[ SECRET POST #2937 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2937 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 056 secrets from Secret Submission Post #420.
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)]

I think of it as "garbage in, garbage out". Don't get me wrong, I've read some incredible fanfics that were at least close to professional-level editing, but those fanfics are rare, and they're never ever going to make up the majority of all the fanfic that people are consuming. Way too many younger writers are growing up with lowered standards when it comes to basic grammar, but also characterisation, plot, pacing and just writing a coherent sentence. All of those things are more lax in fanfiction than it is in published fiction, because people will forgive a lot if it's about their favorite pairing or trope. People like what they like, but I've yet to see a writer who's been raised almost exclusively on a diet of fanfiction and fandom turning out a decent fic.

[(Anonymous)]

Basically.

Or at least everyone's wallowing around in the same garbage all the time, and rarely get any exposure to anything better.

I don't think it's even that they have lowered standards, it's that they don't even have any exposure to what those standards are in the first place. I don't think people who praise badly-written fanfic are necessarily being lax or forgiving; I genuinely think that most of the time they really don't see how bad it is, because they have no way of recognizing the mistakes they see as mistakes.

[(Anonymous)]

On the other hand, a lot of fanfic writers from the old days grew up on a diet of Harlequin novels. Myself, I've never read a whole one in my life, I preferred the classics (and schlocky science fiction novels). Yet these writers were usually streets ahead of me in terms of plotting and pacing. I was kind of envious, actually, that they knew all these fun romance tropes, although not envious enough to actually put myself through reading unappealing romance novels. Though at least these books had correct spelling and grammar.

A lot of the fanfics these days that appeal to young readers are precisely the worst ones in terms of plot, spelling, grammar and so on, perhaps because they mirror these readers' own undeveloped use of language. But reading these fics is not going to help these people improve. In the past, these kinds of fics with shaky language skills in them just weren't available in such huge quantities. They might make low levels of literacy seem almost desirable through a kind of peer pressure.

I've seen this a few times, actually. Teens on the internet after being told by someone outside their usual circle that it's unclear what they mean because it's so badly spelled raging that everyone on the internet spells however they want!!!!!! Stop picking on me!!!!

I've also seen a lot of articles recently about helicopter parents, and a growing culture in schools where children are told they can achieve anything, regardless of their actual levels of talent. I've not experienced this first hand. Education is still pretty harsh in my personal experience (professional exams in the UK). But perhaps this also has a part to play?

I actually kind of admire that sort of naive ambition, even if it often crumbles at the first hurdle. I was the same when I was young. It takes a few years to develop emotional stamina.

[(Anonymous)]

I read a book recently called "Generation Me" that goes into depth with studies and stats and such on the 'you can do anything, you're perfect just the way you are' phenomenon. It's really interesting and made me re-think a lot of ideas and cliches I took for granted ("just be yourself").

Long story shot, yes, Millennials cannot take criticism and that's a scientific fact.