One concerted reading period later...

[offsides]

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I know what you mean -- I went back, dug up and reread the the Richard Lawson Nuku-Nuku fics from almost 10 years ago, which I thought were incredible when I first discovered them. They're still good, but the bar's been lifted since then -- my expectations are much higher now.

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For me the quintessential example of this is Undocumented Features - I still re-read the early stories on occasion for fun and as a refresher, but it takes a lot not to cringe at the assorted problems they have (though, interestingly, spelling and grammar are not the biggest problems - which may be why I can still read them at all). And any time I see poor writing style I generally just don't bother...

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That's my number one bad fic sign. If it's all one paragraph, forget it.

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Agreed, unless it's supposed to be a 1-paragraph microfic.

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Also bad: chapters that are five paragraphs long, with author's notes that say, "sorry I took six months to write this."
The only thing I can figure is that these people are trying to write without ever having read first.

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No, to me it just means that they really don't care about the story that much - if they did, they'd either have written more of the story, or more explanation. And that's another sign of a bad fic - if the author doesn't care about it, why should I?
Offsides
Drunkard's Walk Forum Moderator and Prereader At Large