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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35782
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35782
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

No matter how good your fanfiction is, no matter how good your fiction is, no matter how good anything you do is, there will be trolls using vile language to put you down. There's not much you can do about them except ignore them.

That said, the question of what things to avoid like the plague when writing fanfic is a valid one.

The **[Mary Sue](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue)** is, I believe the most reviled fanfic trope. Mary Sue is the perfectly perfect character, who has all the answers to all the questions, finds a way to defeat all the monsters, is the strongest, smartest, most beautiful, and _of course_ the sexiest character of the original work falls for her. She then solves whatever troubled issues he had, and they live in perfect saccharine happiness forever and ever. Eww. Note that giving a character one flaw wouldn't necessarily save them from being a Mary Sue. (While the link is to TV Tropes, which is a rabbit hole that eats up your time without you noticing, that page is really useful, detailing sub-species of the Mary Sue.)

Another issue that can occur is you making characters act "out of character" - you've changed them so much that they're no longer who they used to be in the original work. The extremes are [turning a good character evil](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RonTheDeathEater), or [vice versa](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DracoInLeatherPants). People love the original work with its original characters because of the way they have been written. If you change it, they might not be happy.

And, of course, some criticism might be addressed not at particular things you do, but at the general quality of your writing. With that, the way to get better is to write more, read more, and work at it. Don't get discouraged by foul-mouthed schmucks.

Original score: 19