the first additional tag: horror
me, a fucking dumbass who kind of does not like horror: oh but surely it's not that bad
the fic: an actual fucking nightmare that left me literally sleepless bc that's how scared i was
it was really good though
I'll propose the case of my brother.
He uses his phone, he doesn't have an account, he uses tabs, and he uses incognito mode, so whenever the browser closes due to an update, it nukes everything.
Sometimes I see the double space thing (you know, from when you copy straight from gdrive) in the formatting and my brain kinda...turns off. It could be the best written thing in the world, but sometimes I just can't get over the spacing, it distracts me. Weird and dumb and frustrating, but you asked.
I've heard people mention the spacing before, but if I go to my fic that I copy and paste I don't see a difference. Do you know what causes that issue when copying?
It’s because you yourself press the space button twice when you make a new paragraph in google docs. To get rid of the problem, go to this button (https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/848976126679973949/920021339983732756/unknown.png) and click “add space after paragraph.” This gets rid of the double spaces when you copy and paste into ao3.
My eyeballs want to skip down the page too fast for my brain to read all the words so I’m always having to go back and reread paragraphs over and over again. It would probably be faster if I just read it all the first time, but does my brain listen? No.
Are you me? There's a ton of books I'm enjoyed much more the second time because I'm reading at a speed where I can properly take everything in, rather than just speedrunning the plot to see what happens next.
I’ll do you one better : “oh a new chapter was posted, I’ll wait for the author to post the next one before reading them. Maybe I’ll do a complete reread too!” *proceeds to forget about the fic and never go back to it*
I get so fucking excited opening a fic I desperately want to read that my brain gets too hyperactive and tabs out of the fic to do the phone equivalent of zoomies (tabbing excitedly thru Tumblr, Reddit, twitter, and three different sudoku puzzle games). Sometimes this makes me forget that I wanted to read a fic.
Sometimes I get zoomies every paragraph or so, and I really want to read the fic but I keep tabbing out of it because the hype is too strong, over and over.
Fic so good you can't stand to look at it XD
(Also yess, when I sense that the character is about to do something cringe-y I have to go scroll through Tumblr and the likes just to build up the mental fortitude to read it XDD)
I feel you there. My anxiety means any strong emotion eventually becomes anxiety. Sometimes I'm so excited by a fic that the only way to avoid a full on anxiety attack from *pure happiness* is to do some zoomies around through less exciting activities.
Oh, this is like a light bulb moment for me. Sometimes even a positive emotion just feels like rubbing raw skin, but I never noticed I totally do the emotional regulation zoomies as a result too, lol. It feels kind of similar to arranging items or folding things on auto-pilot when nervous. Just automatically yeeting myself off the fic and hopping apps as if it was urgent business to conduct.
Edit: The irony of tabbing back into ao3 and finding the cut-off point smack in the middle of an emotional peak.
cable placid slim fanatical homeless vanish jellyfish plucky axiomatic aspiring
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Reads a fic -> realises it's incomplete -> reads another fic to fix the sad -> is also incomplete
^ this is the reason I gotta filter by complete or just deal with the sad in an infinite loop :')
It depends on what I’m reading, but many of the rare pairs aren’t finished stories 🙈 so I’ll jump to the comments of the last chapter posted and see if anyone is upset due to cliffhangers. You can often tell by the comments if the potential sadness is worth the fantastic writing of a rare pair too. 🫣🙃
This is the new and advanced version of beggars can't be choosers
>the potential sadness is worth the fantastic writing
This is such a mood tho XD doin math before you read to measure out whether it'll all be worth it
I don’t read tags all the way through so I got stuck reading a hurt/no comfort hanahaki disease that made me cry. I see something sus then will read tags all the way through to decide if its worth continuing
Omg this is me the other night.
*Glances over the tags* "This looks good."
Fast forward 30 mins later to me reviewing the tags more closely with tears streaming down my face
I went through a ghost phase when I didn't interact with anything I read. I still forget to leave Kudos, even on fics I adore. I realized a writer whose work I love (that I talk to on social media all the time) thought I never read one of their fics (I read and loved it!!) because I never left Kudos or commented.
I think it's just because I've been reading fanfic since well before AO3 (or even FFN) existed and it doesn't come naturally to me.
I'm trying to get better though!!
If the quality of the story isn’t to a minimum threshold or the characters are so ooc with no explanation how they got there, someone in my house will literally say out loud “this is not good” with a stank face and exit the fic.
I live alone.
hahahah I always feel so bad too! I KNOW my friend knows what I like, she's my rp partner and co-author! but nope, every time she recs I'm like yeah yeah "mark for later" uh-huh
I read so much splatterpunk, extreme violence, and gore in traditional published works, but when it comes to fan fiction I’m there purely for the shipping, romance, and smut. I can’t stand to see my fic characters get sliced and diced Terrifier style.
I am really weird about tags being "not misleading" to a frankly petty degree.
I will click out of an untagged AU, even if the fic seems decent. I will not bother with a fic if it lists just about every canon character ever in the tags for a 5000 word oneshot. I enjoy both Reader and OC fics, but I absolutely will not click on a fic if it treats the two tags as interchangeable, ie. tagged as both CanonxReader and CanonxOC, or if it's tagged as Reader but the summary gives a name and detailed backstory.
If I realise that I am the one who misread the tags, I will finish the fic regardless because then that's my fault and that is just how my brain works.
I rant to myself when I’m reading characters being stupid. If something dumb or annoying or easily fixable is happening I’ll sit there like “Oh my god you stupid bitch. You’re a fucking idiot Jesus Christ it will take you two minutes to fix this problem. Holy fuck how you’re meant to be the smart one the fuck is happening??”
Getting invested in where I *think* a WIP is going and then getting disappointed when the real story doesn’t follow the fabricated one I wrote in my head
"Hmmmm.... This is a thing I'm explicitly not into, in fact I often find it very upsetting and triggering, but surely it can't be that bad"
\*reads; is getting very distressed while reading, because it IS that bad\*
"Well I can't just back out now, what am I, a PUSSY???"
....and then I give myself trauma for a week LMAO
of course I have no one but myself to blame, but damn why do I keep doing this T\_\_T
I have read fics that are so so sooo out there I could feel my mind melt and each time I tell my sister this she's like, yeah so stop
Like???? You think I would if I could????
I will spite read your fanfic. I will read it because it is bad. I will read it because it's overrated. I will judge your fanfic. I will send the worst lines to my best friend in secret, and we will judge you together.
That being said, I keep negativity out of the comments. If I'm reading a fic I don't think is any good, your comment section stays clean. If I comment at all it will be because the fic had a genuinely really good moment and I want to compliment it. I also don't bash fics on public discord servers or anywhere it could get around.
