There's a fanfic author I read who seems to be the fanfic equivalent of Steven Seagal. Same characters, same relationships, same situations. Only thing different is the setting. She recycles her original characters (not that they're that original). She puts in no descriptions. I was taught that a reader should be able to tell the characters apart without names -- they should be unique enough in dialogue or mannerisms or whatever that you can tell them apart without having to use their names. I was taught "show, don't tell". I was taught that the reader is not telepathic and you have to describe the sensory scene. You have to do this in as few words as possible, and so every word counts and has to pack as much info in as possible.

It's an irritation I sometimes get with fanfic. People are just good enough to get a following, but not what I would call good writers. Yes, it is frustrating. Yes, I want to be an editor and write them long diatribes on everything they are doing wrong and how to fix it.

This is not to say they're all like that. There are some fanfic writers I've read who are professional grade. But they are few and far between. Most are good, or have a good hook, or a tone or use of words I find very good. Some are clearly kids just starting out. More power to them. But this specific person has written close to a million words of fanfic. Why isn't she better than this?

I don't criticize directly because that's a disencouragement. She also has a notice on the homepage of her archive that she doesn't want any form of criticism, even constructive criticism. Her betas aren't calling her on these things, presumably because she writes great sex scenes. This is why I'm not a beta. On the few occassions I've betaed, I was quickly disinvited because I wasn't willing to let stuff like this slide. I betaed as an editor, and a lot of people can't take that or really just think "beta" means "person to kiss my ass and tell me how wonderful I am".

Bah.

Just because you do this "for fun" is no excuse to put out bad quality work.