Things Fanfic must stop doing
Things Fanfic Must Stop Doing - A series (probably) of arrogant rants and grumpy mutterings.
Fanfiction gets a bad rap. It's not respected by most people, including a large majority of the authors who write it. The standards of fiction that would normally be applied to novels and short stories are often completely disregarded by the fanfiction community. This in turn helps to promote the feeling held by many: that Fanfiction is silly. It's childish, immature, or just plain without worth. Most people treat fanfiction the way that dime-novels were treated in the days before the internet.
Now some of that is because many authors who write fanfiction don't want to be actual authors. It's not something they aspire to. Fanfiction is their way of expressing their enjoyment for a fandom, to be a part of a community, and usually to get a little ego-boost through some positive feedback. There's nothing wrong with that, per se.
It does frustrate me, however. I'd like fanfiction to be able to be more than that. I'd like it to be able to be held to some kind of standard. I'd like to see actual literary discussions about fanfiction as an artform. I'd like to see more people pushing the envelope and struggling to improve their fanfiction whenever possible.
It probably won't happen.
Luckily for those of you who like to read about my grumpy-old-man-style complaints, I'm grumpy enough and I daresay arrogant enough not to care. Thus, I happily begin the first in what may be a series of short rants about fanfiction and what it's gotta stop doing.
I've mentioned it before. I gave it its own chapter in The Many Lives of Xander Harris. Still, it bears repeating.
There is nothing wrong with using a character's name over and over again. It's not boring. It's not repetitive. No reader is going to sit there and say to themselves, "Ho-hum, why must they keep saying Buffy's name over and over again? Why not spice it up by calling her The Chosen One in this sentence, and then The Slayer in the next, followed by a The Bottle Blonde in another, and maybe even a The Former Cheerleader for good measure. That way I, the reader, would not be so mind-dullingly bored by reading Buffy's name over and over again."
No! That doesn't happen. In the same way nobody gets upset that "said" is used too often instead of some other verb, (more on this in another rant, I'm sure. Probably before I do a rant on using too many parantheses in rants.) nobody cares that you use the character's name over and over again. It's invisible to the reader, and that means it's EASIER for the reader. This is a good thing.
Constantly switching to some vague description of the character is distracting and stupid. It's especially dumb in stories where everyone starts getting referred to by their hair color, and I can tell you without a doubt I've read stories in which there have been multiple characters with the same hair color all being referred to as "the redhead" or "the brunette." Not only is it distracting, but it's just damned confusing.
I recently read a story in which there was a witch with red hair. Both her and Willow were referred to as "The redheaded witch." Needless to say, I had no idea who the hell they were talking about.
Fanfiction must stop replacing a character's name with a character's description when referring to them in normal narrative. It's fine if they want to call attention to something special or unique about that character. For instance, if Buffy is surrounded by vampires and they think they have the upper hand, it's fine to have "The Slayer" smile and put up her fists. You're drawing attention to the fact that she's not just a normal girl. When you have "The Slayer" smile and accept a glass of milk from her mother, that's just weird.
Unless of course you're going for some kind of irony thing with that last example.
The point is that Fanfiction has to stop doing that on a regular basis within a fic. Using a description for a character to reference them should be done for a purpose, not just because the author is afraid they've said Bob's name too much and the readers will soon throw their hands up in frustration for having to see such an uninteresting name over and over again.
It's a stupid, amateurish way to write, and the more people who stop doing it, the less grumpy I may (may) someday become.
Fanfiction, stop doing that.
Fanfiction gets a bad rap. It's not respected by most people, including a large majority of the authors who write it. The standards of fiction that would normally be applied to novels and short stories are often completely disregarded by the fanfiction community. This in turn helps to promote the feeling held by many: that Fanfiction is silly. It's childish, immature, or just plain without worth. Most people treat fanfiction the way that dime-novels were treated in the days before the internet.
Now some of that is because many authors who write fanfiction don't want to be actual authors. It's not something they aspire to. Fanfiction is their way of expressing their enjoyment for a fandom, to be a part of a community, and usually to get a little ego-boost through some positive feedback. There's nothing wrong with that, per se.
It does frustrate me, however. I'd like fanfiction to be able to be more than that. I'd like it to be able to be held to some kind of standard. I'd like to see actual literary discussions about fanfiction as an artform. I'd like to see more people pushing the envelope and struggling to improve their fanfiction whenever possible.
It probably won't happen.
Luckily for those of you who like to read about my grumpy-old-man-style complaints, I'm grumpy enough and I daresay arrogant enough not to care. Thus, I happily begin the first in what may be a series of short rants about fanfiction and what it's gotta stop doing.
I've mentioned it before. I gave it its own chapter in The Many Lives of Xander Harris. Still, it bears repeating.
There is nothing wrong with using a character's name over and over again. It's not boring. It's not repetitive. No reader is going to sit there and say to themselves, "Ho-hum, why must they keep saying Buffy's name over and over again? Why not spice it up by calling her The Chosen One in this sentence, and then The Slayer in the next, followed by a The Bottle Blonde in another, and maybe even a The Former Cheerleader for good measure. That way I, the reader, would not be so mind-dullingly bored by reading Buffy's name over and over again."
No! That doesn't happen. In the same way nobody gets upset that "said" is used too often instead of some other verb, (more on this in another rant, I'm sure. Probably before I do a rant on using too many parantheses in rants.) nobody cares that you use the character's name over and over again. It's invisible to the reader, and that means it's EASIER for the reader. This is a good thing.
Constantly switching to some vague description of the character is distracting and stupid. It's especially dumb in stories where everyone starts getting referred to by their hair color, and I can tell you without a doubt I've read stories in which there have been multiple characters with the same hair color all being referred to as "the redhead" or "the brunette." Not only is it distracting, but it's just damned confusing.
I recently read a story in which there was a witch with red hair. Both her and Willow were referred to as "The redheaded witch." Needless to say, I had no idea who the hell they were talking about.
Fanfiction must stop replacing a character's name with a character's description when referring to them in normal narrative. It's fine if they want to call attention to something special or unique about that character. For instance, if Buffy is surrounded by vampires and they think they have the upper hand, it's fine to have "The Slayer" smile and put up her fists. You're drawing attention to the fact that she's not just a normal girl. When you have "The Slayer" smile and accept a glass of milk from her mother, that's just weird.
Unless of course you're going for some kind of irony thing with that last example.
The point is that Fanfiction has to stop doing that on a regular basis within a fic. Using a description for a character to reference them should be done for a purpose, not just because the author is afraid they've said Bob's name too much and the readers will soon throw their hands up in frustration for having to see such an uninteresting name over and over again.
It's a stupid, amateurish way to write, and the more people who stop doing it, the less grumpy I may (may) someday become.
Fanfiction, stop doing that.