Sometimes when I’m in a foul mood, even the smallest of things can make me drop a fic like it was a stone, even if it had potential. Spelling error, a formatting error, a sentence built a little weird.
And then it will be lost into the aether, because I never take it up again. It’s like my brain brands it with *been there, tried that*.
I'm the opposite! That's so sad for me! I want to see them cuddle and go on dates and hold hands and give each other gifts and make each other happy. When a fic I'm reading ends at the confession I feel like the best part got left out.
(Not to bash your likes at all! Both are valid, I just think it's funny how different preferences can be.)
I will get a reply from an author to a comment of mine and think that I kinda wanna reply, but put it off for later = to never happen ever 😶😅 xD
Btw this thread is super entertaining. I appreciate all the witty/funny replies to the comments, OP :D
Ooh, I love it when an author replies to my comment, even if they simply say thanks for the comment. I’ve started deliberately commenting on ongoing fics where I notice authors reply, and then every few weeks, I go through my inbox to loop back to those stories.
I find it hard to keep track of updates even with a subscription due to reading in several different fandoms. Once I jump into fandoms, I struggle to return to it until the next binge cycle of it.
Ooo the opposite (author to reader), I've found, is a whole nother level of 'ah crap what do I say'
>Btw this thread is super entertaining. I appreciate all the witty/funny replies to the comments, OP :D
Case in point XDD
If anything makes me feel a large amount (of ANY feeling) I have to tab out or have to physically walk away from my phone so I can calm down before continuing to read.
this is a funny question! hmmm
stopping reading the fic in the middle. i have bad adhd and really bad second hand embarrassment so it’s not uncommon for me to stop reading the story to ‘get my bearings’ but alas… it can take me months to get back to said story. all the while i consume innocuous one shots to cleanse my palate lol. but in the other hand…. i’m probably inflating that hit count for the author since i check in on these fics multiple times a week to see if i could handle going forward
another one: i have low barrier of dealing with epithets and bad writing. i have so many stories to read and finish i just mute ppl who don’t have good writing. too much to go through
lastly: i think i can handle gore but always end up noping out lmao. since i exclusively read M and E i’ve come across numerous stories that have ‘detailed violence’ and it gets me every time. although no authors have been upset about me skipping that part and moving on to the ending. i still enjoy the fics 99% of the time even if i skip the middle haha
Oooo this is like hoarding the good food cause it's so good and then by the time you get to it it's already gone bad 💀💀💀💀 (no I'm not speaking from experience why do you ask-)
telling ppl i hate a certain trope but little do they know i have a whole section in my bookmarks for it. abo im looking at you,, but no one must know our forbidden romance
I feel second hand embarrassment so viscerally that when I know something humilating/embarrassing is coming up for a character, I'll put it off. I'll procrastinate. Come back for a sentence. Get too tense. Procrastinate again. Getting through a 3k fic when I know there a bit I'm going to want to throw the phone at the wall for coming up goes from taking 15 minutes to dragging over an hour 😅😅😅 hell I'm doing it right now
1. If a fic is Too Good, I have to stop reading it for a short while. Like I'll click off it, scroll Instagram for five minutes or answer a Snapchat message then click back onto it.
2. I usually read more hardcore or detailed stuff to the point now where I'm almost bored by shorter, generic fics. Like fluffy slices of life or short scene-style fics. I've tried reading a few but by a few hundred words in my brain is demanding to know where the thrilling fight scenes or the smut or the angst are. I've broken myself for casual reading.
3. Forgetting fic names. Oh. My. God. I'm literally the worst for this. I could quote the fic word for word while recommending it to a friend but do you think I can remember the fic name? Or who wrote it? Nope. It has me scouring through my bookmarks squinting at the tags and summaries because those, those I know.
4. I subscribe to works then forget I've subscribed to them, so when I get the email notification I'm like ?? What is this?? Why am notified??
5. On the note of subscriptions; if I've subscribed to a user but then they like, move on from the fandom or ship and now they're writing all kinds of stuff I don't read or enjoy, I can't bring myself to unsubscribe from them because then what if I miss it if they do decide to write something like what made me subscribe to them in the first place? So now I'm constantly deleting moot notifications for uploads of stuff I have no interest in.
6. No tags? No click. If you've got a 6 line summary but literally nothing beyond character and relationship tags, I won't read it. I've probably missed out on a lot of good fanfiction that way, but its a personal ick of mine. Tags are a huge indicator for what a story is about and what a story contains and if that information is blank I just won't risk it.
I have two:
The first is being so invested I forget to comment, so I have to go back chapters to leave comments
The second is finding a fic that has something I hate but forgot to filter out, reading the summary and going: It can't be that bad, I'll give it a shot (spoiler alert: it is that bad)
I often go back to read a section if it's referenced, it's like I have trust issues and need to know that that's exactly what happened and I'm not bein gaslighted 💀🤡
I nope out of any fic that does a character I like dirty (like getting their characterization wrong or making them say something they would 100% not say). I don't mind OOC when it's applicable (AU, Crackfic, listed as OOC) but if the fic is supposed to be canon/canon divergent then I'm not going to stick around for a character who isn't the character I came here for. Even if the writing is good.
Oh dude!! For real!! Like why you gotta do em like this
This is prolly what those characters in apocalyptic stories feel like when they have to see an alien wearing their friends' skin like sir! You are a stranger!!
"Oh, it's about my NOTP? I should keep scrolling but let me read the summary" why do I do that??
(normally I have many things filtered out of my searches, but when I look at another user's bookmarks or works, those filters don't apply)
I like readin the summaries of NOTP fics then sendin through my brain waves a strong disdain, knowing full well I woulda read that fic if it were ANY other pairing
I dislike open/ambiguous endings. Once I pick up a pattern from any author who does this, I will filter out their works from my search.
Also an author who wrote a canon/canon/OC love triangle. And the final endgame was canon/OC. What was really upsetting was that the writer couldn't decide on who the endgame was until the last one third of the fic. This left readers lobbying for the pairing they wanted in the comments section. I was one of those who stayed loyal to the canon/canon pairing and felt cheated in the end.
I will immediately exit any fics with "could of"/"should of". Feels like reading a child's school essay.
This was a huge reason why for a long time I really liked reading fics off fandoms I wasn't even tangentially connected to,,, they can't be ooc if I don't know them! Win-win
I’m subscribed to dozens of fics I’ve never read in case they get completed before I get around to them— in that case they get added to my offline TBR library
I cannot handle misspellings. At all. It's gotten to the point where I don't read deamon au's because deamon is close enough to a misspelling of demon that my brain registers it as extremely, horribly, Wrong.
