The Fan Fiction Club

[Griff4815]

What is the setting for your fic/s place-wise, and time-wise - past, 'present' or future?


Never in the wrong time or wrong place is in Hoenn. I'm not sure when it is...

Victory or Death is a ways away from under the Bicycle Path in Hoenn.

 

[Breezy]

I know that might seem harsh but I've had just as harsh reviews. They don't even read my story sometimes and then they complain because I have OCs. They don't even read it to see if my characters are even good. Honestly, my two OCs in this story aren't even anything like me. The decisions they make aren't ones I make myself and they don't look anything like me. :/ I get annoyed when people associate OCs with self-inserts. To me, they're two totally different things.

They are, but this is ff.net we're talking about lol. They interchange the term "AU" with "writing whatever the hell I want" and a lot of the fangirls/boys will get offended if you have your OC falling in love with a canon character or you're ready to proclaim it in the author note. I do think you should get rid of the note and have your characters speak for themselves. If your OCs blend well into the story and work with the canon characters, then you possibly might not even need the note.

Besides the summary, a reader may judge the story by the author's notes and the first few paragraphs. So ... yeah. Lol.

Edit:

That is true. I try my hardest to get an interesting title and summary but only having 250 characters, it gets hard to make it interesting without making it very simple and boring.

Try not to summarize the entire story in the basic "Join blah and blah asthey go on adventure blah!" because as you said, it's very simple and won't catch the reader's eye. There are a lot of different takes on how to write a summary. I usually try to go the more ... humorous route:

"The characters of the Gold/Silver/Crystal game line have decided that since no one seems to like to write about them, then to hell with it! They will! AND YOU'RE GOING TO EFFIN' LIKE IT!"

"Anyway, getting us captured by a bunch of men in space suits seems to have gotten her mad. Whatever."

It'd probably help if you saw other summary examples. Cough. Poke. Other authors. Lazy to use. Action tags. Yay. Periods.

Summary probably isn't the right term as you don't want to summarize the whole story (and you really can't in the 5 characters ff.net gives you). Most writers write their summary in a way that they give you the basic details but then allude to something bigger, usually in the form of question like "Character returns home but then something abnormal happens. Now what will character do?"

... without it being lame like that.

Is the fandom your story in a huge fandom on ff.net? That also might be why you're not getting a lot of reviews.

 

[Mimori Kiryu]

They are, but this is ff.net we're talking about lol. They interchange the term "AU" with "writing whatever the hell I want" and a lot of the fangirls/boys will get offended if you have your OC falling in love with a canon character or you're ready to proclaim it in the author note. I do think you should get rid of the note and have your characters speak for themselves. If your OCs blend well into the story and work with the canon characters, then you possibly might not even need the note.

Besides the summary, a reader may judge the story by the author's notes and the first few paragraphs. So ... yeah. Lol.

I guess so. I'll remove it and see what happens. Maybe I am just being too uptight or something.

Is the fandom your story in a huge fandom on ff.net? That also might be why you're not getting a lot of reviews.

Well, it is based in the anime world of s-CRY-ed which is not very popular. That is possible. Though, I do have other more popular anime in it. I'll try to advertise more. xD



Thanks for all your advice, Breezy. I really appreciate it.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

So I have a sort of personal question here, and by "personal" I mean "involving me". Con season is upon us once again, and I want to submit something to the fanfic contest. I can't submit Business Lunch or Obsession because they already won stuff.

Here's a problem--the judges at these cons are very very weird. One of them berated me because they said all my fics are the same (yet honestly they write nearly identical Gundam Wing fics so they have no room to talk). And when I submitted something different--Devious--they told me that none of them could make any sense of what was going on, a problem NO ONE ELSE who read it ever noted.

So anyway. What have I written of late that could be "different" but won't get me flamed out of there? Bear in mind that they USED to like my stuff. They loved Obsession. But Business Lunch wasn't even in a competition--it won because it was the only fic submitted at this one con.

 

[LightingKimba]

I've got a question for all of you. How do you get people to read your stories, especially about plots that the reader may or may not know about?

Well, my OC fanfic *points to sig* has that "overshadowed" problem big time.

Really, its problem is the of several variabless: A) It's a Pokemon fanfic which, as others would know, it's a rather large fandom, with a even larger + growing base of fanfics, of varying genres from the AU flavor to the OC flavor. Add that with B) Because of its OC status, it's bound to be overlooked by other OC fics.

So... What do I do to try and make it "stand out" to the crowd, and get a few people to read it? It helps that my friends try and advertise it on their IRC chans, as well I do make the attempt of asking people to read if they're bored or something.

