Age isn't an excuse

I hate authors who, when you harshly criticize/flame them, tell you that they write badly "becuz im unly 13!!11!"

Stop it. Age isn't an excuse. You have spell check and you can get a beta, can't you? I mean, I'll excuse the Sues and Stus sometimes, but seriously.

Vividus
Fanfiction Gripes

Assume Your Characters Are Beautiful

Don't waste your time on typing "beautiful," "pretty," "hot," or any of those words that attempts to enhance the character's beauty. Instead, use them sparingly and for important occassions only.

A reader always assumes that a character, no matter how unimportant, is physically pleasing to the eye in their mind's eye because no one likes imagining ugly characters.

Generally, beauty is in the eye of the perceiver, so it's rather subjective. Use powerful descriptions to get your point across. For example:

Stella hated Nikki the moment she laid eyes on her. The moment the woman was in the room, she was at Brandon's side faster than she could be. She hated her for being her pulchritude antithesis. She had long shining hair dark as midnight with blue eyes that could see into one's eyes and a doll's porcelain skin. She was sexy in a mysterious way, invoking the calmness of the ocean at midnight with a fat moon hung in the sky.

Alternatively, if we're talking about how one character, such as a lover, perceives another character, use feelings to emphasize the fact that both characters love each other, not just lust for each other. A relationship isn't built on sex and sex doesn't always enhance the relationship. For example:

Sky turned to watch Bloom. She was laughing with her friends. She turned to smile at him from across the garden. He smiled back. She made him feel more alive than anyone ever had. She made him feel like a simple man, naught more. How he loved her! He, the Prince of Eraklyon, was utterly and truly in love. There was a time when he thought that love was simply an illusion to make reality more bearable, but he had indeniable proof that it existed.

Kikurukina Bal Des'cagel

Story Requests

A story request is a situation in which someone, a reader, requests you to write a story with certain specifications. Whether an author should or should not respond to these requests is up to the individual.

Story requests are rather far and few in the Winx Club fandom but they do happen. However, one can't just send a request without forethought. The following is a message that both Chibi Horsewoman and Kikurukina Bal Des'cagel received on two separate occasions.

can u please do these trix couple requests????
darcyxbaltor
darcyxbrandon
darcyxriven
icyxbaltor
icyxsky
stormyxhelia
I really dont hav that much talent as a writer*, but u do, so id really appricate it!

If you have enough time to waste your own time writing these kind of frivolous messages, you have enough time to write your own stories.

This person was asking two authors with high-level language to write a story for this person who could not even use a couple of minutes to use proper grammar. This is socially unacceptable. It's an insult to some writers. It is the requester's job to convince the writer to write their desired story. Writers are not machines nor are they paid to write fanfiction. Therefore, do not expect them to say yes or feel obligated to oblige you.

If you are about to write a story request, use proper English and be concise. Be sure to do background research on your author to see if he or she is comfortable in writing your specified genre.


Fanfiction Gripes

Ransoming Stories for Reviews

Holding a story hostage for reviews. This is not being a writer, it's being a hack. A writer writes for the joy of it, and to entertain. A hack writes for the pay (at ff net, it takes the form of reviews). Doing so guarantees I'll stop reading and not leave one.

Robert Teague