cruiscin_lan | The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - What makes a fic "good"?

I've been doing a fair bit of meta-ing with

tiptoe39 and some capslock crack at

speccygeekgrrl's lj, but mostly the secret in question has made me genuinely curious - what makes a fic stand out as good? A lot of people are throwing around random comments in the forum (i.e. "97% of fic is crap") which makes me wonder what standards by which people judge what they read.

Here's a few that factor into my own personal enjoyment:

Readability (format, grammar, spelling) - No matter how compelling the fic might otherwise be, if it makes my head go all hurty, I'm going to close the window. It's one thing to have a few typos. It's another to have light text on a white background, or to italicize every other word, or to completely forget what a shift key is for.
Creativity - It's easy to get to a "been there, done that" point with fanfiction. There's countless fics out there that resurrect dead characters, or invent happy endings for ships - but I like to see something that stands out because it's different.
Ship/Pairing - So I'm not so much of a shipper, but there are a few that I choose over others. I don't like Tracy, for example, so I tend to skip fics she's in. Yeah, I'm probably going to miss a few gems that way, but it doesn't make a difference if something is technically brilliant but about characters I don't particularly like.
Characterization - Speaking of characters, I like them as they are. That's why I like them. Please to not be changing that.
Style - Yeah, so this one's really vague. It's like porn - you'll know it when you see it.
Author - I know who writes what I like to read, so I'm more likely to read something by an author whose work I'm familiar with.
Recs - Again, I know what I like. My friends often share these likes. If they liked something, I'll probably like it too. That's the transitive property, I think.

A few other things that I thought of but that aren't that relevant to me are these: genre; rating; instant gratification (i.e. seeing your prompt fulfilled); being nominated or awarded recognition; quality of summary (more often I'm turned off by it than drawn in, but I'm glad it's there); and netiquette in posting (it's not cool to spam flists by cross-posting to every fic comm out there).

So what are your thoughts? What are your standards? Sharing time!

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I literally CAN'T read a story with a "Great wall of text"
Break that crap up! It's only gonna help make the chapter look bigger for heavens sake.
The same plot over and over again is boring. *shifty eyes* this being said I have done it before. Purely because I'm itching to write a certain pair but haven't got a good idea. I usually abandon the story when I get a better idea lol.
One thing that drives me nuts is crying.
I simply can not stand the crying in a fic. At least not the stereotypical "A single tear ran down her cheek"
NO ONE CRIES THAT WAY.
People sob okay? Snot and blotchy eyes. Loud gasps for breath. Faces flushed hair rumpled.
Goodness gracious it just drives me nuts!!! lol

I totally forgot

about "Great Wall

of Text" and

it's haiku-like counterpart

three word paragraph.

lol
yikes
I mean when you are writing like a blog do whatever you want idc
but with something you are presenting to others?

Also - word up on the crying thing. PEOPLE CRY UGLY.

I think that "bad fic" is totally subjective. I mean, a lot of what I read (and write) and enjoy has absolutely no literary merit. It usually doesn't even have the best characterization (okay, that's mostly just stuff I write). But it puts the characters in cracky/fluffy situations that you would never see on the show and fulfills that bit of "happily ever after" that I do love so much. Plus, it's usually funny, and I do love funny. ;) It makes me happy and puts a smile on my face.

That being said, my number one requirement is grammar. I can deal with one or two mistakes, we're all human, but constant tense shifts, bad grammar, and mixed pronouns is an automatic "no read" for me. I'm also gonna need proper punctuation.

I love an unexpected ending, and situations/plot devices that are different.

I generally read ships that I like, authors who I like, and stuff rec'd to me by friends. I think that awards nominations are excellent reading lists. ;)

Oh for sure - just like "good" is subjective, so is "bad." I enjoy a lot of fic that I'd empirically categorize as "bad," because of the instant-gratification factor, or the funtimes within.

I find that awards nominations are good places to start, but sometimes I look at something nominated and go "buh?"

