Hi guys... My name is Kendra... and I'm a Dokuga Addict... *Hiii Kendra*

Anywho! I was going through the main page looking at the newly updated fics and I notice that I have a terrible habit of looking at the number of reads a story has, then looking at how many reviews they have verses the number of chapters before I even read the summary ( and even the summary goes through a critical review). After I've read the summary I usually go read a few reviews... and THEN I open the fic and read the first few paragraphs... bookmark it if my attention is captured and exit if It's not very well written...

I can't be the only person who does this. Am I anal retentive or is this common among fanfictioners... I made that word up btw.

What are some of the tried and true methods you all have employed to discover fanfiction gold?

~Dokuga Addicts Anonymous~

I used to be the same way! I checked the amount of feedback it got, maybe skimmed the reviews to read actual opinions on a certain fic. But I eventually I found the whole process a little tedious, so I just started going in blind.
Since I stopped the "research before reading" thing I found a few gems that had lacking summaries and not a ton of feedback.. also a lot that just weren't very put together but hey, you win some and you lose some lol

Lol! I have stumbled across a few like that... but I find the ones I enjoy immensely are either from trusted authors who I know will deliver, or someone who I've vetted through my system. lol

I usually do the thing where you check reviews, not really for the number but just for what people are saying about it. If there are none, or if the reviews are short like - 'Hey update soon!' Then I'll try to read that work for myself.

I think just reading the first few sentences of the first chapter, or the whole first chapter can do it sometimes. You can usually see the writers style, and whether or not there's mistakes in there that you just don't want to read.
Unfortunately a fair number of my own fics start out terribly, but then the writing gets better later on, so I can imagine allot of people have the same thing. There's no way of knowing if it'll improve later on, so I suppose if the first chapter isn't amazing, but is enough to be intriguing, then maybe give it a chance. You might discover a gem! ^^ (Though I realise this last method is time consuming)

Agreed, I look by on my first stories and i cringe hard with the grammatical mistakes(SOOOO MANY) and the cliches. However sometime's an authors writing style just isn't for you. There are a couple of popular posters on this website with writing styles that I don't enjoy and that isn't a bad thing. At times you just have to look and look for what meshes with you.

I find good fics via the reviews. If I see "THIS IS THE BEST FIC EVER!!!" I proceed with extreme caution. People said this about the fics I wrote when I was in high school and they were absolutely horrible. If that's all someone has to say about a long chaptered story, then... lol

I typically don't bother with how many views a story has gotten. Inuyasha is pretty old and sometimes really great stories go unnoticed.

Usually I skim reviews for the first three or four chapters, then I look at the last chapter since that's when readers leave comprehensive reviews. Because Sess/Kag fics are a niche, I tend to see the same reviewers from story to story, so I look at their favorite authors and stories to determine what I read next.

Anyway, I end up going back to authors whose writing styles I love. It sucks when a story has an interesting plot, but the writing style or their characterization isn't your cup of tea. Bad grammar is by far the worst for me, though.

I'm pretty thorough in general, especially when it comes to choosing new reading material, so I don't think it's a fanfictioners' (lol) thing.

I can easily say that I have never looked at reviews/reads/follows etc. to determine how good a story might be lol. I've written some pretty terrible stuff that shouldn't have the reviews they had. I typically go off grammar in the summary. Only on the summary though because I have the occasional grammatical error through out my own fics since I don't have a beta. I think the summary is kind if a prequel to what I'm jumping in to though.

The cliches are a little hard for me because I am fond of writing cliches but doing my take on it. The fic, "Of the Mourning" is definitely a cliche - Inuyasha dies, Sesshoumaru takes Kagome and their unborn child, yada yada. But I love writing it despite the cliche. So I have to give the tropes and cliches a go if they catch my eye.

I start off reading the summary to get a gist of what the fic is about. I avoid reading the fic if I see warnings about content I don't particularly want to see or read about. I also check the reviews if the fic is novel-length to get a idea of what the verdict is before I open the fic page.

If I get to reading the first chapter, I scan the first few paragraphs and note the format. If it's Wall of Text with no paragraphing I close the fic immediately. It doesn't matter if the summary was good. I find it really hard to read fanfics without spaces, it's too straining on the eyes.

