Why AH/OOC fanfics make me die inside
The thing that I hate most about Twific is not that the fandom is crowded with poorly written stories, or that E/B stories make up some 90% of the content, or that 13-year-olds think being able to post something to the internet makes them adults, or that tasteless smut is so prevalent. What I hate most about Twific and being in this fandom is the popularity of AH/OOC stories. If they were as prevalent in J/B fic as they are in E/B fic, I would flounce this fandom without a second thought. If I were more of an Edward and Bella girl, I would have stopped reading fanfic years ago. Luckily I’m not.
So without further ado…Why AH/OOC fanfics make me want to die inside:
1. It’s not fanfiction. It really, really isn’t. And I’ll explain why.
How to tell if the characters in your fic are OOC: If the short, pale, brunette female character named “Bella” in your story is not recognizable personality-wise as the Bella from the series (if she’s Badass Bella, Cheerleader Bella, Druggie Bella, or Olympian Bella) then she is OOC. If the tall, gorgeous, bronze-haired male character named “Edward” in your story is not recognizable personality-wise as the Edward from the series (if he’s Assward, Slutward, Geekward, or Drugward) then he is OOC. (Please note that if a character is different from how they behave in the series, but the author has shown the character’s development to that point, it is NOT OOC.)
How to tell if your fic is AH: No vampires, no wolves, no not-really-sure-what-nessie-is? Then your fic is AH.
As separate entities these two categories are recognizable as forms of fanfiction. I’m not big on reading OOC, especially when it comes to Bella’s staple character, but there are a few AU stories where I’ve found it appropriate for the changed circumstances. AH stories are okay. But it’s hard to find ones that aren’t OOC. But there are two basic key elements to a story: the character and the plot/universe that they are a part of. So if you sit down and decide that you want to write a Twilight fanfic and you decide to make it OOC (you get rid of the characters) and then you decided to make it AH (you get rid of the supernatural plot/universe), then you are no longer writing a fanfic; you are writing original fiction where the main characters are very unoriginally names Bella and Edward. (And, no, making them attend high school in Forks does not bring it back in to fanfic territory.)
And, god damn it, I want to read fanfiction!
2. Because original fic disguised as fanfic is so disturbingly popular it sucks away good writers from writing real fanfic. Again, this is more common with the E/B side of the fandom. It seems most of the good J/B writers are satisfied with writing either cannon or AU stories, which is good news to me as an avid J/B reader. But I DO enjoy a good E/B story every once in a while, and you may (or may not) be surprised how hard it is to find a solid, well written E/B story that’s not some crazy AH AU where Edward’s a mob boss and Bella’s a stripper (etc.). And that, to me, is very disappointing because the E/B talent is definitely out there
These are the AH/OOC stories I read before I gave up the genre:
Trust in Advertising
If it’s the Beaches
What Happens at Charlie’s Wedding…
Neverending Math Equation
Most of these I read in their entirety, and they were ALL very well-written stories. NME especially was just beautiful. But I never once thought while reading these stories, “This is a really good fanfic.” I never once thought of the characters as reflections of the ones from the Twilight series. And I wish with all of my heart that these types of authors would write some Twilight fanfiction and not these AH/OOC stories because I know they could do some amazing things with the story and characters.
3. Because these stories are original fic disguised as fanfic, there’s a disgusting trend of writers pulling their AH/OOC WIPs to get “published” in real life. What. The. Fuck. No. You better put a disclaimer on the very first chapter of the story clearly stating, “Dear Readers, just so you know I’m only writing this story because I’m thinking about publishing it in real life and want some feedback. So there may be a time at which I pull the story in its entirety from the web without completing it. Read at your own risk.” It is 100% crap to pull the story and leave your readers hanging. And THEN authors try to promote the edited version (where every “Bella” is changed to “Carrie” and every Edward is changed to “Damion”) so that you’ll buy it off Omnific. They want you TO PAY for fanfic?!?!?! Any author who does that is-in my opinion-an ungrateful cow.
If you’re going to make guinea pigs out of your readers, at least have the guts to be upfront about it, okay?
And that is why AH/OOC fanfics make me want to die inside.
So without further ado…Why AH/OOC fanfics make me want to die inside:
1. It’s not fanfiction. It really, really isn’t. And I’ll explain why.
How to tell if the characters in your fic are OOC: If the short, pale, brunette female character named “Bella” in your story is not recognizable personality-wise as the Bella from the series (if she’s Badass Bella, Cheerleader Bella, Druggie Bella, or Olympian Bella) then she is OOC. If the tall, gorgeous, bronze-haired male character named “Edward” in your story is not recognizable personality-wise as the Edward from the series (if he’s Assward, Slutward, Geekward, or Drugward) then he is OOC. (Please note that if a character is different from how they behave in the series, but the author has shown the character’s development to that point, it is NOT OOC.)
How to tell if your fic is AH: No vampires, no wolves, no not-really-sure-what-nessie-is? Then your fic is AH.
As separate entities these two categories are recognizable as forms of fanfiction. I’m not big on reading OOC, especially when it comes to Bella’s staple character, but there are a few AU stories where I’ve found it appropriate for the changed circumstances. AH stories are okay. But it’s hard to find ones that aren’t OOC. But there are two basic key elements to a story: the character and the plot/universe that they are a part of. So if you sit down and decide that you want to write a Twilight fanfic and you decide to make it OOC (you get rid of the characters) and then you decided to make it AH (you get rid of the supernatural plot/universe), then you are no longer writing a fanfic; you are writing original fiction where the main characters are very unoriginally names Bella and Edward. (And, no, making them attend high school in Forks does not bring it back in to fanfic territory.)
And, god damn it, I want to read fanfiction!
2. Because original fic disguised as fanfic is so disturbingly popular it sucks away good writers from writing real fanfic. Again, this is more common with the E/B side of the fandom. It seems most of the good J/B writers are satisfied with writing either cannon or AU stories, which is good news to me as an avid J/B reader. But I DO enjoy a good E/B story every once in a while, and you may (or may not) be surprised how hard it is to find a solid, well written E/B story that’s not some crazy AH AU where Edward’s a mob boss and Bella’s a stripper (etc.). And that, to me, is very disappointing because the E/B talent is definitely out there
These are the AH/OOC stories I read before I gave up the genre:
Trust in Advertising
If it’s the Beaches
What Happens at Charlie’s Wedding…
Neverending Math Equation
Most of these I read in their entirety, and they were ALL very well-written stories. NME especially was just beautiful. But I never once thought while reading these stories, “This is a really good fanfic.” I never once thought of the characters as reflections of the ones from the Twilight series. And I wish with all of my heart that these types of authors would write some Twilight fanfiction and not these AH/OOC stories because I know they could do some amazing things with the story and characters.
3. Because these stories are original fic disguised as fanfic, there’s a disgusting trend of writers pulling their AH/OOC WIPs to get “published” in real life. What. The. Fuck. No. You better put a disclaimer on the very first chapter of the story clearly stating, “Dear Readers, just so you know I’m only writing this story because I’m thinking about publishing it in real life and want some feedback. So there may be a time at which I pull the story in its entirety from the web without completing it. Read at your own risk.” It is 100% crap to pull the story and leave your readers hanging. And THEN authors try to promote the edited version (where every “Bella” is changed to “Carrie” and every Edward is changed to “Damion”) so that you’ll buy it off Omnific. They want you TO PAY for fanfic?!?!?! Any author who does that is-in my opinion-an ungrateful cow.
If you’re going to make guinea pigs out of your readers, at least have the guts to be upfront about it, okay?
And that is why AH/OOC fanfics make me want to die inside.