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[kriadydragon]

I hate being suckered into a story or episode thinking it's one thing and, therefore, going to be awesome, only to have it turn out to be something else entirely that leaves me disappointed and annoyed. I can haz hour of my life back, pleez?

Comments

[ninja007.livejournal.com]

I started reading an SG-1 fic recently that I felt was going to be awesome. The author, I guess, decided to try out this new style of writing that just left me confused and so lost after the first paragraph that I gave up.

Sad.

Feeling the pain...

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I know fanfiction allows us to flex our writing muscles and try new things, but I cringe whenever an author wants to "try something new." Sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes it's really, really not.

What I really hate is going into a story thinking it'll be about my fave character (because the summary made me think it would be about my fave character) only for it to be about another character/s. I read a story like that today and was really ticked as my fave character was hardly in it, but the way the story was described you would have thought he would've had more of a presence. What made it worse was that it was a really intriguing idea that I would have loved to have seen explored in more depth. Instead, the writer focused more on her own favorite characters (who happened to be from another show, as the story was a cross-over).

[dajaje.livejournal.com]

I agree completely, and I love your request to have your hour of life given back! :) I'm not sure if some writers make up summaries about what the story is truly about, or if they put something they think will make people read it, because it's not always the same thing.

Frustrating indeed. :/

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I think that, for the most part, coming up with a summary is such a pain in the butt that most will try to whip something up just to get it over with (I emphasize most, not all). I hate trying to come up with summaries myself, because I want to let the reader know what they're getting into but without saying too much or too little (it's why I'll try to use direct quotes from the story, if I can find one that I feel sums up the story).

It could also be that a writer may not realize that their summary isn't quite an accurate description of the story.

But in the end summaries need as much attention as the story. Some readers aren't all that particular but some readers are. Some go into a story just to read a story while others go in wanting to read about a particular character or characters. And no one likes being shafted. If a particular character doesn't play a major role, yet the summary makes it sound like they do, then the summary should be reworked.

[ninja007.livejournal.com]

Crap! I hate that!

This also reminds me of one of my top things that make me angry. When an author uses a great story idea, writes a crappy story and now others can't use that idea or have to write it vastly different so as to not be accused of plagiarism. I hate reading a summary, get excited about it and then find a really badly written or juvenile piece of crap.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

When an author uses a great story idea, writes a crappy story and now others can't use that idea or have to write it vastly different so as to not be accused of plagiarism.

Oh my gosh, yes. This drives me crazy because I want to explore the idea for myself (not because I think I would do it better, but because I simply want to explore it) but feel, like you said, it would come across as plagiarism.