And Blackjack, you could consider Creation, which I found a nice read, though it'd suck if it suffered a similar fate to Business Lunch..

 

[SapphireRose]

Uh, I'm not sure if I have to post this, but I just wanted to let you all know that I won't be active here for the next week. From tomorrow until Thursday the 20th, I will be on vacation and not have any computer access. Again, I don't know if I'm supposed to let you know this, but I want to stay on the member's list so I'll tell you anyway.

~blue

 

[purple_drake]

I suppose, this is the place for healthy (or unhealthy if you wish as long as it doesn't cross a line) fan fiction discussion. If we weren't allowed to vent here, we'd probably explode in a shower of visceral alphabetty spaghetti.

*pauses to let mental image sink in*


So yeah, How's that deadline coming along? Doing as well as you think you can be at this point in time.

That is such a lovely image. Remind me not to eat alphabetti spaghetti anytime soon.

And TBH I've been lazy with this deadline, due to RL work, this Surge story and the Lance-as-a-Rocket story and I blame you and IC Ghost for the latter, by the way! D<

Thanks for the poke, though. ._. *envies Breezy*

I've got a question for all of you. How do you get people to read your stories, especially about plots that the reader may or may not know about? My crossover (as I wrote about in my first post) has been posted at Fanfiction.Net (along with a link in my signature), but in the four days its been there, no one's reviewed it and only 9 people have looked at it.

I just want an idea. I mean it's an OC story, so that's probably why no one's reading it, but I was curious if people have ideas to get others to read your story. ^^;

/late, but oh well. I agree with what Breezy's said and although I do understand the need to disclaim your OCs, I'd recommend not doing it in caps, because caps is like yelling and it sounds incredibly hostile and defensive. If you want to emphasise the message as particularly important, just use italics or bold it.

I know how you feel about not getting readers just 'cos of your characters, though, since most of the characters I write about in most fandoms are side characters, so not many people tend to read about them anyway. The only fandom I'm really active in is the Pokemon fandom, and people seem to remember who I am just because I've been around for a while and/or are part of a select group who write/read about the same characters, but in my other fandoms I just let bygones be bygones and take what readers and reviewers I can get. That's generally my philosophy: that the readers and reviewers are a nice perk, but I write because I want to, because I have to, and because the process is itself an exercise in progress. It just means I don't expect too much, and then get disappointed ... or that's the theory, anyway.

So I have a sort of personal question here, and by "personal" I mean "involving me". Con season is upon us once again, and I want to submit something to the fanfic contest. I can't submit Business Lunch or Obsession because they already won stuff.

Here's a problem--the judges at these cons are very very weird. One of them berated me because they said all my fics are the same (yet honestly they write nearly identical Gundam Wing fics so they have no room to talk). And when I submitted something different--Devious--they told me that none of them could make any sense of what was going on, a problem NO ONE ELSE who read it ever noted.

So anyway. What have I written of late that could be "different" but won't get me flamed out of there? Bear in mind that they USED to like my stuff. They loved Obsession. But Business Lunch wasn't even in a competition--it won because it was the only fic submitted at this one con.

Ugh, I had something similar at recent con, where I had to wonder if I was the only one who submitted anything. >.<

What have you written of late? The only one I know off the top of my head is 'Creation' ... though I really like that one, so I'll give it my vote anyway. I don't know how much you can do about the judges, though; 'Obsession' is a chaptered fic so there's more time for them to get to know and understand Jiraruden, maybe that's why they liked it. A lot of your one-shots do have a specific style I can imagine a more close-minded person would reject just because it's too subtle for them and they don't like the work of trying to figure it out. I guess you can either try and write a fic to cater to their tastes, or just stick to your guns and submit what you like writing; personally I'd go with the latter, 'cos if you're not writing for the story, what's the point?

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

And Blackjack, you could consider Creation, which I found a nice read, though it'd suck if it suffered a similar fate to Business Lunch..

Well, this is a much bigger con, so I don't have to worry about it being the only entrant.

But the problem with Creation is that most people who read it didn't understand what was going on. I'd need to make it clearer what happens in it so that it's not taken at face value like a lot of people did.

 

[Breezy]

But the problem with Creation is that most people who read it didn't understand what was going on. I'd need to make it clearer what happens in it so that it's not taken at face value like a lot of people did.

