What are things you hate?

I know this has probably been asked a lot but what are some things you hate while reading a story? I’m writing a story making fun of those tropes or just general annoyances and I need examples.

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I have way too many tropes that I personally dislike. :skull:
Yet, I’ll see if I can list a few descriptions of them below:

Summary of Tropes I Dislike <3

-Stereotypical Mean Girls. They’re either built as Walmart barbies, or they’re “perfect.” Perfect body, perfect grades/popularity, perfect… partners somehow?? :sob: It’s really annoying, as this is so overexaggerated and bullies/mean girls don’t look like this in real life (atleast, the majority don’t).

-Bad Boy/Gangster/Mafia/CEO/Billionaire/Sports/Jock LIs. I don’t have a problem with them, but I SEE THEM OVERUSED A LOT IN ROMANCE STORIES (or other category stories, but you get the memo). Please just make the LI a regular, average, out of the mill, normal guy, or less stereotypical if you do choose to use one of these descriptions for him!! He doesn’t need to be a famous, rich, preppy, sport, athletic, ab-packed, cocky, etc kind of guy to attract the MC. :pensive:

-Racism/Homophobia/Transphobia/Body-Shaming/Offensive Pejoratives (Slurs) - No. That’s all I have to say. Just don’t use any of these in your stories, they’re not okay and you’ll offend a bunch of audiences.

-Abusive/Toxic/Manipulative/Possessive/Negative Exes - I will never understand how the MC’s ex starts to show their true colors after they break up. Comes to show how much they like to sugarcoat things, and how the MC was probably the only person to keep them “sane.” It’s giving me “If I can’t have you, no one can. // You’re mine, and mine only/forever.” :grinning:

-Misogyny/Misandry/Chauvinism - I don’t get why characters/some authors (if these type of authors even exist) think a specific gender should look, dress, speak, and even act the way their biological gender is. As for chauvinism, why are we even still having genders wars over who’s better? It’s 2022, lmao.

There’s more, but I probably forgot about them lol

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I personally don’t like it when best friend of the main character is that typical funny person that likes to party and always does something crazy, it would be nice to know that there is more to them

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Episode Originals.

Skip the wait (gems)

LIs saying someone is “mine” and being all possessive. Like, no, that’s creepy…

This is more something that confuses me, but the pairing of full CC and art scenes. There’s no way for the characters’ traits to be adjusted in art, so why make CC available?

Purple prose descriptions of being ENRAPTURED by the hawt MC/LI (I like purple prose if it’s not excessive, but not in Episode).

The “shy girl” trope is overdone.

NO. MORE. MEAN. GIRLS. IN. STORIES. They always target the MC for literally no reason. Set the mean girl trope on fire.

THE LOVE TRIANGLE!!! (Or when an extra LI is shoehorned in there for no reason).

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I hate when in romance stories, the LI and the MC kiss/start dating the first 1-3 episodes.

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Agreed. Slow burn ftw.

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I really don’t like purely sexual relationships and then suddenly they say that they’re “in love” like no, you didn’t ever show them being in love, just them kissing! Or sometimes the big cold LI will cuddle with the MC- like no. I’d like dialogue, and them getting to know each other, please.

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WHEN MAIN CHARACTERS DONT HAVE A PERSONALITY. Like some main characters dont have a personality and then the sides characters starts saying how they are so brave, smart, wonderful, unique, etc, etc. And I am like wtf :smiley:, What?

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slow burnnnnn :place_of_worship: :place_of_worship: :place_of_worship:

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i don’t really think art scenes and cc should be much bothering , like a warning is enough that art scenes might not match … some readers like cc nd don’t really bother of what art scene look like…personally im one of them

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Bad character design. You know same face syndrome, no diversity.

I asume you have never been threathen because you didnt include CC😭 i have, not funny. Thats why. some people can be really mean to people who dont inckude CC

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nooo they threatened you?? Im writing a story and I am notttt going to include cc, I like the logic that if I wrote a story, and created my own characters because I imagined them as I liked, It should stay that way. Because when you read a book or a movie you cant customise them for example :relieved:. Even though I’m going to admit that when I read a story I like to customise them, whatever the decision that takes the author should be respected, as it is their story? Why people doesn’t know that not everyone has to agree with them :skull: . Anyways Im sorry for what happened to you :smiley_cat:

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I’d add to this the episode character randomizer or using original episode ‘actors’. I think a character should look believable at least.

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No, often its the same face syndrome, where the author think, This is my favorite eye, nose and mouth, so I am gonna use it on ALL the main cast.

