Hello! Still working on my episode story. I’m currently reading other stories to inspire my own and I have been using them to add or avoid certain things in my own stories.
So, I decided to ask you guys your opinions on what you guys hate while reading episode stories. I might avoid some stuff based on feedback but, it’s also mostly for curiosity.
I’ll go first,
I hate:
When the love interest and mc fall in love quickly with no build-up
Bad grammar
Gem choices that are just unnecessary
Pregnancy plot twists after barely getting together
Mafia stories where the author hasn’t done research on how the mafia actually works.
When the author doesn’t let you customize characters
• The same generic lines being used e.g “He looked like a Greek God.”
• Extensive use of purple prose.
• Fast-paced romance.
• Bratty MCs that are rude to everyone.
• Overly-possessive and toxic love interests.
• Stereotypes.
• Lack of a variety of features on characters.
• Extremely limited customization (I prefer either full cc, no cc or cc without colors).
• Short chapters.
• No “Are you sure?” section when asked if you want to skip a chapter.
• A lot of choices that have no impact whatsoever.
• Too many choices too often.
• Extremely long scenes.
• Extremely slow zooms during art scenes.
• Too many art scenes.
• Art scenes that don’t seem significant.
• Authors being rude in their intros/outros.
• Author introductions at the beginning of stories.
• No full stops at the end of sentences.
• Exclamation marks at the end of every sentence.
• Too many uses of text effects.
• Too many warning messages.
• No choices to skip triggering scenes.
• Extremely saturated filters.
• Consistent dark filters even during day scenes.
• Lack of plot.
• Consistent grammatical errors or spelling errors.
• No or little diversity.
• Poor directing.
• Speech bubbles that aren’t in the right places and ones with the tails pointing in the wrong direction.
• Talking + looping animations when the character(s) has already finished talking.
• Super inappropriate ads.
• Plots that have MCs and LIs that want to have sex all of the time.
• No character development.
• Villainous MCs (but I will still read and even like the story if it has a good plot and well written characters).
• Not much variation in the use of backgrounds.
• Consistent use of the default zoom % with no close-ups.
• Super small speech bubbles.
• Super large speech bubbles.
• No modest clothing choices.
I could go on and on honestly.
I think the most thing I hate is when they don’t add a warning before very uncomfortable scenes. Another thing I hate is when they use words like (idc, ikr etc.) and lastly when MC or love interest literally just met one another and they’re thinking (wow there’s something about (him, her) like how?? ya’ll just met!
Yes!! I agree I don’t like how people don’t have enough diversity which is why the mc is Hispanic. I also hate bratty MCs! I could go on and on too LOL
Ugh yes!! I hate when it’s they barely met and they already can’t stop thinking about each other like that is so unrealistic to me! I also agree with the warnings and in my story, I am going to be dealing with a few heavy topics so this reminded me to add more warnings!
Unpopular opinion:
This will sound unconventional, but I’m bored of every MC having the same personality. And by this I mean extremely woke, never steps on anyone’s boundaries, isn’t at all toxic, makes no mistakes at all, they are the perfect human being with the perfect mindset. Like??? Give me a break. That’s no personality at all, that’s a canonic character that is supposed to show the reader how to behave, it’s not a character with a story and a personality. I wanna see something human, not the prototype of good behavior. It’s always only through side characters that “don’ts” are shown, never through the MC. Gives me the ick.
There are more than these, but I can’t remember them all
Having to CC too many people. - I’m fine with the option to CC the MC and LI, but more than that just grates on me. I began a story the other day, and had to CC the MC, LI, both sets of parents AND the younger versions of the MC and LI. I didn’t even bother customising them, but I still had to go through all of them, which wasted what felt far too long, and was unnecessary, especially as it turned out the story wasn’t particularly to my taste. By customising the two main characters, it’s very simple to code their younger versions, and even to code their family too without making readers have to go through each of them. If you’re worried about the customisation making things look weird then there is still the option to show them at the end of the template and offer for people to change someone, but try not to drag CC on for too long, especially at the very beginning, when someone wants to dive into the story and see if it’s even for them.
