FanFic Writers 3 Biggest Mistakes!

1. Describing characters with "big brown doe eyes" or a "button nose"

PLEASE. I'm begging stop with these two. Firstly, they are both so cliche and are way too overused. Secondly, I have not seen one Kpop idol with a button nose. NOT ONE....except for maybe BTS's Suga. But, other than that you are not excused. At this point every idol on the planet has a doe eyes and a button nose. 

These descriptions are so dried out they don't mean anything special anymore. Be creative, use your brains, and give me a better semi-orginal description!!!

 

2. Oversimplifying characters. 

Don't you hate it when, you are into a good fic, enjoying an awesome plot, binge reading it for the rest of the night, but then after a few chapters you realize the characters have no personality. 

I have found that writers on AFF like to play into the fandom troupes for the character personalities. It gets so tiresome after awhile and it turns me off of a lot of stories. Most of the time these characters lack depth and rarely have any character development. The pieces that I like the best take a twist on the regular perception of the idol, and it always adds elements of intrigue to the writing.

Overused Troupes Ex. 

Chuu and Yerim,  always being described as bright, suns, etc. 

Momo playing the dumb girl who likes jockbal. (Seulgi, Dahyun, Taehyung)

Moonbyul, Wendy, Kai being greasy.

Yves, Hyejoo, Irene, Taeyong playing Tsundere or badass characters. 

 

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

Don't get me wrong. You want your characters to have a brand and be distinguishable from one another. But show the complexity of their personalities and try and imagine the reasons why they act like they do. 

Disclaimer: If you are writing short stories, fluff, or crack fics then this may not apply to you.

Just found this but go check out this link for characterization. Not mine, but a great resource and explanation.

https://www.asianfanfics.com/blog/view/1258152

 

 

3. Paragraph Trouble. 

You want to think of a paragraph as an argument. It should be able to stand alone, meaning it should have a beginning and an ending. I have read thousands of paragraphs that have no point at the end. This only serves to make the me confused and wonder what that whole paragraph was for. Reread your drafts and make sure everything you say has a point. Every paragraph should either inform the reader, set the scene, develop a character,  or progress the story. If it doesn't, toss it. 

This also goes for excessive detailing. It is great for the author to imagine a situation they are writing about, but some information should stay off the page. If it isn't revelant to the information around it then toss it. No one cares that about random details that don't fit in.

 

 

 

If you reading this and you are realizing you have literally done everything on this list before then you are not alone. I have fallen into these bad habits many times, and will fall into them many times after. It just takes practice. I'm also just a novice writer, but I thought I would share. 

 

What are the biggest mistakes you have made or you have seen other fanfiction writers make? What is your biggest pet peeve to see in writing? What immediately makes you stop reading a story? 

 

Lay it all out. Whether you agree or disagree. Tell me that my use of exclaimation points and bad spelling are writing sins!!! I live for criticism. 

Comment your thoughts and questions!!!

 

 

Update:

Edit:
I've recently become obsessed with becoming a better writer.So I made a story to help myself and others improve in writing. Mainly, I am will be going to post pieces and snippets of writing that I wrote and breaking it down. But it can also head in other directions such as writing tips and whatnot. I'd be happy to look at anyone's piece and offer feedback, and I'd love it if other people would give their criticisms to my writing and editing so that I may improve. Hope you join me on my journey.

Link: https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1409772/writing-improvement-editing-reviewing-tips-breakdown

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peachsenpai #1
I don't read a lot of fanfiction even though I write a few myself and while I can't rate my writing or point out what I'm doing wrong I guess I have opinions. And also I do not mean to offend, just putting it out there.

I guess fanfic writers, and of course their writing styles, skills, and thought processes when drafting a plot and character profiles depend on what site they're from- you'll appreciate my point if you read or write on a variety of platforms. If you compare the quality of fanfics from sites like LiveJournal or Deviantart and the ones from Wattpad and on here you can clearly see the difference. Of course, not every fanfic in lj or devaintart is as good as I make it sound or the ffs in aff and wattpad being average, it's just generally speaking you know? I would throw archive of our own in the mix but personally I think the content there are 50/50.

