For instance, I strongly dislike - STRONGLY dislike - characterization being upstaged by pretty language that is used to show off the author's skill. First of all, in fanfiction, that skill is often not enough. I mean, weaving interesting and pretty phrases and sentences is great - I love it, I love words, I love new and interesting ways of writing. However, when characters all read as cardboard cutouts with no personalities just because the grittiness would get in the way of the pretty, I get frustrated.

This was the part of your post that had me a bit confused... I'm wondering what for you is the correlation between pretty (and sometimes pretentious) prose and poor characterisation- I'm not asking to be a jerk, I swear! I'm only curious as to how you define this- too much description of the physical? Too much telling rather than showing? This is something I deal with as a writer- and seeing as you've addressed the (mis)use of descriptive language in your post, I'd just like to hear more of your thoughts.