LA LA LA~

Songfics can go suck it.

No, seriously.

Firstoff, I’m going to point out that on a lot of websites, it’s technically against the rules to post songfics. Fanfiction.net doesn’t allow it, for instance. I mean, yeah, I know some of FFN’s rules are kind of arbitrary. Their rules against script format, for example, are retarded (people posting their RP logs ruined it for all of us, I think). But this one is serious, okay. I keep seeing them get posted and no one bothers to report them, what the fuck.
Do you people really think songfics are that good? Do you? Here’s a bombshell for you: they really aren’t.

Songfics, for the uninitiated, are a fanfic with song lyrics thrown in for whatever reason. Sometimes a character is listening to a song and that song is just SO RELEVANT that the lyrics MUST be transcribed for all of us. Sometimes there’s no music in the scene proper, but the song is SO FITTING that the lyrics must be superimposed on the story. Sometimes the author just wishes he/she were making a music video. Whatever the case, this needs to stop.

Here’s a fact: Every good songfic I’ve ever seen was 100% better if I just took the song lyrics out.
It’s true!
There’s no harm in being inspired by your favorite music! No one will begrudge you for that. But do you really need to include the lyrics? Really?
Here’s a nice, ordered list of reasons why songfics are a bad idea:

- Reading lyrics to a song without the music can be kind of boring.
- A lot of songs actually don’t have very good lyrics and only seem great because the music carries a lot of the weight that the lyrics do not. Presenting only the lyrics can present the song in a bad light and also make you look like a loser for thinking that those lyrics are so amazing.
- You risk alienating readers who might not like that band, haven’t heard of that song, etc.
- You’re breaking the law. Songfics constitute plagiarism. Why do you think FFN forbids the posting of them, hmm??
- Writing a songfic for Linkin Park or Evanescence instantly makes you a tool. (Therefore, my middle school self is a tool. Ahahaha.) I mean, jeez, there are so many out there already, how could anyone think that the world needs more of these?
- You’re being really unoriginal, using someone else’s work to pad your own.
- Switching back and forth between poetry and prose so often can break suspension of disbelief.

So cut it out already.

ALSO!! It makes me so sad when I’m reading a chaptered fic and then there’s that obligatory SONGFIC CHAPTER.
Go die, songfic chapter.
Go die, songfics in general.