What Makes a Bad Fanfiction?

[AmbientBeat 27]

What makes one hate a Fanfiction? What makes a badfic? What's the difference between a good and bad fanfic?

[Stormlight 1,371]

A general topic is that a bad fanfiction would have Mary Sues, which are characters that are seen as all "perfect and powerful". In my opinion, the more realistic the characters are, the more I'll like the story

[silvadel 1,393]

Tastes vary, but what invariably makes for bad fanfiction is poorly written fanfiction.  Something with tons of errors will turn off most anyone.

[RattPitt 172]

Add in things that aren't canon to the original story at all, like turning everybody into goffic^[sic] people.

[Melted Dog 161]

Add in things that aren't canon to the original story at all, like turning everybody into goffic^[sic] people.

My Immortal... heh.

A badfic usually includes major plot holes/no plot at all.

[Venomous 18,813]

• Improper grammar

Plot holes

Repetitive use of words

Lack of good adjectives

Mary/Gary Sues

[Megas 27,045]

Deliberately shitting on existing characters

[reader8363 1,281]

Deliberately shitting on existing characters

um, could ya explain a little more about it

[Megas 27,045]

um, could ya explain a little more about it

Making characters look bad or shitting on them out of personal bias against them

Edited February 8, 2016 by Megas

[Evilshy 5,089]

So, imagine all the things that can make regular fiction bad. All of that applies, except perhaps world building since the world is already built.

 

But then add on the fact that you also have to represent character writing by other authors in seemingly genuine ways, which is hard to do since we don't know them like the author does. And if there's any problems with your portrayal of existing characters, its front and center for everybody to notice. And not only do you have to write them well, you have to predict how they'll interact with your OCs, or at least, how the readers will think they should interact. It's even worse if you use main characters.

 

So basically, you're trading not having to do any world building for having to try to write other authors characters the same way they do. I'll take world building any day.

[rst64tlc 11]

 

• Improper grammar
• Plot holes
• Repetitive use of words
• Lack of good adjectives
• Mary/Gary Sues

 

• Canon character's acting OOC (Out Of Character)
• Their is no story in a story
• Bad execution of events
• Poor timing
• random things make no sense
• A Very BAD Plot Twist
• A bad ending (What I mean is that the ending was bad to the point of either: not making sense (no Discord joke here even if I like him), too sudden (uprupted) and something that can easily be pointed out that it was thrown there at the last second).
• Bad build-up

[BlinkZ 1,151]

Besically what has been said. It mostly about taste of what kind of fics people like. Some hate shipping fics cuase they think it the wrong ship or maybe someone made pinkie Pie way to random (which can really backfire and yest agian OOC mode)

HIE stories are probably not a good start, at least in my opinion. most of the time they turn into self insert, mary sue, garry stue stories.

Bad plots are things that are so redicilous that it be eaier face palm worthy or just a pain to read(a crapfic is a nother story all togethre)

bad grammer and spelling is deffenitly a way to spot a 'terrible fic' oh yeah and shopping list syndrome where it beasicly be
character does A, then did B, then did C, then ded E while drinking F "  you know what I mean

[MDLineArt 93]

I'd say at the end of the day the thing that will make or break the spine of any fanfic is the characters.  Cannon or not, if the characters come across flat and boring, two-dimensional representations, it would not matter how good the story itself is, it won't be engaging because the reader's investment is IN the key protagonists.

 

You can generally tell when someone is just making things up, and when the characters are alive in the writer's head.  The reader should get to know the characters through their encounters and interactions, their thoughts and actions, and feel like they know them as closely as any friend in real life, warts and all.

Keep in mind, there are lots of BAD fanfics out there because people don't consider the characters actions as believable.  Try and imagine if Fluttershy tried throwing the biggest party in all of Ponyville.  Yeah, you just rolled your eyes. You know what would make it worse?  That Fluttershy's parties are too extreme for Pinkie Pie.  While the role-reversal could make for great comedy, the payoff should come from being true to the characters as they are established, not as you want them to be due to convenience. 

 

Same goes true for any Original Characters you bring in.  We need to get to know them, how they see the world, and how they interact with it.  We need a certain degree of consistency in order to empathize with them.  This also means that their choices need to make sense within the confines of the character.  If your character is cowardly, they need something really great to motivate them to action that could include personal risk (Or in Fluttershy's case, her friends). 

 

If we like the characters, you would be amazed at how much people are willing to suspend their disbelief if only to see what they will do next.  Ground your characters in some degree of realism.

Unfortunately, this is something I often find lacking in Fan Fiction.  Just my two cents.

