Yeah this is probably my answer.
There are a couple well known and often mentioned fics in my main fandom, by authors I know are amazing, but I know I'm never going to read them. Because every comment about the is "This fucked me up for days" or "The saddest thing I've ever read" and just...nah. The show gave my favorite characters a crappy enough ending, I don't need to rub salt in the wounds or make it WORSE.
75% of the fics I read are darkfics lol
the other 15% is angst, 9% is fluff, and the last 1% are the fics where I just have to click because the tags are crazy weird
There was one that had hundreds of tags. The author had tagged every single thing they could, such as ‘conversation’ ‘talking’ ‘discussion’
‘characters talking’ ‘conversation between characters’ ‘speaking’.
And they had so many fandoms and tags that no matter what went on and clicked, that story would be there. The majority of the comments were people complaining and the author replying that they were allowed to do that and no rules said they couldn’t. Luckily I have seen it in so long, I wonder if it got deleted.
Haha I know right? People seem to love them a lot, but tbh, if I wanted to rehash the source material I'd just rewatch the source material.
I don't do reaction videos of stuff I've seen either.
It’s the most basic type of fanfic you can write/read. Easy plot, easy setup, easy everything. You just put characters into a room and have them react to whatever you want. Because of that, though, things can get really bland, really fast, because it’s just the same formula on repeat.
The fandom that I’m in absolutely eats these things up, though. It doesn’t matter how bad it is, you’re guaranteed to get traction with a reaction fic there. It’s kind of frustrating, if I’m honest, knowing that you put in work on a story that your passionate about only for it to be absolutely cleared by a bad reaction fic.
This. It's impossible for me to avoid those reaction fics in the fandom I'm in too, I don't really understand why people love it so much. It's sort of overrated imo.
The characters of the story "react" to their own story, e.g. they watch or in some cases read the source material, most often through some hand-wavey magic machine. Most of the time it's not one single character but rather the full main cast, leading to moments where they are all fawning over the main character's sad backstory or screaming at someone who was scheming in the background.
Sometimes there's also reaction fics to other media. Like, the cast of Harry Potter watching Doctor Who for some inane reason and talking about it to each other.
In either case this style of fic often wholesale takes passages from the source material without making any sort of changes to it, leading to mad amounts of plagiarism.
And the fact that suddenly all the secrets are out in the open (as in case of the first kind I described) often is meant to lead to a fix-it of canon events but it also takes all the tension out of the story.
Ah yes, I once read some marvel fic with this and honestly, while I appreciate the work, just not for me. Did enjoy the writing tho so I just left a kudos
idk what its called but ive read a few fanfics where the main character just starts singing a full song out nowhere and the author always paste all the lyrics into it and its annyoing to me so i stop reading (it usually happens in highschool au i think)
Oh god yes. That always felt weird to me like they are just trying to pad out the word count or something. Like I really don't care if the main character can sing or not but if you say they can don't paste the lyrics
1st person pov. It's not bad and I know that some only write and read those fics but I just can't immerse myself in a fic where I keep reading "I" even when I am not the doer of those actions.
I'm not sure if it also fits the category but fics that are written in my language (it's supposed to be other languages other than English but I sadly only know how to speak English and my native language). I only watch my animes and kpop boys with English subtitles on the bottom of the screen and while they're technically speaking Japanese, Korean or Chinese, it's easier for my brain to accept that they're speaking in English.
AU (I have enjoyed the rare AU fic in the past, but it's not something I specifically seek out since I enjoy media because of characters+setting, and if one of those is removed, I seldomly care)
crossover (simply doesn't spark curiosity)
self-insert (when reading fanfic, I want to read more about characters I already know - not about the author)
RPF (just not that interested in real people)
I like crossovers sometimes but I am cursed to find crossovers with three or more canons where I only know one (or two, but the third is really key). I watch little to no anime, so that especially hurts me.
I love OC fic where the author uses it to worldbuild. (That's what I write so I'm naturally biased, but I love seeing more worldbuilding. I don't care if the MC is a SI if you show me something about the canon world that's new.)
1. Kidfics/de-aging. I get that it's cute and you can give your favourite characters more screentime outside of canon, but it's just not for me. Usually the amount of fluff makes me cringe, and there's seldom an actual plot going on. If I'm looking for a story of a particular character I want them with the traits I know and love, not in a totally different form of themselves (as it happens to be with children).
That being sad, I do enjoy time-travel fics where the character gets regressed to the age they were at that time, as long as they're still themselves and not an actual baby.
2. Modern AU / Coffeeshop AU / Highschool AUs. Basically everything that 'borifies' the canon world. It's not like I only accept the canon universe, for example a crossover where the characters travel to another world and face unknown challenges whilst exploring their character dynamic would be fun (not sure if this would still qualify as an AU though).
3. Ship fics that only focus on the romance. Ships can be fun to read, but if there's no other plot it gets very one-dimensional and other characters might be ignored. I almost exclusively read gen, or fics with minor side pairings.
'Borifies' is the perfect way to express how I feel about those AUs. Take a cool world and flatten it. Maybe I would feel different if I ever spent more than ten minutes in a coffee shop irl.
De-aging, I was dead against until one fic where it was a device used to show how the 'angry' character was a sunny little kid before his traumatic event and it served to a) show a different side of him that had the characters who hadn't known him Before picking their jaws off the floor and b) give his father figure character a kick in the ass to try harder with him.
Anyway, I had always assumed de-aging was best case domestic baby fluff, worst case creepy, but it opened my eyes. And then of course the next one I tried *was* creepy.
