Things That Annoy You in Fanfiction

[lantzblades]

It's clear that it is a RPG pnp system, it goes that nasu has numbers to establish the difference, he just hasn't said anything about how the numbers relate

[Cherry Lover]

No, it's clear that it's meant to look like an RPG system. I'm not at all convinced Nasu actually bothered to work out a proper system for it, rather than just making the numbers up as he went along.

[Xamusel]

*ahem* I'd rather this didn't devolve into an argument, so both of you, please let it rest.

Thank you.

Anyway! Another annoyance involves bad use of tropes. I mean, there are some things that make the use of tropes forgivable, but, if you use tropes without a good reason, then that puts your story on my auto-ignore list.

[Cherry Lover]

Well, it depends what you mean by "use of tropes".

Tropes aren't meant to be something you consciously use, they're a list of common things that authors put in works either because people like them or because they're just necessary for the story to work. It's ridiculous to say "don't use tropes", because every story ever has, from ancient mythology to the present day. Having said that, anyone who looks at TV Tropes and says "hey, let's design my character around that trope" is an idiot, because that's not how it's meant to work at all. Tropes are meant to emerge organically as a result of writing the story, not be something you put in artificially so you can say "hey, this character is a Tsundere" or whatever.

[Xamusel]

I know what you mean.

Actually, I was talking about what you said is idiotic for what I meant by bad use of tropes. Only an organic feel is a good one, especially in this case.

[Cherry Lover]

Ah, OK, fair enough.

[Xamusel]

Yes, indeed.

Should I think of others, I'll let you guys know.

[lantzblades]

One thing that bothers me majorly is the worfing in fan fiction it's so damn dumb

[Xamusel]

Care to clarify what you mean by that?

Otherwise, I won't know whether to agree with you or to disagree, which means I'll have to be on the fence for it.

[Tyrnek]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheWorfEffect

I assume that this is what lantz is talking about.

[Xamusel]

If that is so, then I'd know what he means, unless it's absolutely necessary in a story (not counting the Ranma 1/2 fanfics out there as listed on TVTropes).

[Cherry Lover]

Yeah, using a character like that just to prove how strong their opponent is rather annoying sometimes. It's understandable, though, because there needs to be some way to prove how strong the character is.

[lantzblades]

Yup T that's what I mean, it occurs a lot in hf. And no mike it's not understandable, there's plenty of other ways to prove a character strong without humiliating or disrespecting another character

[Xamusel]

I take it you don't like any fiction, then, lantz?

I mean, The Worf Effect is everywhere in the world of fiction, not just fan fiction.

[lantzblades]

Wrong, its not everywhere, it's just a common thing, good writers know how to avoid using such a dumb cliche