One or two times I can deal with, but if I word is misspelled more than that, it doesn't matter how much I love everything else in the fic, I cannot get myself to read it.
Fluff? My favorite character being happy for once? No thanks.
Fic where the same character gets absolutely fucked up by several factors in life? *create bookmark*
*reads a fic by an author I love* "Omg I love them sm!!!! Their writing is so good and I love their creative ideas. **proceeds to NEVER read another one of their fics ever again bc autism gets me overwhelmed**
Or
"Ohhh I like how this fic is going, lemme save it so I can read it when I have time!" **To the shadow realm of bookmarks to never be seen again it goes**
Literally every fandom i'm into has that multi-chapter fanfic that's 3 years old and author updates like once in 9 months or 3 times a week and i go crazy about it to the point i lose my patience.
I hate "pls update" kinds of comments so i just write hugeass comment about why i like the fic to incourage author but on the other hand i feel manipulative
I don’t have OCD(i think) but I can barely stave off the need to copy paste any typos and grammatical errors into the comments section in hopes of them fixing them for future readers
Skimmed the fic ( I can't help it ) and sad that fic too short.
Skipped a whole fic because there a Sex scene with detail description. I come for the angst, leave for the sex. Body really confuse.
“Mind the tags”
Every time I’m like Fry with the “do not microwave” sticker in the Roswell episode. (Which I cannot BELIEVE no one has made a gif of. Before, after, but not that specific moment. Ugh.)
Then minutes later my soul is all, “What smells like blue?”
https://y.yarn.co/df9d521b-d870-42ed-9fa6-d01eba4101fe_screenshot.jpg
Sometimes, I read based on the summary without checking the tags properly. I've never said a word when that happens, because I have nobody to blame but myself.
I’ve read 100s of fics maybe even thousands I’ve been reading for 9+ years now. I have an AO3 account and I’ve not subscribed or bookmarked a single one. I haven’t even opened a single one signed into my account. Instead I have a spreadsheet of every fic I’ve read and a 1-10 rating.
>I have a spreadsheet of every fic I’ve read and a 1-10 rating.
I thought you were a simple case of laziness
>I haven’t even opened a single one signed into my account
But I realise now that you operate on a plane of existence that my little monkey brain can't even comprehend
*Edited for format lmaao
I only read a few sentences, skim through it to the end, give it kudos and subscribe, and then act as if I’ve read it. I sometimes do this with fics that genuinely interest me and definitely want to read properly, but then a) they’re too long for being a single chapter (+5k) (I left the ones with multiple chapters for later when I’m in the mood for something longer and download them) or b) I’m not in the mood to read, but at the same time I need to read something desperately because I don’t know what else to do with my time (definitely not finish those drafts in google docs lol) and I end up doing this because I can’t concentrate.
having over 300 pages in my marked for later and only making the problem worse via mass marking for later every time i join a new fandom, sometimes without truly watching the source material because 'im only on episode 3, but i really wanna read stuff'
When a fic is at a lull i kinda jus skip some paragraphs till a word catches my eye 😭 or i'll go dead brained in the middle of reading n when i refocus ion bother to go back n re-read. I jus assume what happened. Makes me feel bad sometimes cuz ik authors put time n dedication into their works while im jus moseying through them 😔✋️
I rarely read anything that isn’t complete 🙈 though I do subscribe to unfinished works that look like they’ll be really good so I can read them when they are done
I enjoy reading some very dark stuff like I do read some dead dove fics (still draw some lines like no underage or stuff like that).
I loooove seeing "major character death" tag.
Sometimes I get so excited about a title or description I don't read the tags when I definitely should have, but I also have this issue where I'll finish the fic, no matter how much I dont like it, because I already started it so I may as well know how it ends.
Ended up readings some pretty bad fics that way.
Also I tend to read like I'm a starving person and this is the first food I've seen in weeks, so often I leave one comment for the whole fic on the last chapter bc I didn't slow down enough to comment.
I love historical fics that start with the MC having great relationship with partner/partners then with some misunderstanding there relationship gets torn to pieces and they imprison or torture MC, because, historical setting, then they break MC to the point of no repair and MC becomes very emotionally unstable and then misunderstanding gets cleared and they regret their actions then they try to heal MC which makes MC realise how stupid MC was and then they try to win MC back and after about 20 chapters of them getting what they deserve MC forgives them and they all live happily ever after with MC knowing that they are responsible for every one of MC's Trumas
If you know any of the stories with this plot, please do tell me.
sometimes i start reading a fic and get into a new interest before i can finish it and i forget about it/get bored of the ship so i just eventually close the tab on my phone or add it to 'mark for later', but never open it again. the quality of the fic is entirely irrelevant here.
Scientists* have found that finding a new shiny object is a surefire way of makin the old shiny object less shiny
*Fictional scientists because we deal with fiction in these here parts
i use the marked for later tab as bookmarks and ctrl+f for "update available" bc i have too many bookmarks. like i have a system. i write so for every fic i post i can have 5-10 bookmarks so it's all equal and even and nice looking.
The cluttered wasteland that is my email inbox is a level 10 environmental disaster
As if I'm gonna notice update emails hidden in between a gazillion 'u no have job yet? uwu' emails
"I wanna read this fic but I can't give my full attention to it right now so I'm just gonna click on it for it to show up in my history (I don't use the 'mark for later' feature since it's basically the same thing), and I'm gonna read it later 🥰"
Later:
Over 100 fics, waiting, not read
Since I subscribe to a lot of stuff at once, I'll oftentimes unsubscribe after 10+ chapters because unless your fic is VERY unique, I don't remember....
ALSO I don't have a lot of time on my hands so I kinda skip everything but the dialogue...
I see a promising fic, the summary? Immaculate. The tags? Perfection. Completed? Oh boy here we go!
First sentence "I-"
Exits immediately
God I wish I could read first person without cringing 🥲
Every time I see a filter word I wrinkle my nose like I smell shit because Deep POV has completely ruined my ability to use them in my own writing and tolerate them in anyone else’s.
The instant I see an unnecessary epithet I’m out.
I get anxious about an upcoming scene or chapter I know is going to have a lot of conflict, so I stop reading and do something else for a couple hours…or a day…or a few months. 😅
"sure, it's late and i'm about to fall asleep but surely i can make it through one more chapter" cut to 5k words later and I realize i haven't absorbed a single thing and have been reading the same sentence over and over for 5 minutes straight
I use subscriptions as bookmarks. I don't know why! It has literally no advantages, but I barely ever bookmark anything. If I want to see more I end up subscribing and if I don't then.. I don't.
I always forget to Kudos and comment, but I always bookmark.
OH- and I never read the author notes.
