177 replies to this topic

[Pigquet3]

MWAHA! I am happy to say that I've completed every fanfic I've ever started! ...Even if it took me a long, long time. I refuse to leave stories unfinished **action pose**


~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

God, I never thought I'd see that day where you could finally say that. In your case, I think that actually deserves a major congratulations!





Pigquet

[Cinnamon Ninja]

I also do not get the concept of younger kids having crushes on older people, I guess that's a part of JN fanfics I despise, because it borders in the line of pedophilia...

I agree, Urvy! I especially hate it when the older people (like, SIGNIFICANTLY older) reciprocate. Now that is pedophilia.

I'm usually fine with a bit of harmless crushing, though - using Glee as an example, I would be okay with Rachel having a crush on Mr Schu for a bit, as long as that wasn't the whole point of the fic. (Like, maybe once she realizes that Mr Schu is a vest-addicted moron, she goes out and wins a competition or woos Finn or... something.) As long as the author and by extension most of the characters realize that it's dumb, it's all good.

[Pigquet3]

I've thought of something else that I strongly dislike: "Gender Swap" fics. Seriously, WTF is the point of those??





Pigquet

[Mara=^.^=]

I've thought of something else that I strongly dislike: "Gender Swap" fics. Seriously, WTF is the point of those??

Technically, wasn't "Trading Faces" kinda like a gender-swap episode?


~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[JimmyxxCindy4EVER]

Yeah, but it wasn't a male version of Cindy or a female version of Jimmy, who'd likely be named Jamie and Cody; just Cindy in Jimmy's body and vice versa.

[Scythe]

I hope I don't get any one wanting to hate me for these but...um...Fanfics all about a Shipping...

I HATE how EVERYBODY likes making Sheen a pervert, he isn't that bad! He might hit on some girl a few times, but he doesn't talk about stuff like THAT! Sheesh!

I know what I hate is stupid and that I should be like everybody else and be all happy about big Shipping things, and perverted stuff, and how I should want the gang to be Teenagers or Adults in five seconds...or some other stuff. But hey, I'm just an outcast. Probably just an Idiot fan... and I'm sorry.

[Pigquet3]

I hope I don't get any one wanting to hate me for these but...um...Fanfics all about a Shipping...

I HATE how EVERYBODY likes making Sheen a pervert, he isn't that bad! He might hit on some girl a few times, but he doesn't talk about stuff like THAT! Sheesh!

I know what I hate is stupid and that I should be like everybody else and be all happy about big Shipping things, and perverted stuff, and how I should want the gang to be Teenagers or Adults in five seconds...or some other stuff. But hey, I'm just an outcast. Probably just an Idiot fan... and I'm sorry.

Haha, that's not that strange at all. I like really kinky/perverted/shippy stuff when its SUPPOSED to be weird or stupid. Like a prompt saying they want two specific obscure characters together and to make it as cracky as possible! In my opinion, sometimes that's what fanfiction's about. A place to just go "WTF" at your favorite characters doing the unthinkable.

HOWEVER

If its supposed to be serious fanfiction, I don't care for it being super shippy or out of character. And its easy to tell the reason a fanfic was written. Lots of times its just written for the hell of it, for cuteness or a laugh, and sometimes its meant to feel like an actual part of the show/movies/etc. and the person is trying their hardest to keep it in character and meaningful. If its the first, I don't care what shipping goes on (okay, I do have SOME limits, lol), but if its the second, I'm rather picky.





Pigquet

[JimmyxxCindy4EVER]

sometimes its meant to feel like an actual part of the show/movies/etc.





Pigquet

That's why my fic Emerging Compassions is taking so frikkin' long for me to write... That's probably also why it's one of the least popular ones here...

[Scythe]

I sorta laugh at that...

[JimmyxxCindy4EVER]

What does??

[ShadRose17]

First and foremost anything that isn't clean. Meaning: swearing, perversion of any kind, slash pairings, etc, etc, etc. I don't like reading these things period. And I get disgusted when I can't find any fanfiction without this stuff. It basically makes me want to quit reading fanfiction at all, I won't finish a fic if it has any of these things in it, I just won't. <<'

FICS THAT ARE UNFINISHED QQQQQQQQQQ!!!! This drives me bonkers if I'll start reading something and find it isn't finished, and it's been like two years since it was posted and one year and nine months since an update. ._.' Wry u no say tis discontinued? I wasted my time and got into it for nothing, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?!?!?!?!

And I'm not a big fan of fanfictions with OCs as main charries in them. I've written some in the past but anymore, eh.. XD Some of them are okay! Others, not so much.