Just because fic is bad doesn't mean I won't love it, lol. But yeah, I certainly wouldn't put much stock in anything I have to say about "good" or "bad" fic. :p

But (just because I couldn't keep my mouth shut if my life depended on it) I think that judging fic is just like judging any other form of literature. Is it compelling? Does it tell a good story? Can I empathize with the characters? Is it easy to read (format/grammar/content/etc)?

Exactly. This is why I'm confused as to what people mean when they generalize. There's just too much out there to try to sum it up in broad strokes.

I'm with Anne. I don't know how I feel about your description of Creativity. I read fic because I want to see happy endings for characters who will never and can never have it on the show (especially if they've been uselessly killed off for no reason *coughAdamcough*). So I don't mind seeing the same happy, shippy fic over and over again in different variations. And I don't think those are "bad." If they're well-written and don't reuse the same lines/deus ex machinas/basic ship concepts (I doubt you read much Mylar, but there are these lines of dialogue that I feel like I see all the time, even when another line would work just as well, which starts to get old), I usually think they're pretty good.

Worse than grammar mistakes, what immediately turns me off a fic is when people seem to have an aversion for using character names, or are unable to find a way around it. I cannot stand the replacement descriptors. "The taller man" (when they're sitting across the table from each other) "the darker man" (when it's dark and you can't really see anyway) "the doctor" (in situations when Mo's professor is totally irrelevant to the action going on) "the killer" (when Sylar isn't doing anything bad). Just use the names, or say "him", or say "the other man" or find some way to avoid these sometimes offensive and usually irrelevant descriptors.

It's another to have light text on a white background, or to italicize every other word
THIS! THIS! I wish LJ didn't even offer such layouts. And half the time they're really really narrow and your eyes are constantly moving from side to side. Which is why I just view everything in my own journal style. I can't read fic on 95% of layouts.

I wasn't going so much for a definition as an example, and I was using a pretty extreme one in trying to get my point across. Don't get me wrong, I love a happy ending. But a happy ending doesn't always have to mean "and then they got married and had ninety* babies."

But there are some continued themes, ideas, and motifs that come up over and over again that it takes something really special to make a fic stand out. For example, "Sylar roadtrip fic" could be a genre all its own at this point. What's compelling about them is how they differ, not how they're similar.

And I totally know where you're coming from with the "no character names" thing. It's really tough in an Elle/Claire fic. "The petite blonde woman..." WHICH PETITE BLONDE WOMAN.

I, on the otherhand, like the narrowness of layouts. I have a harder time reading wide layouts (which is why I never read fics posted on ff.net, if I can help it).

*YES NINETY WHAT UP.

Okay, let me ask: my summaries, do they suck? Do I need to make them longer, or is it okay to just post an author's note that hints to the content? I never know what to do to promote my fic more efficiently.

Hey, at least you use summaries. :p I'm terrible at summarizing fic, and I feel like I always make it sounds bad/dumb (no wisecracks about that being true) so I tend to just leave off the summary entirely. Ooops... :p

Summaries in general suck. Lately I've been just taking a quote from the fic and using that as a summary, to at least convey the tone of the piece more than the actual events within. I'm more interested in tone/mood/atmosphere as a reader.

But... I don't know? If I see that you wrote it, I don't typically need to look at anything else in the header :P As long as you don't write "I suck at summaries" you're probably golden.

Why thank you! :) I think I'll stick to just leaving it off.

I like the ones where you put a line or two from the fic as a teaser. But that doesn't work for every fic. Summaries are hard. But a lot of fic are self-explanatory. Like, "Mohinder and Elle get drunk and have sex. Awkward morning after ensues." Sometimes, that's all there is. ;D

I agree completely. I like the quotes because they can convey the tone of longer pieces, but if the plot is straightforward enough to be summarized in one sentence, that's cool too.

italicize every other word. THIS.

I honestly don't understand why authors do that because to me, it renders the fic pointless. Anything that was supposed to be emphasized is totally lost and the fic itself suffers.

As for creativity, it's sometimes more about the execution than the idea. Because if two people have the same idea but Person A is better at writing it than Person B, then I'm more likely to read Person A's story.

