What turns you away from a story?

Community Episode Fan Community
41

So true! I like any genre but prefer drama/comedy :wink:

42

Another thing I see too much, the first episode is just making characters. I get it’s technically over 400 lines, but the whole point of the first episode being free of not spending a pass is that we get to know the story and decide if it’s something we’d be interested in.

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43

Yes! I hate wasting passes.

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44

I have read and finished all the stories that I have started. I always finish them, but there are some things that have made me come close to not finishing them.

Examples

  • ClichĂ© stories, where it’s basically love at first sight
    There are no build-ups, the MC and LI speak one time and they’re already thinking of each other 24/7

  • TOO MANY USELESS PANS!!
    I enjoy pans when they are relevant to the story but some stories have way too many pans. Let’s say a character walks on screen, the camera goes to their feet and the camera pans up to the character’s face. Unless it’s supposed to be a dramatic reveal, I personally don’t think it’s always necessary to pan up every time a character walks on screen.

  • USELESS DRAMATIC REVEAL
    Some authors write some dramatic scenes as if the reader didn’t already figure it out. It’s my opinion but I think it’s useless to write up a dramatic scene when the author has already hinted at it multiple times.

  • Bad directing & grammar
    If you took the time to write al these episodes, I think you can take a few extra minutes to correct grammar and directing mistakes. The layers are sometimes messed up or when a character exits the screen but you can still see a part of their arm. Sometimes, there’s missing punctuation as well.

  • Plot points that magically disappear without reason
    Let’s say the intro scene was a dream sequence. The MC wakes up and says “it was all a dream!” Then the dream is never mentioned again. Why open with that scene if it won’t be mentioned ever again? Or when a character just disappears without explanation.

  • Useless narration/actions
    The MC is calling someone. My opinion, but I don’t think it’s necessary to make the MC do think_rubchin “I should call [insert character]” If the MC needs to call someone, I think it works just as well without the think_rubchin before the actual call, just switch scenes.

An example of unnecessary narration is when the MC and the LI are having a moment. The MC has their own narration part/ their thoughts, but then we switch to the LI’s POV and it’s basically the same thing but worded differently.

EXAMPLE

NARRATOR (MC)
I stood in front of this beautiful, tall man. He towers over me like I was his prey. I can see his muscles poking through his white shirt. He was built by God himself. By far the best guy I have ever laid my eyes on. I just stare at him, lost in his beautiful green eyes, but suddenly, I realize what we’re doing. I don’t know this man and I snap out of it.

NARRATOR (LI)
This gorgeous woman stood in front of me. She’s so small, I can’t help but look down on her. Her body is perfectly built, the purple dress she’s wearing clings to her curves without even trying. She’s the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Her blonde hair is getting blown by the wind into her face. She stares at me for a little bit, I let her as I am also mesmerized by her beauty. A second later, her muscles tense up and she snaps out of it.

Do you see what I mean? Almost the same narration but worded differently. There are different ways to make the reader understand that they are attracted to each other without the whole narration part. Btw, I wrote all of that on the top of my head, don’t judge me ahah :rofl: :rofl:

Anyway, those are the things that I personally don’t particularly enjoy in a story, I’ll make sure to update this if ever something else pops up. I’m sure there are other things but the ones I named were at the top of my head.

9 Likes
45

Agreed. Not going to call any stories out but awhile back there was a story that was #2 in romance so I decided to give it a go. But the grammar stopped me from reading it; the “I’s” weren’t capitalized, there was no punctuation, commas weren’t used correctly, and there were quite a few spelling errors. It drove me nuts :joy:

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46

I totally agree with the love at first sight like it makes me cringe because that’s not reality. A guy doesn’t just fall in the love all of a sudden.

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47
  1. Too much CC. I get that there are people who won’t read a story because I wAnT cC! but there’s a huge difference between customizing the MC and a LI or 2 and having me customize the MC, LI1, LI2, Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother, Neighbor, The “Bestie”, the bestie’s family, their cousins and the 15 BG characters that mean absolutely nothing to the story.
  2. Romanticizing abusive relationships and glorifying alcoholism, drugs, and other illicit activities as “normal”. It’s not okay; especially given that a majority of the readers are under 16.
  3. Copy/Paste plots. I get that cliches are popular for a reason- it’s what people like to read. But when every.single.story is the exact same with different names for the gang/mafia, LI and MC- they’re exactly the same and follow the same sequence of events. Originality is key if you plan to use a cliche. Think of a cool twist or put a lot of thought into the characters and their individual personalities and backstories.
  4. Sally-Stupid and the neverending parade of bland MCs. Like I stated above- put some effort into your character development. Make me care about them.
  5. Stories that are 80%+ voice over narration. Show, don’t tell. I know that with the limited animations, backgrounds etc. it makes it hard in some situations
 but for the most part- it’s doable with effort.
  6. Lines that are super repetitive across multiple romance stories (Ex: “There’s something special about her” says the “hot” gang leader that KIDNAPPED the MC. :roll_eyes::roll_eyes:) Be original. And while on the subject - Can anyone write a romance story that doesn’t include a : love triangle, love at first site, teacher/person of power and MC/underling (teacher/student- illegal, just look at the news. CEO/underling- abuse of power, and most stories present the CEO as a douchey-manwh*re who is magically reformed by the “shy, awkward intern girl”).