False Choices!! - I’m sure everyone has seen them. There’s a scene, usually with the love interest or the mean girls where you’re given two options, one is clearly the best option and will have the best outcome, the other, not so much. You click the best choice, only for the narrator bubble to appear saying something like: “Like I was really gonna let you pick that lol!”
This is not funny!! I can excuse it maybe once or twice, but it is frustrating, because it makes the choice pointless and forces us to do the opposite to what we clearly want to do. So don’t try to be cute with this as it just isn’t.
The overly accomplished characters. - I don’t mean a character who is perhaps the smartest in school, or the scientist who is rated top in their field. What I hate, is where the MC or LI is supposedly the ‘best actress in the world’ or ‘best model in the world’ or ‘best footballer in the world’… these aren’t really measurable things, as in their fields, there’s not really such a thing as the best … not only that, but it seems to be used as a way of making the character worshipped, and it feels fake and annoying to me for that reason.
Over using scars and tattoos!!! I understand the use of a scar, if it has a story behind it. But it feels like every story I read now, 3/4 of the cast have a scar, or even the same scar. And it’s always to highlight that this character is a badass. Well, to me, it’s now just making them all seem accident prone – As for tattoos, I know they’re used across the board for good and bad characters, that’s fine to me, but not everyone has a tattoo, SO STOP USING FULL TRIBAL BODY TATTOOS ON SCHOOL KIDS!!! - I keep seeing them on kids in high school and ones just thinking about joining college. The age of consent for a tattoo I believe is 18, so this seems ridiculous to me, to believe all these parents are consenting to their kids covering their body in tattoos earlier than that
The desperate mean girl trope. - If you want a side character to be going after the love interest for dramatic effect, give her a reason for it. Don’t just have her want him/her for no reason whatsoever. I began a story the other day, and within two scenes one of the mean girls started stomping around saying how she had to make him her boyfriend with no cause for that behaviour.
Pointless art scenes. - If it can be shown in animation, show it. If the art adds nothing to the story, don’t use one.
Slow zooms on introducing love interests. As soon as I see that close up of a man’s feet, I prepare for the slow zoom and the MC thinking how wonderfully attractive he is for the next 20 lines.
The badass character who isn’t badass, they’re just an ass. - Being badass isn’t bitching at people, slapping and punching them for no reason and throwing your weight around. It’s not possessing someone and killing anyone who speaks to your LI.
“The damsel in distress scene” - The alleyway or rough neighbourhood scenes are incredibly overused as a way for the defenceless girl to find herself in trouble, only for the previously unaproachable bad boy love interest to swoop in and save her from thugs.
Like I said, there are more I’m sure, but for now, these will do
haha i really don’t like the mc telling everything in like next 100 dialgues like okay uh can tell how hot he is in one or two line but no they have explain how his nose is his ear his everything in detail like i have eyes , ik he is hot please don’t explain…lol
it feels like u read my mind nd state everything here… the most annoying is when its mafia …i mean i love mafia stories but they r all like first mc nd li will show attitude , not talk at all out of their mafia ego or wtevr , still thinks about each other, then finally they fell in love nd boom they will kill everyone who comes in their way if they try to hurt any of them… like what… give some action like nice mafia story… i totally believe mafia can do much more
Lmao , hope you’ll stop reading if the MC is too flawed for you instead of reporting tho, there’s fairytales out there with zero flaws so all characters are perfect
Character can be flawless and overly kind if the character is in fantasy and an angel
I understand but also remember that’s their particular story and they might have a particular preference about how their character looks.
Cuz, hella and r are examples of poor grammar.
I’m with you about gems though
Being forced to CC the MC’s best friend. [I don’t give a crap how she looks… my MC isn’t gonna screw her, so who cares?!]
When people don’t use any punctuation, whatsoever! [I’m not saying that anyone’s infallible, because we’re not! We all make punctuation mistakes from time to time… but when someone uses no punctuation at all, that’s when it becomes very confusing to read!]