I'm sure I've got a lot more too, I'm very, very, picky. XD

[JimmyxxCindy4EVER]

Unfinished fics, especially ones that seem to stop on a super-exciting or really suspenseful note, really get me miffed!! One fic I read called Summer at Camp Friendly is such an example... Now, I am particularly guilty of not finishing some of my fics, but that's only cuz I have almost ZERO inspiration for said fics these days, Cat's Got Her Tongue in particular... Oh, and Nobody's Perfect, as well.

[Katia11]

I'm sure this has been mentioned but when people withhold chapters for reviews..

I understand the motivation since obviously it hurts when your story gets only a few reveiws. I know... but seriously. .... ANNOYING.

[TheKyttin13]

Perhaps I'm not one to comment here, but I suppose I can offer up some agreement and rebuttal all in one small reply....normally I'm very tolerant of fanfiction as a whole and I have read a very large amount of what's been posted on ff.net (even if I've failed to reply/review it), but I do get irked at some elements that occasionally plague fics.

First and foremost, I look at length, both in chapter count and in word count. Doesn't that seem sad? Maybe I'm just really harsh, but most of the time, if I'm interested in reading a story, I want to pour over something that's meaningful and somewhat lengthy, so as a general rule of thumb, if there are two thousand times as many words as chapters, I can brace myself and dive in. Three thousand per chapter is better. Four to five thousand per chapter is ideal. Though, considering the fic I just posted here two evenings ago is over eight thousand words long in just the first chapter, with the second being seven-and-a-half thousand, I'm probably abusing my own statement. Long live my hypocrisy!

After length comes the summary. Granted: one can never, ever judge a book by its cover. I mean, I've read some pretty atrocious summaries and the fics that follow are just BEAUTIFUL. Heck, even my own summaries fail at grabbing readers. So, to compensate, I then read the first chapter (or half-a-chapter) to get a feel for the author's sense of diction, dialect, and style. And with as short as summaries are requested to be, it's truly impossible to say all that need be said about the piece in question.

Now, for the things I dislike, which might get a tad messy and somewhat hypocritical as I go, for I'll be comparing my writing style to what I like and what I don't.

The one thing that bothers me above all else is mechanics. I realize that nobody's perfect and we'll all use commas and semicolons incorrectly a time or two, and I understand that some words need a dictionary to spell out. I thoroughly understand that. And I do cut writers a decent amount of slack for the inevitable errors in their writing just as I'd like to hope other writers do for me. Hell, I'm even okay with Jimmy's middle name "Isaac" being spelled "Issac" because it's not a common name and most people don't know. But if I read a sentence and I see spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors all balled into one line, complete with time-travelling (tense-shifting between past and present) and point-of-view skipping (migrating from Jimmy or Cindy in third-person to their first-person selves without making a note of the transition), I get a little irritated, as I get confused and I lose what I was reading. When I read, my mind always attempts to paint a picture of the characters and their surroundings in media res (as the action is happening/in the middle of the moment), and when someone jumps from "Jimmy did..." to "...and then I said..." while talking about one character, I get thrown off and the mental movie gets distorted as I try to regroup. That frustrates me to no end because I hate watching bad movies, and when it's in my own head, it makes me want to tear my hair out to erase the footage.

Beyond the simple idea of mechanics and time-space continuum non-impedence, the next thing to bother me is characterization. When an author, a director, a producer, a screenwriter, a video game artist, whomever it may be...whenever a character is created, it serves a purpose. It is given likes and dislikes, shortcomings and excellences. It has a mind, a body, and motivation. It gains life. Consider Cindy, someone who is very strong, very proud, and very sure of herself. She was created with the purpose of being the character opposite to Jimmy Neutron and is his rival as much as his love interest (though this doesn't surface until later episodes). So, why do I read so many fics where she's a bubbly, giggly schoolgirl who happens to be obsessed with the boy across the street? I mean, I like fluff and lovey-dovey stuff between them since it's nice to see them expanding upon their relationship, but I also like to see them fight and get into their ridiculous arguments because it's reminiscent of their rivalry and the time they were on-screen while the show aired. With how thick they both are, it's a wonder they can even admit their feelings for one another, let alone start making out in the middle of the page. I'm not saying I'm against J/C awesomesauce; I'd be an asshat to say that, not to mention a blatant hypocrite, but jeez, they weren't terribly public with their feelings and no matter what age, they still don't really come across as people who would be. I don't mind if it's a non-serious fic, but if it's supposed to be based on or somewhat follows the show, they should only grow more mature and, if anything, only lessen their arguments, not turn into raging bags of hormones.

