You know its a bad story when...

Hey everyone!

Since we all absolutely love to read bad stories, I figured it would be fun to post a topic about it. Go ahead and reply with a list of things that signal to you that you're reading a bad/underdeveloped story.  Have fun!

You know its a bad story when....

1) You can't keep track of sentences because the punctuation is all over the place.

2) The characters act spontaneously with little logic or direction.

3) The author takes a full two paragraphs just to describe a person's pants.

Alright, I'll leave some for you guys to list. ^_^

When 'you' is typed 'u'.

Anything with cat ears and tail smashed onto humans.

Nagas.

Anything with bad Japanese (DESUDESUDESUKAWAIIDESUKA)

You know you're reading a bad story when:

The author is J.K. Rowling

Yeah that's right, I HATE HARRY POTTER!

I know a story is bad when the author bases it off a famous ancient society (Roman, Egyptian, Chinese)  and they have NO CLUE about the history, language etc.  I run in to that all too often.  Research people!! 

Good Example : Avatar: The Last Airbender  Accurate reference to Chinese martial arts  and some culture yet, still a great fantasy story.

When the author rush her/his story to get to the kiss... I hate those ones..........grrrr

Well, you definetly know its bad when the main character is good at EVERYTHING and gets all the girls/guys.

It gets worse too if the person doesn't know how to write a bad guy to suit the good guy. I don't want to read about a wet mop folks!!!

Yeah- the history thing is a major for me too. I cringe at my old stories.

OMG- You know its bad when your lead male character GIGGLES I nearly died when someone pointed out to me that mendon't giggle (some do, but not characters lke this one!!)

When you have no clue what the writer is talking about, or when they ramble on for to long and they lose what point they were making.

I know a story is bad when all the characters have "orbs" instead of eyes. And said orbs are made of vaious substances ranging from chocolate to gold to saphire. can someone expalin to me hwo one can see out of thsoe things?

I know a yaoi fic is bad when rthe guys are using anything for lube that shouldn't be used, like handcream or spit...  ^^;

I know a story is really bad, when halfway through the first paragraph I've gone into beta mode. *shudders*

You know a story is bad wheeeen...

It's a sentence long
About 100 or so typos
or when it's a cliche fanfic

Mythra showed me a KoTOR fic labelled 'goo smut' It's a smut fic where excresion was called GOO- OMG STDs!!!

Not only that, but the whole story was painfull XD I can tolerate alot, but I started taking it a sentance at a time after the first paragraph X( I should've just stopped...

First off,

"I know a story is bad when all the characters have "orbs" instead of eyes. And said orbs are made of vaious substances ranging from chocolate to gold to saphire. can someone expalin to me hwo one can see out of thsoe things?"

Oh God, I hear ya.  xD  That annoys me to no end too, lmfao.  AH SEE OUT MAH ORBS, OMG.

Second, might as well contribute. 

You Know A Story is Bad When...

1)  If it uses an entire paragraph to describe a girl's voice. 

2)  If it features more than one crossover.  (Fanfic-wise, obviously.  xD)

3)  Here's an old favorite of mine: Using "2" in place of "to" and "too".  (This rule is null if the story is about algebra.)

4)  Three Words: Scripts.  With.  Smileys.  Um....ew.  8D;;

5)  The female lead is more compassionate and altruistic than the hero, more cunning and with a more checkered past than the antagonist, and sleeps with both of them.

6)  Another favorite of mine:  When the writers try to mimic better authors (Tolkien's a favorite among this) and fail miserably.  (Whether it's because they didn't know that 'voracious' meant hungry, or because they don't know the difference between "your" and "you're".  But personally I always sleep easier at night knowing Sephirothodeianatchaslan Leafgreen  "will voraciously kill mine enimes with thine boh and arrus lawl" //kills self )

7)  When a story intrigues you with how bad it can get in later chapters, rather than turns you away.   (You know, kind of like when you drive slowly past a car wreck...  That's the telltale sign that this story is a sunken ship.  xD; )

8)  When the writer asks for reviews, rather than critique.  (Granted this isn't ALWAYS the case, I'm aware of that, but it's just been my past experience that the worst writers ask for reviews telling them how good the story is.  The best writers ask for reviews too, sure, but they also ask for critique and how to get better, usually.)

9)  Yet another favorite of mine: The love story consists of a short meeting, about three conversations, and then a week after having met the question is popped and they're already married.  =| 

10)  When the story, abuses commas, because dude, it's, totally cool to use commas, and totally makes it, so much better.  (And believe me folks, this one was neck-to-neck with stories that usually end with maidens screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" as their love plummets off a rocky outcropping and falls dramatically into the sea, because repetitive letters are sexy and exclamation points SHOW MORE EMOTION.)

 Um.  Well.  8D;  *hangs self*    

Wow- that's alot >.<

MAy I put with the overuse of comas, use of smileys, and overuse of description a pet veve that alot of inexperianced and some experianced writers use and I ANNOUYS me so much- brackets

To me- a story is a naration. Who in their right mind CAN narate in brackets? Why not say it in proper english in the next sentance? Or incorperate it into the current one? Why must it be a sige note? Noone talks in side notes!!

Oh and people that go  "/*\_/*\ End  /*\_/*\" Or some equivelent fancy use of characters annouy me too. I'm not sure why. Why can't they do the standard 1 enter- end of paragraph, 2 enters end of scene, 3 enters end of chapter? >.< That's a personal peeve- I'm probably alone on that one.

