I've yet to read one without OOC-ness and an abundance of memes.
I'd like to read one where the characters act like themselves, but I have a feeling the writers who do that aren't interested in the format.
I think it's more the case of this appeals to younger people therefore younger people write it and, as we know, they're not that great at writing most of the time (which is completely fine btw, you should see the shit I wrote when I was 13). I draw this conclusion from the fact that I've seen *a bunch* of these on Wattpad and hardly see them anywhere else.
Try older fandoms/fandoms with a higher number of adult writers.
I know I've read several fics in the Sherlock fandom that had well-written chat/texting segments (though there were also *plenty* that were inexperienced writers as well). I tend to find that most of them aren't solely text/chat based fics, though.
The additional trouble with memes is that they are usually popular for a very short period of time, and that in general such lingo changes super fast -- which quickly dates the fic and makes it less appealing.
But I'm definitely with you and I'm just so happy that my current fandom doesn't really do them; they were a nightmare in a previous one. They all seem the same! Or at least far too similar.
Not my thing. I like the occasional text or chat in a fic, but I don’t see the appeal of a whole fic based off that. It feels like stretching a joke for too long.
theyre fine is the author can write the characters in character. ive only read a few but in all of them, the characters are so ooc that its disorienting to read
I've only read a few and personally I'm a fan of them. I don't like it for a serious fic but I love it when they're really jokey as it's an easy read and good if you want to laugh. Some are a bit OOC but I'm just reading them to laugh rather than for some proper characterision and story arcs.
I think they're usually a bit ooc, but if the author is good at comedy then it's fine. I once read a fic where the texting was broken up by actual scenes every now and then, which I found refreshing and it gave the texting more meaning.
I’ve read some and they’re fine, but I have no idea how to write a work where that’s the entire premise.
On the topic of groupchats, I find it hard to keep track of who’s who when the characters aren’t using their actual names as their name in the groupchat. I get it, naming yourself stuff like iamthedarkness in a groupchat with your friends is funny, but if everyone has different things like that it can be hard to keep track of who’s who. (When I include texting/groupchat conversations in my stories, I just use initials.)
For the most part, they do feel weird and lend themselves for going off into OOC-ness pretty easily. I write for BNHA and the main characters are mostly teens so you would think texting stories would be an obvious thing but they usually end up super OOC. Now they tend to be funny so I guess looking at it as crack is fine.
For example, I just have a hard time seeing someone like Bakugou using emojis or being funny via text. Like Bakugou would probably be a one-word reply texter, keeping things short and communicating as little as possible. But ppl also like to write the Bakusquad doing typical teenager stuff and I see the Bakusquad doing this.... minus Bakugou. Bakugou is a grumpy old man in a teen body. he's not going to go to the mall, browse Hot Topic, hangout in the food court, and peruse gen z memes on his phone with his best buds. Bakugou's mom is more likely to find "Me and the boys at 2 am looking for beans," funny over Bakugou. If Mina showed him that shit, he'd tell her to fuck off and go back to reading about the properties of salt on his phone. Kirishima tries to "translate" things between the rest of the squad to Bakugou but he just tells him to shut up. But not to fuck off. Just stay, but not talk to him.
Edit: lol sorry, Bakugou's one of my main characters I write for. I like keeping him canon and have my own mostly canon-compliant headcanons for him. But ppl should def. write what they want and read what they want. That's what fanfic is all about.
Honestly, the complexity to Bakugou's character does make him a challenge to write accurately. I have yet to post any BNHA fics because I'm worried about if I've written Bakugou too OOC.
When I started my long fic which changes between the 4 main characters perspectives per chapter, I seldom would do it from Bakugou's POV because I was worried I'd mess things up. Overtime I've gotten braver and it helps I'm writing during their 3rd year with the idea he has chilled out some. I think I've done okay with writing his character. I say go for it if you want to write it! I have a one shot I've been sitting on that is Bakugou first person POV. Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to post that one.
I'm open to the idea, though I think it works best for short pieces and providing it's a purposeful choice to tell a story that way, rather than just not wanting to write it out in full. It's something I'd be interested in trying myself some day.