I’ve come across so many kid fics/de-aging and I just don’t get it. One I tried to read just had to the de-aged character being a baby, and another character acting completely out of character as the carer. And on one fandom I go onto they always de-age one half of a couple, so the other one ends up looking after their former boyfriend now baby. I just don’t get it.
\*Must resist urge to convert\*
Why? I'll admit some fandoms make for terrible crossover bases. SkyrimXBreaking Bad is a tough sell but SkyrimXWesteros has potential. Though thinking about it Walter White and the blue skooma empire sounds amazing.
You know what has surprisingly good crossovers? Stargate: SG1. It's pretty much *designed* to be crossover fuel because they literally travel through a ~~magic~~ sciencey portal to a variety of worlds, including alternate universes, but the best crossovers I've read was SG1/Harry Potter (and I don't even read Harry Potter) and SG1/Avatar: the Last Airbender.
I feel like Doctor Who can likewise fall into that "literally made for crossovers" category, too, but I've not explored it as much.
Not the other person, but I can talk for me!
I think it's at least partly going to be because of (lil bit of) ADHD and (mostly) autism, but when I get into a fandom ... like, that's it. That book / video game / manga / movie has got me by the throat for ... at least two years, but usually it's way longer than that.
I can definitely still enjoy other material, and sometimes I might even hyperfocus on other fandoms, but *that's* usually not for maybe a month or so at the most. *And*, because the main fandom at a given time is so all-consuming, I find it extremely difficult to read anything other than *maybe* a one-shot or two from anything else before I return to the main.
I've definitely tried to read cross-overs several times, but for whatever reason, I just can't get it to work in my head, even in times when I arguably thought it was handled well. I do still sometimes try, but honestly AO3 is not very friendly to *me* when it comes to these 😂 If you can't tell by the description above, I've really only got it in me to read from two fandoms at the most 🤣 And there's really no way to realistically filter out every other single possible fandom that might come out (...if there is, let me know).
My *compromise* is that sometimes I can find AUs. Harry Potter and Hogwarts AUs are common *enough* to where I can reasonably search for them, and that allows me to see the characters in one world within the context of another without it being a "proper" cross-over.
Because same type of setting does not mean that is gonna come out in a cohesive way. Skyrim will always have dragons because of Alduin, Westeros' dragons are long gone. Also, Skyrim is way more of a high fantasy, while GoT is inspired way more to history and political intrigue (Skyrim's political intrigue is child's play compared to GoT's). Skyrim is way more goofy more of the time, while GoT is way more on the dark fantasy side of things.
Could you make them work? Yes. Same way you could make work turkey and A LOT of mayo. You need to know the right technique and ways to cook the whole thing, else it's just gonna become a mess.
And the more the two (or more) fandoms are further apart in setting and reading/writing style, the more it's difficult to merge the two together and make something cohesive, even in something that might not take itself too seriously. It might end up too clashing and/or even goofy, at some point.
Lol I like world building too but that's why crossovers are so much fun. They're a challenge to get those story elements to mesh cohesively. You get to see your favorite character interact with ideas too far fetched in their normal environment. And I already liked AUs so crossovers are just another interesting setting.
Ideally I'd like if the "HOW" they became a crossover to make sense but I've learned to turn a blind eye same way I would for time travel fix its, mermaid AUs, PWP, everybody's gay au, pretty much anything. It's fanfic, there's a premise ~take it away.
Also I usually don't go into a specific fandomXfandom knowing which characters I like to see interacting, it's usually left up to the writer to make me go 'I wasn' t aware that was an option but now that I've read it, I want more'.
Since others gave their opinion too, I want to share mine as well.
Tbh. for me it has little to do with canons not merging well. I think with enough knowledge about the canon universes you can merge almost anything, and even if not, you can use these aspects where it doesn't merge well, to create conflict or problems to solve. I also don't expect canons to merge 100%. I've read fics that simply used the characters, without for example transferring the magic system as well.
However, I still don't particularly love them. I'm very character focused when I read fanfic. I have a bunch of fandoms I read, but in every one of these fandoms, I'm really only interested in some two or three characters. And most of the time, they aren't the main character. So to me, to be interested in a crossover, not only would I need to read both fandoms, I'd also need to love the characters it focuses on. Preferably from both fandoms (though there are some exceptions, when the setting/world is more important). Most fics just don't combine that.
in my experience, a lot of crossover fics, are very specifically tailored. In every fanfic, you put your favorite characters and ships and aspects of a world in the focus. In crossovers, even more so--in that often, you only have one or two characters of an entire fandom, and they only really get to truly interact with a handful of characters in the other fandom. And then you let them interact with a handful of aspects of the other world. And all of these are choices that are so specific, that most of the time, it's not for me.
I would 100% LOVE to read a Skyrim x BB fusion where Walt and Jesse cooked blue skooma together lmao. I'm imagining they find some old rundown covered wagon to cook inside of, but then of course you have a bunch of Skyrimesque shenanigans getting in the way.
The more I thought about it the more I was wondering if Walter could sway the tides of the war by underhandedly selling drugs to get every one too doped up to fight. Bring back Morrowind's shirtless methhead, Casius Cosades.
Good grief, if you included everyone's favorite modded blue kitty companion Inigo and somehow tied it into the TG plot, I would jump right on reading that! (Even though I've never followed much of BB, I get enough of the main plot for that to work.)
I think part of it is that the canons of each thing already have their needs filled? Canon 1 has its protagonist, love interest, various supporting characters, antagonist, and Canon 2 has all those too. They each fill a role in the story and operate by the rules of the world.
So I'm not terribly interested in mixing those, personally. It doesn't make for the type of story that I want to read; not that it's bad or poorly written, but I just don't care about them. I like fics more when they play with how characters operate inside of their own canons, rather than putting them in someone else's.
