The characters invade Fanfiction.Net

[Ryker]

Ok, well not really, but I just had to post this. www.fanfiction.net/s/4005742/1/Quit_Screwing_Me_Over

Incase you haven't seen it already, it's submitted by "Dallas Winston." and it's hilarious. He has a forum too, and so does Tim and Angela Shepard.

They've reviewed a few fanfics, and I gotta say, they're funny. They don't hold back.

[Nittanylizard]

I saw those. What's funny is that other reviewers are responding like it's really those characters. Clever .

[Keira]

Haha, I loved that. I'm going to look for Tim and Angela now. That made my night

[missmouse]

Hmm I don't know.

I enjoy the fictions that they write by themselves, but I think that they take reviewing a bit too far. Sometimes it's funny, but one time a review made me lose compleeete respect for whoever is doing it.

I remember, there was a fiction out there, that was about Dally and it was humour. It was OOC, about Dally having a personality change or something, but it was funny and it actually was a pretty good fic. Granted, it would never ever happen, was impossible, and pretty silly- but it had a plot, and good spelling and grammar.

Dallas Winston responded and it was terrible. Called the author (And I know for a fact that this was a young girl interested in becoming an author), every name in the book, said how terrible and OOC it was, how the piece of crap should be deleted, and that the author should never attempt to write again.

The author deleted the fic and hasn't posted anything since. I speak to her on MSN occasionally, and she's completely lost her zest for writing, and although she has never said, I wouldn't be surprised if it had something in part to do with that review. It was just nasty.

There's another similar out there- where Dally gets hit by an old ladies purse and has to tell the truth for a week- and I thought the review was pretty innappropriate in that one as well. It's just some kid having fun, and that's what fanfiction is about really, isn't it? I don't understand why just because he seems 'cool' this Dallas Winston fellow has the right to take that away from some little kids testing out their writing.

[Nittanylizard]

Yeah, I don't like to see unnecessary harshness in reviewing. Every so often it helps somebody, but I think there are probably more instances of it deflating an author's enthusiasm enough that they truly believe they can't write, and never go back to it.

I haven't read too many of their reviews, but the ones I did, I took more as silly - the way one of the characters might react (overreact?), rather than what a real person actually thought about the story. Kind of like fanfiction within a review. I can see how it could bother somebody though, as it's more for entertainment value than to help the writer of the story.

If you could, let the author know she can stop by here anytime and ask questions, post parts of stories for input, etc. I know what story you're talking about because I remember the summary, but I never got to reading any of it. I think it's too bad she took it down. We've got some writers on this board *cough-TensKeiraRockRyker-cough* who have some very funny stories out there that were written just for fun.

[Keira]

Cough drop, Liz?

I've never read any of their reviews. I don't frequent ffn as often as I probably should, but by the sound of it, they can be pretty harsh. I guess it's nice to know that who ever is doing all of that are big enough fans to stick up for the characters, but when they know it'll possibly really hurt someone, that's just not cool. And, there's no way they can't know. If they're able to write that intelligently, put themselves that fully into a character, I have a hard time believing they wouldn't be intelligent enough to pick up on that.

For what it's worth, I thought "Dally's" story was funny. *Shrugs* Too bad they can't always be nice, though.

[sharpshooter]

I really lovd the Dally story written by 'Dallas Winston', but whoever wrote it, assuming they're also 'Angela Shepard', is a bit full of themselves. She left me with a rather nasty review on one of my older stories, granted it wasn't very well written and the characters were a bit ooc, it seriously deflated me.

As Missmouse said, the stories are a great idea, but their harshness towards other people bause 'they are the characters' is uncalled for.

[Tensleep]

You know, I think it makes for a good story, don't get me wrong, but isn't it a little deluded to be reviewing as a fictional character?