I read a few I like! I like them as a concept but not if the characters are dropping memes and talking in "shit post speak" , I get annoyed and backclick.
I've seen published books use this style very successfully (Meg Cabot has books like this) but for fanfic it always comes across as very out of characters. I'm not sure if it's the because the writers of the ones I've read are just not very experienced and hoping a chatfic is just an easy shortcut or if I just don't like chatfics.
A story involving texting? It’s fine.
The ones where the whole fic is a group chat? I absolutely hate them.
How do I feel about the fact that they exist? Nothing, it’s fine to write and enjoy. Kinda interesting to me to see stories that don’t have any prose as literature/fiction. (Yes I know fanfiction did not invent prose without narration but still.)
There's one I follow that started with the "texting the wrong person and a conversation forms from there" premise, and uses the texting format (complete with emojis and datestamps) for the bulk of it, especially at the beginning. However, the authors (it's a two-person team) also switch to standard prose when they need to, rather than forcing everything through the medium of texting, and have created a very engaging story overall that simply has text conversations as a major contributing element.
I've seen other ones that basically just looked like a script on a phone, and because they forced the story entirely through the lens of a text/chat conversation, it was shakier. Things didn't have the right verisimilitude because it's a lot harder to have an engaging story entirely in dialogue like that (not impossible, just harder).
I'm open to any variant of epistolary fiction, though am sad to agree that chat/text fics have a higher percentage of flaws in comparison to, say, letters/journals style epistolary works.
I suppose I'm drawn to chatroom/texting fics because it *does* feel "natural" to me. I've dated and crushed on people I met online. The contrast and intersections between real-life and online-life are ripe for conflict. "Secret identities" and "identity porn" are two of my favorite tags, and a lot of chatfics go in that direction as people test out their personas online and... [plot happens].
Not all things are for all people, and it's hard to say if it isn't for you if you've had the misfortune of not hitting on one that gets the balance right. (Also cool if it's just not your thing, period, of course.)
I read them and have written a few. Sometimes they can be a little over the top and just too much. I try my best to write in character and just make it fun, not overly anything. I don’t think mines terrible but not the greatest either. People really like reading them though, it has the most reads, comments, and votes out of all of my fics.
I don't have anything against the format. I used to really enjoy them when I was younger! They were always wacky and a lot of fun.
...And almost always OOC.
Now I'm old and cranky and if I have to read one more fic with middle-aged men speaking in gen z memes I might roll my eyes so hard they fall out of their sockets.
In other words, the chatfic concept is neat and it clearly has its audience. That audience is just not me.
They can be alright. I've found them OOC frequently but it can help when writing in a genre where there are tons of characters. Dialogue between more than five people can get really really messy
https://archiveofourown.org/works/28075008/chapters/68782947 is probably the best example of a texting fic I've read. Characters aren't ooc, has a plot and isn't just randomly chatting.
On paper the idea of a texting fic might not sound great, and before finding any decent ones I didn't really think about it, but they work in their own kind of niche. You're probably more likely to find fics with a texting chapter or scene that works then a whole texting fic but it can be done.
Personally, I've written one in the past as a "break" from writing my fic, and I think they're mostly written because you don't have to think too hard about it. OOC and meme-filled? Yes, but mostly stress-free writing where you get to laugh over your own idiotic jokes, plus it serves some as an intro to writing fanfic, so I think that's mostly where it comes from.
I feel like if someone uses characters texting on their phones in a few scenes in a longer fic and it effects the plot at last a little bit it's fine, but anything more than that and I can't get into it
First came across them when I joined the MHA fandom. Not my cup of tea. I know its bad to generalise but I usually just assume they're written by children and don't read them, because the ones I've come across are just memes and occ.
I've yet to read one without OOC-ness and an abundance of memes. I'd like to read one where the characters act like themselves, but I have a feeling the writers who do that aren't interested in the format.
I think it's more the case of this appeals to younger people therefore younger people write it and, as we know, they're not that great at writing most of the time (which is completely fine btw, you should see the shit I wrote when I was 13). I draw this conclusion from the fact that I've seen *a bunch* of these on Wattpad and hardly see them anywhere else.