I also look for punctuation consistency too. Can I see capitalising, fullstops, and speech marks etc?

That way I can at least tell if the fic is legible.

And then comes the actual reading. If the opening sentences don't grab my attention and or are excessively wordy, or drag-on for ages without saying anything. I also stop reading and close the fanfic. I'm pickier now about what I read than I used to be. So I tend to check stuff like this before proceeding.

I also tend to review less too, usually for fics that really need critique or fics that I absolutely adore, and must review because they're awesome.

~ Pyre

ponpiri wrote:
I find good fics via the reviews. If I see "THIS IS THE BEST FIC EVER!!!" I proceed with extreme caution. People said this about the fics I wrote when I was in high school and they were absolutely horrible. If that's all someone has to say about a long chaptered story, then... lol

#Truth!
Stories I wrote back when I was 14 got so much attention and they were terrible, but I assume the audience was at the same maturity level that I was. As I've gotten older and my writing has improved I've come to the realization my fics don't get nearly the amount of attention they used to especially on sites like ff.net . I think the complexity of the story weeds out some of the younger audiences. Because let's face it... Rated MA and No YIMS and Lemon ALERT only peeks ones curiosity. I was reading Strictly Business (rated MA) on ff.net and was shocked to see how many people were mad with the direction of the story. While I was ticked at the character, I recognized the talent of the author's ability to make me feel that way and can say it's one of my favorite fics that has me at the edge of my seat... waiting impatiently for an update... *AHEM*

THIS IS THE BEST FIC EVER in the review section let's me know, "Okay, there's prob a lot of Kikyo(u) bashing, some terrible dialogue and lots of Kagome getting revenge in an immature teenager type of way." When I see in depth reviews, especially from other authors I respect... it lets me know... okay.. this story may be good. The review may even be extremely critical... pointing out minor flaws like there their and they're... but if it's a big name author leaving the comment I'm like... they took enough time to leave a review...no matter how much they ripped the story apart.. my limited intelligence in the realm of literature may not find the issues these commenters found thus I'm likely to thoroughly enjoy this piece. lol

Pyreite wrote:
If I get to reading the first chapter, I scan the first few paragraphs and note the format. If it's Wall of Text with no paragraphing I close the fic immediately. It doesn't matter if the summary was good. I find it really hard to read fanfics without spaces, it's too straining on the eyes.

I also tend to review less too, usually for fics that really need critique or fics that I absolutely adore, and must review because they're awesome.

~ Pyre
Both points I agree with.

Long paragraphs hurt my eyes on a computer screen. I get enough of that reading scientific journal articles on a daily basis... and those I print so I can skim by reading the abstract and going straight to the results section. lol (My brain is Lazy...)

Like you, I used to not review as much, but I realized how encouraging they can be especially since I've started writing again. When I find a story is half decent... or could be half decent if they did xyz, I've taken to telling the author to keep up the good work. I think my students brought that side out of me. There are quite a few stories I have enjoyed that have a few misspelled words here and there. Those that appear to just be typos get passes.

It is extremely irritating when there's an error in every other sentence and it becomes clear in the first two paragraphs that this person really thinks that "they're shirt" is the proper form of the word. Those get exed out relatively quickly. It's like uugh! I can't even understand what you're trying to say... *click*

Kagome Yuki Niwa wrote:
I typically go off grammar in the summary. Only on the summary though because I have the occasional grammatical error through out my own fics since I don't have a beta. I think the summary is kind if a prequel to what I'm jumping in to though.

Same.. for the most part. I don't have a beta either... been begging for one, to no avail lol. The summary is a great indicator I think. BUT I've read some pretty bomb summaries only to be disappointed and vice versa.

This is why I find myself counting the reviews, reading through them and then reading the summary.

This all the way! You just get tired of reading trash and enduring when reading should be joyful. I have a similar set of rules that I use to triage whether a story is worth my time.

1) How many words? Unless your summary tempts me if you have a certain word limit I may avoid

2)Spelling, if your title has a spelling errors chances are you didn't proof read the story and I don't want to make corrections in my head. (The odd spelling error is fine, just not every other sentence or word)

3)Wall of text, just no I can't read it and I won't read it.