Shortening. It's unfortunate, but I get very easily irked by this. The word "okay" shouldn't be shortened to the two-letter equivalent. "Two" shouldn't be a single numbered keystroke, just like "and". Oh, and as far as grammar styling goes, any number less than one hundred should be written out; I write all my numbers, not for word count, but for flow and clarity. To me, seeing digits in the middle of words is an unnecessary interruption of the story's flow.

Emphasis. It's one thing to emphasize words through italics, but underlining and bold-faced fonts don't make sense to me. Sorry, but I don't often see them used in actual story-writing except maybe for titles or important words within the text. The other part of that is the CAPS LOCK key. The only time anyone should go near the CAPS LOCK key is when the character in question is livid and ready to rip someone's head off. I understand that characters get mad, but just using regular (or italicized) text with an exclamation point afterward makes far more sense THAN HAVING THE CHARACTER TALK IN ALL CAPS LIKE A VERY LOUD ROBOT. It just bothers me. Probably more of that interrupting flow concept. Yeah, I'm all about flow. Like a river. From the start, to the finish, the water's gonna hit the bottom at some point.


For more personal deals, I, err....realized....that I made this mistake too. Betty the Bitch. Simple enough. After refreshing my memory, she actually more seems to be Betty the Beautiful or Betty the Bimbo, not Betty the Bitch. When I wrote Pushed To Breaking Point, she became a bitch, and for the life of me I would love to take that back and apologize to her for such an atrocity, but I have already published and "completed" the story (or, at least, Part I of the story) and thus it's set. But it bothers me just a tad when everything I read about her and her nice hair and her pink dress seems to be completely negative or does nothing but show her in a bad light. I'm okay with her being spiteful or jealous; that's fine by me. But to do what I did and make her into a bad character, even if just to suit a role that needed filling, I get uncomfortable with that, and now that I realize it happened in my own fic, I think I've done several facepalms at my blatant stupidity. She's not a bitch. She's just....stuck in an awkward set of circumstances.

Another issue with the characters, mostly with aging them up....Jimmy being macho, or Sheen being a pervert. Sexual presense and innuendo is fine; hell, I'll read all the gory details and enjoy the work for what it is (just because I'm already so mentally scarred it doesn't faze me). But Jimmy was the short scrawny science geek. He wouldn't suddenly reach age sixteen and become some hulking body-builder or a stud. He wouldn't even be a chick magnet. He'd still be the same smartass genius he had been before. I don't mind buffing him up just a bit due to puberty and stuff, but I don't think making him a "hunk" or a "stud muffin" suffices as proper character aging. Then we come to Sheen, the hyperactive Ultralord guy. That kid....he bugs me. Sometimes. I mean, his character is fun to write, but when it only seems like he's been aged up into some sexual beast that Libby has no control over, it's a little bothersome. Last I checked, she wore the pants in that relationship (at least, when they were ten). Now, I'm not saying that role would or wouldn't change. But honestly, Sheen wouldn't turn into some sex-crazed maniac who would overpower Libby. She wouldn't succumb to that willingly, and he wouldn't transform that far out of his norm without a severe case of either brain damage or hormone overload. Either way, he would still respect Libby as his "Ultra-queen" and wouldn't focus on their sex life as a dominating role in the relationship.

I don't really have any beef with Carl, Cindy, or Libby....Nick's kinda 'meh', everyone el-OH! SASHA VORTEX. Time for another rant. See, she's not bad. I mean, granted, she's never really given a positive light in the show, but she isn't exactly unbearable. She just wants the best of her daughter, much like my (ex?)girlfriend's father wants the best for her. Sometimes, he can be an ass. But since she's a straight-A student, he's willing to cut her some slack one or two nights a week and over the weekends provided she doesn't need to be up early the next morning and she'll be home on time. That's kinda how I see Sasha, though perhaps with a bit more emotional support and concern for her daughter's well-being. She might be fiery, and at times she can be a snobby bitch, but that isn't the way she was created to stay. She's a mother. No mother can resist their daughter unless they're totally cold and unfeeling.


I could go on and on and nitpick more, but I think I'll cut myself short there. I've had my rant, and I might have even pissed off a great number of fic writers. Don't worry: I'm guilty of many of these things in my own works.

[Katia11]

woah.. that is a long list!

[TheKyttin13]

woah.. that is a long list!

Sorry... I had a lot to say, and there's plenty more I'll keep withheld for fear of scaring everyone away from me. Normally I'm very quiet and introverted, but I guess this forum kinda altered that....

[Scythe]

I'm sure this has been mentioned but when people withhold chapters for reviews..

I understand the motivation since obviously it hurts when your story gets only a few reveiws. I know... but seriously. .... ANNOYING.

I also laugh at that! I mean, people get upset about having unpopular fics and get ben-out-of-shape about it, I Live with it, and My fics are the worst (or at least the least popular) on the site...sheesh...