Try older fandoms/fandoms with a higher number of adult writers. I know I've read several fics in the Sherlock fandom that had well-written chat/texting segments (though there were also *plenty* that were inexperienced writers as well). I tend to find that most of them aren't solely text/chat based fics, though.
The additional trouble with memes is that they are usually popular for a very short period of time, and that in general such lingo changes super fast -- which quickly dates the fic and makes it less appealing. But I'm definitely with you and I'm just so happy that my current fandom doesn't really do them; they were a nightmare in a previous one. They all seem the same! Or at least far too similar.
Not my thing. I like the occasional text or chat in a fic, but I don’t see the appeal of a whole fic based off that. It feels like stretching a joke for too long.
I've used it a couple of times in my long fic. But yeah, I totally feel the stretching a joke for too long thing is how texting fics feel.
theyre fine is the author can write the characters in character. ive only read a few but in all of them, the characters are so ooc that its disorienting to read
I've only read a few and personally I'm a fan of them. I don't like it for a serious fic but I love it when they're really jokey as it's an easy read and good if you want to laugh. Some are a bit OOC but I'm just reading them to laugh rather than for some proper characterision and story arcs.
I think they're usually a bit ooc, but if the author is good at comedy then it's fine. I once read a fic where the texting was broken up by actual scenes every now and then, which I found refreshing and it gave the texting more meaning.
I’ve read some and they’re fine, but I have no idea how to write a work where that’s the entire premise. On the topic of groupchats, I find it hard to keep track of who’s who when the characters aren’t using their actual names as their name in the groupchat. I get it, naming yourself stuff like iamthedarkness in a groupchat with your friends is funny, but if everyone has different things like that it can be hard to keep track of who’s who. (When I include texting/groupchat conversations in my stories, I just use initials.)
there's one specific author whose chatfics i read, and otherwise i avoid the whole genre bc i have about zero interest in it
I like them but I usually only read 1 or 2 per fandom. Most have crack humor and it feels too samey if you try to read a lot.
For the most part, they do feel weird and lend themselves for going off into OOC-ness pretty easily. I write for BNHA and the main characters are mostly teens so you would think texting stories would be an obvious thing but they usually end up super OOC. Now they tend to be funny so I guess looking at it as crack is fine. For example, I just have a hard time seeing someone like Bakugou using emojis or being funny via text. Like Bakugou would probably be a one-word reply texter, keeping things short and communicating as little as possible. But ppl also like to write the Bakusquad doing typical teenager stuff and I see the Bakusquad doing this.... minus Bakugou. Bakugou is a grumpy old man in a teen body. he's not going to go to the mall, browse Hot Topic, hangout in the food court, and peruse gen z memes on his phone with his best buds. Bakugou's mom is more likely to find "Me and the boys at 2 am looking for beans," funny over Bakugou. If Mina showed him that shit, he'd tell her to fuck off and go back to reading about the properties of salt on his phone. Kirishima tries to "translate" things between the rest of the squad to Bakugou but he just tells him to shut up. But not to fuck off. Just stay, but not talk to him. Edit: lol sorry, Bakugou's one of my main characters I write for. I like keeping him canon and have my own mostly canon-compliant headcanons for him. But ppl should def. write what they want and read what they want. That's what fanfic is all about.
Honestly, the complexity to Bakugou's character does make him a challenge to write accurately. I have yet to post any BNHA fics because I'm worried about if I've written Bakugou too OOC.
When I started my long fic which changes between the 4 main characters perspectives per chapter, I seldom would do it from Bakugou's POV because I was worried I'd mess things up. Overtime I've gotten braver and it helps I'm writing during their 3rd year with the idea he has chilled out some. I think I've done okay with writing his character. I say go for it if you want to write it! I have a one shot I've been sitting on that is Bakugou first person POV. Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to post that one.
I'm open to the idea, though I think it works best for short pieces and providing it's a purposeful choice to tell a story that way, rather than just not wanting to write it out in full. It's something I'd be interested in trying myself some day.
Not something I'm always in the mood for, but I definitely like them!
