Signatures Abound!
If you've ever read my stuff and gotten to know me - not from stories, but from things like my profile, author's notes, and especially reviews I leave for other authors - you probably know that I love subtle humor. What makes me laugh (in a story) are things like carefully planned out irony, advanced wit, and excellent comic phrasing. I love one-liners best of all. It's probably a direct influence of Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series, but nothing can make me rotfl quite like a snappy line.
But even better than a perfectly planned out joke, I love things that aren't actually supposed to be funny. Like when a fic is so horrendously bad, you just have to laugh. I appreciate good-quality writing. . . but I'll always a certain affection for camp. "So bad it's good," you know? There are things so funny that it can't be made up - 'cause you can't make this stuff up!
So, that being the case, I want to talk a little bit about my review signatures. I don't use them a lot - generally only to close a review for a story I think is bad. In fact, I didn't like review signatures at all. . . Until I found a quote that fit so perfectly, and never got old, that I just had to have it. It came from a Narnian story entitled The lion's breath by the author magdalini. Now, I feel somewhat bad saying this, but that story was awful. It was a weird mix of fandoms, it lacked transition, and it really had nothing about Narnia aside from an Aslan cameo. (Read it for yourself, and you'll see what I mean.) Anyway, when I found this story it had only two reviews: a generic 'hope your update soon' and a fantastic dose of reality from none other than Val Evenstar.
Has anyone seen one of Val's story-owning reviews? They're fantastic. She delivers eye-opening criticism to fics that ooze poor writing and Mary Sue-ness. And she's always tasteful: it's criticism and advice, intended to instruct, not hurt. That's not to say she doesn't crush the hopes of thirteen-year-old fangirls across the Narnian fandom, though. And really, they deserve it anyway.
Back to the story. At the end of Chapter 2, there is italicized text that reads
Don't you love it?! This author, who really can't write (or at least put any real effort into her writing) wants reviews so badly she's almost encouraging flaming. Does it mean she's aware of the poor quality of the story, and that she acknowledges that literature lovers can't help but flame, and she's begging for reviews anyway? Love it! No flames, please. If possible. It never gets old, so I adopted it as my review signature. Since it is kind of tongue-in-cheek, I'll only use it for stories that aren't that fabulous.
But even Buck concedes, catchphrases do get old eventually. And I found my new one among the new stories in the Literati branch of the Gilmore Girls section. It comes from the lovely summary of a story called Two Stages by author uniquewriterllama. It goes as thus:
There is no way that any Literati fan couldn't laugh at that. Rory, the studious bookworm who graduated from Yale with a degree in Journalism, aspiring to become a foreign correspondent? Jess, the bad boy from NYC who dropped out of high school and went on to become amateur writer/publisher? And, yeah, Rory did take ballet lessons when she was young, and Jess loves music, but come on. How is that slightly AU?
She was a famous ballerina. He was the lead singer in a famous band. Slightly AU. Lol! It gets better every time, right? And just for the record, the story itself is even more ridiculous - and I only got one chapter in. Allow me divulge that Miss Patty (spelled Ms. Patty) is Rory's ballet coach, and Jess' band is named 'The Licenses' and loves to skateboard in their off time. I would have gone further, but there's an Ayn Rand reference in the beginning of Chapter 2, so I decided to forget it.
But you get what I mean. You gotta love it. =]
But even better than a perfectly planned out joke, I love things that aren't actually supposed to be funny. Like when a fic is so horrendously bad, you just have to laugh. I appreciate good-quality writing. . . but I'll always a certain affection for camp. "So bad it's good," you know? There are things so funny that it can't be made up - 'cause you can't make this stuff up!
So, that being the case, I want to talk a little bit about my review signatures. I don't use them a lot - generally only to close a review for a story I think is bad. In fact, I didn't like review signatures at all. . . Until I found a quote that fit so perfectly, and never got old, that I just had to have it. It came from a Narnian story entitled The lion's breath by the author magdalini. Now, I feel somewhat bad saying this, but that story was awful. It was a weird mix of fandoms, it lacked transition, and it really had nothing about Narnia aside from an Aslan cameo. (Read it for yourself, and you'll see what I mean.) Anyway, when I found this story it had only two reviews: a generic 'hope your update soon' and a fantastic dose of reality from none other than Val Evenstar.
Has anyone seen one of Val's story-owning reviews? They're fantastic. She delivers eye-opening criticism to fics that ooze poor writing and Mary Sue-ness. And she's always tasteful: it's criticism and advice, intended to instruct, not hurt. That's not to say she doesn't crush the hopes of thirteen-year-old fangirls across the Narnian fandom, though. And really, they deserve it anyway.
Back to the story. At the end of Chapter 2, there is italicized text that reads
Purple magic button…review!
No flames if possible..
Don't you love it?! This author, who really can't write (or at least put any real effort into her writing) wants reviews so badly she's almost encouraging flaming. Does it mean she's aware of the poor quality of the story, and that she acknowledges that literature lovers can't help but flame, and she's begging for reviews anyway? Love it! No flames, please. If possible. It never gets old, so I adopted it as my review signature. Since it is kind of tongue-in-cheek, I'll only use it for stories that aren't that fabulous.
But even Buck concedes, catchphrases do get old eventually. And I found my new one among the new stories in the Literati branch of the Gilmore Girls section. It comes from the lovely summary of a story called Two Stages by author uniquewriterllama. It goes as thus:
She was a famous ballerina. He was the lead singer in a famous band. When they meet, their two completely different stages collide, and chaos ensues. Slightly AU. JessRory LukeLorelai.
She was a famous ballerina. He was the lead singer in a famous band. Slightly AU. Lol! It gets better every time, right? And just for the record, the story itself is even more ridiculous - and I only got one chapter in. Allow me divulge that Miss Patty (spelled Ms. Patty) is Rory's ballet coach, and Jess' band is named 'The Licenses' and loves to skateboard in their off time. I would have gone further, but there's an Ayn Rand reference in the beginning of Chapter 2, so I decided to forget it.
But you get what I mean. You gotta love it. =]