Thinky- what makes fic well written?

[slashxmistress]

How do you decide that a fic is "well-written"?

I see this all the time in seek comms and elsewhere- asking for "well-written" fics and well - that just seems so generic and unspecific to me. (and actually kind of pretentious too tbqh)

Is it 'well-written' because you like it? If you don't like it does that make it not well -written?

What quantifies something as well- written? Good grammar? no typos? Long, pretentious, character studies?

I judge a fic by if I enjoy it , if it makes me think , or feel (and yes horny is a feeling :P if it's hot that totally counts), but some of my very, very favorites are probably not that "well-written" in the English major kind of way. Does that matter? Not to me.

Comments

[slashxmistress.livejournal.com]

This isn't college English. This is for fun and entertainment.

omg - I couldn't agree with you more. I think so many people need to lighten up sometimes!

[redorchids.livejournal.com]

I think taste is a really big factor in this too, though. I mean, I've read fics that people have had stars in their eyes over that I consider to be really badly written. And it's not the simplicity of them at all, or the subject. There's a kind of "blind spot" when it comes to people's favourite ships sometimes that kind of overrules everything else. Like, people will not care that Brendon is changing his personality five times over as many pages or that the dialogue sounds like it was taken right out of an 18th century treatise on the British government, because Brendon and Ryan are having SEX in it, and they are IN LOVE! OMG!!! :-D

And I think those things tend to muddle the waters a little bit. lol. But yes, light-hearted fic ftw. I'll take a hundred Starbucks AU's with smiling Spencer any day of the week.

[slashxmistress.livejournal.com]

OMG yes - there is a big epic from last year that many people are still gaga over - that just makes me crazy with how all over the place and just awful it is. - But that kind of makes my point with the lightening up - no matter how horrible it is, some people obviously enjoy it - and I'm not on the Pulitzer commitee, so who am I to judge? Obviously people must be getting something out of it!

But then again I would NEVER rec it or even hint that it's good writing because it's not.

[jwalkontherocks.livejournal.com]

lol, I want to know what this big epic is, I'm intrigued...you can pm it to me if you want, but too tell! I want to read it and see what I think

[lastchanceache.livejournal.com]

See, I couldn't agree with you less. In college English, who's going to see your work? Your teacher, your classmates. On the internet a whole load of people are going to see it.
Also, fun and entertainment or not, what your producing is essentially art, and it should be as close to your definition of perfection as it can be.

[slashxmistress.livejournal.com]

Also, fun and entertainment or not, what your producing is essentially art, and it should be as close to your definition of perfection as it can be

See- I don't agree with THAT. Fanfiction is not necessarily art. It certainly CAN be- but it isn't just by it's definition.

If you're going to that picky about it - you could go further and say that people shouldn't even make journal entries that aren't obsessively edited. Where do you draw the line?

You can certainly choose not to read anything that isn't college English good- because you're not interested/don't get anything from it, but I don't think you should put that judgement on others.

[lastchanceache.livejournal.com]

A journal is exactly that a journal, a fanfiction is a story, it's something you've produced, not just your train of thought.
We see fanfiction writers all the time, who are amazing writers and get given comments telling them that they should be authors, why shouldn't everyone live up to that standard?
But, yeah. I get it, yeah, I get it, that fanfiction is just that, writing is fun, sure here's your favourite tv show, film, book, band, continue to the story, go for it. I just don't read anything that feels half-heartedly nothing more than 'fun'.
Sometimes I feel that if you're writing fanfiction, it's because you like writing. You want to get better, why not aspire to turn your fanfiction into art.

[slashxmistress.livejournal.com]

why shouldn't everyone live up to that standard?
because it's not a competition

if you're writing fanfiction, it's because you like writing. You want to get better, why not aspire to turn your fanfiction into art.

A lot of writers feel that way, they really do . But a lot of them don't.They just see it as a way to fantasize out loud or to share lulz and I don't think we have a right to judge them for that.
We definitely have a right to scroll right past though :D

[lastchanceache.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not implying that it is, or should be, I don't think that's the point of it at all. Just from a personal point of view, I do.

I don't think I'm judging, I'm just expressing what I see as 'well-written' and like you say, stuff that isn;'t I'm just going to scroll on by.

[ryrolovesbden.livejournal.com]

I disagree. I'm not going to spend countless hours worrying about perfection or getting somewhere close. I'm going to produce something I enjoy writing, not something I'm agonizing over. That take the fun out of it for me. I write essentially for me and if people choose to read it, wonderful.

[lastchanceache.livejournal.com]

Okay, I do know where you're coming from. I'm just saying that for me, that is the bit I find fun and when I write, I want someone to feel as though they've gotten something out of it - not in a preachy way, of course not, just in a way, that feels justified.