[ SECRET POST #2860 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2860 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 062 secrets from Secret Submission Post #409.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Lack of flavor is a technical flaw though. It might help to identify the actual issues that make it that way for you. Is it characterization? Is it language? Is it structural (scene/sentence lengths, sluggish pacing etc.). While I don't advocate the above advice to do this anonymously at all, then if your friend is receptive to concrit you're going to need concrete examples. Telling anyone "this is bland" doesn't help much without being able to pinpoint why.

I'd also suggest that the blandness and the lack of attention they're getting aren't necessarily part of the same problem. It's more than likely it's your friend's begging for readers attitude that's turning readers off more than the quality. And if they're writing FOR attention first and foremost (it sounds pretty important to them), then that might be another reason the writing is bland.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel the secret-poster's pain, though. I beta read for someone recently and was able to point out easily fixable things like grammar, but it's quite hard to put a finger on why something is boring.

Someone mentioned 50 Shades upthread, and I haven't read that, but another popular thing people have read is The DaVinci Code. It isn't brilliant writing, but every chapter (EVERY CHAPTER) ends in a cliffhanger. There is something to solve. The reader wonders what's going to happen. It's just hard to even...show an example of another fic using the same trope that is well-received and convey why the first one is so entertaining and the second isn't. It's lacking a certain...je ne sais quoi, but the "what" is storytelling ability. If this was easy to communicate, people who read slush pile stuff at publishing houses would be able to tell writers how to make their stuff good, and some people just aren't talented, though technically adept.

[(Anonymous)]

True, it is a very hard thing to articulate. I think it'd still benefit OP's friend (and OP if they're into taking works apart and seeing how they tick!) to have at least a few concrete things to work on though. Even if they're not actually the things responsible for the blandness, at least they might be looking at their work in a different way which might be enough to ignite a spark.

Lack of flavor is a technical flaw though - Yep.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree that lack of flavor is a technical flaw, and one that can be at least partially overcome.

Here are some things that I've noticed turn me off.

- Too-long sentences. Lack of variation in sentence length.
- Lack of focus. I should have a good idea of where the fic is headed by at least the first page, if not the first paragraph. I should feel safe with this writer.
- Lack of variation between dialogue and description. Too large a block of either can be tiring.
- Not setting up an immediate mystery in the first few paragraphs (what's happening to the character? what obstacles are in their way to what they want?)
- Characters being introduced and then disappearing. Lack of proper character arcs.

And so on.

While technically bad writing can still be fun to read if I turn my brain off, if a fic is technically good, as in not just having decent spelling and grammar, but it also shows a knowledge of structure and how to introduce characters, it's never less than highly readable.

[(Anonymous)]

I'd agree that lack of flavour is a technical flaw...some of the time. Sometimes, though, it's just a matter of taste, and if you're going to critique someone's work for blandness, particularly a friend, you need to be careful that it's a situation where there's actually something lacking in the work itself, and not a case of it just not working for you personally.