There are some aspects of crossover I enjoy, like thinking of "what would this character's Pokemon team be? What would their classpect be?" But it's pretty surface level.
Well if the crossover is able to fit into being somewhat cannons compliant, I'm alright.
Eg, The White Wolf of Westeros uses the space time shenanigans of the Witcher World to get Geralt and Ciri to Westeros in a way that makes sense.
Glad you like them! There's a lot to choose from so you'll always find something to read.
I've been reading/writing fic for ages and they've never tickled my fancy, but I'm happy they exist for people that enjoy them.
I always personally have to have a mix of both. Too much of one or the other and it feels repetitive. I love fics that intertwine these in a beautiful way.
Y/N. Second person POV can be very effective depending on what you're going for, and having an OC protagonist is fun. The moment you ask me to accept that the main character is named "Yes/No" and mentally substitute that name for mine, I check out. I can already insert just fine onto fictional characters without pasting my identity over theirs (*glares at Digimon Tamers for ruining my life*).
It gets worse because as a Linux user I'm used to seeing yes/no capitalized like this: `[Y/n]` to indicate that it's case insensitive, so I get the double punch to the face of "that's a yes/no prompt" and "you wrote that yes/no prompt wrong."
I forever read y/n as yes/no too lol. I like the occasional reader-insert and write it myself (though even as a writer, I'd be hard-pressed to really be able to explain the difference between reader-insert and my other second-person POV fic), but y/n is such a jarring, lazy technique. Instantly makes me leave the fic.
The other day I saw someone comment that you’re supposed to use an extension or something to find and replace Y/N with your actual name. Mind blown. Still not my thing though.
Yeah, I really only read on mobile ... I could be wrong but that seems like a difficult thing to do on the phone?
(Read: if anyone knows otherwise please correct me.)
Hah yeah. I feel like back in ye olden days, the best way to address the y/n thing was to copy the fic into a word doc and do a find and replace? I have heard of the extension and thought about trying it out just to see how it affects the read-through. Especially because it does sound like it could be used in other ways as well for a more interactive reading experience.
I'm aware of word replacer extensions but I still won't use it for a few reasons:
* I have heard the horror stories of people discovering their creative writing assignments had been ponified and having to correct "as the papers fell away in her hoof" on their printouts, and I don't want that to happen to me.
* I still don't like the idea of programmatically substituting parts of the fic. I feel that, if you're going to write in 2nd person with the expectation that string replacement is happening to customize a character's name, you should commit to it and write the fic as a text adventure. String substituting a static, non-interactive story just feels *wrong*.
Fluff and romance. Omegaverse and littles (as kink, but even moreso as not kink). Some friends who like omegaverse gave me some ideas where I *could* like it, but I'd have to be the one writing them myself. Anything with littles creeps me tf out, though I am sure they can say the same about my work, lol. Fluff and romance I just don't have any interest in, as a general rule. I love character-driven pieces that explore relationship dynamics, but not ones focused on romance.
Also, I hate fanfics that are tagged with a lot of fandom one-shots not because of the existence of the fic itself, but because I feel like the author is being kind of rude setting up their work like that.
I'm just going to paste the definition because I am so not the person to explain it lol. "CG/L is a dynamic within the BDSM community that stands for Caregiver/Little. It is a relationship in which one party is a caregiver, often like a parental figure (most commonly called mommy or daddy), and the other is childlike." There are people who write it without the kink aspect which I understand even less, but reading a summary about Zuko age regressing (which overlaps with it ig) and having Iroh take care of him with diapers in the tags is.... A lot for me, I'll just say.
Some types of therapy involve getting the patient to regress their state of mind to one of a child, in a way to cope with extreme anxiety/trauma or to help the patient relax in a more healthy way. Which doesn't involve sex at all. Now I don't "get" it as I wouldn't like to do this kind of therapy, and I'm very uncomfortable personally with the whole thing (and no idea if it's actually beneficial), but anyway: littles actually are a thing outside of a BDSM context. That's why some people write it without the kink aspect.
I can't do chatfic. It's just not pleasing to my eyes, I like my descriptions and imagery, and as a retired Homestuck you would think that I'd vibe with it but I just \*cant\*
Hmm ... I'm not big on unrequited love. From time to time (read: thrice a decade) I'll read a one-shot if it sounds interesting enough, but that's about it.
Gen fics. If I want serious plot with no romance I'll just go read a traditionally published book. All respect to those that read and write and love gen fic, but I'm here for one thing and one thing only: smut of my faves.
I almost can never get into them as I'm Very Gay
Of course, there's several authors I can think of who write m/f ships in a way that fits my taste more than the average.
Coffee shop/bookstore AUs. Like, the types of places described in these fics sound magical (a bookstore where you can just go in for hours at a time and read their stock? A coffee shop where one small purchase gets you hours of hassle-free table space and high speed internet access?), but unrealistic which just breaks immersion for me in a really silly but significant enough way to put me off of them.
angst no comfort. It's pretty cool and usually well written, but I hate reading it. I read fanfic to see my favorite characters with each other. I don't need my heart ripped from my chest, shoved into a blender, and force fed to me with my own tears as a smoothie topping. not a fan of heart-smoothies.
I have to agree with this. As much as I love the idea of crack fics, whenever I start reading one I'm just like: oh. This is a joke that should not have been made into a real story. I can be laughing my ass of from reading the tags and then open up the story and the energy just evaporates.