I've pretty well stopped frequenting ff.net over the last year, but occasionally I do pop over and find a lot of stories I'm not all that impressed with. I just don't review them. It's like missmouse said - its a testing ground for kids. I started there, Keira and Rock did to my knowledge, too, and it does get you off to a good start. And negative reviews are hard enough without a nasty flame like you all are describing.

That being said, you do need some criticism to build up an outer-shell to the hurts that not everyone is going to like your writing. For me, that was DV and I was silly enough to let someone else take the lead there. But it did the trick and I've never been bothered with negativity since then.

But that leads me to a question. How much is too much? Should we take into consideration how new an author is when we review or should we put them on an even playing ground with everyone else? Are we truly that influential?

Sorry, I get philosophical as the coffee kicks in. Anyways, opinions welcome!

[texaskid]

alright here is my two cents on the topic. like the last part of the website says it is all fiction and like most fiction doesn't have to be completely based on fact.

I say that sometimes you do have to take into account how new the writer is to writing because I can almost guarantee the writer's first story will not always be they're best.

Again like when I go to the library to pick up a few books I'll always read the summary to decide if it's any good. If the summary draws me in then I'll check out the first couple of chapters. If the story keeps me hooked and I think it's a good story I'll keep reading and if I don't like it I'll stop. The same goes with stories on fanfic there's nothing holding me to read every story on there about my favorite character nor is there anything that says once I start a story I must absolutely finish it. NO ONE IS HOLDING A GUN TO YOUR HEAD TO MAKE YOU READ EVERY FREAKING STORY ON THERE.

I'm not going to review with something nasty just because some of the characters may be OOC in the first few chapters. Sometimes you have to give them awhile to show you why a character is acting that way.

Which brings me to another point. How do you know they're out of character like when they meet an OFC I mean we only get to see how Dally, Johnny, Pony and Two-Bit react when meeting new people. What about Tim, Darry, Soda, Steve, Curly, Angel and them? We've never seen how they react when they meet someone for the first time.

Now back to my other thought I'm also not going to reply something negative like I hate the story and it's crappy and all I've all I've done is read two chapters and the summary. I hate when people do that. Few of the books I've read are good until you really get into it.

Also about the people who are reviewing as a fictional character, one of the outsiders for instance, is almost completely ridiculous. Unless you are the person who made up these characters then you're not always going to know how they'll react to something.

Harsh reviews will come but unless they say something about how to fix something then I completely ignore them once I get over the sting. I'd rather have someone PM me on fanfic about the questions they have with one of my stories rather than leave a review about how crappy the story is.

And for you last question there tens yes good writers can be very influential to newbies. Sometimes newbies will look to the authors who have been around for a while to figure out how to do something and make their (the newbies) ideas better.

[missmouse]

texaskid said:

Unless you are the person who made up these characters then you're not always going to know how they'll react to something.

Hmm.
I'm not exactly sure how to say what I feel like saying, so if this is unclear, I apologize...

Even though we don't know how they will react to something, I think we know how they won't react. We can't pinpoint exactly what they will do, we can be pretty sure what they won't do.
I mean, if some new girls move in next door, they might invite them over for coffee- Darry isn't going to get it in his head to invite them out for dinner.
Ponyboy isn't going to blush and go into hysteric giggles when the girl next to him in English class asks to borrow his pen.

So although sometimes people are over critical, I think a lot of the time they have good points when characters are put into new situations. I see what you're saying, we can't know how someone will react, but we can have a pretty good idea how they won't react.

[texaskid]

alright you do have a good point and I'm sorry if i made it seem like authors could not now how they would or wouldn't react but i just wanted to make a point that writers reviewing as the fictional characters shouldn't be taken too seriously.

[Tensleep]

Texaskid does have a good point there. How can you really speak for a character you didn't create? That is fan fiction right there, but theres a place for it.

Like I said, I find fictional characters reviewing stories is just a little deluded. I can see how some of the established authors on there would think it was funny, but man...fanfiction belongs in the stories, not the reviews. It belongs where we all know it's fictional and not out to hurt anyone.

