Writing Tips and Reviews

Expecting the Auidence to Know Everything

I wanted to name this, "the problem with expecting your audience to know everything", but Wattpad has a word limit on the titles.

I don't care if you're writing a fan fiction or a new story, you should explain everything to your audience. Since I finished the abomination of an "Amphibia season 4" story that barely talked about Amphibia and used 5 other series it expected you to know, it's only right to use it as an example. Meanwhile, I'm going to Fate Grand Order as an example of doing it right.

"Amphibia Season 4"

This has to be the most inappropriate title to a fan fiction and I didn't know that could happen. But leaving aside the child abuse and the fact we forgot Amphibia existed for a while, the biggest problem of this cross-over story is that it expects everyone to know 6 series, many of which do not share a fan base. I don't care if you want to have Amphibia and Owl House together, but the second you think FNAF, Mario, and Sonic fans know everything about each other is the second I have problems. How you also thought everyone would know a Mario fan game and someone else's fan fiction is also... incredible.

The worst of it is the kid. She is the daughter of Luz and Amity, don't ask how that was possible, I didn't read the fan fiction to know because I refuse to do homework to understand someone's story. And the kid's existence is just the first problem I have. We didn't have any scenes to show her relationship with her parents before or after she was kidnapped. The story spends five years with the characters crying that she's gone and we're expected to cry too because we watched the Owl House and know this OTHER fan fiction.

I don't want to watch 2 seasons of a show just to feel anything when some kid gets kidnapped. No one wants to see their show tagged in a story and be expected to watch 2 seasons of something else. It will also bother me forever that the emotional scene is given to the Owl House and not Amphibia, you know, the title of the fan fiction. That's beyond the point. "Owl House fans will cry". If you're aiming to make them cry then write just for them. Don't write for 6 series where 1/6 of the audience will care.

(As of writing this part, I went to the fan-made Wikia of the story and found this list: Amphibia [show], The Owl House [show], Sonic x [show], Five nights at Freddy's [game], Detroit becomes human [game], Mario the Music Box [game], Dying Light [game], Dead Island [game], cod zombies [game], and SCP [media].