My list could go on and on


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48

I agree with you on every thing that you listed!
I’ve been working on my story for a couple of weeks now (waiting on cover art to publish). I just wanted to make sure that I had avoided most of the turn offs- which I did. Thanks for your feedback!

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49

EXACTLY. My MC and LI aren’t going to catch feelings until further down the line. I’m trying to develop a friendship first. I can’t stat love at first sight.

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50

Can’t stand bad grammar and incorrect punctuation.
If the stories good and its something here or there it’s okay. It still have a hard time though.

52

Such as?

53

The author talking at the beginning of the story, even worse if they’re talking to their own characters. I don’t care if it’s your first story, if it’s not good, don’t publish it.

I can barely read a sentence with bad grammar, spelling and no punctuation, but a whole story? NOPE. I won’t even make it through the description.

Rude, abusive LIs or exes. Also bad boys, mafia bosses, teachers, gang leaders, bosses, let’s not forget STEPBROTHERS as LIs for a 16 year old. step-brothers are a dumb LI for any age lmao What’s next, I feLl FoR mY pRinCiPal?

QUiRkY MCs, constantly eating, slapping people and yelling at every girl she comes across, because she’s 1000% not like other girls. Also that annoying gay best friend. DON’T CALL HIM THAT, JUST SAY BEST FRIEND, DAMN IT!

Narration. I don’t need to know your 10 best friend’s mom’s name, dad’s name, how you met, why you’re friends, their exes, home address, credit card number, social security number and shoe size. Let me find out throughout the story, not at the beginning. I’m gonna forget it all.

That’s all I can think of, but wOW it’s a long rant

7 Likes
54
  • A straight MC
  • Coming out stories (way too many of those)
  • Poor grammar
55

  • Romanticizing toxic relationships

  • Cliche plot

  • Cliche characters, for example: mean girl, bad boy, nerdy MC (obligatorily with glasses and high short ponytail)

  • Racism, homophobia, sexism

  • No CC, especially when all of the important characters are white

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56

You’re welcome. I can deal with a few spelling errors or a missing punctuation or two because I understand that the English language is a complicated language and not everyone’s first language

However, there’s a major difference between a few grammatical errors and Tlkin lk dis nd cnt spall nythng. Spell checks and Grammarly are good tools to use. lol

1 Like
58

I totally agree with you 100%. Way too many stories have sexual undertones and it just turns me away from that story so much. Especially episode exclusive stories, which I used to love, I never read them now.

59

It’s a long list. I don’t go into a story thinking about everything I don’t like, it just happens. It’s just a moment when I go, “Alright, that’s enough.”

As an example:

I read
Bad Boy’s Girl a few days ago, and I was still reading the story even though there were a few things I greatly dislike. For one: I absolutely hate love triangles when MC is basically rotating who she is making out with from scene to scene, and both boys know about it but they get mad each-other instead of the MC who is obviously enjoying the attention and playing with both of them? I just - đŸ€Š

That by itself was enough, but the thing that pulled me out of it entirely is when the ‘bad boy’ vanishes during a party for the MC with one of his female friends who is still holding a candle for him long after they stopped dating.
They find him and her in his room at his home half naked, and he’s out of it entirely. It’s implied that she had done something to his drink at the party and that she is the one pulling him out of his clothes because he is not able to do it himself.
Which is a very uncomfortable scene on it’s own but what ruined the story for me is that the MC starts yelling at him for lying and cheating on her (?!), when it’s very obvious that he is not only incredibly confused at the moment but he is also barely awake and she was trying to take advantage of him!
She’s a freaking criminal, but they allow her to casually walk out of the room and let the MC viciously tear into him like it was his fault and he’s just faking it. Holy F -
The criminal admits later she had not intended to do anything more than plant an idea into the head of the unstable MC and make her ruin their relationship out of jealousy. WHICH DOESN’T MAKE IT LESS CRIMINAL. And you would think this would make the MC feel terrible and apologize for treating him like that, but NO - he is the one who apologizes to her. The grand finale is the bad boy revealing to the MC all the evidence he’d gathered to clear his name and prove that he wasn’t cheating, and was in fact being taken advantage of because he very clearly was not able to consent and she was pawing all over him against his will. I don’t think she even gets arrested. It would have made me feel better.

But all is forgiven and they get together for good at the end.
The MC should have been left all alone and friendless because of her behaviour at the end, in my opinion. She is a terrible f*kn person.

30 Gems for reading the entire story was my reward, and
it was not worth it.

2 Likes
60

I usually stopped reading at all when

  1. The author give me full cc but then doesn’t automatically change the family members and no option to cc them. It’s weird when I make my character look asian and then my parents are all white and I’m not adopted lol

  2. The character doesn’t walk on screen and just magically appear, I will just close the story lololol

  3. When the characters have no height differences. It bothers me so much I won’t continue reading ahahah

2 Likes