Good points, good points. Keep 'em coming.

[Nittanylizard]

tensleep said:

How much is too much? Should we take into consideration how new an author is when we review or should we put them on an even playing ground with everyone else? Are we truly that influential?

Oooh, good question!

When I review a story, I NEVER assume the writer should have know better than to make this mistake or that one. Everybody starts somewhere, and one of the best ways to improve is by asking people who have already figured some of it out.

I guess my answer is that I review all stories equally, and in the way I like to be treated - if I spot something that I recognize as a mistake, or if I can think of a way that something can be improved, I'll point it out. There are some writers who aren't ready for criticism, but for the most part I've gotten positive feedback from my reviews.

texaskid - You make a lot of good points. I'd like to address a couple of them:

It's true, no reader is compelled to read a story if they aren't enjoying it. But at the same time, maybe the reason they don't like the story is because they can see a lot of things wrong with it, rather than that it doesn't suit their personal taste. Some of these readers are going to let you know where they saw problems.

For example, there are some stories out that that I absolutely love which include a Curtis sister. Most of the ones with a Curtis sister, though, I don't particularly like. So if I review one of the ones I'm not enjoying and point out where it could be improved, it will be because the story itself has some issues, not because I don't like Curtis sister fics.

As far as books in a bookstore, you're looking at stories that have gone through a lot of scrutiny by a lot of people - agent (often), publisher, editors, etc. - before getting published. Sure, there are bad books out there, but for the most part they've gone through a lot to get that spot on the shelf. Even so, if you really find something wrong with a story or dislike it strongly enough, you are free to let the author know, either by contacting them, or by simply not buying the book.

Here's a non-writing example of what I'm trying to say:

Pretend I hate Chinese food. If I go into a Chinese restaurant, order dinner, and get angry with the chef because the food is awful, I'm way out of line. The writing parallel here is that if I can't stand romance novels, or mystery novels, or whatever, I'm not a good person to comment fairly on that kind of story. It's a personal preference thing.

On the other hand, if I love Italian food and go to an Italian restaurant where the food is really bad, I'm going to tell them that I don't like the food. The fanfic parallel here is that I enjoy reading stories about Ponyboy, but if I read one where he seems completely out of character in the first chapter, or the grammar is bad, or the writer had no idea how dialogue is formatted, I'm going to leave a review to tell them what didn't work for me so they can make it better if they choose to. The payoff is that if the writer gets better, I've got more good stories to read. It's a writing thing.

As far as ffnet goes, no reviewer even has to leave a critique, harsh or otherwise; a simple "I liked it" or "I hated it" is sufficient to get a point across. But when a reader does leave a review telling why they didn't like a story, it can be frustrating when the writer pulls the "don't like it, don't read it" card. This has happened to people I know who left well-thought-out, in-depth critiques that commented on only the story, not the author. When a story is posted, it should be done with the writer's expectation that people will say what they thought. Sometimes they're nice about it, sometimes they get nasty. You, as a writer, need to recognize the reviews that truly comment on the story. Because ultimately, if you have a story to tell, you want to do it as well as you possibly can.

I apologize if this is coming out like some sort of lesson. But I have been rejected by agents, gone back to learn more, rewritten or deleted entire chapters, been rejected some more.... After a while, you just become so intent on getting that story right, the sting only hurts for an instant before you see how much better somebody's comments have just made not only your story, but your writing.

[ddddyyyy]

I agree with Ryker







gucci shoes wedding dress tiffany jewelry Adidas shoes

[missmouse]

Long time since I've seen this thread- I completely forgot about it.

Anyways.

This fic has been updated a few times now. The first chapter I was like 'lol this is pretty funny' but now I'm just like 'Shut the frig up already!' Ranting and raving over little things... And he has a livejournal and a forum and signs up on other forums as Dallas Winston? Kind of delusional and creepy- it's been going on for more than a year now.