[Concerned Bystander 2,901]

There are a great many things that can drag a story down.  The biggest thing for me though is people with poor English skills who release something without having somebody more competent proofread it first.  If the first paragraph is riddled with poor spelling, bad grammar and sloppy structure then the chances are I'm not going to read any further.

 

As for content, I do understand when people want to take the MLP universe and make it their own, but so many fanfics deviate so far from what MLP is about that the story loses any relationship with the program and its spirit, and the fact that the characters are ponies becomes at best irrelevant, and at worst, downright ridiculous.

 

The MLP universe is not inherently dark or gory, it is not embroiled in perpetual war with thousands dying every day, the ground is not littered with corpses and skeletons, and the rivers do not constantly run red with blood.  If your story has more edge than a Japanese blacksmith's shop the you should maybe think about shifting the setting to elsewhere.

 

But hey, that's just my opinion.  when I want a blood-fest I'll watch Saw or Hostel.  When I read or watch anything MLP related, then I want it to be in keeping with the spirit and ethos of the program itself.

[Tao 6,706]

Humans and ponies clopping fics....

[MDLineArt 93]

There are a great many things that can drag a story down.  The biggest thing for me though is people with poor English skills who release something without having somebody more competent proofread it first.  If the first paragraph is riddled with poor spelling, bad grammar and sloppy structure then the chances are I'm not going to read any further.

 

This is probably why it is I don't write fan fiction in general.  I have attorcious spelling (   )

 

 

 

As for content, I do understand when people want to take the MLP universe and make it their own, but so many fanfics deviate so far from what MLP is about that the story loses any relationship with the program and its spirit, and the fact that the characters are ponies becomes at best irrelevant, and at worst, downright ridiculous.

 

I can partly agree with this.  The reason I say so is because some things that are REALLY out there and the juxtaposition has lead to great comedic effect (Sometimes light-hearted, sometimes very gallows humour).

 

 

 

The MLP universe is not inherently dark or gory, it is not embroiled in perpetual war with thousands dying every day, the ground is not littered with corpses and skeletons, and the rivers do not constantly run red with blood.  If your story has more edge than a Japanese blacksmith's shop the you should maybe think about shifting the setting to elsewhere.

 

But hey, that's just my opinion.  when I want a blood-fest I'll watch Saw or Hostel.  When I read or watch anything MLP related, then I want it to be in keeping with the spirit and ethos of the program itself.

 

You're right, it isn't.  But admittedly, there are a few (And I count myself among them) who were initially brought in by some of that content.  The Rainbow Factory being the PMV that brought my attention, as I couldn't understand how that could be the result of MLP:FIM, and yet here was something I gravitated to, using the same universe.  Eventually, it is what brought me into the fandom and seeing the creativity of the community made me want to participate at all.  I am grateful for it.

 

That being said, I do agree that keeping the spirit of the source material is more beneficial than not.  If I were to write a Warhammer 40,000 (Birth of the term Grim-Dark) Fan Fic about Horus raising bunnies when Lucius The Eternal accidentally let them escape during one of his CRAY-CRAY parties, it would warrant the same dismissal. 

 

I would argue at that point, it comes down to intent and execution. 

 

Thanks for chiming in CB

[Guest]

Honestly? Bad writing.

 

No amount of doing "A, B and C" can fix bad writing. You can't throw in any amount of "universal goods" to fix bad writing. Even some of the WORST concepts with what many people consider "universal bads" can be saved by good writing. Writing that is enthralling and interesting can save even some of the worst stories. So really the answer is very simple: bad writing.

[Faerie-StarV 46]

Horrible grammar

Bad writing

Text writing

Poorly made characters

Mary Sue OC's

Stories that makes no sense

Lack of punctuation

Misspellings

Run on sentences

Full paragraph without breaking them down

 

 

My pet peeve is the text writing. I read this one Sonic fanfic years ago and the whole story was literally written in txt speak. I had no idea what the fanfic was about because I tried reading and it just gave me a headache of trying to translate it before I gave up. It's too bad I didn't make an account back then because I would have left a review on it.

[CastletonSnob 3,023]

I think most of the mature rated stories on FimFiction are poorly written garbage, with OOCness, excessive swearing, and ham-fisted attempts at covering "mature" themes.

[Guest]

I think most of the mature rated stories on FimFiction are poorly written garbage, with OOCness, excessive swearing, and ham-fisted attempts at covering "mature" themes.

A lot suffer from following what is "popular" or what is a "safe" territory for easy views. Like that's partially why smut gets so popular because the expectations for it are not that high, just for it to be smutty a lot of the time. And why we see so many Fallout Equestria "spin off"s because people would rather follow something that is popular so they have an "easy" path to views rather than take a chance at something original.