4) Frequent punctuation errors, I can't even tell if the characters are communicating, huge no no.

5)Kagome is perfect, no she isn't. She can be pushy, at times a door mat. That doesn't make her bad or hard to write for.

6) Sesshoumaru is perfect, far from it. He is hard to write for but that's what makes the process fun. Exemplifying or injecting believable qualities into him is good. Writing him as an amazing person while he is murdering innocents....not so much.

7) OMG INUYASHA AND KIKYO ARE EVIL, no they aren't. They are victims of poor circumstances and tragedy. If Inuyasha and Kikyo have to be spitting on Kagome for her to turn to Sesshoumaru, that makes Kagome needy and weak which she is not. It is also just cheap.

The list goes on and on. I may add more lol.

Lone saiyan woman wrote:
This all the way! You just get tired of reading trash and enduring when reading should be joyful. I have a similar set of rules that I use to triage whether a story is worth my time.

7) OMG INUYASHA AND KIKYO ARE EVIL, no they aren't. They are victims of poor circumstances and tragedy. If Inuyasha and Kikyo have to be spitting on Kagome for her to turn to Sesshoumaru, that makes Kagome needy and weak which she is not. It is also just cheap.
LOL! This! Unless it's a crack fic I hate the Kikyo(u) bashing stories... just a personal preference. Like an evil Kikyo(u) for no reason... no explanation... just evil. The Inuyasha series we all know and love was an excellent example of the complexity of the Inu/Kik situation. I think we all hated that Kagome was sad, but the history of those two characters is important.

They were in love... they were manipulated and their romance was cut short with so many unresolved issues. They didn't get to explore their love... it was dysfunctional considering Kikyou's love was under the stipulation that Inuyasha would eventually become human. He was craving love and attention so the taste of love she gave was more than what he'd ever experienced.

His back and forth between Kagome and Kikyou was poetic... Ingenious. His time was lost. though 50 years had passed, it was just the night before for him and vice versa. Kikyou was how he learned love.. his first love which was dysfunctional yet Kagome loved him for him... no stipulation. An innocent young woman experiencing love for the first time herself, didn't know how to convey her feelings and she was between a rock and a hard place because she recognized the injustice that was done to Inu/Kik. If we really delve into the characters we realize they all had issues.

Kikyou never had faith in Inuyasha... she reverted back to her own prejudices when Naraku tricked her into thinking he attacked her. We see the character growth in the anime/ manga spelled out for us. Inuyasha grew... Inuyasha realized what he and Kikyo(u) had, while beautiful in its own right was different from what he and Kagome had, and he made the right choice in the end. He had to sort it out. Now, in real life we're not going to sit around waiting on a man to make up his mind about what he wants and that's where Kagome's flaw was.

She was too available, too young dumb and in love and let him get away with soooo much. We never really saw Kagome develop into a more self confident character... but she got what she wanted in the end which was Inuyasha... after all, that's what the show was called and about... Inuyasha. lol

What I love about the Sesshoumaru Kagome pairing is that we get to explore Kagome more as an individual and have her grow up and develop apart from Inuyasha... Have her move on and avoid the tragic heart break that was entangled in her romance for the hanyou. We get to turn her into everything that she was not while still keeping all the traits we loved about her. I love a story that sends Kagome off somewhere and she becomes hardened due to her experiences. By putting her with Sesshoumaru we get to create a world where she grows and she uses her pure heart and loud nature to tear down the walls and prejudices that surround an enigma like Sesshoumaru.

I just finished re-reading Healing Carefully (Rated MA)... I LOOOOOOOOVE how Caedes(SP) described and developed Kikyo(u). While she took her own creative liberties, the way Kik/Inu's romance developed in that story was true to the canon in my opinion. I won't spoil the story if you haven't read it, but I think had Kikyo(u) not died in the actual series, she may have actually come around to acknowledging and loving all of Inuyasha.

