Use of the second person
This, when I stumble across it in fanfic, is one of my ultimate pet peeves:
You walk to the door, trying to keep your head held high. "Michael? Michael wait!" You turn, expecting to see Amelia, but she's not who's there. You're surprised...
OK, people reading this - is your name Michael? Are you even male? Michael is a fictional character from a tv show (not really, but I just wrote this as a fanfic example - don't try to find the mysterious Michael and Amelia, because, seriously, as far as I am aware they don't actually exist).
I completely understand how this happens - when writing 'you' the author feels as if they are addressing the fictional character they are writing about, therefore the whole thing feels very natural. However, when a person is reading the word 'you', what is happening is that they are being directly addressed - they are being told that these events are happening to them. Now, in the hands of a skilled author who is doing it on purpose and keeping the central character ambiguous, use of the second person can be a very interesting literary trick (see Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveller for a good read and a brilliant example of this) - but I am not Emily Prentiss from Criminal Minds, I am not Rachel Berry from Glee, I am not Simon Tam from Firefly, I am not any fictional character, and using second person to illustrate their point of view may make sense when the author is writing, but it does not make any sense at all when reading it.
Stumbling across the use of second person in this way has often put me off fanfic that is otherwise really, really good; which then makes me wish that beta readers were compulsory things. And really, I do not blame the authors, because as I said it's obvious how this happens when writing, but you have to imagine yourself the reader as well - after all, it is only when they read the story that it truly exists, and it is their imagination that is left to fill in the gaps you leave - and yes, I am talking to you ;-).
ETA: Disclaimer - occasionally the second person works well in fanfic. However, when I say occasionally I mean it; out of the many, many fanfics I've stumbled across that use the second person (mostly accidentally, as I've said) there have been maybe two or three that have actually worked that way.
You walk to the door, trying to keep your head held high. "Michael? Michael wait!" You turn, expecting to see Amelia, but she's not who's there. You're surprised...
OK, people reading this - is your name Michael? Are you even male? Michael is a fictional character from a tv show (not really, but I just wrote this as a fanfic example - don't try to find the mysterious Michael and Amelia, because, seriously, as far as I am aware they don't actually exist).
I completely understand how this happens - when writing 'you' the author feels as if they are addressing the fictional character they are writing about, therefore the whole thing feels very natural. However, when a person is reading the word 'you', what is happening is that they are being directly addressed - they are being told that these events are happening to them. Now, in the hands of a skilled author who is doing it on purpose and keeping the central character ambiguous, use of the second person can be a very interesting literary trick (see Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveller for a good read and a brilliant example of this) - but I am not Emily Prentiss from Criminal Minds, I am not Rachel Berry from Glee, I am not Simon Tam from Firefly, I am not any fictional character, and using second person to illustrate their point of view may make sense when the author is writing, but it does not make any sense at all when reading it.
Stumbling across the use of second person in this way has often put me off fanfic that is otherwise really, really good; which then makes me wish that beta readers were compulsory things. And really, I do not blame the authors, because as I said it's obvious how this happens when writing, but you have to imagine yourself the reader as well - after all, it is only when they read the story that it truly exists, and it is their imagination that is left to fill in the gaps you leave - and yes, I am talking to you ;-).
ETA: Disclaimer - occasionally the second person works well in fanfic. However, when I say occasionally I mean it; out of the many, many fanfics I've stumbled across that use the second person (mostly accidentally, as I've said) there have been maybe two or three that have actually worked that way.