I noticed that if I am reading a story that I absolutely LOVE and I have on my recommended list, I can either read something, see something, or get annoyed by something SO much that it’ll throw me off and I will remove it from my list and not finish the story.
Does anyone else have this problem? So question is…
Are there certain things in stories, even stories that you love, that will make you not want to finish it and remove it from your recommended list?
Are there certain things when you first start a story or read about that will make you shy away from even giving the story a chance?
Grammar or maybe too much text slangs would make me not want to finish a story. Or maybe when the story gets way too cliche, I would immediately stop reading.
I recently started reading a contest winner story to see what kind of stuff might help my own contest entry - alas, I stopped reading about three scenes in for a few reasons.
Too much narration.
Just, why? Have authors on this app every heard of ‘show, don’t tell’? It’s a visual storytelling app for Christ’s sake! And you know what? The narration was terrible! “I met ___ in kindergarten, we’ve been best friends ever since.” ??? What kind of sentence is that!? My blood is boiling just thinking about it.
Gay best friend.
Nope. No. Having a gay character’s sexuality mentioned within about three lines of their introduction means to me, that that’s a large part of their character. This is made me really stop reading. A CHARACTER’S SEXUALITY SHOULD NOT BE THEIR SOLE IDENTITY. This is like the black best friend trope, something I’ve also seen used for a cheap shot at diversity. It doesn’t count if they’re a two-dimensional… NOBODY!
Lacking dialogue.
The dialogue was… so… lacking… Regular people don’t stand around and talk about boy’s abs. Dialogue shouldn’t be interchangeable between characters. You should be able to clearly tell who is saying what if the lines are given with no context!
A few other things that turn me away.
Pregnancy plots.
More than two love interests.
‘Jealous popular girl’ as the antagonist.
“Oh ho dee do, look at me I’m so quirky and shy.”
MC not standing up for themselves or saying 'NO’. Seriously, this pisses me off. If some rich trust fund bad boy forces me against the wall and kisses me, I’m not gonna fall in love, I’m going to kick him in the nards and run the hell away.
I’m not super big on Pregnancy plots either. And yes, there are some things that the authors make you do, like kiss someone, or let someone take advantage of you and it boils my blood. Like, tell me ONE person who would not try to fight someone off!?
For real! One moment the MC is telling the bad boy to piss off, the next she’s leaning in to kiss him?! Yeah, no. Nobody in their right mind would let that happen…
And the snarky attitude of the bad boy makes it even worse. Like, I’ve never wanted to throat punch a mass of pixels more than when that tan-skinned bad boy with a black jacket and ripped jeans walks on screen.
Anything that seems homophobic/racist/sexist will make me close that story faster than you can say, “I didn’t mean it like that!”
Also any line in a pregnancy-related plot that aims to shame women who get abortions. Your character can conceive and pop out as many vagina-pot plant friends as they like, but don’t shame women who can’t make that journey.
If any author does that, I will never read another one of their stories again.
I actually don’t mind a really good pregnancy story if it actually serves a purpose of telling a story between the expecting mother, baby father and how a child will affect their lives. Not just glorifying pregnancy.
A few things I can’t stand in a story is when it promises customization (as I am a big fan of that) but limits your choices to like nose shape or eyebrows. If your stories’ character is supppsed to look a certain way, don’t add customization or tell me you created art to portray your character a certain way. It makes no sense!
Another thing is bad directing. I’m not a genius with coding and I’m sure it’s a lot of effort to create stories on Episode and make them look good. But gosh, at least try. Just make an effort or get some help or something because I cannot read a story where the character just looks like they’re lagging.
Plot development. For a story focused on a bad boy, I expect to get that. But I don’t expect it in the first five seconds of the chapter. Where is the development? How did the “bad boy” come to be? Why does the bad boy have to be so rude? Oh, they share the same class and now have to work on a project together? Cool, I guess we’ll be seeing them making out in chapter two after that one project makes them both realize they’ve been in love with each other. What happend to characters GETTING to know each other and taking it from there? So many stories lack development and rush the plot that I’m tired of having to search for the good ones.
Quick question as I am a writer and currently writing a story with two love interests. Would it still turn you away just because there is two love interests if the main character is bisexual so you’re given a choice of different genders plus the love interests have their own purpose in the story beyond falling for them?
Second hand embarrassment… I get that too and especially on TV as well. I have to stop for like a few minutes and do something else and remind myself that it isn’t real and cringe past it to finish. Oh the shame.
I completely agree! This is worded perfectly. I’m actually having that situation right now where the plot seems rushed and it sucks cuz the story could be really good otherwise. I am horrible at coding. I tried. I actually have a really good story I wrote out but since I couldn’t figure out the coding I didn’t even attempt it.
Me too:joy:when I’m watching a anime or TV show and something embarrassing happen I stop watching for a little bit and then I continue it happen to me in episode and webtoon too:no_mouth:
