Fanfiction question

Hey guys! I like to read Beatles fanfiction.... but sometimes there will be something written in one that annoys me and I'll stop reading it. So was wondering what things in a fanfic will make you stop reading? And maybe your opinions on fanfiction in general.

Inaccurate facts and bad grammar :)

There's a number of things that will make me stop reading a fan fic... Usually I'll click away from the page if the person has put the fic up on their site with no regard for editing or spell-checking. I look at invented spelling all day (but that's with pre-kindergarteners--they get some slack ), and I don't like reading it when I'm supposed to be reading for fun.

If a fan fic gets way too epic in proportions, it's very hard to keep reading 'til the very end, unless the author keeps the story moving and raises new questions or conflicts within the plot. Some epics are very good, mind you, but it's not the easiest thing to pull off.

Also, if the fic is riddled with inaccuracies, it's usually pretty unbelievable and not worth reading. There's a certain level of "suspension of disbelief" that any fiction needs to have, and when you have something like a Beatle talking on a cell phone in 1968, well.... that's just wrong. And not just historical inaccuracies, but if a Beatle isn't written as believable, or if the story has turned into nothing more than a farce starring a pseudo-Beatle, that drives me crazy, too, and I usually pass it by.

And as for fan fic in general.... it's a very very good thing. Not that I can quit my day job on it, but it's at least given me an ISBN number and something to sell at Beatlefest.

When the storyline starts getting too repetitive, and nothing new seems to happen. If all that's happening is the main character and her favorite Beatle are constantly making love, and nothing else develops, I lose interest quickly. Sometimes the author just draws the story out too long trying to make it a 50-part epic. It had better be a REALLY good story, or I get bored reading through all of that.

I also like lots of dialogue in fan fics. Descriptions of the setting, mood, etc. is nice too, but I find once there's paragraphs and paragraphs about the location or how the character's feeling, I have to skim through it quickly, I can't read it all word per word.

Major historical inaccuracies and bad grammar turn me off of a fan fic.
-Kristi

Originally Posted by DizzymissLizzy909

When the storyline starts getting too repetitive, and nothing new seems to happen. If all that's happening is the main character and her favorite Beatle are constantly making love, and nothing else develops, I lose interest quickly.

I COULD not agree with you more. I don't mind it when people pair themselves up with their favourite beatles... but when all they are doing is going at it like rabbits all the time.... it just gets annoying.....

And the historical inacurracies are annoying to because I'm a HUGE history buff......

The one thing that seems to consistently annoy me with fanfic is the Beatles slash fan fiction. I just don't understand this at all. I know it's supposed to be sort of funny or whatever, but I read one once and it was John hitting on George, and it really just grossed me out big time. My take on this is that you'd have a hard time finding four more heterosexual guys than the Beatles, so these fanfics are about as out there as you can get.

When Mary Sue shows up.

Originally Posted by EasternBird

When Mary Sue shows up.

Ah, now, Mary Sue isn't always evil..... only 99% of the time. It's all in the approach, ya know...

Big inaccuracies, too. I once read one where part talked about how JOHN found the inspiration to write While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Couldn't read past that. Also I agree with the repetativeness thing someone mentioned, not just in one story where it gets to be all the same but a lot of stories follow the same sort of formula (Girl meets Beatle, etc) which without a twist or two is a bit boring. But also, sometimes, when people write the whole thing in dialect, either because its indecipherable or because it ends up not sounding right (Southern or cockney Beatles!) - not every time, and its fine in moderation and when it sounds right but if its off I can't always see it through to the end!

Mary-Sue drives me away, too, Bird. I can't stand Mary-Sue.

With regard to poor spelling and grammar, I feel that sends a message that the writer has little regard for their own work. Poor spelling and grammar don't reflect well and weaken the work in question.

Basically what Tina, Diz, Miss O'Dell and Imagine said. Inaccuracies drive me up a tree.

One thing I really cannot stand and this is my own bete noire is when a date is inaccurate. I am a real stickler for dates and that is one thing that really irks me.

I also don't like Slash at all.

Originally Posted by erinluv182

The one thing that seems to consistently annoy me with fanfic is the Beatles slash fan fiction. I just don't understand this at all. I know it's supposed to be sort of funny or whatever, but I read one once and it was John hitting on George, and it really just grossed me out big time. My take on this is that you'd have a hard time finding four more heterosexual guys than the Beatles, so these fanfics are about as out there as you can get.

Yeah this is also something that annoys me too. Actually my friend went through a Paul+John stage.... and she was telling me a line from one story where Paul or John was like "we could run away together" and I was like.... yeah they'd get far. (oh and if the person who wrote that story is on this site..... please don't kill me )

However not that there is anything wrong with homosexual people... it's just a). The Beatles are were not. and b). the story seemed really corny....

Also I read on rooftop sessions that if someone writes a story about real people being homosexual when they aren't that you can get sued.

Originally Posted by beatlegirl9977

Ah, now, Mary Sue isn't always evil..... only 99% of the time. It's all in the approach, ya know...

I agree. I mean I think it's all about how you balance the character out... I mean if your gonna model him/her after yourself then you have to be realistic and put in some of your undesirable qualities, etc. Otherwise the reader just gets annoyed.

Originally Posted by beatlegirl9977

Ah, now, Mary Sue isn't always evil..... only 99% of the time. It's all in the approach, ya know...

Yeah, that's true. I'm just not a big fan of original fanfic characters in general. At least, not when they're the main focus of the story. Which is why I read very few fanfics as it is.

