One thing that I personnaly dislike is when the author says ''(character, who is Korean) had blue/green/.... eyes'' Koreans don't have blue or green or grey eyes. It can be okay in fantasy/supernatural fanfics, but if it is not, please don't do that. It makes me cringe so much. They are Korean, and Korean's (and most Asian's) eyes are usualy dark brown/black . In my opinion, it feels a bit like the author is giving the character Caucasian features, even if they are not Caucasian. Also, if in your story they are actually leaving in Korea and they go to eat something, don't make them eat American breakfast for exemple. Try to find what they eat in the morning in Korea, it will feel more acurate.
Most people already listed what I would say too but when I think about fics then it's definitely the sounds they make during the naughty scenes. For me, it feels awkward to read all the 'ngh' and 'oh' sounds. It's weird to read and sometimes they just talk too much, but that's just my own opinion.
@hamsicle Yea, usually changing the chapter altogether is practically one of the best way , I believe. Just to clarify, as I might have been quite vague about the example, when I said *5 min passes* or *in school* I meant that it is just put there in bold letters and such. I think it is fine if it is nicely included into the paragraphs, especially the setting. I wholeheartedly believe that settings should be explicate for experience and aesthetic sake. Hehehe. To be honest, I also used to do that in early chapters of my fic. So I'm also making effort to try and integrate it into the text. ^o^ Mainly, it all depends on which point of view are you writing it from and this is not as in which character, but the way you are telling the story. That would dictate all your descriptions and transitions of place and time.
@Invisible_hunter o.o I've read lots of books but I don't remember how exactly they do the transition. I'm sure I've seen both "5 min pass" and "in school" though. What I like to do, when I need to change place or time, is to add a new chapter. It also enables me to change POV. :)
@hamsicle Well, to be honest I tend to skip a lot too. However, I think this statement means that you should not use something like *5 min pass* or *in school* I was advised that it is not a good transition. Thus, distract and potentially annoy your readers. And I think there are better ways to smoothly transition from one place or time to another. Say, in an actual book or novel, the writers does skip place and time but they don't do it so bluntly that it becomes distracting right? Although it seems trivial, you would want your readers to have the best journey reading your fic right? If yes, then it is best to consider all these little details. Hope that clears it up :)
@Invisible_hunter How is skipping scenes unprofessional? I've seen it in many books (not talking about fanfics here). And unless you want to describe every little thing they do from the moment they wake up to the time they go to bed, then you have to time skip.
The most annoying thing I've seen on AFF is when people write a story in English and they'd throw in a Korean word they've learned somewhere. It makes me cringe so bad.
1. always outline so your story/fic makes sense
2. dont put 'anyeonghasaeyo' if theres an english equivalent for it. It's fine to put hyung, unnie since they're honorifics and there's no specific english translation for them
3. always learn about their culture and customs. if they're living in korea, don't put 'omg this ddeokbokki is so expensive i cant believe they raised it to six dollars!'
4. edit until your satisfied
5. build their relationship SLOWLY so the love actually feels RIGHT
6. don't move your plot too slowly or too fast. either the readers will get bored, or they'll be left confused af
7. don't use ugly layouts/layouts that don't go with your story's theme
8. be nice to your readers!! and show your appreciation towards them~
9. have fun!
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7 years ago
Don't-
Use of random korean words ( *makes me cringe to hell and back. Ugh!*)
Girl falls to trouble and cries miserably while waiting for the guy to randomly appear out of nowhere and save her (like wth! At least fight back a bit urself, woman!)
The girl is sooo pretty that many boys are in 'love' with her (so unrealistic!)
DON'Ts:
1) KONGLISH IS A TOTAL NO-NO!
2) Bright coloured fonts like oh god please are you trying to make me read your story or are you trying to make me blind???
3) PLEASE WRITE SOMETHING THAT IS LOGICAL! GOOGLE IS YOUR BESTFRIEND I SWEAR.
4) Could authors please for the love of GOD DO NOT write author notes in between the story paragraphs?????
5) Bad grammar is just........
6) AUTHORS THAT DON'T EVEN EFFING EXPLAIN. Like they seriously write like this:
"I love you" *kisses your cheek*
"I love you too" *kisses her back*
Like are you kidding me?????? this ain't not roleplay shi! this is an effing story!!!!
7) I simply CAN'T, i just CANNOT! stand it when the female character acts like an annoying 10 year old like seriously!!
@GloomyDragon I feel you there. It's fine to use them in the fic, but it getting on my nerve when there are Korean words in the paragraphs. I get it if the authors want to use them in the dialogues, but actually writing them in sentences? That's spoil the mood. A lot.
I read somewhere in aff that switching from one POV to another, saying *certain certain POV* is annoying and unprofessional. I also picked up some criticisms about skipping scenes. For instance, the author finishes writing about one scene and write *1 hour passes* or *in her house* can be not only unprofessional, but also a huge turn off for some people too. I also read from some aff critics that being overly descriptive is also annoying as some scenes are self-explanatory. Oh and also to not sound like a walking dictionary in your fic as some people try to sound smart and ended up using such obscure words, it becomes annoying. Hope that helps :D
I typed a really long essay and it vanished. Ugh. Attempt #2.
* Grammar. Bad grammar is such a turn-off, I will click out of that faster than Jimin can say "excuse me". There's no reason why the writer can't just ask a beta reader to proofread the chapter. It screams of laziness and lack of dedication to me.