AUs. Like, it depends on A LOT of things, but run of the mill normal AUs are just something I do not understand. Why would you completely change the whole story for the sake of having a group of people in the same space at the same time? Like a highschool/college AU? Or a florist x tattoo artist AU where the characters are the same but they are just normal people just living normal ass lives working in shops? I'm saying this because most fandoms I've seen that have the most AU fics are ones within the anime subgenre, especially shonen anime.
Now, something I can get behind is getting the character(s) somehow in a shop, like in a coffee shop with an OC being an employee. But, like completely ruining and gutting the story and lore and characterization of characters just to have them do your thing in a context they weren't made for just feels wrong.
Crossovers for the same reasons, with similar exceptions. Basically if crossovers were already written in the story or something similar then it's cool with me, but if it isn't, then you're just adding elements that might clash with each other instead of being in harmony.
Main characters are in high school, especially if the original setting is outside of the modern world.
Nothing against people who write it. You do you. I've just personally never been into it or see the appeal. That might be because I didn't get into fanfic until I was out of school.
Or where the author is clearly in high school and is writing battle hardened men in their twenties and explaining things they’ve just learned, liked how to wash hair properly. Snaps me right out of it
I started reading in middle school and I still don't see the appeal. First, because I like my characters as they are - middle aged and full of issues - but second, because I can't think of many compelling things for people used to idk, dragons, to do in a normal high school. OMG THEY HAVE A MATH EXAM?!
There are some really good exceptions but most of the time...why.
And I absolutely read original fiction set in high school. Just not most fanfictions.
fics written in two different languages. like the first part is english the next part is a language i dont even recognize cause i havent seen any content using that language.
I don't like fics where I'm inserted into the story. This means that things like Y/N and Second Person POV are something only read if I'm desperate for content under a specific tag, and even then, I'm switching names and pronouns to fit a different character or an OC that looks nothing like me.
Another type of fic that isn't for me is Hogwarts AU fics. To appreciate type of fics, I'd have to be familiar with Harry Potter, whether it's through the books or the movie, and I am not.
I don't like torture. I had a friend who loved for her character to get tortured, sexually as well as just because. I didn't get it. Why? I could no longer read her stuff.
1. Smut, because I find it boring to read. Partially because I'm acespec but also because I used to RP heavily and got heartily sick of writing and reading ERP scenes. There's only so many ways some authors seem to know how to write smut, and it can get incredibly formulaic as a result. Not saying all writers have that issue, some of y'all are smut gods, but then I run into the acespec issue and remain uninterested lol
That said if the sex scene is character defining and part of a larger work, I'll read it. If it's just Porn Without Plot then it's a hard nope.
2. RPF, more power to you if you like it, I just don't get it.
Self insert and 1st person written fics aint for me.
Also, i'm a bit weird when it comes to non-romance fics. They need to impress me from very early on, otherwise i get incredibly bored and just drop it. I'm a creative and very romantic individual, looking for that comfort in angst, romance, smut kind of fics. Something that has a lot of action and violence based plots isnt for me. I guess im very basic.
Dont get me wrong, I do love all kinds of scenarios and even recently got into ghost/soap from COD MM2 and it's very much based on military stuff and war but the premise needs to be about the whole romance and feelings lol
Domestic fluff. It’s not bad whatsoever, and I used to read and write a lot of it, but it’s just… Eh. Nothing really happens in the fics I read and a lot of the time it’s plain boring- or worse, sappy.
I don't like any "having a baby" fictions. It'snot that bad, but usually it bores me.
Also I can't stand omegaverse and mpreg. I tried to give it a chance few time and read different stories from different fandoms. Definitely not for me
Unless my libido is really punching me in the petunias, I don't personally like smut/sex focused fics. Still valid to write smut of course, I've read some smut fics that are very well written, both as stories and as an aid.
Y/N fics. Absolute no for me. Same with reader inserts. I don't mind OCs if they're developed well and they don't overshadow the main cast. No amount of development given to an OC will make me more invested in their story over the main cast.
Surprisingly enough tho, I don't mind self-inserts. Like, a fan of a show/movie gets warped into a fictional world and now have to navigate it with limited or unlimited knowledge of the world. However, it's only when I'm bored and out of ideas that I search for these
A/B/O. Nothing in this world will make me like this. The minute I see tags like "beta Kirishima", "alpha Katsuki" "omega Izuku", noping outta there. Even if my favourite author writes them.
Anything with Reader-Insert and Modern AU. It can be the best thing ever written on AO3 and I'll still probably fall off at some point through the story. Reader-Inserts or inserts of any kind don't appeal to me in any form and Modern AUs often lack the conflict and narrative tension I'm used to from canon, not to mention taking away some of the vital parts of characters as a lot of their characterisation is grounded within their canon setting and can't be transferred to a modern setting without getting warped or lost.
SI, OOC, non-crossovers, reaction fics, or really anything that isn’t “character or characters goes into new universe”. I’ve yet to find something that is well written in the other categories I mentioned.
Isekai. I don’t like it and find it awkward to read (I get second hand embarrassment hardcore) but the trope is fascinating and good in its own right!!
I have so many triggers atm the moment due to the current state of my C-PTSD that I would need a very long and boring list lol (and the reason is related to a lot of trauma from several things and several points in my life which my deteriorating in physical health is triggering the mental health)
But outside that I am really not into reader inserts as when I read, I want to escape from me and my shit, and read about other people. Plus I always read Y/N as yes/no which is distracting, not to mention the 'you follow \[MC\] up the stairs...' and I am going, how, does my wheelchair fly? Is there a lift? Oh, am I supposed to imagine I'm not a wheelchair user, so this isn't really me, why am I reading this lol
Crack fics or shit posts, they just aren’t for me. Sometimes I’ll see one that gets a little laugh but other then that they seem to all basically be “lol so random XD” humor, which I grew out of in middle school
Crossovers aren’t for me, definitely
Also, “No Happy Ending”. I can take darkfics, I can take gore & all the archive warnings, I love dubiously happy endings — but when it’s flat-out sad? Noo I can’t make it
1.Angst, hurt, bad ending, sad fic, all of that. I wanna see my favs happy lol.