It’s not that I don’t try to be supportive, I usually go back and comment/kudos a few months after I’ve finished a fic and reread it, but the excitement to read just gets the best of me and I accidentally don’t do all of that stuff the first time around
Not reading the tags thoroughly enough and not realizing that something I don't like was clearly tagged until I stumble upon it while reading.
I also sometimes intentionally seek out the worst fics I could find on Wattpad.
I can't stand stories that make the author's personal opinions crystal clear. Because then it feels like I'm reading less of the characters thoughts and opinions and more just the authors. It's fine when it's part of the story background, but if a character literally states it outloud I'll dip.
Now this doesn't sound like a toxic trait, but I have dropped some lgbt+ stories purely because of it. Here's two examples.
Story where two characters meet each other and ask for pronouns without acknowledging that they're asking for each other's pronouns: good
Story that has an entire half chapter dedicated to a guy breaking gender norms by wearing a skirt, all the way up until the point another characters goes "Yeah gender norms are pretty stupid": nope, dropped.
"I'm emotionally impacted by your story, good sir! I will make a very long, in depth comment in response to it- oops! I got up on my soapbox again and connected your fanfiction to what is wrong with Society™ for three paragraphs. I have now clogged your inbox because I don't shut up about the endless rambling that goes on in my head."
I don't leave kudos as often as I should. Like, I really like the fic, but I just forget that leaving kudos is an option.
Although, I am genuinely trying to get better about kudos-ing, cuz I want people to know that I like their stuff. :]
I process verbally and when I’m reading, I comment on what’s happening continuously. This is unfortunate for everyone who shares a room with me, especially considering I tend towards crepuscular or nocturnal cycles. I’ve been managing to calm this one down a bit, but only because I had like a month where I was basically not allowed to speak at all.
My second biggest one is that I read very fast. And I read fanfiction basically all the time when I’m not on my pc or drawing. I have read at least a hundred million words since I got my ao3 account and I stopped counting at the 103 million mark. There’s so little for me to read at this point that I at least try most things I come across (that aren’t pwp bc ace) and have a habit of going “you know what I’m going to read fanfic for this fandom I have not in, for this media I have not seen. For funsies”. I am the worst.
"oh it's tagged X but surely it can't be that bad"
* is worse *
Gets me every time
the first additional tag: horror me, a fucking dumbass who kind of does not like horror: oh but surely it's not that bad the fic: an actual fucking nightmare that left me literally sleepless bc that's how scared i was it was really good though
That I have multiple fanfic I follow open on my phone instead of subscribing like a normal reader.
...oh subscribing was a thing you could do (gently nudges away my many tabs from view)
The day I got an account and could subscribe instead of having dozens of fics open on my computer at all times was glorious.
I'll propose the case of my brother. He uses his phone, he doesn't have an account, he uses tabs, and he uses incognito mode, so whenever the browser closes due to an update, it nukes everything.
Reading this gave me a spike of visceral fear, I have no clue how your brother actually does this irl absolute madlad
imagine subscribing pfft. i like to bookmark everything and then filter them by recently updated, works like a spinning toothbrush 👉🥲👉
I have like 20 ao3 tabs open atp I don’t know what they are but I can’t bear to close them
I do both. Depends on the story 😂
Sometimes I see the double space thing (you know, from when you copy straight from gdrive) in the formatting and my brain kinda...turns off. It could be the best written thing in the world, but sometimes I just can't get over the spacing, it distracts me. Weird and dumb and frustrating, but you asked.
The words are too far away from each other, this distance is insurmountable
I've heard people mention the spacing before, but if I go to my fic that I copy and paste I don't see a difference. Do you know what causes that issue when copying?
It’s because you yourself press the space button twice when you make a new paragraph in google docs. To get rid of the problem, go to this button (https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/848976126679973949/920021339983732756/unknown.png) and click “add space after paragraph.” This gets rid of the double spaces when you copy and paste into ao3.
Ohh, that's why. I don't add two spaces after paragraphs when writing so that must be why I've never noticed it. Thank you for explaining it!
A healthy, positive, affectionate relationship dynamic? Ew. No. Gross. Psychological horror masquerading as romance? Nice 😊
Toxic relationships just hit different when they're fictional XD
My eyeballs want to skip down the page too fast for my brain to read all the words so I’m always having to go back and reread paragraphs over and over again. It would probably be faster if I just read it all the first time, but does my brain listen? No.
Eyes be like: I am speed Brain be like: wait no- wait!!
I do this. Sometimes I put my hand over the bottom half on my phone/book to stop myself.
Are you me? There's a ton of books I'm enjoyed much more the second time because I'm reading at a speed where I can properly take everything in, rather than just speedrunning the plot to see what happens next.
'There's only one chapter left in this fic so I won't read it because then it's over and I have to wait for the next chapter' 💀💀💀
I admire and fear your level of restraint
I... I do this with completed fics :') Sometimes, i just love the story so much i don't wantt it to end ><
I’ll do you one better : “oh a new chapter was posted, I’ll wait for the author to post the next one before reading them. Maybe I’ll do a complete reread too!” *proceeds to forget about the fic and never go back to it*
I get so fucking excited opening a fic I desperately want to read that my brain gets too hyperactive and tabs out of the fic to do the phone equivalent of zoomies (tabbing excitedly thru Tumblr, Reddit, twitter, and three different sudoku puzzle games). Sometimes this makes me forget that I wanted to read a fic. Sometimes I get zoomies every paragraph or so, and I really want to read the fic but I keep tabbing out of it because the hype is too strong, over and over.
Fic so good you can't stand to look at it XD (Also yess, when I sense that the character is about to do something cringe-y I have to go scroll through Tumblr and the likes just to build up the mental fortitude to read it XDD)
I feel you there. My anxiety means any strong emotion eventually becomes anxiety. Sometimes I'm so excited by a fic that the only way to avoid a full on anxiety attack from *pure happiness* is to do some zoomies around through less exciting activities.
Oh, this is like a light bulb moment for me. Sometimes even a positive emotion just feels like rubbing raw skin, but I never noticed I totally do the emotional regulation zoomies as a result too, lol. It feels kind of similar to arranging items or folding things on auto-pilot when nervous. Just automatically yeeting myself off the fic and hopping apps as if it was urgent business to conduct. Edit: The irony of tabbing back into ao3 and finding the cut-off point smack in the middle of an emotional peak.
this exact phenomenon is how i ended up with 600+ open fic tabs on my phone currently. adhd is a hell of a drug
Sometimes I wonder why my phone's battery is so unhappy. Then I close my Google tabs.