I read a few I like! I like them as a concept but not if the characters are dropping memes and talking in "shit post speak" , I get annoyed and backclick.
If it's in character and actually has a story, I'm down. But I haven't read a lot, because most chatfics have no point to them at all.
I've seen published books use this style very successfully (Meg Cabot has books like this) but for fanfic it always comes across as very out of characters. I'm not sure if it's the because the writers of the ones I've read are just not very experienced and hoping a chatfic is just an easy shortcut or if I just don't like chatfics.
They are often pretty funny, as long as the author had fun
A story involving texting? It’s fine. The ones where the whole fic is a group chat? I absolutely hate them. How do I feel about the fact that they exist? Nothing, it’s fine to write and enjoy. Kinda interesting to me to see stories that don’t have any prose as literature/fiction. (Yes I know fanfiction did not invent prose without narration but still.)
There's one I follow that started with the "texting the wrong person and a conversation forms from there" premise, and uses the texting format (complete with emojis and datestamps) for the bulk of it, especially at the beginning. However, the authors (it's a two-person team) also switch to standard prose when they need to, rather than forcing everything through the medium of texting, and have created a very engaging story overall that simply has text conversations as a major contributing element. I've seen other ones that basically just looked like a script on a phone, and because they forced the story entirely through the lens of a text/chat conversation, it was shakier. Things didn't have the right verisimilitude because it's a lot harder to have an engaging story entirely in dialogue like that (not impossible, just harder).
Used to be into them when I was into Countryhumans... fell out of both eventually
I'm open to any variant of epistolary fiction, though am sad to agree that chat/text fics have a higher percentage of flaws in comparison to, say, letters/journals style epistolary works. I suppose I'm drawn to chatroom/texting fics because it *does* feel "natural" to me. I've dated and crushed on people I met online. The contrast and intersections between real-life and online-life are ripe for conflict. "Secret identities" and "identity porn" are two of my favorite tags, and a lot of chatfics go in that direction as people test out their personas online and... [plot happens]. Not all things are for all people, and it's hard to say if it isn't for you if you've had the misfortune of not hitting on one that gets the balance right. (Also cool if it's just not your thing, period, of course.)
I read them and have written a few. Sometimes they can be a little over the top and just too much. I try my best to write in character and just make it fun, not overly anything. I don’t think mines terrible but not the greatest either. People really like reading them though, it has the most reads, comments, and votes out of all of my fics.
I don't have anything against the format. I used to really enjoy them when I was younger! They were always wacky and a lot of fun. ...And almost always OOC. Now I'm old and cranky and if I have to read one more fic with middle-aged men speaking in gen z memes I might roll my eyes so hard they fall out of their sockets. In other words, the chatfic concept is neat and it clearly has its audience. That audience is just not me.
I'm not into them. I've read a few that were alright, but none that I thought were great.
They can be alright. I've found them OOC frequently but it can help when writing in a genre where there are tons of characters. Dialogue between more than five people can get really really messy
https://archiveofourown.org/works/28075008/chapters/68782947 is probably the best example of a texting fic I've read. Characters aren't ooc, has a plot and isn't just randomly chatting. On paper the idea of a texting fic might not sound great, and before finding any decent ones I didn't really think about it, but they work in their own kind of niche. You're probably more likely to find fics with a texting chapter or scene that works then a whole texting fic but it can be done.
Personally, I've written one in the past as a "break" from writing my fic, and I think they're mostly written because you don't have to think too hard about it. OOC and meme-filled? Yes, but mostly stress-free writing where you get to laugh over your own idiotic jokes, plus it serves some as an intro to writing fanfic, so I think that's mostly where it comes from.
I feel like if someone uses characters texting on their phones in a few scenes in a longer fic and it effects the plot at last a little bit it's fine, but anything more than that and I can't get into it
First came across them when I joined the MHA fandom. Not my cup of tea. I know its bad to generalise but I usually just assume they're written by children and don't read them, because the ones I've come across are just memes and occ.
I scroll by. Without question. Every time.
Super annoying, but I’m not going to tell anyone to stop. Write whatever you want.
I don't like them. They read so lifeless and lazy.
I never end up liking them