Re: Bad!fics, your thoughts?
i agree with most of your reasonings, except for the thing about filler chapters. in my opinion, filler chapters can serve as a purpose to explain something that wasn't thoroughly explained in the previous chapters. for my story, the devil's gift, it was focusing on the past of the villainous character and pulling out a side of him that many people didn't get to see, thus, making them feel bad for him. filler chapters can be fun and informative despite not adding any continuation to the story. usually one filler chapter is fine in a story, but multiple ones can get annoying.
Re: Bad!fics, your thoughts?
I agree that filler chapters can actually be good for fics for exactly the reasons Lady Lucifer brought up. As for how many there should be, though, it really depends on the overall length of the story and how much is going on, imo. For example, if you were to write something as long as my Fire Emblem fic, Dawn of Darkness, which also includes several subplots tying into the main plot, several fillers wouldn't hurt, especially since there's a lot of characters to explore.
I do agree with everything else in the OP though.
Re: Bad!fics, your thoughts?
Fillers are also a good way for the audience to catch its breath after an action sequence, or as comic relief during a particularly emotional stretch
Re: Bad!fics, your thoughts?
My opinion on "filler" (which is a dumb term to begin with) is that it's the perfect time for character development to occur. Between major events in everything I've written, I've tried to focus specifically on the character themselves rather than their achievements.
I've already stated what I think a bad fanfic is in another thread, but to put it simply: Ones without any form of creativity or originality. "Game character travels through game region" are so dime a dozen that they lose any merit they may have had if they focused on original characters, original settings and original ideas.
Basically, stuff that brings nothing new to the table either through characters or general plot are, in my opinion, not worth reading.
Re: Bad!fics, your thoughts?
My definition of a bad fanfic is pretty simple. If the author hasn't spent so much time working on it, going over every detail and making sure every word and sentence flows as smoothly and conveys as much as possible, having at least two other people read over it between revisions, and revising at least twice, that they absolutely hate it by the time they post it, it's usually going to be bad. Truly good writing takes a metric fuckton of work that often isn't actually very fun at all, but I for one would rather put out something that's geniunely good that I've had to work to achieve rather than spew out dribble at the drop of a hat.
Re: Bad!fics, your thoughts?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Caitlin
My opinion on "filler" (which is a dumb term to begin with) is that it's the perfect time for character development to occur. Between major events in everything I've written, I've tried to focus specifically on the character themselves rather than their achievements.
A filler is basically a chapter that can be skipped over and you would have little to no problem following the current story line and what's going on. Character development, significant character development, isn't usually something you see in fillers. So most of the time if a chapter has character development it isn't a filler, like a trainer overcoming a fear of Ice-type Pokemon. If you skipped the chapter in which that happened you would be wondering why they aren't afraid of the Beartic they encountered a few chapters later. This is significant character development so by virtue of that a character development chapter isn't really a filler.
Re: Bad!fics, your thoughts?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Feliciano
Truly good writing takes a metric fuckton of work that often isn't actually very fun at all, but I for one would rather put out something that's geniunely good that I've had to work to achieve rather than spew out dribble at the drop of a hat.
this is very true. however, for the majority of people fanfiction is merely a hobby, and hobbies are supposed to be fun!
no one's earning money from fanfiction (well, other than EL James, but i digress) & no one's paying for it, so it seems a bit silly to expect authors to put tons of effort into every story. plus when you consider what age group pokemon fandom is mainly comprised of - middle school & high school age kids, for the most part - you can't really fault them for writing cliches or having a few grammar mistakes.
i am very picky about fanfiction. if i see one annoying technical error, if the characters are OOC, or i simply don't like the prose (too bland, too awkward, etc.), i'll backbutton immediately. but then i just forget about it and go in search of something better. badfic will always exist; no point dwelling on it ;p
Re: Bad!fics, your thoughts?
Any and all comments I make, I make through the lens of someone who hopes to one day write professionally. I want to take pride in my work, and I think anyone who puts themselves and their work out there for others to read feels the same, at least a little bit.
Re: Bad!fics, your thoughts?
I'm not exactly the most knowledgeable fanfic reader around, but from what I've seen, pacing seems to be a big problem. It hits on one of the two extremes a lot -- either ramble-y and directionless, or deaths and plot twists popping up in every other paragraph. I know some people want to have a little spontaneity in their writing process but I think planning ahead would help fix these issues.
Some other turn-offs include:
- Bad spelling/grammar. Okay this one is pretty much a given, but still. I won't backspace because of one misused "there/their/they're", but if mistakes are frequent then I'll usually read no more than half a chapter before deciding whether to quit or not. Also, people really gotta space out their paragraphs and dialogue when posting fics online, it hurts my eyes.
- Too many canon characters unrealistically shoved in one scene/story. You've seen this one before. The author is a fan of Misty, Clair, Steven, Volkner, Lenora, and Hilda so what do they do? Make them pop up one by one in the story with no good explanation.
- When people forget that the fic is set in the Pokémon world. Like...some Charmander at the very beginning will go "char char" and disappear forever and no Pokémon are ever mentioned again. If you can swap your characters' names (canon or OC) with any other random names and still have the story work, you might as well make it an original fic, ya know? It's 1 AM and I don't know what I'm talking about anymore, maybe it's my personal preference.
Totally agree with the OP on people churning out mediocre work like lightning to please readers. It really, really doesn't work. I just want to say to the authors, just chill and enjoy what do you do, you know? Don't take the people going "OMGzzzz so guddddd WENS dA nExT CHATPER gona BE UPP???!!??" on the wrong level.
Re: Bad!fics, your thoughts?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gotpika
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Caitlin
My opinion on "filler" (which is a dumb term to begin with) is that it's the perfect time for character development to occur. Between major events in everything I've written, I've tried to focus specifically on the character themselves rather than their achievements.
A filler is basically a chapter that can be skipped over and you would have little to no problem following the current story line and what's going on. Character development, significant character development, isn't usually something you see in fillers. So most of the time if a chapter has character development it isn't a filler, like a trainer overcoming a fear of Ice-type Pokemon. If you skipped the chapter in which that happened you would be wondering why they aren't afraid of the Beartic they encountered a few chapters later. This is significant character development so by virtue of that a character development chapter isn't really a filler.
Eh, whenever I hear people throw the term "filler" around, they basically mean "oh, it isn't a gym battle or a pokemon isn't caught, so it's shit and I'm not going to read/watch". That alone makes me think the term is dumb enough and already fuels my dislike of it.
To each their own. I am incredibly selective of what one would call filler material. DP158 (that terrible Magnezone vs Metagross episode) is basically the bar for me when it comes to determining if something could be skipped and nothing is lost.
Re: Bad!fics, your thoughts?
Badfic has only two definitions to me:
1.) Grammar/spelling errors are so severe that the story is unreadable.
2.) Story is really poorly thought out.
Re: Bad!fics, your thoughts?
I don't categorize fics as "badfics". I find that labels like that are counterproductive. Rather, I have fics that I dislike for certain reasons, which I may think they are "bad" because of them.
In short, "no such thing as a badfic, only a badly written fic."
A better topic, in my opinion, would be, "what makes a fic badly written?" The way you say "badfic" makes it seem like they are a specific category of stories.