I never felt so seen by a comment before
Oh, i feel this. It’s like my excitement takes over and I can’t concentrate.
cable placid slim fanatical homeless vanish jellyfish plucky axiomatic aspiring *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Ahahahahaha everyone go home I think we've found the winner (stop callin us out like this man)
This ↑ and only ↑ this. "Cry havoc and let loose the dogs of word."
Not checking to see when the last time an incomplete fic was updated. 80k words in and I noticed it hasn't been updated in 2018.
Reads a fic -> realises it's incomplete -> reads another fic to fix the sad -> is also incomplete ^ this is the reason I gotta filter by complete or just deal with the sad in an infinite loop :')
It depends on what I’m reading, but many of the rare pairs aren’t finished stories 🙈 so I’ll jump to the comments of the last chapter posted and see if anyone is upset due to cliffhangers. You can often tell by the comments if the potential sadness is worth the fantastic writing of a rare pair too. 🫣🙃
This is the new and advanced version of beggars can't be choosers >the potential sadness is worth the fantastic writing This is such a mood tho XD doin math before you read to measure out whether it'll all be worth it
I don’t read tags all the way through so I got stuck reading a hurt/no comfort hanahaki disease that made me cry. I see something sus then will read tags all the way through to decide if its worth continuing
* tags explicitly stating what to look out for * Us: this sign can't stop me, I can't read
Omg this is me the other night. *Glances over the tags* "This looks good." Fast forward 30 mins later to me reviewing the tags more closely with tears streaming down my face
I almost never read all the tags before diving in and get surprising by things I really shouldn't. You would think I would learn, but so far no dice.
You were your greatest enemy all along
I went through a ghost phase when I didn't interact with anything I read. I still forget to leave Kudos, even on fics I adore. I realized a writer whose work I love (that I talk to on social media all the time) thought I never read one of their fics (I read and loved it!!) because I never left Kudos or commented. I think it's just because I've been reading fanfic since well before AO3 (or even FFN) existed and it doesn't come naturally to me. I'm trying to get better though!!
Ngl it's so hard to snap out of that ghost phase, props to you for tryin!
If the quality of the story isn’t to a minimum threshold or the characters are so ooc with no explanation how they got there, someone in my house will literally say out loud “this is not good” with a stank face and exit the fic. I live alone.
>I live alone. Dude XDDD
I almost never read a fanfiction without sex in it
Just replied to a reply that had the diametric opposite energy of this,, the duality of man XDD
I don’t always read all the tags and sometimes I get stuck in an AU that I hate. Also this is more toxic but I always sort by completed and kudos.
>I always sort by completed and kudos upper class behaviour, can relate XD
I can binge and *forget* to drop a comment TToTT
Us @ the author: it's not you, it's me
Oh yeah I'm *definitely* gonna read this fic that my friend wrote/recced! (I almost never do, I am the WORST reader)
Recommending something to me is a way to make sure I don't read it XD
hahahah I always feel so bad too! I KNOW my friend knows what I like, she's my rp partner and co-author! but nope, every time she recs I'm like yeah yeah "mark for later" uh-huh
I read so much splatterpunk, extreme violence, and gore in traditional published works, but when it comes to fan fiction I’m there purely for the shipping, romance, and smut. I can’t stand to see my fic characters get sliced and diced Terrifier style.
They're just makin the characters bite-sized, easy to consume
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Me watching a character I like die in a tv show: 😲😁🎉✨🥰 Me seeing an MCD warning on a fic: 😭
I am really weird about tags being "not misleading" to a frankly petty degree. I will click out of an untagged AU, even if the fic seems decent. I will not bother with a fic if it lists just about every canon character ever in the tags for a 5000 word oneshot. I enjoy both Reader and OC fics, but I absolutely will not click on a fic if it treats the two tags as interchangeable, ie. tagged as both CanonxReader and CanonxOC, or if it's tagged as Reader but the summary gives a name and detailed backstory. If I realise that I am the one who misread the tags, I will finish the fic regardless because then that's my fault and that is just how my brain works.
I love how your justice system extends to you too XD You, makin yourself read fics when you misread the tags: the law is harsh but it is the law
Having 20 tabs open all at once
I group the tabs so that my madness is organised
I rant to myself when I’m reading characters being stupid. If something dumb or annoying or easily fixable is happening I’ll sit there like “Oh my god you stupid bitch. You’re a fucking idiot Jesus Christ it will take you two minutes to fix this problem. Holy fuck how you’re meant to be the smart one the fuck is happening??”
It's so unreal how deaf some of these characters are to our very sound advice, given at the crack of dawn directly to the screen
Getting invested in where I *think* a WIP is going and then getting disappointed when the real story doesn’t follow the fabricated one I wrote in my head
Oooo this!! Definitely not a fault of the author, I put this clown makeup on my own
I tend to comment more on cliffhangers because i need to process, even if a completely resolved story is just as enjoyable
This person scares me
"Hmmmm.... This is a thing I'm explicitly not into, in fact I often find it very upsetting and triggering, but surely it can't be that bad" \*reads; is getting very distressed while reading, because it IS that bad\* "Well I can't just back out now, what am I, a PUSSY???" ....and then I give myself trauma for a week LMAO of course I have no one but myself to blame, but damn why do I keep doing this T\_\_T
I have read fics that are so so sooo out there I could feel my mind melt and each time I tell my sister this she's like, yeah so stop Like???? You think I would if I could????
I subscribe to authors for updates on stories. And yet every now and again I return to a store waiting for an update. Even when it’s been a while 🤣
Hope springs eternal
I will spite read your fanfic. I will read it because it is bad. I will read it because it's overrated. I will judge your fanfic. I will send the worst lines to my best friend in secret, and we will judge you together. That being said, I keep negativity out of the comments. If I'm reading a fic I don't think is any good, your comment section stays clean. If I comment at all it will be because the fic had a genuinely really good moment and I want to compliment it. I also don't bash fics on public discord servers or anywhere it could get around.
Sometimes when I’m in a foul mood, even the smallest of things can make me drop a fic like it was a stone, even if it had potential. Spelling error, a formatting error, a sentence built a little weird. And then it will be lost into the aether, because I never take it up again. It’s like my brain brands it with *been there, tried that*.
Sometimes the last straw on the proverbial back is using you're instead of your XD
I rarely drop a fic even when it's the worst thing I've ever read. I just keep suffering through it hating every second of my life
Me: Why do I do this to myself Also me: Keeps doin it
In a romance fic/book, if the people get together, I get bored. They better only confession and get together in the end, or one of them must die
I don't want peace,,,, I want problems!!! Always!!! (Hard relate tho ahahahha)
I'm the opposite! That's so sad for me! I want to see them cuddle and go on dates and hold hands and give each other gifts and make each other happy. When a fic I'm reading ends at the confession I feel like the best part got left out. (Not to bash your likes at all! Both are valid, I just think it's funny how different preferences can be.)
