1. DLP Flash Christmas Competition + Writing Marathon 2024!

    Competition topic: Magical New Year!

    Marathon goal? Crank out words!

    Check the marathon thread or competition thread for details.

    Dismiss Notice
  2. Hi there, Guest

    Only registered users can really experience what DLP has to offer. Many forums are only accessible if you have an account. Why don't you register?
    Dismiss Notice
  3. Introducing for your Perusing Pleasure

    New Thread Thursday
    +
    Shit Post Sunday

    READ ME
    Dismiss Notice

How do you score a fic?

Discussion in 'Fanfic Discussion' started by Otters, May 17, 2018.

  1. Thaumologist

    Thaumologist Fifth Year ~ Prestige ~

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2011
    Messages:
    142
    Location:
    Wrexham, Wales
    High Score:
    2000
    Does the fandom influence your score?

    I mean, Harry Potter has 790K non-crossover fics on FF.net - it's got a HUGE amount of words. Think of some that aren't even amongst the top 10% of Harry Potter fics. The guilty pleasures, or the ones that have a single saving feature that means you battle through the rest of it.

    But the Hyperion Cantos has 2. Not 2K, just 2. Neither is in English, or has had anything published in 2018. A middle-of-the-pack edgy!Harry equivalent, full of common tropes from other fandoms, could be quite good, in comparison.

    Would you still rate it a 3/5? Or does the fact that there's not really anything better mean it gets 4/5, and into the library?


    Maybe not go quite so extreme - Artemis Fowl has 5.5K fics. A fic where Artemis is also raised by James Bond, who teaches him how to flirt (uncomfortably so, for a young teen), and how to shoot the best in the world, and drive the best in the world, but does all this because he was Artemis' dad's best friend in university and couldn't leave his old bro's kid hanging... For a HP fic, this would almost certainly be trash. But for a fandom without much else, and it rises to the top simply because it's better than most other things out there, how would you rate it?


    I know I've rated some things higher based on the fandom, but for me personally it's normally in edge cases - I wouldn't shift something a whole point, but if I was uncertain, then this could cinch it.

    On the other hand, I don't think I've ever decreased a score because of the size of a fandom - although I've decreased a score because I don't believe it fits the fandom (non-magic AU, for example).


    I also tend to stick with things in dry fandoms for longer. Maybe I want to read a decent length Konosuba fic, so I'll just ignore the watersports fetish (until it gets too much). Whereas in HP, there's basically always a replacement.
     
  2. Jeram

    Jeram Elder of Zion ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2006
    Messages:
    143
    High Score:
    1756
    Well, tastes change of course. But I really liked the first chapter of his Grim & Mandy xover back in the day, and I thought Backwards Compatible was very good. Not sure how they'd hold up today.
     
  3. Clerith

    Clerith Ahegao Emperor ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2008
    Messages:
    176
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Finland
    High Score:
    1645
    Definitely. The smaller the fandom and the pool of fics, the easier it is to be lenient. Great fics are hard to find, and a lot of stuff that would be cliche-ridden in HP or Naruto is actually fresh or new.

    As for rating fics, 70% how much I personally liked it and 30% how good I objectively think it is. I like dropping .5 scores a bit too much, but I've never had problems rating fics.

    The older I get, the more I read kinda shitty fics if they just have that one thing that's new and interesting, even if they'd be 2-3/5 otherwise.
     
  4. Zombie

    Zombie Black Philip Moderator DLP Supporter

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2007
    Messages:
    6,036
    I mean I'm looking for words and completion and content. If it has a fair amount of concept behind everything then I'm likely to rate it higher most likely because I can actually get in to it. If it's a semi decent concept and it's short I don't know. I'm hit or miss. I like having things to read and if I can even remotely get into it that's good enough.

    I have read some terrible things just because it was legible, had words, and a straight forward concept.
     
  5. Halt

    Halt 1/3 of the Note Bros. Moderator

    Joined:
    May 27, 2010
    Messages:
    1,938
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Philippines
    To a degree, size of fandom does influence my scoring as (to put it in Economic terms) the quantity of "substitute goods" is less. However, it's rarely enough to sway my scoring by more than a half point (when compared to a similar quality HP fic).

    While parts of what makes a good story a good story is subjective, there are certain objective elements to it that you just can't ignore. Flow, pacing, strength of plot, interesting characters, good world building, grammar and spelling. If the building blocks for a good story are there, I'll give a story more leeway (in review rating) even if it's not my cup of tea.