Kikyo(u) in the series was a ball of negative emotions. She was selfish. She wanted Inu's love to end with her. She couldn't stand the thought of him moving on, in part because she was stuck in the same place she was prior to her death. She didn't have life experiences to teach her otherwise. She was immature and self centered. I think she loved Inuyasha in her own way and she took comfort in him because she too was ostracized but due to the heavy duty of protecting the villagers. She was confined to a life void of romance, she too felt like she didn't belong. So you have these two complex emotionally dependent broken characters who lean on each other because they have kindred spirits.

Real talk, I love the tangled mess that is Inuyasha and Kikyo(u). And I wish more people would delve into them more instead of making them evil. Granted if the story wants to make Kikyo(u) the bad guy just because... I think there should be at least a little bit of back ground as to why she's the bad guy Like how kb started to do in Wordless (rated MA). I get upset when it's just like, "Oh no you didn't! That's my man and I want you to be miserable just because!"

WHEW! That was a mouth full... I could have been writing a new chapter of my story with all that I just typed. In my defense I've been holding this in since last night. (I got locked out of my account LMBO)!

Kagaku-sha wrote:
[quote]Lone saiyan woman wrote:
LOL! This! Unless it's a crack fic I hate the Kikyo(u) bashing stories... just a personal preference. Like an evil Kikyo(u) for no reason... no explanation... just evil. The Inuyasha series we all know and love was an excellent example of the complexity of the Inu/Kik situation. I think we all hated that Kagome was sad, but the history of those two characters is important.

They were in love... they were manipulated and their romance was cut short with so many unresolved issues. They didn't get to explore their love... it was dysfunctional considering Kikyou's love was under the stipulation that Inuyasha would eventually become human. He was craving love and attention so the taste of love she gave was more than what he'd ever experienced.

His back and forth between Kagome and Kikyou was poetic... Ingenious. His time was lost. though 50 years had passed, it was just the night before for him and vice versa. Kikyou was how he learned love.. his first love which was dysfunctional yet Kagome loved him for him... no stipulation. An innocent young woman experiencing love for the first time herself, didn't know how to convey her feelings and she was between a rock and a hard place because she recognized the injustice that was done to Inu/Kik. If we really delve into the characters we realize they all had issues. ...


...Real talk, I love the tangled mess that is Inuyasha and Kikyo(u). And I wish more people would delve into them more instead of making them evil. Granted if the story wants to make Kikyo(u) the bad guy just because... I think there should be at least a little bit of back ground as to why she's the bad guy Like how kb started to do in Wordless (rated MA). I get upset when it's just like, "Oh no you didn't! That's my man and I want you to be miserable

While I am not a Kikyo basher, this discussion has opened my eyes. First I was evaluating how I usually pick my stories. It's based on which site I am on. If I am on ff.net it is always sesskag, English (because I'm not good enough in my two other languages I'm learning, yet), my rating is always M (because reasons), I only pick one genre, which is Romance, my word limit is never less than 20k words.

With Dokuga, I check the home page. I look for basically the same things, except word limit. With Dokuga I am quicker to read it if it is a fairly new story.

Originally, I thought I went in blind, but I don't, I first read the summary and check ratings which on this site would be either M or MA. If the summary is good or interesting, I then check if it is a chapter story or not. I usually read chapter ones. Then I open the story and begin reading. If it is incomplete I would read until I reach the last updated chapter and then decide if I would bookmark it, and that's only if I reach that far. I hardly ever read reviews and I hardly ever review. If it's complete I read until the end never closing the tab and somewhere along the line bookmark it.

Next is Kikyo. I forgot exactly who Kikyo was. I normally tend to just endure it. But know, I have also joined the ranks of fanfiction writers on this site and I wonder if my first story is guilty of making her evil for evil sake. I hope not. I hope I do her complex character justice. I already have her hating Kagome. I just hope if this is so ,someone will point it out, and I will be able to fix it

Howdy, all.

Coming out of the woodwork to contribute to this thread. I've been a long-time member of Dokuga and FF.net, but have been more of a lurker than a contributor in recent years.

Although the ink well has been dry lately (so to speak), I peruse the Dokuga homepage every day for new updates. Like most of you, I'm pretty selective. I don't patrol the reviews, more go off of summary and content.