The only thing about Person A and Person B writing similar fics is that if I see them posting their fics around the same time to the same comm, I'm more likely to skip them both because they're too alike (barring the fact I'm not familiar with one or both of their writing).

Generally, characterization is my biggest concern. I can even read a fic of a pairing I'm not crazy about and appreciate if the characters still feel like themselves to me. But when you start changing them into other people in order to write a pairing? Then I have a problem.

That said? To avoid this, I usually don't read pairings I don't like unless I know the author is generally good at stuff like that. My policy with ships tends to be: if you don't like it then don't read it. It's that simple. No one is shoving your head against the computer screen with a gun and forcing you to read.

I usually don't read pairings I don't like unless I know the author is generally good at stuff like that.

Word to your mother. If an author writes stuff I like about one pairing, there's a greater chance I'll enjoy what they come up with for a different pairing.

Exactly. I'm more willing to take a risk with an author I'm familiar with than one I'm not.

Word choice is a big one. For whatever reason, I have a tendency to reword lines in my head that don't sit well with me, and the more of that I have to do in order to enjoy the work, the more prone I am to click the back button before finishing. The same goes with books. I just do it without thinking.

And then characterization is a either a big draw or a total repellent. Like you said, I want to read about the characters I know from the source material. Oddly enough, though, I'm way more tolerant of so-so characterization than I am wonky writing style. In the vein of characterization, I REALLY like when people make things awkward with potentially awkward characters. Like, taking into consideration the fact that Elle is a diagnosed sociopath and Sylar still has that bespectacled watchmaker floating around somewhere inside of him.

Oh! Premise. I will probably not read something about Sylar going on a sunny beach picnic with Noah and crying in his arms about how the ocean makes him feel. Although really, if anyone can write that and make me believe it, you get major respect points from me xD

Re: word choice and characterization and premise - If Sylar is calling anyone "princess" or "sweetheart" in a sincere way, I want the hell out of that fic.

Wait, do you mean Noah Bennet in that example, or Noah Gray? Because if it's Noah-his-son it might be doable...

Noah Bennet. My brain didn't even consider that there may be fic out there involving his son. Now I'm all curious to see if there's some out there that's good :d

Generally I try to write stuff that I would want to read. I'll read a fic all the way through to the end, whether I think it sucks or not. The thing about the "character descriptors", I wanted to say, it's sometimes necessary to do it. I did it in one of my stories only because there were three men in it, and it was easier than confusing the shit out of myself with "him" and "him" and "him". I absolutely hate incorrect tense shifts, too. Pick one and stick with it, present or past tense. Bad grammar makes my eyes scan to the next sentence I can understand. Summaries aren't hugely important to me, but I do like ones that let me know sort of the ride I'm in for. I only read certain pairings, yes that is true, but if I see a fic with a pairing I don't normally read by an author I like, I may try it out. I haven't come across many "wall of text" fics, so hmm on that. I agree on the crying. Crying is not usually pretty, and I try to keep that in mind. Too many uses of the same adjectives and verbs in a fic piss me off, too. Get a damn thesaurus! And characterization...that's one of the reasons I have mostly stuck with the Petrellis. I know what it's like to be a)the older protective sibling b)the idealistic bleeding heart and c)a sixteen year old girl who felt like a freak. lol. The characterization has to at least be believable. If Sylar wants a piece of Peter for example, it's not gonna be all rainbows and butterflies, you know? (Aside from the fluff! and crack!fic in which it is allowed.) In canon they are not the best of friends. I don't know.

It's admirable that you'll read a fic all the way to the end. I sometimes click and close based on length, or the first two or three paragraphs, or because my boss just came into the office...

Yeah, when writing slash and relying on the same pronoun over and over, the descriptors can be used to help distinguish the characters from one another. It's when they're incredibly vague, or when they're used out of control, that they get really bothersome.

I think "wall of text" occurs less often on lj, where it's really easy to format as you type.

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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - What makes a fic "good"?

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