I read Creation (I apologize for not reviewing, but I would have repeated a few statements anyway plus I was swamped with my own judging), and I wouldn't say that the overall theme was "hard to miss" (Cyrus underestimating human nature, his strive for perfection, etc.), but the more subtle detail were harder to pick up, especially if you read the story casually -- at least in my opinion. I did pick up that the commanders weren't human (flesh cutting, dash to pieces, etc.), but it took me a bit to realize that Cyrus was in sort of mental institution (I think you only alluded to this by uneven flooring and soft walls, and I only got this because I read your posts afterward). I think it was creative to interchange the term "plastic smile" in both a literal and metaphorical sense, but I can see how the literal can fly over a reader's head as well. I think the subtlety was what made the fic strong, though, along with an interesting character analysis of Cyrus' character. I think you also handled the use of language and writing style to have already subtle hints blend in smoothly with your piece.

Me being nitpicky however, I do agree that a judge may question how Cyrus was able to get tools and build robots in such a protective environment. Reading over your posts after the story, I never got the sense that Cyrus didn't know he was in a padded cell either or that he didn't know that his commanders were, er, robots. I'm not sure how you could fix this, so make of it what you will, other than strengthening the description that he is in a padded cell. Yeah, walls aren't soft usually, but it's not very telling of where he is. I do understand the difficulty in it as Cyrus doesn't know that he's in a padded cell, but maybe there's a more ... obvious way of depicting a padded cell with out your ... character ... knowing.

Anyway, time for bed as I sense not make anymore.

It depends on how obvious you want it to be. It might take a read or two to understand fully what's going on, but I don't think it's that subtle to the point that I'd go "wtf this author is on something." ;P

Thanks for the poke, though. ._. *envies Breezy*

Tee hee.

Uh, I'm not sure if I have to post this, but I just wanted to let you all know that I won't be active here for the next week. From tomorrow until Thursday the 20th, I will be on vacation and not have any computer access. Again, I don't know if I'm supposed to let you know this, but I want to stay on the member's list so I'll tell you anyway.

Have fun! ^^

Edit: Post 69. ;o Haha.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I know it's irregular to give someone in that condition tools, and it'd most likely never happen in real life, but human medical care in the Pokemon world seems to suck (a whole hospital with only one person on staff? WHAT?), so that's not the part I'm really concerned with. But yeah, I'd need to focus on making his location more obvious, because once the reader realizes WHERE he is, then everything else makes sense. Or does it? I hope so, anyway...

 

[Praxiteles]

Ripple in the more enthusiastic kind of rapids: Hi, guys! Can I join in?

My name is Luphinid Silnaek, and the only fics I'll share with you for the moment are linked in my sig, and unless someone disqualifies me for not having posted a word of fanfiction on these boards for approaching a year now, I think I will be your friend in this new club. Good, then?

Oh, and my writing influences are all too shallow and varied to put here, but one good author I seem to have some spiritual connection to is F. Dostoevsky. His short stories seem to be the only really serious writing work I've properly understood (the most serious impediment to understanding literature, of course, being the capacity to enjoy it, and I seem to have that in spades), his sense of spiritual and artistic flow coinciding with mine, and even his writing (though very different technically from my work) sharing some interesting similarities. I don't know about his influence over me, however, because I'm still working out his larger epics--people still conduct seminars on his stories, so you can excuse a precocious little fanfiction writer for taking his time.

I have something useful to contribute, too:

What do you like to see from a reviewer (besides eloquent and all-surpassing praise)?

What would please me the most in a review is analysis: a deliberate and concentrated effort to fully understand the structures of my stories. (One wonders these days if the clever and subtle little creations one's done for a piece of writing are so obvious and unclever that no one bothers to even mention them, or so veiled that no one cares to decipher them, or really what.) Besides indicating that my writing was found good enough by at least one person to put so much thought into their reviewing, it would significantly add to the intellectual stimulation going around: one person would work out the story as they understood it uniquely, and then I or someone else could respond to that, or add to it or hint important things, the sum total of which would be a good time for all involved. --I do this in many of my reviews, and most of the writers seem to like it, so it must not be so bad a reviewing style.--

There are particular things that I've seen other authors be pleased by, so it would be interesting to see them straightforward laid down.

 

[Breezy]

... But yeah, I'd need to focus on making his location more obvious, because once the reader realizes WHERE he is, then everything else makes sense. Or does it? I hope so, anyway...

I think it'd help, yeah. It at least give the sense of Cyrus being somewhere ... unusual, anyway

What do you like to see from a reviewer (besides eloquent and all-surpassing praise)?

Depends on the situation. Er, rather my form as an author or a reader of reviews (weird I know).

As an author, I'd like to get the sense that my reviewers are enjoying the story and/or found some sort of emotion in it (in not the "mindless praise" sort of way, though). I do like advice and reviews, but as long as someone's reading, I don't really care what kind of reviews I get. However, I do like when people quote parts that they like. Not sure why ... Lol. Maybe because the seem more detail, or maybe it's nice to see if some of my smaller Easter egg jokes were caught by someone (it's nice when someone points it out).