I won't pretend to be perfect, because I do not use a beta myself, but extensive use of poor grammar is a big "no" for me. Storylines that move too fast without careful consideration for plot and character development are a huge turnoff, and 'Wall of Text' is just an immediate 'NO!'

That said, I really love that Dokuga and FF.net provides a platform for aspiring writers to try their hand at the craft. I feel like the more you read and write, the better you can become. That said, there are SOME authors who I've seen over the years that have never evolved, and I have to wonder if that's because they spend more time trying to pump out crap stories than consciously reading and appreciating good stories on this site. (I say 'crap' as my very own opinion, thinking of one person in particular who I shall not mention - not all novice stories are crap.)

I used to Beta, once upon a time, but I really don't have time for it these days. Still, I see promise in some of the stories out there, if they'd only...use...spellcheck...(;_;) It's free!

I have to tell you -- "Of the Mourning" is currently one of my favorite nail-biters! <3

Fubuki wrote:
and my last biggie? PLEASE FINISH THE STORY, I have a folder of half finished stories I love enough to bother downloading, but are never finished.
Fubuki/Rosemarie

I'm really struggling to finish a bunch of WIPS I've got currently - all non-inuyasha. I love the universe, but when the creators of that universe dropped the ball and abandoned their creation. It's made it really hard for me to see the value in what I've written.

I'm at the point where I'm thinking - Why bother writing fanfic for this stuff anymore?

The universe creators have sunk my ship. It's just awful.

I'm saddened by what's happened, and I'm already considering axing what fanfic I wrote for their fandoms over the years, unfinished or not. I just can't find the motivation to contribute time and energy into writing the fanfiction I used too.

So as for finishing a piece of fanfiction.

I believe as authors that we try, we really do, but some times the energy isn't there anymore. Even less so if the Gods that created that universe bail. Ugh. It's like they've sunk the fanfiction ship along with the fandom itself.



It's just a real major let down.

~ Pyre

As a reader, not a writer, I peruse the "blurb"and if it catches me, I then dip in.
But if I am then presented with "text talk" I am out. Spelling, and grammar play a big part, and I often change some of the spelling to Aussie. Tense is another biggie with me, as I am fed up with some one being "drugged" somewhere, when they mean "dragged"
so once all those are covered, we then go on to length, drabbles are ok (I have read a few, Kanna's flowergirl for one)but something to get my teeth into, where I get lost enough to ignore the world.
and my last biggie? PLEASE FINISH THE STORY, I have a folder of half finished stories I love enough to bother downloading, but are never finished.
Fubuki/Rosemarie

I agree with you all. Grammar plays a key role...

in response to Pyreite, the creators simply gave us the gun... provided the first few rounds of ammunition and now it's up to us to go buy some more rounds lol. If we're being honest... Inuyasha, like DBZ and Fairytale and others started becoming redundant. It was time to end it. The only difference is that DB has a niche audience in which they are capable of creating a new enemy and story line centering around that enemy while adding new characters from unions of our favorite characters.

Inuyasha was based on resolving an ancient grudge and finding the shards that started it all.. I don't find myself upset with how it ended because considering the audience... (Teen)anymore romantic complexity would have caused a loss of viewers/ readers in my opinion.

It had a good run... unfortunately all good things must come to an end. I think Dokuga has done a great job at providing a platform for us to continue to explore and put these characters in new compromising situations. We get to play with the 'what if!' and delve into the children of these characters if they had them.. or make some of our own if they didn't...


I have an idea for a story that just came to me... that I'll never write.. lol let me go post over on another forum.

Kagaku-sha wrote:
I agree with you all. Grammar plays a key role...

in response to Pyreite, the creators simply gave us the gun... provided the first few rounds of ammunition and now it's up to us to go buy some more rounds lol. If we're being honest... Inuyasha, like DBZ and Fairytale and others started becoming redundant. It was time to end it. The only difference is that DB has a niche audience in which they are capable of creating a new enemy and story line centering around that enemy while adding new characters from unions of our favorite characters.

Inuyasha was based on resolving an ancient grudge and finding the shards that started it all.. I don't find myself upset with how it ended because considering the audience... (Teen)anymore romantic complexity would have caused a loss of viewers/ readers in my opinion.