I'm not completely turned off by comma use.  A very noteworthy fantasy author John Norman uses long comma laden sentences.  When you read them out loud it flows very well.  It worked for his Gor saga, but yeah not everyone can be John Norman.

I've recently been posting in an outline format - as if I'm summarizing the story.  I write my stories in chunks so it helps me to remember juicy bits that I came up with while driving to work, etc.  I hope that's not terribly annoying?

Hm,when the story isn't descriptive enough and only contains dialogue.

Or when the author puts in her author's notes during the story. Then I completely lose sight of the story I'm reading.

On Aug 30, 2007 9:30 am, Lhunuial said:

It depends on the story  whether or not dialogue works.

Now as for thsoe author notes... are you talking about those that are stuck into the story, telling us, the reader, that this bit is cute, funnny, angsty, sweet, etc? If so, I ahve to agree with you on that one!

On Aug 29, 2007 1:47 pm, kirayasha said:

Oh. My. God.

Now I remember why I love you. *mass glomp*

Another bad sign is when the lead male has "tresses" and smells of things like peaches and cinnamon... after they have been working out in the gym for four hours. O.o;;

Also, when the author is not satisfied with merely calling them by name, but must describe them in such ambiguous, roundabout fashions as "the darker haired boy" or "the pink-haired kunoichi" or "the taller swordsman" when Ishida, Sakura, or Sephiroth (respectively) will do JUST FINE!

But my no. one sign of a bad story (or at least bad writing): when people must laid down their books/coffee mugs/etc. instead of lay/laying down their books/coffee mugs/etc.

Damn it. Drives me NUTS.

On Aug 30, 2007 4:05 pm, Agent Elrond said:

I love you too, Elrond-chan! *glomps you back*

Yes!! Guys should be describe as guys unless they're cross-dressers...^^; Then having tresses and smelling like cinnamon & rose water si okay.

Describing characters by certain characteristics isn't neccesarily a bad thing as it can get repetitious, saying Sephiroth every other sentence combined with he. What bugs me is how they describe them. *laughs* I've quite a few a few BO7 fics where bankotsu si described as the "braided man." Every time i see that I'm reminded of those yarn dolls you make where the arms & legs are braided! XD

Yes!! My faveorite along thsoe lines is "Lied down." People lay down!! Objects are laid down!! Peopel LIE!! Which means to not tell the truth... *grins*

No hang on- I think the description thing is getting carried away a little here. The man guy character can be described, but shouldn't be described MORE than once. I mena- if he's a Prince, he may smeel of perfume, or if he works in the feild, he may have a smell of fresh grass. It's all mood.

Heck- if he's a incubus, he MAY have dazelling good looks that you need lengths to describe.

And it may take more than one sentance to do that.

You only need to do it once though- I think THAT is more the issue than the perfumes and glitter people describe. We need to give amature writers a little more credit. If it werent' for the girly descriptions, maybe we wouldn't get the feel

Exception- if it's a first person narrative and the narrator is a blokey man. If this is the case- he's got dark hair and is a knight. Maybe that he's a jerk- that's it. With 3rd person you can do what ever, but 1st person is in character narration.

OMG- that is a pet peeve. People that write a lame borring 1st person!! EVERY amature writer writes in first person going I this and me that, but seriously, I find first person BORING most of the time ^^; Then you get the 1st swapping to 3rd person stories XD Man- that's so hard to follow. it's like... YES, you can put yourself into that romantic scene with Gokou in 1st person, but even YOU know it should be 3rd by the way you layed the story out X( OMGs....

Yeah, that exactly what I mean with the author notes in the middle of the story. Like: This is supposed be angsty. Or "I might change this later on". It annoys me at times.

Personally I have no problem with using descriptions as 'the dark haired man'. I do it myself a lot. Or if its a member of a gang like in my cyberpunk story I use the gang's name, like in the Demon or the Dragon. I think that depends on taste.

Same as when a story only has dialogue. I just can't get into a story if it only has dialogue. But that is my taste I guess.

I've only written in 1st person once, it was a Lord of the Rings fanfic that I still have up somewhere. Think it was rather well for a first person story. So first person is ok, but you need to stick to first person and not switch to third person in the middle of the story. That is just plain wrong.

I mostly use descriptions for characters when they are introduced first. Those are pretty lengthy descriptions but that is the only time that ever really happens, or when another character meets them for the first time. Grr, now you´re giving me nightmares that I might describe too much,lol.

I actually really enjoy first person, and enjoy writing it sometimes. When done well it has a radically different feel than third person, but there is a lack of suspension of disbelief when first person is written in past tense, because since it is past some part of you assumes that the person telling the story survived well and good.

Here's my list, original story wise- not fanfics:

-Stupid little writers who are kids- and not kids- who use giant obscure words to look cool and intelligent in their story, though words does not equal intelligence at all.

-Characters that have as much depth as cardboard. "The sad girl" "the bad boy with a good heart" "the villain with no purpose or motivation behind his evil."

-Agreed on the thing with over descriptiveness when it comes to the characters.

-Spineless women - particularly when the strong female lead suddenly needs saving and mysteriously goes weak after the male hero arrives.

-Talking puppet sychophants as secondary characters, or characters with no purpose but to praise the hero and make him look good, and have little to no personal struggles at all.

-Minority characters who act too much like their according stereotype.

-Trivialization of rape and victimhood via the writer's ignorance. You do NOT do that.