Shutterbug12, I think one of the best summaries I've ever seen was Perspi's for No Little Charity: It was an old ritual, old magic from before the world had rational explanations and cold science. Cold science had failed House; Wilson had nothing left to try but this. It's mysterious, it's intriguing, it shouts House-Wilson friendship to me -- to me, this was a summary that reached out and grabbed me.

Nightdog and saara_zaara, thanks for the examples. They were excellent. It's hard to get over my frustration with this summary, but the story's a WIP. I guess the summary is, too.

Jumping into this cliche discussion late, but... "ducklings" especially when uttered by a character immediately takes me out of an otherwise intense story. Greg(g) and Jimmy (except when used sparingly and in full-on snark mode) "Lisa" House having a brother (or sister). He doesn't have one. Wilson infantilizing House House simpering House becoming "nice" and part of a happy (but snarky) family. House as a dad (yes, I know I'm writing a Cuddy Pregnant fanfic now, but I do guarantee that it will not end in House becoming part of a happy family--to say anything else will spoil anyone who might be reading it) My biggest pet peeve is writing that doesn't even pretend to stay in character. That and the duckling thingy. ;)

We may be sporking fanon clichés, but even if your fic contains some of those elements, it doesn’t automatically qualify as “badfic.” Like I said before, we all use clichés. The worst use of clichés is when a writer attempts NOTHING original and just recycles the tired fanon ideas she/he has seen in some other fic. That’s plain lazy writing, which is bad in any form, including the so-called “original fic.” (Eragon, anyone?) Absolutely true. I've been following a very long story and its sequel that completely uses one of my pet peeve conventions (House happy and a dad in a family). It's fun and it's relatively light. I also followed a couple of stories for awhile that fell into the Wilson infantilizing a simpering, warm and fuzzy (but sick) House. I gave up on those, but I enjoyed them until I didn't (if that makes any sense at all). Decent and mature writing covers a lot of content issues. I'm not at all a slash fan, but even I have to admit that I've read one or two that are completely hot. :twisted: OTOH, there's one writer in particular whose writing I love, but I can't read her slash because I just don't see it.

That might have been me, but my internet connection was crashing in the middle of trying to put it on alert. I'ma go back an do dat. Sowwy. It probably wasn't you. That -always- happens, and I didn't have a specific person in mind when I brought that up.

Hey, Norah, thanks for your interest! The miscarriage fic is here. The death!fic is here. I'm not sure if this is okay with you, but neither fic is from her point of view. She's definitely a main, important character, but both are seen from another P.O.V. :) And now I'm going to defend myself by explaining that I actually have gotten feedback for both stories; I just have them archived under another name on the main Housefic community. I started to think the other day that it'd make sense to archive all my stories in one place so I didn't lose 'em. ;) In fact, you've just gave me enough encouragement to start uploading my other fics. :)

As a reader I personally don't have a problem with long chapters in a story although some others might. One of my personal pet peeves is chapters that are very short, I'm talking about 200-300 words here. It's alright occasionally, I understand that there are times when that sort of very short chapter is needed but when the entire story consists of 12 chapters about 300 words long each I have a real problem. For me chapter breaks indicate that there is some major break either in timeline or POV or something like that which needs a major break. They don't necessarily need to be there simply because of length.

Help is needed. I've been regaling Ticcy with the story of House/KayLee/KayGreg (in between trying to convince her to write a sequel to The Semen Tsunami and name it "The Tush Tornado") Does anyone have the original story URL? I think I need to re-read the saga of KayGreg again. (Dee, can you help a sistah out?) I also wouldn't mind having the URL of the fic that portrays Wilson as a secret eyeliner wearing candy raver. That was a masterpiece of OOC.

What is this KayGreg saga anyhow?

Wilson as the eyeliner-wearing ravehead is here: http://community.livejournal.com/house_wilson/940368.html The original story with KayGreg was taken down, but here are links to the MST (in three parts): http://community.livejournal.com/house_mst/66319.html http://community.livejournal.com/house_mst/67150.html http://community.livejournal.com/house_mst/67451.html I won't give away the "SUPRISE" of the story, except to say that one of the MSTers says "I never thought it would be possible to pervert slash like this." (KayGreg doesn't come in until the very, very end.) There was a "further adventures of KayGreg" story on ff.net, but I don't have a link to that.

For the person asking about lengths. I say whatever feels good, go for it. Sometime I have chapters that are only 2 pages long on a document and other times they hit around 8 or nine, to me it's just where a break feels appropriate. Finding that break though takes skill, you can't just stop randomly somewhere and call it a chapter, you have to get a feel for what a chapter is like. It's a very complicated science, I'm majoring in Chapter Separation at school. *nods*

I won't give away the "SUPRISE" of the story, except to say that one of the MSTers says "I never thought it would be possible to pervert slash like this." (KayGreg doesn't come in until the very, very end.) Bless you, Dee!

Wow, that Wilson-as-raver one is as wild as the House-as-tranny-queen one. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same author. No don't ask me for a link, I don't have it.