It had a good run... unfortunately all good things must come to an end. I think Dokuga has done a great job at providing a platform for us to continue to explore and put these characters in new compromising situations. We get to play with the 'what if!' and delve into the children of these characters if they had them.. or make some of our own if they didn't...


I have an idea for a story that just came to me... that I'll never write.. lol let me go post over on another forum.

I know, but it's still disappointing though, but after my fav dev Bioware sunk the Mass Effect franchise. Ugh. I don't want to write for them anymore. They're so uncool to their fans.

~ Pyre

Nathaniel z Alexandria wrote:First I was evaluating how I usually pick my stories. It's based on which site I am on. If I am on ff.net it is always sesskag, English (because I'm not good enough in my two other languages I'm learning, yet), my rating is always M (because reasons), I only pick one genre, which is Romance, my word limit is never less than 20k words.


I was just about to write this verbatim! (With the exception of word limit)

My established story filtering process goes about

Rating (always M, because of I have my mind perpetually in the gutter) -->

Pairing --> (Kagome x Sesshoumaru or Inuyasha, sometimes for lulz looking up odd pairings)

Genre --> (always romance, sometimes throwing in drama or humor as a complimenting genre, depending which mood I'm in)

Language --> (English, even though I would not be opposed to reading in Finnish but such fics do not exist, my Swedish is so horrible I would not be able to comprehend a Swedish fic even if it was written by a pre-schooler)

Word limit. I usually don't do filters based on word limits, but I generally skip snippets. (I can honestly say, I've never read a truly compelling or good snippet fic or dabbled multi-chapter fic)

Next thing I look at is the summary. If my eye spies even one grammatical error (an odd typo I can forgive - no-one's perfect) it's an instant no. Nothing breaks story immersion more than being a total grammar nazi and seeing grammatical errors everywhere.

If the summary mentions AU, it's an instant no. This is just a personal preference, but in my experience, good AU's are near impossible to pull off. At least without making the characters hyper OOC. When the characters are OCC, you might as well be reading Nora Roberts, with just the character names replaced with the names of Inuyasha characters. Even if it's written really, really well, it's just a nah from me.

Kagome turned into a demon. Sigh. The whole tragedy that is the love between a mortal being and an immortal being derives from the bittersweetness of the fact that the demon will always outlive the human. It utterly and completely, single-handedly destroys everything the show is originally about to turn Kagome into a demon. Inuyasha is essentially a wretched reminder of a banned love affair between a human and a demon. That half-breed bastard child falling for a human, trying unsuccessfully to become one and that love ending in tragedy as well because of that unwitted wish. A ruined human turning himself to a demon to earn love but cursing himself instead. Nothing ever was resolved in the series by turning from human to demon or demon to human. The whole point was accepting the unfairness life presents us with, but overcoming it. Kagome turning into a demon undermines the core of what Inuyasha, the series, is about.

Some other trope trigger words that are insta boner-killers for me are:
Slave!Kagome (I'm not against the premise, but in 15 years of reading, all slavefics have been OOC messes), abuse (I don't mind abuse as a narrative device but when it's blatantly advertised in the summary, I will know that the form of abuse will be at a childish level of exaggerated monstrosities), prank (uuuuuuggggh, I just hate that one author that includes the word prank in all of her 7683584 fanfics), pups (I have a kid of my own, there's absolutely nothing romantic about diaper changing - even if the kids have fluffy dog ears), after marriage (I'm more interested in the start of the romance, not in the.. mundane everyday of a romance), Kikyou, threeway, crackfic,


Trigger words that will immediately catch my attention:
heatfic (like pizza, even if it's not that good, it's gonna still be good), forbidden romance, impossible romance, content warning, "my version", one-shot


Since I barely have enough time to sleep, let alone write or do anything else, I usually don't have the opportunity to invest in lengthy and/or incomplete fics. Short smut for teh win!

I just really want to read about the same stuff I enjoy writing as well. Comprehensively short smutfics with excellent grammar and vivid language, characters being believable and true to the source material - no matter how wacky or out of the box setting they are dropped in.