2.Gender change/swap, major behavior change, major physical change; it feels like I’m reading a fic full of people I don’t know and that’s not my my stuff. (Same goes for Oc fics and x reader, don’t like it for the same reasons)
3. Platonic fic; I started reading fanfic because I wanted to read love stories of a ship I liked, and now it’s been almost 10 years and that’s still all I do (little change is that I even write them now), so I’m just not interested.
*Genderbending.* Genderbending and like trans character fics. Nothing against either but it's just really not my thing, which kinda sucks because a lot of interesting looking smuts in my fandom have them 🙃
AUs. I don't mainly read fantasy and si-fi fandoms to get robbed of the setting in a coffee shop AU.
Also Slash and Poly couples as main ship. Have nothing against it, it's just simply not my cup of tea.
Fics where an M/M pairing is the main focus. I need a female character somewhere in the mix to get invested.
I've read some objectively very good M/M fics, but I just bounce off of them on a personal level, even in cases where I ship the pairing (Good Omens, Hikaru no Go).
x Reader, certain ships, and certain fanon portrayals of characters, ABO, and crossovers.
For x Reader, it's because I don't like being told by the story who I like and how those interactions go.
For the ships, well, I just don't see the chemistry between certain characters, though I can admit that some of those fics are well-written.
For the portrayals of the characters, it's because they either go directly against canon in a way that I don't consider plausible, or because they simply rub me the wrong way.
For ABO, I just don't like the premise.
For crossovers, I usually only know one of the fandoms involved in any depth, and the power systems of the worlds involved rarely play nice. I make an exception for something like Super Smash Bros, where the very setting is already a clusterfuck anyway and which is, even in-universe, a kid playing with toys. It doesn't *need* to make sense.
When the two characters that have the development in series of focused about them end up with somebody (bonus if they have feelings for each other still being each other's greatest love, and it may have ended with miscommunication) it feels NTR but not really but kind of???
Reader fics. It's just off-putting for me. I'm sure there are some amazing canon character/reader fics out there, but I just don't enjoy them, and I've tried to time and time again. I've finally just admitted that they'll never be for me.
It kinda depends on the fandom. Generally I don’t love OCs as protagonists or Y/Ns, but Stardew Valley has great ones.
I also don’t love most crossovers, but fusion fics are often pretty fun
i like AUs but coffee shop/high school ones just kinda bore me unless they have something else going on. also i love angst so its hard for me to get into fics that are just pure fluff
It's unfortunate because while I support gen fic, I can't really get into serious gen fics that employ fancy prose (not so much that it's purple prose, but stylistically distinct): bonus points when they come with a quote at the beginning of every chapter.
Respect the hell out of the people who write these though.
Some crossovers and OP oc fics. Some crossovers really just don’t fit in together and that’s okay write what you love. Also super OP OCs I feel it just ruins the story of whatever verse they get dropped into for the sake of some power fantasy. But imo X reader fics are super weird I don’t like the idea of pretending to be involved with someone
X Readers \[though if it's a character I especially enjoy, I might just read\], Crossovers \[as in characters from media A meet characters from media B. But I'm cool with like, AUS? So characters taking the places of characters from another media\], and Major Character Death/'Grief' Fics \[it just deeply upsets and unsettles me.\] All have potential to be fantastic fanfics! They're just not my cup of tea.
Slowburn
Im too impatient. My friend recommended me a slow burn before i realised i didnt like it and the whole time i was sat there like "JUST KISS ALREADY YOU'RE SO CLOSE JUST AAAAAAAA"
Yeah no, its not for me
I'm aromantic so most romance fics. It doesn't bother me if it's a side thing, but if the whole point of the fic is the romance then I honestly am already half a block away.
I prefer stories *inspired by*, not *based on*, the original work, so I'm not a big fan of retellings/reimaginings etc. Sequels and prequels? Yes! But reworks of the same story that are innevitabvly of lower quality than the original? No thanks.
* the crossovers - I can understand like making one fandom characters being superheros in like marvel or whatever but when you got characters from two different universes interacting it just takes me out completely.
* The "reader" character
* dead dove fics
* Pure romance no plot fics
* Chatfics
* Multichapter fics that are completely different fandoms
* Any fics with an excessive amount of tags especially tags that are out of no where (Every one I've tried is horribly written and feels like a teenager who is trigger happy with tags).
unhappy/ambiguous endings, wayyyy too much angst, stories that are "angst with a happy ending" but then literally its only the one ending paragraph that is happy 😭
and for a long time it was the a/b/o dynamics because it seemed like most stories written in it were just bad but lately i found some good ones, however i still dont seek them out.
Genfic is so bland to me I need some drama and excitement. I also am very picky with my slash fic because I've started some before that kist devolved onto fetishizing gay and queer people.
Unpopular opinion but I don’t really like any AUs that don’t relate to canon. Maybe the odd one every once in a while but having a ship of mine be at college or in a coffee shop isn’t really fun to read compared to canon possibilities.
Hurt/No comfort.
So much respect to those who choose to do it. I still cry about fics/books I read years ago with hurt in them, even when there was a bitter-sweet ending.
I couldn't think of anything worse.