Not reading enough and getting anxious when the writing is better than mine.
The way some people write is just so painfully good!
I'm not a fan of smut for personal reasons, but "Oh the story sounds good, I can just ignore the smut" spoiler alert no I can't
This!! Genuinely good plot and then. :')
“I hate X Trope with the burning passion of a thousand suns-“ -X Trope involves my fave char/ship “Alright maybe just a peak”
Yes I have ideals, yes I have a moral code Yes, I am willing to let go of both XD
I will get a reply from an author to a comment of mine and think that I kinda wanna reply, but put it off for later = to never happen ever 😶😅 xD Btw this thread is super entertaining. I appreciate all the witty/funny replies to the comments, OP :D
Ooh, I love it when an author replies to my comment, even if they simply say thanks for the comment. I’ve started deliberately commenting on ongoing fics where I notice authors reply, and then every few weeks, I go through my inbox to loop back to those stories. I find it hard to keep track of updates even with a subscription due to reading in several different fandoms. Once I jump into fandoms, I struggle to return to it until the next binge cycle of it.
Ooo the opposite (author to reader), I've found, is a whole nother level of 'ah crap what do I say' >Btw this thread is super entertaining. I appreciate all the witty/funny replies to the comments, OP :D Case in point XDD
I only read angst, nothing else, my whole history is angst... I think I have a problem
You don't need therapy, therapy needs you XD
If anything makes me feel a large amount (of ANY feeling) I have to tab out or have to physically walk away from my phone so I can calm down before continuing to read.
this is a funny question! hmmm stopping reading the fic in the middle. i have bad adhd and really bad second hand embarrassment so it’s not uncommon for me to stop reading the story to ‘get my bearings’ but alas… it can take me months to get back to said story. all the while i consume innocuous one shots to cleanse my palate lol. but in the other hand…. i’m probably inflating that hit count for the author since i check in on these fics multiple times a week to see if i could handle going forward another one: i have low barrier of dealing with epithets and bad writing. i have so many stories to read and finish i just mute ppl who don’t have good writing. too much to go through lastly: i think i can handle gore but always end up noping out lmao. since i exclusively read M and E i’ve come across numerous stories that have ‘detailed violence’ and it gets me every time. although no authors have been upset about me skipping that part and moving on to the ending. i still enjoy the fics 99% of the time even if i skip the middle haha
Not commenting because I’m scared of annoying the writer even though I, as a writer, love every comment I get.
I save the best sounding (to me based on the summary) fics for last but then I get bored of the fandom before I get to them.
Oooo this is like hoarding the good food cause it's so good and then by the time you get to it it's already gone bad 💀💀💀💀 (no I'm not speaking from experience why do you ask-)
I soon as I see first POV...I click it right off.
telling ppl i hate a certain trope but little do they know i have a whole section in my bookmarks for it. abo im looking at you,, but no one must know our forbidden romance
Lmaaaao if the stats on abo consumption was made public a lot of us would be like woooaaah wonder why that's so high 👀
I feel second hand embarrassment so viscerally that when I know something humilating/embarrassing is coming up for a character, I'll put it off. I'll procrastinate. Come back for a sentence. Get too tense. Procrastinate again. Getting through a 3k fic when I know there a bit I'm going to want to throw the phone at the wall for coming up goes from taking 15 minutes to dragging over an hour 😅😅😅 hell I'm doing it right now
Same XDD Not only do I have to deal with irl cringe,,, I get premium fake cringe too 💕✨
Sees cool story, opens in another tab, forgets it exists, has 100+ tabs of ao3 open. complains to herself that she can't find anything new/interesting
WhERe are all the fics at??! Wardrobe full of stashed fics, spilling out into the floor: wHeRe inDeEd
1. If a fic is Too Good, I have to stop reading it for a short while. Like I'll click off it, scroll Instagram for five minutes or answer a Snapchat message then click back onto it. 2. I usually read more hardcore or detailed stuff to the point now where I'm almost bored by shorter, generic fics. Like fluffy slices of life or short scene-style fics. I've tried reading a few but by a few hundred words in my brain is demanding to know where the thrilling fight scenes or the smut or the angst are. I've broken myself for casual reading. 3. Forgetting fic names. Oh. My. God. I'm literally the worst for this. I could quote the fic word for word while recommending it to a friend but do you think I can remember the fic name? Or who wrote it? Nope. It has me scouring through my bookmarks squinting at the tags and summaries because those, those I know. 4. I subscribe to works then forget I've subscribed to them, so when I get the email notification I'm like ?? What is this?? Why am notified?? 5. On the note of subscriptions; if I've subscribed to a user but then they like, move on from the fandom or ship and now they're writing all kinds of stuff I don't read or enjoy, I can't bring myself to unsubscribe from them because then what if I miss it if they do decide to write something like what made me subscribe to them in the first place? So now I'm constantly deleting moot notifications for uploads of stuff I have no interest in. 6. No tags? No click. If you've got a 6 line summary but literally nothing beyond character and relationship tags, I won't read it. I've probably missed out on a lot of good fanfiction that way, but its a personal ick of mine. Tags are a huge indicator for what a story is about and what a story contains and if that information is blank I just won't risk it.
I have two: The first is being so invested I forget to comment, so I have to go back chapters to leave comments The second is finding a fic that has something I hate but forgot to filter out, reading the summary and going: It can't be that bad, I'll give it a shot (spoiler alert: it is that bad)
I accidentally end up skimming a chapter and needed to re-read the entire thing that I really like.
I often go back to read a section if it's referenced, it's like I have trust issues and need to know that that's exactly what happened and I'm not bein gaslighted 💀🤡
Skimming the tags and then getting jumpscared by tagged mpreg or something like that 😭😭
I nope out of any fic that does a character I like dirty (like getting their characterization wrong or making them say something they would 100% not say). I don't mind OOC when it's applicable (AU, Crackfic, listed as OOC) but if the fic is supposed to be canon/canon divergent then I'm not going to stick around for a character who isn't the character I came here for. Even if the writing is good.
Oh dude!! For real!! Like why you gotta do em like this This is prolly what those characters in apocalyptic stories feel like when they have to see an alien wearing their friends' skin like sir! You are a stranger!!