* Insta-lurve. Random foreign chick ends up auditioning for bias group's company, SOMEHOW BECOMES THE ONLY SPESHULLL FEMALE MEMBER OF THE GROUP, and all dem boys fall over themselves to seduce her because she's an angel who can do no wrong. Also, she can sing better than Whitney Houston, dance like MJ, and has mad language skills. Puke. I need a flamethrower for this one.
* Bribery. You hold the next chapter hostage for comments/upvotes/subs, I will start a goddamn revolution to get your story down to 0 subscribers. This crap just pisses me off. That's not storytelling, that's business, and we're not here to satisfy your ego. Take it somewhere else.
* Criticism and their inability to accept it. Pretty self-explanatory. Also very amusing when writers start insulting you because you point out inconsistencies or other issues because they feel personally attacked.
* I'm too sad now to write more points because I wrote SO MUCH STUFF and it somehow got deleted. :(
* Grammar. The one thing I cannot compromise on is proper grammar. It jerks you out the story faster than Jimin can say "excuse me", and just kills any interest I might have had in the story. If English isn't your native language (it's not mine, either), then get a beta reader. There's no reason to lower the standard and quality of your story by being lazy and not using beta readers when there's an abundance of good ones on this website.
* Konglish. This is acceptable when it's a nickname or honorific, because it doesn't translate well to English (in my story, I used the word "goguma", which means sweet potato, as a nickname—I don't think using the English version would've flowed better, and it just sounded plain awkward) and it ruins the fluidity of the sentence. But when authors insert random Korean words just for the sake of adding them, it makes me question EVERYTHING.
1. "Do you understand? Arasso?"
2. "Ne, yes!"
3. "I love you! Saranghae!"
4. "Forgive me. Mianhabnida."
Do you see what I mean? It's just the same goddamn words in two different languages. Tell me how that contributes to a story. The moment I see something like this, be it in the summary, foreword, whatever, I exit out of that so fast I could be the next Barry Allen. Nope. I already have enough to deal with, agonising over bad writing isn't gonna be another addition to my list.
* Insta-lurrrrve. OH MY GOD KILL IT WITH FIRE. Especially when this is paired with the foreigner cliche. A random foreign chick manages to get into bias group's company, BECOMES A MEMBER OF SAID GROUP SOMEINGHOW, and all the boys fall in love with her instantly. Not even talking about the blatantly ty storyline here, but the Mary Sueness just irks me so much. I've only read one story where this scenario was done well, and even then, it was a genderbender and there was no insta-love or any of those awful tropes. (For those curious: Korekrypta's 'Deer Luhan, With Love' is the fic I'm talking about. Absolute gem of a crackfic.)
* Character profiles. Ughhhhhh. I leave stories with this within nanoseconds as well. If you have to resort to pictures and bullet points to introduce your characters, I'm sorry, but you're not a very good writer. Good writers incorporate those details in the story seamlessly. For example, instead of listing down that your OC has 'long blonde hair the shade of the sun', you could just insert it subtly like this: "...as she talked, she tucked a golden lock of hair behind her ear..." or something. Just. Please, don't use profiles. They're horrible and the pictures 99% of the time.
* Refusal to accept criticism. This is pretty self-explanatory.
* Bribing. No, I'll unsubscribe from your story and start a petition for other people to do the same if you hold the next chapter hostage for subs. off.
* There's more, but I'm pretty sure I got the important ones across.
@karus_whale I KNOW IT'S CRINGEY AF BUT WHEN I READ A FANFIC N I'M LIKE "OK THIS IS PRETTY GOOD" BUT THEN THEY HIT U WITH A "MWOYA? EOTTEOKE?!" I CRINGE SO HARD I PRACTICALLY FREEZE.
[deactivated]
7 years ago
@GloomyDragon WhEN PEOPLE SAY LIKE GOMMAWOYEO UNNI I WILL DO MY BEST!! AISH I FELL!! HEUL!!
XFGHJBNNDZFGZBFDBG
[deactivated]
7 years ago
Don't make the situation more dramatic than it should be. For an example, I read a lot of angst fics where a character would start cutting themselves over one thing. For someone to be that depressed, needs to build up like if they're like oh obama told me i have no jams *cries* *cuts* then I personally just see them as an oversensitive person not a person who faces many problems in life.
Don't explain yourself too much during the Author's note. Let the readers guess what you want them to understand ; it's what keeps the thrill of fan fics alive. If you keep explaining yourself (why this happened, why this character did that, why you cut it there), it spoils the surprise. Let the readers think -- they'll come back for more
@mirrue HOMAYGAHD THIS. JFC RESEARCH. IT HURTS ME WHEN PPL DONT RESEARCH. LIKE, FRIEND, GOOGLE IS JUST THERE. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, RESEARCH
This thing might be trivial but I really wanna say this because it's been bothering me. Lol. Some writers use the term "hazel" to describe brown eye color. Most probably, they thought hazel eyes are eyes with solid hazelnut brown color. Actually, hazel color isn't only brown. Hazel is a mix of brown and green (typically). If a person has kinda three shades of colors from the pupil extending out to the iris, her/his eyes are most likely hazel. Also, hazel eyes are quite often mistaken as amber eyes. Links below are examples of brown eyes, hazel eyes and amber eyes.
Anyway, every eye color is beautiful, including pink/light reddish (they do exist!). Btw, I'm super-loving the amber eye color. They are so inspiring :D
