Thoughts while reading

[macklingirl]

Did you ever have the feeling of betrayal while reading a Pros-story? I mean the feeling you have when you realise that the summary of the very long story has unfortunately been the best part of the story.

The story has more than 43000 words and the summary says "A man from Bodie's past seeks revenge, he wants Bodie dead but first he wants him to suffer like he as. Can CI5 save him before John Morgan get his wish and kills him",  so I thought "Wonderful. That could be a good h/c Bodie story." And I wanted to know why this John Morgan wants to kill Bodie. So I started reading.

But after the second chapter I had to stop for a while. I couldn't find out if the author is a native speaker or not, but I really, really wish she would have had a beta reader for her story. It seems as if the whole story was translated via google translator. There are never-ending sentences without any comma, some seem like three sentences in one. And there are lots and lots of missing letters and sometimes, for me, the whole sentence doesn't make sense.

And then I've read the reviews and they all say "Wow, what a great story." or "Very well written" and so on. So I think, maybe it is only me who has the problems and maybe it is because I'm not a native speaker. Or am I too spoiled by our authors? I mean, we have really very good authors writing the Big Bang stories or stories for the DIALJ challenges.

I'm curious how the story will end (at the moment Bodie is alive and six feet under in a coffin), but I must admit I'm happy when I reach the end and can read something better written.

For all who are interested, the link is under the cut.


For all who are interested: R-for-Revenge

Comments

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

I do read on FF.Net (and I post there sometimes), but I haven't read this one.

I didn't read the comments, but you do have to remember that in fanfiction whether something is well written is largely subjective, and not everybody is bothered by the same things. So it may be well written by some people's lights — but I can see what you mean about long sentences. (Although our conventions of punctuation are fairly modern, great rambling sentences were the norm a few hundred years ago.)

I don't know Prawn Toast and Crackers as an author, so I can't comment on whether this is typical of their style — but I don't think your issues stem from not having English as a native language — I think anyone might have the same issues reading the story.

I understand how you feel though, that's happened to me a few times when I started reading Pros — I thought 'that summary sounds just up my street' and then the story didn't live up to it (and I'm quite happy with Gen, so that has nothing to do with it).

I think there are some good stories on FF.Net (some of my favourites I found there), but on reading a couple of paragraphs, just to get a flavour of what you were talking about, I think you're right, it could do with an edit for punctuation.

I hope the ending eventually makes the story worthwhile for you :0)

[macklingirl.livejournal.com]

Yes, the subjectiveness was the reason why I asked. I thought it was only me and that others find it normal.

Since she (or maybe he) didn't write any other stories we won't be able to know if it is the typical writing style.

And yes, it sometimes happens that you think "wow, that sounds really good. Let's go and read it" when you find a summary and after finishing the story you think "Ok, where is the plot that was in the summary". And I read Gen and Slash, so it could happen everywhere.

I'll edit my entry when I've finished.

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, please do. I would be interested to hear what you think after you've finished it.