June Something Day 13

[logicgunn]

Day 13: Squicks - What are some things that squick you in fandom - not necessarily "icky", though it can be. From anything involving blood, to bad grammar.

 

When it comes to the rules of the English language I'm a very forgiving reader, so if your fics are littered with spelling/grammar errors and overused phrases and Americanisms when it should be Britishisms or vice versa I'm not going to complain and it very likely won't ruin my enjoyment too much, even if/when they're kind of jarring. It certainly won't stop me from leaving kudos. 

 

(My policy is if I finish a fic, I leave kudos. If I really don't like it, then I won't finish it.) 

 

Others have mentioned epithets as a squick and I totally get that. I find them confusing, especially when they are used frequently within a body of dialogue. I won't automatically stop reading, but I'll probably have to go slower and/or reread so I can keep track of who's saying/doing what because they don't assign the character to me as easily as a name would and so they alter the flow of the story. I have read a couple of fics where there were so many epithets I just couldn't finish them because I couldn't keep up and it wasn't worth the effort.

 

On that topic, you really can't overuse character's names in a fic - they become background in the same way all the commonly used words do (the, and, it, when, etc) - so if you're using epithets to avoid that I'd gently encourage you not to do that.

 

Something I actively dislike is when characters use pet names that are OOC. There are exceptions where a writer has altered the characterisations in their AU enough that it works (without pushing too far into OOC territory), but those are few and far between.

 

Please don't change the POV within a paragraph. At the very least you need a new paragraph, but ideally, you need a new scene after a line break.

 

Some of the older fics I've read on AO3 and LiveJournal don't have paragraph breaks. A wall of text is really hard to read, but thankfully it seems like that kind of formatting issue has gone the way of the dinosaurs.

 

I don't have any trope squicks. I'll read just about any McShep fics with no exceptions (as long as it is a McShep fic and not, you know, a fic where John and Rodney are necking briefly in the background of another ship's fic). Ditto other SGA/SG1 pairings when I'm in the mood to read them. Some of the best fics I've read have had tropes that I'm not all that hyped about, and just because a fic has one of my favourite tropes it doesn't automatically mean I'm going to enjoy it.

Comments

[goddess47]

I also try to leave kudos on anything I finish, even if I want to hug the writer and say something like, "sweetie, you need some help..." but I'm not going to do that publicly...

[logicgunn]

I absolutely agree. I would never publicly call out a writer for something that's my own opinion. I think that's a job for your beta if you have one, and if you don't have on I'll assume it's because you don't want CC. If someone has specifically stated that they want/don't mind CC, then I might point out if something is racist/homophobic/sexist/transphobic/etc, but I'm not going to sweat the small stuff.

Fanfic writers aren't professional authors, though many are just as good. No one is getting paid to get it perfect. It's a hobby, not an industry. That's the approach I have when reading fics. Someone wrote this for fun, so I'm going to treat it that way. :)

[paulamcg]

Oh, pov changes within a scene have always been my pet peeve in fanfic. And epithets – if you mean characters being referred to as a green-eyed Gryffindor or the older witch or (simply) the other man (which usually reads as if a third man had appeared in the scene)! I can ignore a few “other men” if I'm reading in a fest I'm participating in. But I don't think I've finished a fic with several grammar errors, except when I've known the writer as such a reader of mine to whom I've wanted to do the favour, and who's likely to welcome private concrit from me.

I'm willing to read about any characters, pairings and scenarios in the Harry Potter fandom. This means that I can choose to read mainly well-written fics. And whenever I like a fic enough to finish it, I give kudos and comment, too.

[logicgunn]

One of my 2021 resolutions was to comment on fics I like more often, but since most of what I'm reading right now was posted in 2010, I'm not even sure the writers are still around.

[paulamcg]

That's a great resolution, I think. I should decide to finish – and first of all, start – fics more often. :) My decision often depends on whether I see that the writer is still around and also reacts to comments, because to me the essence of fandom life has always been interaction between writers.

[squidgiepdx]

I totally get the pet names thing. I submitted a fic for a Donald Strachey zine, and, canonically (in the movies) Donald's boyfriend Timmy is very affectionate and calls him "Darling" a lot. But the person who was reading it came from the Donald Strachey books 'verse where Timmy isn't overly affectionate, and we had a hard time coming to agreement on just how affectionate Timmy could be. But I totally get that. Like in Check, Please! Bitty could use "Sugar" and "Honey" and such, but other characters like Ransom or Holster - the most affectionate they're allowed is a sweet-sounding, "Bro!" :)

I do push the envelope on occasion, though. My Nursey/Dex can get a little affectionate sometimes. Other than that, it's Lorne in Lorne/Parrish when he calls David "Boo". But that's my Lorne/Parrish headcanon; Lorne is a big softie for David, and nobody can change that. :)

[logicgunn]

I feel like Lorne calling Parrish "boo" is totally realistic. Maybe it's more fanon than canon but he seems like he'd be affectionate that way. Private and sweet and...*melts*

It's more like when people already have a canon pet name, like John calling Rodney buddy. It's a big stretch for him then to start calling Rodney "babe" or "baby" just cause they kissed one time.

The fandoms that I've found are particularly bad for this kind of thing are HP and STV. Chakotay calling Seven of Nine "honey" is not something I can see her putting up with at that time in her life (though later on when she's with Raffi, she seems to have gained a little more of her humanity so it might be something she learns to like). And a canon-compliant Severus Snape calling *anyone* sweetheart? *eyeroll*

[squidgiepdx]

> And a canon-compliant Severus Snape calling *anyone* sweetheart? *eyeroll*

I think *I* rolled my eyes so hard that I sprained something!

[paulamcg]

I can imagine a canon-compliant Snape coming up a with unique and less sweet-sounding pet names. :)

Among Remus/Sirius fans, in turn, there must have always been those who make the characters call each other Siri and Remy or something like that, and those who despise the use of such pet names, particularly because we've got Moony and Padfoot in canon – although I think it's extrapolation that the boys and young men used those as pet names. Now I realise that I've got used to making the other Marauders – Remus in particular – sometimes call Sirius Pads, and Peter Wormy (instead of Wormtail), and I haven't even thought whether that's based on canon. I think it isn't, and I'm not surprised if there are readers who don't accept such names.

But I, too, feel that any pet names are all right unless they are OOC. Even Siri can sometimes work well in a Wolfstar AU about cute teeage love.