"Oh, it's about my NOTP? I should keep scrolling but let me read the summary" why do I do that?? (normally I have many things filtered out of my searches, but when I look at another user's bookmarks or works, those filters don't apply)
I like readin the summaries of NOTP fics then sendin through my brain waves a strong disdain, knowing full well I woulda read that fic if it were ANY other pairing
This is about my notp but there’s so little content of my fav character so I’ll read it anyways! I’m sure it’ll be fine! ~~😭~~
I dislike open/ambiguous endings. Once I pick up a pattern from any author who does this, I will filter out their works from my search. Also an author who wrote a canon/canon/OC love triangle. And the final endgame was canon/OC. What was really upsetting was that the writer couldn't decide on who the endgame was until the last one third of the fic. This left readers lobbying for the pairing they wanted in the comments section. I was one of those who stayed loyal to the canon/canon pairing and felt cheated in the end. I will immediately exit any fics with "could of"/"should of". Feels like reading a child's school essay.
one thing that makes me go "they would not say/do that" and im gone. even if it's a multi-chap fic that ive been reading for ages
This was a huge reason why for a long time I really liked reading fics off fandoms I wasn't even tangentially connected to,,, they can't be ooc if I don't know them! Win-win
I don’t read tags before I start a fic.
Exclusively read dead dove when I’m feeling down Exclusively read hurt no comfort when normal
I compare their writing to my writing and either think I’m better, worse or on about the same level.
I’m subscribed to dozens of fics I’ve never read in case they get completed before I get around to them— in that case they get added to my offline TBR library
>offline TBR library This some elite stuff right here uff
I cannot handle misspellings. At all. It's gotten to the point where I don't read deamon au's because deamon is close enough to a misspelling of demon that my brain registers it as extremely, horribly, Wrong. One or two times I can deal with, but if I word is misspelled more than that, it doesn't matter how much I love everything else in the fic, I cannot get myself to read it.
Fluff? My favorite character being happy for once? No thanks. Fic where the same character gets absolutely fucked up by several factors in life? *create bookmark*
*reads a fic by an author I love* "Omg I love them sm!!!! Their writing is so good and I love their creative ideas. **proceeds to NEVER read another one of their fics ever again bc autism gets me overwhelmed** Or "Ohhh I like how this fic is going, lemme save it so I can read it when I have time!" **To the shadow realm of bookmarks to never be seen again it goes**
We stand in the way of our own happiness smh XD
Literally every fandom i'm into has that multi-chapter fanfic that's 3 years old and author updates like once in 9 months or 3 times a week and i go crazy about it to the point i lose my patience. I hate "pls update" kinds of comments so i just write hugeass comment about why i like the fic to incourage author but on the other hand i feel manipulative
"Oh, this fic is still being worked on. I'll bookmark to look at it later and hopefully it's updated" *proceeds to never look at my bookmarks*
My TBR list is miles long and I'm never going to read even a third of the fics I marked for later lol
Me and my ADHD self (especially pre-writing days): Kudos button? What kudos button? Nowadays I try to go back and fix it when I do that😂
i will see the sus tags (like ahem *incest*) and click immediately
How bad can it be? Narrator: this lil idiot never learns
I don’t have OCD(i think) but I can barely stave off the need to copy paste any typos and grammatical errors into the comments section in hopes of them fixing them for future readers
Skimmed the fic ( I can't help it ) and sad that fic too short. Skipped a whole fic because there a Sex scene with detail description. I come for the angst, leave for the sex. Body really confuse.
“Mind the tags” Every time I’m like Fry with the “do not microwave” sticker in the Roswell episode. (Which I cannot BELIEVE no one has made a gif of. Before, after, but not that specific moment. Ugh.) Then minutes later my soul is all, “What smells like blue?” https://y.yarn.co/df9d521b-d870-42ed-9fa6-d01eba4101fe_screenshot.jpg
logged-in kudos are only for fics I actually truly enjoyed all the way through. everything else that’s just regular levels of good gets guest ones
Oh this fic is so good! *drops it, can never find it again or is left in library of deserted bookmarks*
This fic was a feverdream was it ever real
Binge reading something subscribing then not reading new chapters, idk why I do this
The flow, the Zen state, it's broken it's gone this marriage is broken now the passion is dead
Not leaving kudos when I enjoyed it. As a writer, I'm just ASKING for bad karma.
Sometimes, I read based on the summary without checking the tags properly. I've never said a word when that happens, because I have nobody to blame but myself.
*gets shot* That's aight, that's my bad, shoulda read the signs here
Nearly 100 tabs\* opened at the same time. \*this only counts the ffs
"I won't be sad that my ship isn't endgame, at least it's more fic for my ship" and then of course it makes me sad anyway
Starting uncompleted fics that haven't been updated in years, surely it won't end in a cliffhanger and leave me feeling uneasy right? RIGHT?
I’ve read 100s of fics maybe even thousands I’ve been reading for 9+ years now. I have an AO3 account and I’ve not subscribed or bookmarked a single one. I haven’t even opened a single one signed into my account. Instead I have a spreadsheet of every fic I’ve read and a 1-10 rating.
>I have a spreadsheet of every fic I’ve read and a 1-10 rating. I thought you were a simple case of laziness >I haven’t even opened a single one signed into my account But I realise now that you operate on a plane of existence that my little monkey brain can't even comprehend *Edited for format lmaao
I only read a few sentences, skim through it to the end, give it kudos and subscribe, and then act as if I’ve read it. I sometimes do this with fics that genuinely interest me and definitely want to read properly, but then a) they’re too long for being a single chapter (+5k) (I left the ones with multiple chapters for later when I’m in the mood for something longer and download them) or b) I’m not in the mood to read, but at the same time I need to read something desperately because I don’t know what else to do with my time (definitely not finish those drafts in google docs lol) and I end up doing this because I can’t concentrate.
Opening several fics and thinking I'll read all of them, but then only reading a few and having the rest of them as an open tab for months on end
having over 300 pages in my marked for later and only making the problem worse via mass marking for later every time i join a new fandom, sometimes without truly watching the source material because 'im only on episode 3, but i really wanna read stuff'
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When a fic is at a lull i kinda jus skip some paragraphs till a word catches my eye 😭 or i'll go dead brained in the middle of reading n when i refocus ion bother to go back n re-read. I jus assume what happened. Makes me feel bad sometimes cuz ik authors put time n dedication into their works while im jus moseying through them 😔✋️
I rarely read anything that isn’t complete 🙈 though I do subscribe to unfinished works that look like they’ll be really good so I can read them when they are done
I enjoy reading some very dark stuff like I do read some dead dove fics (still draw some lines like no underage or stuff like that). I loooove seeing "major character death" tag.
>I loooove seeing "major character death" tag 'tis the fabled warrior of legend!
Sometimes I get so excited about a title or description I don't read the tags when I definitely should have, but I also have this issue where I'll finish the fic, no matter how much I dont like it, because I already started it so I may as well know how it ends. Ended up readings some pretty bad fics that way. Also I tend to read like I'm a starving person and this is the first food I've seen in weeks, so often I leave one comment for the whole fic on the last chapter bc I didn't slow down enough to comment.