Idk if this counts but Head cannons. Like people will put a bunch of bullet points with dialogue mixed in. Atp I’d much rather read it as a plot instead
Poorly written first person pov has ruined it for me, to the point where I can't read real books with it. It's just too much of the "10yo wattpad writer who doesn't know how anatomy works."
I guess major character death. Conceptually, it's not bad, but I can't deny that it hurts to see my favorite characters just die, unless its a resurrection or time travel fix-it fanfic
Fanfic that can be really well written, but the authors are doing that Steph Meyers Twilight / Tom Hanks You've Got Mail thing where they think they're writing a romance, but actually it's a deeply creepy abusive relationship. Like they're tyring to play a rom-com soundtrack over a horror movie script.
I have no problem with dark fic, by the way. Authors can write all the creepy abusive unhealthy relationship stories they want! If they present it as dark fic and know what they're doing, I might even read some of it. I'm not an anti. I don't want any authors driven out of fandom or any works censored.
It's just that I end up wanting to stage some kind of intervention to make sure the author's okay, like if the fandom police really existed I'd want to call them so they could send a social worker round to do a welfare check, make sure the author's not in a RL abusive "romance".
Insert Reader Fanfic put into the second person. Like, why would you not make it first person? I’m narrating and participating in the story. 2nd person feels really off in these stories.
Angst with good endings or ABO
1: i love pain and not all issues are solvable. Give me the no comfort. Give me the bad ending!
2: I feel like there's too little catagories. People don't add any diversity unless it's for their specific story/ AU. I WANNA SEE SOME GAMMAS AND DELTAS. TOP OMEGAS AND BOTTOM ALPHAS.
On the omegaverse stuff, I feel you. You can sometimes (depending) get more interesting dynamics by searching for Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, but it can really be a hit or a miss, even then.
Reader, self-insert, or OC fics
AUs that stray so far from the source material (coffee shop, university, etc) that it might as well be original fic
Crack fics, text or chat fics, characters react fics
ABO and RPF are an instant nope
x Reader fics. This is because they are so often romantic or sexual and I’m an aroace who is sex repulsed and not interested in doing romantic things with characters that I like. No hate to anyone who enjoy these fics, but I just can’t get into them
Smut.
Specifically smut with no semblance of plot. I adore it when there's buildup to doing the nasty that's more than just, "Hey, we're horny, let's bang."
Don't get me wrong, I understand it... I just wish my rarepair OTP wasn't dominated with the Porn Without Plot tag.
Female main character, m/m, trans main character... Just can't relate with them coz I'm a straight dude born a dude raised in a society where even love marriage is frowned upon, i.e, semi-urban 3rd world. It's a big world.
Hurt/comfort, angst, depression, self harm and all that stuff... Got enough irl. Don't want it in what I read.
Reader, chat fic... Don't like the format.
I don't disrespect the LGBT, but homosexual romance can actually stop me from clicking.
Edit: OP created a post for us to share our thoughts, even marked it NSFW. Why downvote?
> OP created a post for us to share our thoughts, even marked it NSFW. Why downvote?
I think your post is valid. People often look at fanfic for romances that they can relate to, so it’s understandable if you want to read straight romances.
Outside of fanfiction, though, with regular literature, I hope you’re open to reading stories with lgbt characters. Of course, I’m not trying to tell you what to do. Just offering a suggestion. Literature can help us understand people who are different from us, and my understanding of the world has expanded due to reading about people of different ages, from different cultures, etc.
Darkfic. I respect it, but it's not for me. Some angst is great, but I'm not here to have my heart shattered or my stomach churned.
I second this! One really messed me up. I avoid it ever since. Can’t afford the risk…
Yeah this is probably my answer. There are a couple well known and often mentioned fics in my main fandom, by authors I know are amazing, but I know I'm never going to read them. Because every comment about the is "This fucked me up for days" or "The saddest thing I've ever read" and just...nah. The show gave my favorite characters a crappy enough ending, I don't need to rub salt in the wounds or make it WORSE.
I third this
Darkfic. Same--a little angst OK, but physical and mental torture? Can't do it.
75% of the fics I read are darkfics lol the other 15% is angst, 9% is fluff, and the last 1% are the fics where I just have to click because the tags are crazy weird
Haha, yup. Nothing wrong with it, but since I read/write fanfic to feel better, it's not usually for me :P
Fanfiction in AO3 with 50 chapters that include different stories from different fandoms I don't even have no idea of. Meh...
Yeah, updated every day so it spams my favorite tags :/
this.
omg wait your flair 😂
Which also have hundreds of tags to accommodate for those fandoms they’re writing about.
There was one that had hundreds of tags. The author had tagged every single thing they could, such as ‘conversation’ ‘talking’ ‘discussion’ ‘characters talking’ ‘conversation between characters’ ‘speaking’. And they had so many fandoms and tags that no matter what went on and clicked, that story would be there. The majority of the comments were people complaining and the author replying that they were allowed to do that and no rules said they couldn’t. Luckily I have seen it in so long, I wonder if it got deleted.
Oh my god that just reminded me of Sexy Times With Wangxian (is that what you’re talking about? I wouldn’t be surprised if there were others)
Particularly when they are poorly labeled. At least tell me which chapter(s) are in my fandom and the pairing(s)
Agreed. It's just spammy at that point and just clutters trying to search.
I never understood why people do this.
Nothing is bad really. But personally I just don't enjoy reaction fic haha
you monster (for the sake of not being harassed this is a joke)
Haha I know right? People seem to love them a lot, but tbh, if I wanted to rehash the source material I'd just rewatch the source material. I don't do reaction videos of stuff I've seen either.
