I have a few, but Iâm gonna summary them so itâs not like a mile long post LOL.
1.) Bad grammar:
Summary
Like listen, I totally understand that not everybody is going to be a linguist. With that said, at least go over your work and make sure there arenât careless errors. i.e: Missing words, run on sentences, and stupid things like âitâ instead of âis.â Your grammar doesnât have to be perfect and nobody is expecting it to be perfect, but itâs really important to have either a friend or yourself proofread to avoid small mistakes.
2.) Uncomfortably fast pacing:
Summary
This one is probably my biggest pet peeve with stories. Although, thatâs pretty vague so I think this one requires a little bit of explaining: What I mean with âfast pacingâ is when the plot is moving far too fast for comfort. For example, say in the first episode we learn MCâs whole life story, they meet the love of their life, their parents kick them out, and theyâre now a vampire for some reason. Everything is just hurtled at you all in one go and itâs hard to digest. If a story doesnât somewhat take their time, Iâll just click off and stop reading entirely.
3.) Art scenes that are clearly traced:
Summary
I have a whole set of issues with art scenes to begin with, mostly that I find them awkward af, but I digress. What really grinds my gears though is seeing a piece of traced art being included in a story. I totally get it, not everybody can afford $150 art but art scenes donât need to be included for a story to be good! Iâd prefer to not have art scenes at all than to have a traced piece of art featured as a DIY/cheaper alternative.
4.) Pineapples:
Summary
Yeah, I really felt the need to include that 
5.) Toxic LIâs or a perfect MC:
Summary
Pretty common criticism, but obviously donât make the LI a total piece of abusive/toxic poo. I understand that the âbad boy turned goodâ trope is used a lot & Iâd be lying if I said I totally disliked it. However, itâs super important to document their change and thatâs where a lot of authors totally miss the mark. It shouldnât be a case of one minute they absolutely hate the MC, then the next theyâve suddenly had a change of heart. Its super important to make sure thereâs events leading up to the change, and implement the change as naturally as possible.
I have a lil bit less to say about this, but I hate it when MCâs are just portrayed to be this âperfectâ being. Youâre portraying your characters as human, theyâre naturally going to have flaws and imperfections. Humanizing your character makes them both more likable and relatable. Plus, if they have an important flaw, you can expand off of it and spend the story fixing it.
6.) Forced romance:
Summary
I technically mean two things by this:
Scenario 1: When the author has a clear favoritism towards one of the LIâs and tries to sway the reader in the direction of their preferred LI. If you want only one, then only include one.
Scenario 2: Where there isnât a lot of chemistry or sparks between the MC and LI, yet they keep forcibly progressing it in a way that seems especially unnatural.
7.) Unnatural relationships between LGBTQIA+ characters:
Summary
P self explanatory. Also,for the love of Pete, I beg authors to stop using offensive stereotypes for gay characters. They can be portrayed as real people too, theyâre not always overly feminine or overly masculine.
This really goes for any character really, leave offensive stereotypes out of the mix entirely.
8.) CONSENT!
Summary
Consent is SUPER important in any episode story. Iâve seen a lot of scenes that come across as less than consensual but are then later explained as âthe MC was secretly hoping it would happen anyway.â If the MC is saying no then the LI should be taking the ânoâ seriously. Although the MC might have been thinking they wanted it, the LI isnât a mindreader and canât know for sure what theyâre thinking. So, itâs important to make sure your scenes are coming across in a totally consensual way.
I feel like this sort of ties into what I said above, but itâs beyond annoying when an author uses a traumatizing experience such as sexual abuse/assault as a way to push the plot. There are SEVERAL other ways to go about pushing the plot, but often times authors mention the assault once and then never mention or refer back to it again, so it contributes nothing to the story except drama.
9.) Lack of diversity:
Summary
Another really obvious criticism, but it drives me up a wall when a cast is all white. Have some diversity, you know? And I mean true diversity, not a POC once every 3 scenes; actual important POC characters that actively contribute to the story.
10.) Pity LGBTQIA+ love interests:
Summary
This should also be pretty self explanatory, but itâs super annoying when an author only adds a same-sex LI just to be able to say they have LGBTQIA+ options. Donât get it twisted, only having 1 is no big deal if thatâs what you wanna do; itâs when thereâs clearly no effort added to the character and the character has been sloppily thrown together.
11.) Toxic alpha males/not enough regular guys:
Summary
Donât get this wrong either, an alpha male can make for a good character but sometimes itâs refreshing to have just a normal/sweet guy as a LI. They donât always need to be some buff, bad attitude having man who will beat the crap out of anyone that makes them mad.
12.) When the MC has no repercussions for their actions:
Summary
This sort of ties in with the MC being âperfectâ but I wanna expand on it a little. I think itâs important to show the consequences of bad actions. Itâs pretty often that I see a MCâ that will do some really bad things and barely have any repercussions for it. I know one can argue that itâs only an episode story, but in almost every situation a bad action results in bad consequences and itâs often left out.
13.) MCâs that are doormats:
Summary
Not every MC has to be some sweet, naturally submissive character. If thatâs how you want them to be then by all means go for it, but a lot of MCâs lack any and all back bone and allow the LI to treat them badly. They donât need to be insanely outspoken or rude, but not all MCâs need to be a princess waiting to be rescued.
14.) When being attractive make serious issues okay:
Summary
I promise that this is my last annoyance! However, a lot of authors spread the idea that if a LI is super hot, nothing they do can be seen as bad. Say, the MC says no to being kissed and they do it anyway, lots of time itâs classified as okay just because of their looks and being an âalpha.â However, if the same thing happened in a club with a less than attractive character, itâs then somehow abuse. Like, excuse me?? Abuse is abuse, you canât say ones okay just because the character is conventionally attractive.
Ight, ima head out now