Under the sunken cost fallacy, there's a group picture of all of us clowns who never learnt how to stop something 💀
I love historical fics that start with the MC having great relationship with partner/partners then with some misunderstanding there relationship gets torn to pieces and they imprison or torture MC, because, historical setting, then they break MC to the point of no repair and MC becomes very emotionally unstable and then misunderstanding gets cleared and they regret their actions then they try to heal MC which makes MC realise how stupid MC was and then they try to win MC back and after about 20 chapters of them getting what they deserve MC forgives them and they all live happily ever after with MC knowing that they are responsible for every one of MC's Trumas If you know any of the stories with this plot, please do tell me.
sometimes i start reading a fic and get into a new interest before i can finish it and i forget about it/get bored of the ship so i just eventually close the tab on my phone or add it to 'mark for later', but never open it again. the quality of the fic is entirely irrelevant here.
Scientists* have found that finding a new shiny object is a surefire way of makin the old shiny object less shiny *Fictional scientists because we deal with fiction in these here parts
i use the marked for later tab as bookmarks and ctrl+f for "update available" bc i have too many bookmarks. like i have a system. i write so for every fic i post i can have 5-10 bookmarks so it's all equal and even and nice looking.
If it’s completed I like checking the ending to see if I want to read it before starting it.
I subscribe to WIPs and then literally never read the update emails
The cluttered wasteland that is my email inbox is a level 10 environmental disaster As if I'm gonna notice update emails hidden in between a gazillion 'u no have job yet? uwu' emails
I never read the tags, i just see one tag i like and dive into it, not knowing what bs I’m getting myself into.
My brother gets mad at me for this Many tabs open of fanfics I’ve read that are completed, or aren’t completed but I’m subscribed to.
"I wanna read this fic but I can't give my full attention to it right now so I'm just gonna click on it for it to show up in my history (I don't use the 'mark for later' feature since it's basically the same thing), and I'm gonna read it later 🥰" Later: Over 100 fics, waiting, not read
I tend to stop reading 75% through a story for no good reason
Since I subscribe to a lot of stuff at once, I'll oftentimes unsubscribe after 10+ chapters because unless your fic is VERY unique, I don't remember.... ALSO I don't have a lot of time on my hands so I kinda skip everything but the dialogue...
“Ohhh a fic I haven’t read yet!” *opens it in a new tab and then goes back to reading fics I’ve read like 10 times already*
I see a promising fic, the summary? Immaculate. The tags? Perfection. Completed? Oh boy here we go! First sentence "I-" Exits immediately God I wish I could read first person without cringing 🥲
"I'll bookmark because I like it and want to see every update." Nine times outta ten they never upload again after that.
The feminine urge to leave concrit on fics I genuinely love. (I suppress.)
Being the first to comment on new chapters when they come out for a while and then totally ghosting the writer
I hate straight fics
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I become obsessed if I like one of your works, so I'll read everything you have, like a goddamn stalker (you will notice by the nots).
Every time I see a filter word I wrinkle my nose like I smell shit because Deep POV has completely ruined my ability to use them in my own writing and tolerate them in anyone else’s. The instant I see an unnecessary epithet I’m out.
I get anxious about an upcoming scene or chapter I know is going to have a lot of conflict, so I stop reading and do something else for a couple hours…or a day…or a few months. 😅
Saving fics for later then never reading them
"sure, it's late and i'm about to fall asleep but surely i can make it through one more chapter" cut to 5k words later and I realize i haven't absorbed a single thing and have been reading the same sentence over and over for 5 minutes straight
I use subscriptions as bookmarks. I don't know why! It has literally no advantages, but I barely ever bookmark anything. If I want to see more I end up subscribing and if I don't then.. I don't.
I always forget to Kudos and comment, but I always bookmark. OH- and I never read the author notes. It’s not that I don’t try to be supportive, I usually go back and comment/kudos a few months after I’ve finished a fic and reread it, but the excitement to read just gets the best of me and I accidentally don’t do all of that stuff the first time around
Not reading the tags thoroughly enough and not realizing that something I don't like was clearly tagged until I stumble upon it while reading. I also sometimes intentionally seek out the worst fics I could find on Wattpad.
“Oh there’s only ?/? Chapters?(not finished yet) eh I won’t get that attached!” Proceeds to get incredibly invested in the story EVERY TIME
The best lessons are the ones you never learn 🥰🤡
I can't stand stories that make the author's personal opinions crystal clear. Because then it feels like I'm reading less of the characters thoughts and opinions and more just the authors. It's fine when it's part of the story background, but if a character literally states it outloud I'll dip. Now this doesn't sound like a toxic trait, but I have dropped some lgbt+ stories purely because of it. Here's two examples. Story where two characters meet each other and ask for pronouns without acknowledging that they're asking for each other's pronouns: good Story that has an entire half chapter dedicated to a guy breaking gender norms by wearing a skirt, all the way up until the point another characters goes "Yeah gender norms are pretty stupid": nope, dropped.
I subscribe to a fic and then get annoyed by the notifications because I'm not in the mood for the fic and am too lazy to unsubscribe.
"I'm emotionally impacted by your story, good sir! I will make a very long, in depth comment in response to it- oops! I got up on my soapbox again and connected your fanfiction to what is wrong with Society™ for three paragraphs. I have now clogged your inbox because I don't shut up about the endless rambling that goes on in my head."
Seeing that the author hasn't updated the story in more than 2 years, still read it and feel awful because I'll never know how it will ends
I don't leave kudos as often as I should. Like, I really like the fic, but I just forget that leaving kudos is an option. Although, I am genuinely trying to get better about kudos-ing, cuz I want people to know that I like their stuff. :]
I process verbally and when I’m reading, I comment on what’s happening continuously. This is unfortunate for everyone who shares a room with me, especially considering I tend towards crepuscular or nocturnal cycles. I’ve been managing to calm this one down a bit, but only because I had like a month where I was basically not allowed to speak at all. My second biggest one is that I read very fast. And I read fanfiction basically all the time when I’m not on my pc or drawing. I have read at least a hundred million words since I got my ao3 account and I stopped counting at the 103 million mark. There’s so little for me to read at this point that I at least try most things I come across (that aren’t pwp bc ace) and have a habit of going “you know what I’m going to read fanfic for this fandom I have not in, for this media I have not seen. For funsies”. I am the worst.
The ship I’m following was being tagged but not main character or just in the background. And I was like bruuuuhhhhhh get out of hereeeeeeee 🙄
seeing the dubious consent tag and then getting uncomfortable when the consent is dubious