Gem choices to change the MC’s lip or hair colour… just no!
Long chapters with way too many filler scenes! [Basically it’s just a short chapter with a lot of unnecessary dialogue and coding. Authors use this method to lengthen their chapters, but it’s pointless because nine times out of ten, it adds absolutely nothing to the story whatsoever! These types of scenes exist solely because the author wanted to extend the chapters length!]
Too many pauses.
Long, unnecessary pauses.
Wrong use of: Their, There and They’re.
Wrong use of: You’re and Your.
Wrong use of: Lose and Loose.
[I mean… come on! These two don’t even sound the same! Learn the difference, please.
Example - Lose: to lose a game. Loose: the opposite of tight.]
Tiny speechbubbles! [It’s not aesthetic, it’s annoying and it hurts my eyes when I have to strain just to try and read what was written! I instantly exit stories like this.]
Speechbubbles with the tail pointing in the opposite direction, rather than pointing towards the character that is supposed to be talking! [That’s just lazy directing, especially if you know about it but couldn’t be bothered to fix it.]
Speechbubbles that cover the face of the character that is being spoken to, even though both characters are stood right next to one another. [Speechbubble placement exists, please use it.]
Long intros and even longer outros.
Super huge height differences. You know what I’m talking about, you see it 99.9% of the time, in those generic Mafia stories! The girl barely reaches below the guys nipple!
When the characters are supposed to be kissing, but the author couldn’t be bothered to proofread or code it correctly! There’s usually three different types of coding errors for this one! Either the layers are wrong, one of them is facing the completely wrong direction… or the guy ends up making out with the girls forehead whilst she makes out with his chest!
Mafia stories. [I hate them all.]
When the LI has a whole bunch of side chicks, but the MC isn’t granted the same thing! [This annoys me no end because the virgin MC always pines for this massive playboy! Like, no! If he’s out having fun or flirting with whoever he likes, you bet your ass I want to be allowed to do the same thing!]
When the female character slaps the male character for literally no reason other than entertainment purposes. How is that “entertainment”?! It’s not even funny! [Authors would get so much sh!t, and the male character would be instantly hated if he so much as dared to raise a hand to the female character, let alone slap her for entertainment purposes! So what’s the difference when a woman does it?! Why the double standards?!]
^
I’ll most likely add to this list, but from the top of my head… these are the ones that annoy me the most.
EDIT!
Additional things that annoy me:
When Authors use male body parts as overlays for female characters… or female body parts as overlays for male characters. We do notice and it looks stupid!
There are too many black screens in the story (get me on my nerves…);
The authors character takes half of the time of the storyline (I get it… You may have your own character → I have that too… But not in every episode half of the story time. And please not at the beginning and at the end of the episode);
There are too many LI’s you have to choose → I prefer 1;
There are mean girls and creepy ally guys popping out of nowhere in the storyline → little too cliche;
There is bad grammar and spelling during the story → I am not a native English speaker, but I check my spelling during coding;
The author ‘forgets to think about’ layering, layer mistakes, like → people walking through each other or kissing the wrong way;
The story includes toxic relationships, violence against the LGBTQ+ community and/or racism;
The author uses entering and exiting left or right → go from spot to spot… It’s irritating and weird if you see in a story a kid entering and exiting, while they grow if the leave or shrink into the spot;
When the author used a whole episode for CC of the MC and LI and/or their family (even when the family is not in the story at all or not regular in the story);
– As for tattoos, I know they’re used across the board for good and bad characters, that’s fine to me, but not everyone has a tattoo, SO STOP USING FULL TRIBAL BODY TATTOOS ON SCHOOL KIDS!!! - I keep seeing them on kids in high school and ones just thinking about joining college. The age of consent for a tattoo I believe is 18, so this seems ridiculous to me, to believe all these parents are consenting to their kids covering their body in tattoos earlier than that 
Learn the difference, please.
, ‘Where, were and we’re’ or ‘Rouge and rogue’.