If I affended anyone then I am very sorry...

[TheKingInTheNorth]

Note that I'm not necessarily talking just about Jimmy Neutron here...

One thing that annoys me is when fanfictions focus too much on the romance, at the expense of the story.
Now, I love the pairings in JN, but the adventure itself shouldn't take a back seat to them.

I also hate it when people write characters totally out of character... I mean, with some stories you'd think people didn't even watch the show/movie.
It particularly annoys me when characters are made gay, when they are clearly not in cannon.
(Don't get the wrong impression - I have nothing against homosexuals ).

I don't usually like AU fanfictions, but there are exceptions...

[Ang]

Ahh, man. I can't stand reading fanfiction any more. It's all..corrupt 'n shit.

Here are a few things(not in any order):

Out of Character

1. When Betty is portrayed as some maneating bitch. As TheKyttin13 said it rather nicely, "She's not a bitch. She's just....stuck in an awkward set of circumstances." Which is very true. She is in a rather awkward position: the unwanted figure to an entire shipping fandom, etc. Betty isn't a bitch lol. Get real. Cindy is a bitch(I can say that freely since I love her bitchy attitude any way— which is really more of an emotional issue), not Betty. It seems so unreal when Cindy is nice to Jimmy and Betty isn't. It's like...
wtf.

2. When Jimmy and Cindy DO NOT fight. It sucks the fun out of the whole adventure/story. I expect to watch/read something JN related to have Jimmy Neutron argue with his rival, Cindy Vortex.

3. When the kids are still eleven, and Sheen hasn't said a damn thing about Ultralord the whole fuggin' fic. It's so unnatural.

4. When Nick DOESN'T break his leg.

5. When Carl hasn't had an alergic reaction to something. Even if the kids are older, Carl's allergies to things can't just..go away.


Shipping

I can't stand an entire fic about shipping or romance. It makes me..uncomfortable(lol). Sure a little J/C there then Sheen hitting on Libby is okay, or Carl crushing on Jimmy's mom is FINE, or even Jimmy going wonky over Betty is OK. But when the entire story is a romance thing, when the series absolutely was not, then..just, why? I want to read a story where the kids go off on an adventure, not Jimmy and Cindy making out(which is loads funny, 'cause most of the time in fanfiction, they're 11.) I. Want. Plot.


Grammar/Spelling

One of my biggest pet peeves. Before posting/publishing something, you must have it edited. I'm sorry, but if I'm reading something by an author, don't pound the English language into the ground. D:
I understand that not ALL mistakes can be found by the writer, but maybe he/she could ask someone to read over it to find grammar/spelling mistakes?

I understand that not everyone is amazingly talented at writing, but if an author(or whatever they're supposed to be) is continually putting up stories such as:

jimmy and cindy walked to candy bar. they were holding hands. libby saw them and said about time!


— when their readers are giving them suggestions, yet the author ignores them..I'm sorry. It just annoys me. I've only seen that happen once or twice, but when it happens, it makes me want to cry.

Another issue with the characters, mostly with aging them up....Jimmy being macho, or Sheen being a pervert. Sexual presense and innuendo is fine; hell, I'll read all the gory details and enjoy the work for what it is (just because I'm already so mentally scarred it doesn't faze me). But Jimmy was the short scrawny science geek. He wouldn't suddenly reach age sixteen and become some hulking body-builder or a stud. He wouldn't even be a chick magnet. He'd still be the same smartass genius he had been before. I don't mind buffing him up just a bit due to puberty and stuff, but I don't think making him a "hunk" or a "stud muffin" suffices as proper character aging. Then we come to Sheen, the hyperactive Ultralord guy. That kid....he bugs me. Sometimes. I mean, his character is fun to write, but when it only seems like he's been aged up into some sexual beast that Libby has no control over, it's a little bothersome. Last I checked, she wore the pants in that relationship (at least, when they were ten). Now, I'm not saying that role would or wouldn't change. But honestly, Sheen wouldn't turn into some sex-crazed maniac who would overpower Libby. She wouldn't succumb to that willingly, and he wouldn't transform that far out of his norm without a severe case of either brain damage or hormone overload. Either way, he would still respect Libby as his "Ultra-queen" and wouldn't focus on their sex life as a dominating role in the relationship.

Thank you. Took the words right out of my mouth.
There is something wrong when Jimmy isn't being an overbearing know-it-all.

Sorry if I offended any one, but sometimes I can't help myself.

[Mara=^.^=]

jimmy and cindy walked to candy bar. they were holding hands. libby saw them and said about time!

**shivers** I've seen so many fics like that.

There is something wrong when Jimmy isn't being an overbearing know-it-all.

LOL! And how!


~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =