hall, staring down the army of demons assembled there. Each was menacing and horrible in the extreme, with claws and fangs and gross drippy things. Some had swords, and others big giant axes.
"What's all this ruckus?" he asked. His polished black armor gleamed under the firelight. He grinned wickedly, cracking his knuckles and drawing his greatsword, Bloodletter. The demons all screamed their battle cries at the same time, and the battle was on.
The Dark Knight moved through them like a shadow, cutting and slicing his way through wave after wave of demon. His Princess sat in corner of the room, a prisoner of the demon horde. She was unafraid, Sir Spike, her Knight of Dawn had arrived to save her.
He cut them all down, laughing heartily as he did so. He was supremely confident, and the demons were no match for him. The last one dropped with a clang of armor and sword.
"What, izzat all then?" Spike asked to the now quiet hall.
"Dawn Adams?" Xander asked.
Dawn sighed. Xander and his stupid nicknames for her. It was so juvenile.
"Yeah?"
"Pizza, or pizza?" he asked, grinning.
"Ugh, can't we have chinese? I'm so sick of pizza." Spike said he ate a pint of Sesame Chicken, extra spicy, once a week.
"Sick of pizza? Does not compute," Xander joked.
"Not everyone can eat pizza every day like you Xander, some of us like variety," she snapped.
"Hey that's fine, chinese it is, I guess." He looked at her questioningly for a moment before going back downstairs.
***
And yes, that's from one of my first stories, which I'm using as an example so people don't think I'm claiming to be above such things.
Scene jumping like that probably occurs because of television. In a TV show, you don't have long scenes focusing on one character, one pov, or one event. You skip around from one scene to another, twisting them together and making sure a lot happens at once. In fiction, however, it usually comes across as tacky and amateurish. The above section certainly seems that way to me.
When you're writing fanfiction, part of the challenge is taking whatever medium your fandom was originally presented in and changing it to fit into written fiction. It does mean you change the format most of the time, unless you're planning on writing script-fics.
Now what the above section doesn't illustrate is the problem that a lot of fanfic has in that you're cutting away to some other point of view for a split-second to show something about to happen. Typically it's while Hero-Character is fighting something only to suddenly:
***
Evil-Badguy stood in the shadows and drew his SuperMagicSword. It was all going according to plan.
***
And then back to Hero-Character fighting a bunch of monsters or something. Perfectly fine if you're writing a screenplay. Not so fine if you're writing a story.
Now as with the last two rants, this doesn't mean you can never use a page break like that. As with any literary tool, it can be used to good effect. I would hope that the excerpt I posted does not seem too terrible, and I kind of wish I had a better example since that story kind of needed that because it was switching into a fantasy inside a character's head, but hopefully you can also see how the asterisks are kind of a crutch.
What you can do pretty easily is simply let the narration flow to a new scene without the need for an artificial boundary. The Harry Potter books are actually a pretty good example of this. There are often many scenes per chapter, and some of those scenes take place at different times. Rather than delineate when a new scene has started with asterisks or some other visual indicator, the author simply lets the narrative explain that we've moved on to another scene.
So it's not wrong to use the three-asterisks. There are times when it may be neccessary, like when you're switching character POV, or when you're creating a cliffhanger within a chapter. You can use them, but when you do just ask yourself: Do I really need this artificial break, or could I fit the next scene into the narrative without having to resort to that?
So Fanfiction, please stop writing a story where you switch POVs between eight different (usually Crossover) characters every three sentences. Try writing a single coherent scene from one POV, or even from a complete third-party omnipresent POV, rather than forcing a halt in the narrative through artificial means.
As with any "rule" in fiction, the question always comes down to: Can I get this job done without opening up my toolbox? Try to save literary tools like the asterisks for a time when you really need it.