[Ianpiersonjdavis 512]

As someone said earlier, just like with what makes a 'good' fanfiction, taste is subjective, but I can give you what I think makes a bad one.

 

Some of these may be repeated from earlier responses, since these are based on what I personally dislike;

 

-Gratuitous improper grammar can annoy readers-the exception being character dialogue, since most people rarely speak grammatically correctly one-hundred percent of the time and if they are children, uneducated, mentally ill, are foreign to wherever the story takes place and are new to understanding the characters' primary language, etc. then poor grammar in their dialogue makes sense within the story's narrative.

 

-'Perfect' characters or Mary/Gary/Marty Stus as they are usually called, who are extremely competent with little to know prior training or knowledge in a certain field of expertise and usually don't have family lineage of having the talent 'in their blood' to fall back on as an excuse, either as well as being instantly and near-universally loved by other characters within the story for little to no reason.

 

-Major plot holes-while minor ones should be avoided if at all possible, really big ones are easy to notice and will get readers extremely annoyed with not having them addressed in some capacity, especially if that something can fix everything within the story or immediately end whatever conflict is unfolding.

 

-Unlikable characters, this is an easy trap to fall into with protagonists if their is nothing sympathetic or charming about them-this goes along with show-don't tell, if they have positive traits-implement them into the story while interacting with others instead of saying 'This character does or is 'X', otherwise it's an informed trait that has no real bearing on the story and comes off as lip service from the author.

 

-Characters acting out of character with no in-story explanation such as; it takes place in an alternate universe, they were under mind control, or they were secretly being blackmailed-and with the last two, the other characters should be suspicious if they know the character in question is acting strange in contrast to their normal behavior.

[Castle Bleck 19,163]

An overpowered and/or underpunished Villain Sue is one of the most negative aspects, IMO.

[King Sejong 858]

   To me, the worst offence is a self inserted fan fiction, that disrupts another writers canon, especially if the writing is superior to the fan's inserted fiction. Another thing about a self inserted fan fiction, is that it attempts to ride the heels of someone else's work, rather than writing something new to add, basically it is an attempt to rewrite the story, even if the original story has fans, one example I can think of is the Lion Guard, it has all the hallmarks of a self inserted fan fiction, the story takes place between the first and second films, shoe horned plot devices, magical deus ex machina, and a downgraded retread of the original movie, Return of the Roar is also not good at standing alone, it has to have the series to help it stand, which is not a good sign, the Harry Potter movies set up the events into the next movie, but are good enough to be an independent film, so this is my major pet peeve with this brand of fan fiction, fiction has to be able to stand up and proud, that does not require additional notes to connect with the audience, or feed off the nostalgia of older audience, the Lion Guard should have take place after Simba's Pride, because if you are going to introduce an old story to a new demographic, start with a new and fresh story, to bring together the new and nostalgic audience, which to me is how good fiction is remembered.  

[Lonk Chase 255]

The ratio between references and actual content.

 

References only give value to those who see said references as having value, alienating those not familiar or just don't care. *cough cough* MINECRAFT PARODIES *cough cough*

If a piece of art mostly relies on references to have value, only 5% of people will see that value and the other 95% who don't get it will think it's crap. *cough cough* DOUBLE RAINBOOM *cough cough*

 

You'll probably dismiss this with "BUT I'M ONLY MAKING THIS FOR THE BRONY FANDOM," to which I say, "SO WHAT?" If 80% of your content is based around referencing the fandom, its headcanons, or the show, there will still be bronies who are like, "Yeah, I get it, this is a brony fanfiction." You're digging yourself a hole if you use too many references.

 

Instead, focus on improving your writing as a whole. Your humor as a whole, your plot-developing as a whole. Don't focus on brony stories or brony humor. If you have the tools to make anything you want, you can talor your to a specific audience. If you only have tools for brony content, you can only create brony content.

 

TL;DR - Make your thing good to everyone, not just good to the biggest #bronylife #memester 2016 on the planet.

 

 

-Characters acting out of character with no in-story explanation such as; it takes place in an alternate universe,

*looks around the room nervously*

 

If that doesn't sound like my Vinyl Scratch in my possibly-failed 780, I don't know what does. 

[Ianpiersonjdavis 512]

 

 

If that doesn't sound like my Vinyl Scratch in my possibly-failed 780, I don't know what does. 

 

I doubt it-I mean, technically she doesn't really have much of a defined character outside of Slice of Life and Rainbow Rocks-the rest is more or less just fanon.