It can safely be said, I'm supposing, that most fanfic writers start writing after reading fanfiction and being inspired by them, it's only natural that they would follow the steps of their predecessors; if they describe an idol as having 'big doe eyes' and a cute 'button nose', then they sure as hell are going to have big doe eyes and button noses for generations of fanfiction. But that's not the only thing that determines the final outcome of a story, one of the factors would be the audience that they're catering to. Let's be real fam, most readers don't like originality or diversity for that matter. They will always almost settle with something they're familiar with, it's the same with writers. It's too much of a hassle to do tons or research for a fanfiction knowing that their readers would 11/10 prefer the cliche plots and character patterns, saves time for them and readers love it, hey, it's a win-win situation. I say this because not everyone is a Literature student [well, I'm not], whether reader or writer, and their first languge is also not English I presume [I grew up speaking alien okay], which is a given on sites like Asianfanfics. The redunduncy is only natural because not everyone can use or understand big words. All that said… sometimes it's about the simplicity I guess and the effort that goes into the making hahaha. Also people have perferences let's not judge.

However, I would also like to see fresh ideas out of the stereotypes. Because it's fanfiction man, let your imaginations go wild… write about Chuu being a psycho killer for all I know. Writing fanfiction shouldn't have any restrictions, provided they do follow the community guidelines. I don't know about other writers lol but I will take full advantage of this.

I have to disagree with you on the detailed description part. Because boy do I love attention to details, becauae not only does it sport a sense of professionalism but also the fact that you are skillful as an author and that you can deliver mad details, makong visualisation more vivid. There's pride in being able to take your readers to another dimension when reading your stories. When you're going to describe an empty room don't just say 'the room was empty' describe how the atmosphere of the room and how it made the character feel, the emotions should bleed and transfer into the reader. Maybe if you just read fanfiction it's alright I guess but as a person who reads books that are not fanfiction I'm pretty demanding oof.

Not to be that person but your criticism spelling is wrong... jk man I'm only kidding don't revoke my 'commenting license' please. That said, do you know what else are writing sins? My typos and punctuations. Lord bless them all. And I was today years old when I understood when to use 'its' or perhaps 'it's' in a sentence. Do I feel high and mighty about it? Yes sir, I sure as hell do.

Usage of exclamation marks aren't bad at all, meaning they make writings less mundane... look at the way I write for example, so lifeless, mundane and hollow lmao and this is just a comment for God's sake.
MissMinew #2
My biggest pet peeve in the writing community (not as a reader of stories) is people saying characterization don’t necessarily matter in short stories. It does. It matters and I don’t care if you have 100 words, 1000 words or 10.000 words. Characterization and character development matters. It just can’t be as elaborate in a story of 1000 words as it can in a story that’s 10.000 words. But it has to be there if your characters are to elicit any sort of reaction from your readers.

Other than that, I’m an awfully picky reader. I hate the stereotypical character tropes. I won’t even start a piece that lays it out that they’re following stereotypes. I dislike the “mom”- and “dad”-characterization and unfortunately, some idols, like Key, have gotten this odd stereotype that takes completely away from a complex character. I dislike that a lot. I am not very fond of protective characters either. In romantic relationships, they tend to stray the story towards unhealthy relationships made cute and romantic and I can’t stand that. Either you’re aware your character is an obsessed douchebag or you’re skipping the protective traits. Ugh.

I’m not a fan of mental disorders in stories either unless well done but meh, I haven’t seen them well done a lot so. I will give a chance to any story until they cross my lines and quit it lol.

I don’t mind descriptions actually. And I don’t mind paragraphs that “don’t matter” in itself as long as the story progresses and doesn’t feel dragging. I mind stories that have zero paragraphs more. Impossible to read.

Other than that, I can be a bit picky on the grammar and language which is super hypocritical as a non-native speaker of English. We all struggle so I shouldn’t care if the story is good but I do. TvT

I’m no saint and I have probably done things I say I don’t like and I for sure have done many things other people don’t like as well lmao. But this is also super subjective and my personal opinion only.
Pab0Panda #3
Yeah those are indeed problematic for a story.
LayDZhang #4
I think some writers have thought about it too but it's their story and the decision is theirs to make how they want it to be but well, I understand what's you're ponting out . Thank you for sharing this information, I've learned something.
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