Kuronohime wrote:


Language --> (English, even though I would not be opposed to reading in Finnish but such fics do not exist,

Wow, first of all I assume I'm obliged to make some sort of torilla tavataan type reference, but anyway I find this super interesting.

See, at this point I don't think I even could write a fic in Finnish, it would just seem so weird to me because English has just kind of become the language of fanfiction to me (tho to be fair with published books too I read more in English than I do in Finnish these days..)

Also, whenever the subject's come up when talking with my friends, everyone's agreed that they'd never read fics in Finnish 'cause it just would feel weird, so it's really interesting and cool that you'd be willing to give it a try!

Chie wrote:
Wow, first of all I assume I'm obliged to make some sort of torilla tavataan type reference, but anyway I find this super interesting.
WHATTAHECK! O__O I would have literally never thought of bumping into (presumably) another Finn in here! Torille! I'll bring the Koskenkorva, you bring the.. umnh, ruisleipä? xD

See, at this point I don't think I even could write a fic in Finnish, it would just seem so weird to me because English has just kind of become the language of fanfiction to me (tho to be fair with published books too I read more in English than I do in Finnish these days..)

Also, whenever the subject's come up when talking with my friends, everyone's agreed that they'd never read fics in Finnish 'cause it just would feel weird, so it's really interesting and cool that you'd be willing to give it a try!
I do realize that I'm in a minority within a minority within a minority thinking that Finnish is just as usable language as English in writing (fanfiction). I've even translated one of my own English Inuyasha fics to Finnish (a horrible, terrible, nightmarish translation, but nonetheless, a translation). The problem with writing in Finnish is that it pretty much excludes 99% of the audience and even most Finns deplore the idea of reading in Finnish, which is a shame. Finnish is such a versatile and expressive language. And in cultural sense, I think even closer to Japanese than what English is.

Every language has it own fascination and I would not be opposed to reading in other languages besides English, as long as I understood the language.

But it is true that being used to writing in English for the past 15 years has created a vocabulary and a sense of style that is not established in my Finnish writing.

I have no idea if there's any statistics on fanfiction writers, but I've always assumed that most are native English speakers. I don't mind reading stuff from people whose first language is something else, but if it shows clearly on the writing, that also puts me off. (But I've also encountered countless times how non-natives are more grammatically pedantic and even more expressive than natives - which is just mind-boggling. I mean... How can there even exist people that write so poorly when English is their _only_ language!)

It's very rare to bump into a fellow Finn in any fandom, but HIIIII! xDDDD

I do agree with you, Finnish is a beautiful language and I do feel bad at times for kind of neglecting it, but like you pointed out, it's such a small language that writing on it excludes a huge part of the audience. And also in my case, English has become more familiar as a language to write in (probably doesn't help that I went to study English in uni).

I don't know about any kind of statistics either, but there are at least some fic authors out there who're not native English speakers. If they have good beta readers I don't think you can necessarily tell a difference.

Personally I don't care if they're native or non-native speakers, I have a low tolerance of poor writing in general. ^^; I just can't enjoy reading if my inner editor is constantly providing commentary on how to improve the text..

As a fanfiction reader, there isn't a "for sure" way to determine a good fanfiction.

There are some fanfictions that are short and have major grammar mistakes but are able to pull on our heartstrings. .
There are some fanfictions that don't have a well-written summary but a very well-written story.

Also, there are some fanfictions out there that at first glance seem like they're not worth your time, but two years later when you're finally like "Why not? I'll give this fic a chance." You realize that "Why the heck did I think this wasn't worth my time two years ago?!" You shouldn't put 100% of your trust in other reader's reviews either because you'll be surprised at how even though other readers might not like a particular fanfiction written by a particular author, you, on the other hand, might like that particular fanfiction written by that particular author.

As a fanfiction reader, there's really not much you can do when it comes to making a foolproof way to find a good fanfiction... you have to be able to give fanfictions a chance and to not be afraid of "wasting your time."

But hey, who knows? I'm just a nobody who's been reading fanfictions for almost 5 years now... And 5 years is nothing compared to my fanfiction Veterans and Seniors who have been reading fanfictions for more than 10 years...

I really still have a long way to go... (^w^)