As for slash, hopefully any story with heterosexual content (or hardcore smut of any kind) would be clearly marked as such, so those that don't care for it won't end up reading it by mistake. But in general, I'd have to say I'm annoyed much more by obvious spelling & grammatical issues or glaring innacurracies than by a story's overall contents.

Originally Posted by erinluv182

The one thing that seems to consistently annoy me with fanfic is the Beatles slash fan fiction. I just don't understand this at all. I know it's supposed to be sort of funny or whatever, but I read one once and it was John hitting on George, and it really just grossed me out big time. My take on this is that you'd have a hard time finding four more heterosexual guys than the Beatles, so these fanfics are about as out there as you can get.

I agree. I've said all along that I never liked slash and find it revolting. It's not something I could ever find even remotely appealing. Slash just is not funny to me. Yeah, the Beatles were all heterosexual and I would think that to portray them otherwise is to create something as farcical and ludicrous as possible.

I still can't stand Mary-Sue.

by sourmilkpinky: Inaccurate facts

Inaccurate facts is a very funny oxymoron, Milk!

Oh boy....well, I read a lot of fan fiction, as one can imagine, running Rooftop Sessions. I don't mind a good Mary Sue -- not all of them are bad, I mean, there are several in the Rooftop archives that are great examples of well-written Mary Sues. (Lena King's stories spring immediately to mind -- definitely Mary Sues, but so well done that they aren't cloying or disturbing. You genuinely LIKE the character, and she's not utterly perfect at everything, she has human foibles!)

I personally do not care for stories that are inaccurate, where authors do not do their research and at least try to get facts and nuances right. I can't tell you how many stories I've read where characters are sticking tapes in their VCRs to tape the Ed Sullivan Shows, for example! No one says you have to be a historian, but at leat for me, if a lot of little details are glaringly wrong, they leap out at me and I lose interest. If an author doesn't take the time to make sure of the little details, then I usually figure he or she is just a really lazy writer and I don't take the work seriously. Same goes for people who don't spell check or grammar check, or who just slap the work up on the web without any regard at all to the niceties of proper writing. And as a purely stylistic thing, I cannot STAND fanfics that are posted in weird colors and weird fonts that render them impossible to read without getting a migraine! (Which is why Rooftop presents all stories in plain black type on a plain white background!)

I also don't enjoy reading porn for porn's sake. I certainly don't mind a little sexual content (God knows there's plenty of it in the Rooftop archives) -- but as I say in my guidelines, it is possible to write about sex in a way that is tasteful...you can even write about very hot sex without using a single dirty word, and it'll still be able to steam up your computer screen. I REALLY don't like stories where a horribly flimsy premise is used to support nothing more than an excuse for lots of sex -- even if a story is designed to be nothing more than a quick sex romp, there needs to be enough of a story and enough character development that it's not "just sex." And I think that sexual content in a fanfic should be contained -- if I wanted to read a porn novel or see a porn film, I'd do that, not read a fanfic! Lots of lovemaking is fine, but it isn't all I want to read, and it's not enough to hold a story together on its own.

I also really don't care for stories that just aren't true to the Beatle in question. For instance, there were some stories that I read in the past where John was reduced to a mere cypher of himself -- more often than not, the author of these atrocities would have scenes where he was quite literally crying his eyes out over some brainless bimbo!! The same goes for stories where they're too "squeaky clean." While out and out porn isn't necessary, if you don't acknowledge that the Beatles were (and are) sexual, you are at the very least not being true to them. I mean, I don't know about anyone else, but to me, John was, in addition to being brilliant and talented, an EXTREMELY sexual creature -- and I've read more than a few stories where the authors literally refuse to acknowledge this and yet still think they're writing about John! Wrong -- to deny that aspect of his personality is to deny
HIM.

I could go on and on about this, but I think you guys get the idea...actually, many of my pet peeves are mentioned in the FAQs and Guidelines on Rooftop Sessions...these are all things that have come up over the past six years of submissions.

Inaccurate facts, and when the author makes the Beatles use words like "dat, and yo, and hommie"...and just about everything everyone else has posted turns me off in a story,

Originally Posted by Loony_leo

Yeah this is also something that annoys me too. Actually my friend went through a Paul+John stage.... and she was telling me a line from one story where Paul or John was like "we could run away together" and I was like.... yeah they'd get far. (oh and if the person who wrote that story is on this site..... please don't kill me )

However not that there is anything wrong with homosexual people... it's just a). The Beatles are were not. and b). the story seemed really corny....

Also I read on rooftop sessions that if someone writes a story about real people being homosexual when they aren't that you can get sued.

They could sue you, although they could sue you for non-slash fan fic too, but they probably wouldn't win, because of the Larry Flynt case. Its a grey area.

Originally Posted by HMVNipper

I also really don't care for stories that just aren't true to the Beatle in question. For instance, there were some stories that I read in the past where John was reduced to a mere cypher of himself -- more often than not, the author of these atrocities would have scenes where he was quite literally crying his eyes out over some brainless bimbo!! The same goes for stories where they're too "squeaky clean." While out and out porn isn't necessary, if you don't acknowledge that the Beatles were (and are) sexual, you are at the very least not being true to them. I mean, I don't know about anyone else, but to me, John was, in addition to being brilliant and talented, an EXTREMELY sexual creature -- and I've read more than a few stories where the authors literally refuse to acknowledge this and yet still think they're writing about John! Wrong -- to deny that aspect of his personality is to deny
HIM.

I agree, but I would also add when the more supporting characters are left flat and 2D, especially if they have a role in the story, like Brain, Mal, Neil, and so on. Sometimes they just seem like furntiture, but I think if you're going to include them at all, you should do a bit of research so they don't end up bland and completely unlike their real counterparts. They were all complictated and intricate characters too.