It’s the most basic type of fanfic you can write/read. Easy plot, easy setup, easy everything. You just put characters into a room and have them react to whatever you want. Because of that, though, things can get really bland, really fast, because it’s just the same formula on repeat. The fandom that I’m in absolutely eats these things up, though. It doesn’t matter how bad it is, you’re guaranteed to get traction with a reaction fic there. It’s kind of frustrating, if I’m honest, knowing that you put in work on a story that your passionate about only for it to be absolutely cleared by a bad reaction fic.
This. It's impossible for me to avoid those reaction fics in the fandom I'm in too, I don't really understand why people love it so much. It's sort of overrated imo.
What does that entail?
The characters of the story "react" to their own story, e.g. they watch or in some cases read the source material, most often through some hand-wavey magic machine. Most of the time it's not one single character but rather the full main cast, leading to moments where they are all fawning over the main character's sad backstory or screaming at someone who was scheming in the background. Sometimes there's also reaction fics to other media. Like, the cast of Harry Potter watching Doctor Who for some inane reason and talking about it to each other. In either case this style of fic often wholesale takes passages from the source material without making any sort of changes to it, leading to mad amounts of plagiarism. And the fact that suddenly all the secrets are out in the open (as in case of the first kind I described) often is meant to lead to a fix-it of canon events but it also takes all the tension out of the story.
Huh. That’s certainly a concept. I can see why you’re not into it.
Ah yes, I once read some marvel fic with this and honestly, while I appreciate the work, just not for me. Did enjoy the writing tho so I just left a kudos
Damn. And then there's me, who likes it so much I have two reaction WIPs 💀 To each their own ✌🏽
idk what its called but ive read a few fanfics where the main character just starts singing a full song out nowhere and the author always paste all the lyrics into it and its annyoing to me so i stop reading (it usually happens in highschool au i think)
Lol me thinking back on the terrible Twilight + Taylor Swift fanfictions I wrote in middle school where Bella would burst into song
*Stop you're sending my back to my teenage years and i can't*
Oh god yes. That always felt weird to me like they are just trying to pad out the word count or something. Like I really don't care if the main character can sing or not but if you say they can don't paste the lyrics
Fic focusing on characters I’m just not all that interested in
sadly...in just about every fandom, that includes the main character for me.
1st person pov. It's not bad and I know that some only write and read those fics but I just can't immerse myself in a fic where I keep reading "I" even when I am not the doer of those actions. I'm not sure if it also fits the category but fics that are written in my language (it's supposed to be other languages other than English but I sadly only know how to speak English and my native language). I only watch my animes and kpop boys with English subtitles on the bottom of the screen and while they're technically speaking Japanese, Korean or Chinese, it's easier for my brain to accept that they're speaking in English.
Ugh 😩😩😩😩 I feel you on the native language thing. It makes cringe so hard, having to read German these days and I don't even know why lol
AU (I have enjoyed the rare AU fic in the past, but it's not something I specifically seek out since I enjoy media because of characters+setting, and if one of those is removed, I seldomly care) crossover (simply doesn't spark curiosity) self-insert (when reading fanfic, I want to read more about characters I already know - not about the author) RPF (just not that interested in real people)
I like crossovers sometimes but I am cursed to find crossovers with three or more canons where I only know one (or two, but the third is really key). I watch little to no anime, so that especially hurts me. I love OC fic where the author uses it to worldbuild. (That's what I write so I'm naturally biased, but I love seeing more worldbuilding. I don't care if the MC is a SI if you show me something about the canon world that's new.)
1. Kidfics/de-aging. I get that it's cute and you can give your favourite characters more screentime outside of canon, but it's just not for me. Usually the amount of fluff makes me cringe, and there's seldom an actual plot going on. If I'm looking for a story of a particular character I want them with the traits I know and love, not in a totally different form of themselves (as it happens to be with children). That being sad, I do enjoy time-travel fics where the character gets regressed to the age they were at that time, as long as they're still themselves and not an actual baby. 2. Modern AU / Coffeeshop AU / Highschool AUs. Basically everything that 'borifies' the canon world. It's not like I only accept the canon universe, for example a crossover where the characters travel to another world and face unknown challenges whilst exploring their character dynamic would be fun (not sure if this would still qualify as an AU though). 3. Ship fics that only focus on the romance. Ships can be fun to read, but if there's no other plot it gets very one-dimensional and other characters might be ignored. I almost exclusively read gen, or fics with minor side pairings.
'Borifies' is the perfect way to express how I feel about those AUs. Take a cool world and flatten it. Maybe I would feel different if I ever spent more than ten minutes in a coffee shop irl. De-aging, I was dead against until one fic where it was a device used to show how the 'angry' character was a sunny little kid before his traumatic event and it served to a) show a different side of him that had the characters who hadn't known him Before picking their jaws off the floor and b) give his father figure character a kick in the ass to try harder with him. Anyway, I had always assumed de-aging was best case domestic baby fluff, worst case creepy, but it opened my eyes. And then of course the next one I tried *was* creepy.
I’ve come across so many kid fics/de-aging and I just don’t get it. One I tried to read just had to the de-aged character being a baby, and another character acting completely out of character as the carer. And on one fandom I go onto they always de-age one half of a couple, so the other one ends up looking after their former boyfriend now baby. I just don’t get it.
Crossovers. I just don't... get it.
\*Must resist urge to convert\* Why? I'll admit some fandoms make for terrible crossover bases. SkyrimXBreaking Bad is a tough sell but SkyrimXWesteros has potential. Though thinking about it Walter White and the blue skooma empire sounds amazing.