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Yes, I figured, I was supposed to reference to the bad character design part. :grin:

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Hey Diamondhoward,

I got some…

  • The LI is mostly an over the top handsome mafia leader (with tattoos and scars), while in real life mafia leaders aren’t handsome at all. The most of them are in reality old ugly men;
  • The MC’s ex has cheated on MC and is jealous when she meets LI.;
  • There has to be always a mean girl, that wants to make MC’s life a living hell, because the MC and the mean girl both want to be with the LI;
  • The MC and LI love each other instantly, without learning to know each other;
  • For the MC it’s always easy to get pregnant from LI (except if the MC is a guy of course, but mostly MC’s are female.) and the pregnancy doesn’t have complications.;
  • Those pregnancies are ‘unexpected’, mostly discovered when the LI runs away from MC, or is on a business trip or for an unknown reason away for a few months (or even years);
  • The mean girl needs to fake pregnancy to convince LI not to be with MC but with her (get a real life, sis. Faking pregnancy is so outdated. );
  • Parents die by cancer, a (car) accident or murder, or are alcoholics or drug addicts (really, let the parents live a happy life.) (sorry had to say this, but if there are no parents around, they always are dead because of those circumstances…);
  • MC is mostly innocent and ‘not as the other girls’;
  • and LI needs to be an handsome young bad boy who is still attending high school or college.

And I totally stop reading your story, when:

  • the same plot as everyone → So, no mean girls and creeps attacking MC in alleys or drugging MC during a party;
  • MC and LI love each other too quick → Try to make the love slow burn… Not that they need to stalk each other, but love in real life doesn’t come in one day.
  • a whole day description about the MC → No, MC waking up and describing the whole day, every episode;
  • drama everywhere → Some authors put 4 or 5 drama-events in every episode. Please, don’t. There is no need to put 5 drama-events in every episode. Give the MC also a break to breathe;
  • your character → you may use your own character in the story, but not in every episode. Some readers find it quite annoying if you put your character out there in the story every episode. And for me I find it quite annoying if I am reading a story and the authors character is taking half of the time to say something outside the story, while you can put that at the end during a QuestionandAnswers-session. It’s distracting and annoying;
  • whole episode for CC (limited or full) of MC, LI and their whole family;
  • many black screens for narration (gets me on my nerves.) Use other backgrounds and characters doing something on the background;
  • mistakes in layering (I won’t stop reading but it’s irritating me) and basic directing (don’t use entering/exiting from left/right, but use spot directing). Spot directing takes time, but it shows that you took your time to write your story.;
  • toxic relationships, violence against the LGBTQ+ community and/or racism.

Love A-W

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Haha I believe that’s a Mary Sue :eyes:

Like she’s just so perfect but also really annoying. Like she’s perfect and cute in the LI’s eyes but I’m like: huh? Where? They just kiss!

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I also don’t really like how in werewolf stories the MC always has to be mated to the strongest Alpha… for instance there are too many stories with the LI being the “Alpha of all Alphas” no joke. There’s probably not a single story about a wolf having a mate that’s not an alpha, or the MC not being part of an alpha family. I mean hey, if you wanna write it—by all means. I just don’t like it because it just reminds me too much of when I was younger and would do similar things. I’d make characters either in stories or games the strongest possible/best possible. Purely living in a world of fantasy. Now I do the opposite and try to make relatable characters that reflect my own experience. By making these strong characters, in my opinion, it takes away from actual strength and that makes them actually pretty weak characters. Or maybe it’s not the LI but making the MC “special”. I don’t like that.
Again, I personally aspire to create characters that in some way reflect my own perspective, even if it is fantasy. That’s not to say I make the characters myself, but idk I like writing stuff that almost warps the actual perspective within the story and it makes you see things differently. That being said, I am writing a story rn with an MC that’s cursed. That’s to reflect my experiences feeling outcasted, but aside from that I wanted to make something on Episode that reflected stuff I gained inspiration from. Such as Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice, as well as movies such as the Sound of Music and Penelope. And again, I’m just taking inspiration, not following actual plot lines—this isn’t fan fiction lol. However Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice are public domain, so if I wanted to follow them more closely I probably could.
But point being I like making things unique that I don’t see a lot. I don’t want to make something that I’ve seen 100 times on the trending page. I’d also like to make something that I’d enjoy. Something that in some way reflects my own experiences/perspectives. And that’s what I tend to look for in other stories too.

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I hate when the MC bestfriend always have that one that likes to party and tries to get the MC to do the same thing

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Literally!! There’s more to the MC’s best friend than being a partygoer and forcing the MC to do things that they don’t want to do

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