Fanfiction has been a part of my life even before I knew what fanfiction was. It started when I was seven - Pokemon started airing here, and I wasn't satisfied just with what our mediocre TV stations offered. I wrote 'extra' stories to complement the series at school when we did creative writing exercises. Since then, I've written a number of fanfics and I've read a lot too, both good and bad. I've always had pet hates when it comes to fanfiction; the moment I see one of these turn-offs in a fanfic, I immediately stop reading. Immediately.
1. OCs that Steal the Limelight
Why are OCs so popular? Doesn't anyone know that OCs are uncool? If I ever see "CharacterA x OC" in a fanfic summary, I will not even give it a chance. Call me biased, but from my experience, about 99% of OCs are female (and you all know I am averse to female characters), and 90% of female OCs are Mary-Sues. No one wants to read about your idealised self winning the hearts of all the male cast. When I read stories I want to see someone else's interpretation of canon characters, not a projection of someone's wishful thinking.
2. OOC
This concept is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Why would you use someone else's characters and intentionally write them out-of-character? A character is not just an outward appearance - it's the personality the creator gives them. Without the personality, the character no longer has any point of difference. Of course, this still comes down to the author's interpretation of what is in-character and what isn't. Example, in PHSHC I write Joker like a silly lovesick kid. I get a lot of people saying he's out of character...but the truth is that we've never actually seen Joker in love, plus all the turmoil we see is completely internal. He doesn't act mushy, he just thinks mushy. :D
3. Author's Notes Featuring Canon Characters
Not sure why this is such a turn-off for me...but as soon as I see the author's note, and it's written script style and features a character from the fandom 'talking' to the author, I stop reading - even if the AN precedes the story. It just seems very childish and in bad taste. The only time I am not entirely repulsed by fans interacting with characters is when it's a picture. And a humorous one. Though I seriously hate those pics where the fan plays the part of the character's love interest...ugh...
4. Omg-My-Summary-Sucks Summaries
I've seen it a ba-fucking-jillion times on FF.N: "I suck at summaries, but I promise the fic is good"; "my summary sucks but please give my fic a chance"; and once I even saw "no summary just read the fic". Are you kidding me? When someone wants to promote something, they go all out. Companies pay through the nose for good advertising - have you ever seen an ad on TV saying 'this ad probably isn't all that great, but please buy our product anyway'? No. Even if the ad is of shitty quality, the company must show confidence in their product no matter what. I'm not going to read your fanfiction because I feel sorry for you. If you want people to read, then come up with an attention-grabbing summary...because people DO judge a book by its cover.
5. Poor Spelling and Grammar
Admittedly, if the story is good, I will put aside my contempt for ill-placed apostrophes and nonsensical sentence structures. But that seldom happens, really. If you can't spell, consult the dictionary. If you can't form proper sentences or conjugate your verbs properly, actually pay attention in English class. I can handle the odd typo, but when I read a story laden with errors, it physically pains me to continue reading. Errors look extremely unprofessional (and being an amateur writing is still no excuse to be unprofessional), and spoil any kind of mood the author is trying to create. I once read a slashfic where the author misspelled 'straddle' as 'strattle'. The instant I saw that, I could not take the story seriously anymore. You know 'strattle' rhymes with 'rattle', and things that rattle are not at all sexy. They are loud. And annoying.
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