When I do read other people's reviews, I do get a kick out of reading other people's analysis of stories and I like to compare them to my own ideas of the story. I also like when the reviewer puts a little bit of humor or personality into their review other than just offering advice. I kind of try to do that in my own reviews (which I start doing again one of these days). Don't know. So long as it isn't too "snarky" (to the point where it sounds rude anyway). I feel it kind of gives the review its own personality. Reviewing is a form of writing in itself, so it's nice to see some creativity in it just to spice things up.

One of my favorite reviewers here reviewed in homonyms just for the hell of it. Loved it. <3 Lol.

 

[FlamingRuby]

Besides praise and a sense of humor, I also want a review to give me constructive criticism, so I know how to make my work even better. (eg. "I didn't like the way you did X for this and this reason. Maybe doing Y would be better?")

 

[Pikablu Lv.X]

Can I join? I've been reading fanfics for some time and I'm planning to write my own.

 

[LightingKimba]

What do you like to see from a reviewer (besides eloquent and all-surpassing praise)?

I'd rather hear from a reviewer the problems I have with my writing. I don't know whether it's just my nature, but praise always rubs me the wrong way, whether about the fic or not.

 

[Diddy]

Working my way through Crime & Punishment at the mo, if anyone is interested

Anywhom.

What do you like to see from a reviewer (besides eloquent and all-surpassing praise)?

As Breezy said, I like it when people quote sections from the fic and say either why they liked that section, if it was funny or emotional etc. or even to say this part wasn't as well constructed, maybe move the sentences around and stuff like that because it gives me a better insight in to how maybe I should structure my sentences in the future.

I also like a bit of healthy discussion on certain aspects of my fic, parts perhaps where people felt were inspired by something or what they thought about it and how it compares to my image of what's happening.

And of course praise is welcome as well

But I feel a certain respect for people here and I think it's great when those people take the time to read and review something I wrote. It gives me great pleasure to know, even if they might not like it, that they took time out of their day to say something.

 

[bobandbill]

Luphinid Silnaek and Pikablu Lv.X , you're added. =)

Ohh, new topic. What do you like to see from a reviewer (besides eloquent and all-surpassing praise)?

Besides the praise? But what? =P Nah, I like it when they tell me what parts in particular got a laugh out of them in my main fic, or just generally what they liked. Quoted stuff is nice to see for that, and also is interesting to see if any references or the such I make are picked up or not.

I also like to know what parts I could improve on, or what parts fell flat, and so forth - the critic, so you will. Praise is always nice and all, but I seem to get a fair bit of the 'mindless' variety half the time, so I'm thankful for the reviewers I have who do some/all of the above. =)

 

[Praxiteles]

Diddy: Oh, wonderful, you're doing Crime and Punishment. The last time I read that, it pulled me into this beautiful existential depression about some basic chord within my soul or something.

Yes, I agree with Breezy on one point: personality is a very interesting thing to have in a review. I can name a few reviewers off the top of my head whose works are an entertainment to read, even if they're for an entirely different fic and dealing with ideas I'm not immediately familiar with. ("Owie! Three adverbs in one sentence?"--to paraphrase) It also indicates that the reviewer is having fun with this, too, taking it as the proper art form that it truly is.

Damn, I haven't properly reviewed for a long time. I feel like doing something fun again.

 

[Araleon]

What do you like to see from a reviewer (besides eloquent and all-surpassing praise)?

Well, I like to see constructive criticism. I'd like a review where someone tells me what's wrong with the chapter and how I could go about fixing it. Or something like that. Not pure praise, not pure go read the AFAA.

 

[Bay]

When I do read other people's reviews, I do get a kick out of reading other people's analysis of stories and I like to compare them to my own ideas of the story. I also like when the reviewer puts a little bit of humor or personality into their review other than just offering advice. I kind of try to do that in my own reviews (which I start doing again one of these days). Don't know. So long as it isn't too "snarky" (to the point where it sounds rude anyway). I feel it kind of gives the review its own personality. Reviewing is a form of writing in itself, so it's nice to see some creativity in it just to spice things up.

Want me to send you a review I did with one of the Heart and Soul entries and how a Magnetron will be a perfect edition for my third Transformers movie?


What do you like to see from a reviewer (besides eloquent and all-surpassing praise)?
Like Breezy, not only just advice and praise, but also some personality in them. It shows that the reviewer not only enjoyed your story but reviewing it also. I remember some of my favorite reviews from NE are the ones like the few people that said they'll shoot Jacob if he comes near them. XD

When I review, I try to put some humor in it too since I do enjoy reviewing.