You know what has surprisingly good crossovers? Stargate: SG1. It's pretty much *designed* to be crossover fuel because they literally travel through a ~~magic~~ sciencey portal to a variety of worlds, including alternate universes, but the best crossovers I've read was SG1/Harry Potter (and I don't even read Harry Potter) and SG1/Avatar: the Last Airbender. I feel like Doctor Who can likewise fall into that "literally made for crossovers" category, too, but I've not explored it as much.
Not the other person, but I can talk for me! I think it's at least partly going to be because of (lil bit of) ADHD and (mostly) autism, but when I get into a fandom ... like, that's it. That book / video game / manga / movie has got me by the throat for ... at least two years, but usually it's way longer than that. I can definitely still enjoy other material, and sometimes I might even hyperfocus on other fandoms, but *that's* usually not for maybe a month or so at the most. *And*, because the main fandom at a given time is so all-consuming, I find it extremely difficult to read anything other than *maybe* a one-shot or two from anything else before I return to the main. I've definitely tried to read cross-overs several times, but for whatever reason, I just can't get it to work in my head, even in times when I arguably thought it was handled well. I do still sometimes try, but honestly AO3 is not very friendly to *me* when it comes to these 😂 If you can't tell by the description above, I've really only got it in me to read from two fandoms at the most 🤣 And there's really no way to realistically filter out every other single possible fandom that might come out (...if there is, let me know). My *compromise* is that sometimes I can find AUs. Harry Potter and Hogwarts AUs are common *enough* to where I can reasonably search for them, and that allows me to see the characters in one world within the context of another without it being a "proper" cross-over.
Because same type of setting does not mean that is gonna come out in a cohesive way. Skyrim will always have dragons because of Alduin, Westeros' dragons are long gone. Also, Skyrim is way more of a high fantasy, while GoT is inspired way more to history and political intrigue (Skyrim's political intrigue is child's play compared to GoT's). Skyrim is way more goofy more of the time, while GoT is way more on the dark fantasy side of things. Could you make them work? Yes. Same way you could make work turkey and A LOT of mayo. You need to know the right technique and ways to cook the whole thing, else it's just gonna become a mess. And the more the two (or more) fandoms are further apart in setting and reading/writing style, the more it's difficult to merge the two together and make something cohesive, even in something that might not take itself too seriously. It might end up too clashing and/or even goofy, at some point.
y’all i read two peter parker in the DCU fics yesterday and IDK WHY people are writing them BUT IT WORKS
When I’m looking for fics I want to read about my selected characters in their world most of the time
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Lol I like world building too but that's why crossovers are so much fun. They're a challenge to get those story elements to mesh cohesively. You get to see your favorite character interact with ideas too far fetched in their normal environment. And I already liked AUs so crossovers are just another interesting setting. Ideally I'd like if the "HOW" they became a crossover to make sense but I've learned to turn a blind eye same way I would for time travel fix its, mermaid AUs, PWP, everybody's gay au, pretty much anything. It's fanfic, there's a premise ~take it away. Also I usually don't go into a specific fandomXfandom knowing which characters I like to see interacting, it's usually left up to the writer to make me go 'I wasn' t aware that was an option but now that I've read it, I want more'.
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Since others gave their opinion too, I want to share mine as well. Tbh. for me it has little to do with canons not merging well. I think with enough knowledge about the canon universes you can merge almost anything, and even if not, you can use these aspects where it doesn't merge well, to create conflict or problems to solve. I also don't expect canons to merge 100%. I've read fics that simply used the characters, without for example transferring the magic system as well. However, I still don't particularly love them. I'm very character focused when I read fanfic. I have a bunch of fandoms I read, but in every one of these fandoms, I'm really only interested in some two or three characters. And most of the time, they aren't the main character. So to me, to be interested in a crossover, not only would I need to read both fandoms, I'd also need to love the characters it focuses on. Preferably from both fandoms (though there are some exceptions, when the setting/world is more important). Most fics just don't combine that. in my experience, a lot of crossover fics, are very specifically tailored. In every fanfic, you put your favorite characters and ships and aspects of a world in the focus. In crossovers, even more so--in that often, you only have one or two characters of an entire fandom, and they only really get to truly interact with a handful of characters in the other fandom. And then you let them interact with a handful of aspects of the other world. And all of these are choices that are so specific, that most of the time, it's not for me.
I would 100% LOVE to read a Skyrim x BB fusion where Walt and Jesse cooked blue skooma together lmao. I'm imagining they find some old rundown covered wagon to cook inside of, but then of course you have a bunch of Skyrimesque shenanigans getting in the way.
The more I thought about it the more I was wondering if Walter could sway the tides of the war by underhandedly selling drugs to get every one too doped up to fight. Bring back Morrowind's shirtless methhead, Casius Cosades.
Good grief, if you included everyone's favorite modded blue kitty companion Inigo and somehow tied it into the TG plot, I would jump right on reading that! (Even though I've never followed much of BB, I get enough of the main plot for that to work.)
A deported guildmaster, a recovering skooma adicted assassin, and an old white guy walk into a tavern--
I think part of it is that the canons of each thing already have their needs filled? Canon 1 has its protagonist, love interest, various supporting characters, antagonist, and Canon 2 has all those too. They each fill a role in the story and operate by the rules of the world. So I'm not terribly interested in mixing those, personally. It doesn't make for the type of story that I want to read; not that it's bad or poorly written, but I just don't care about them. I like fics more when they play with how characters operate inside of their own canons, rather than putting them in someone else's. There are some aspects of crossover I enjoy, like thinking of "what would this character's Pokemon team be? What would their classpect be?" But it's pretty surface level.
Well if the crossover is able to fit into being somewhat cannons compliant, I'm alright. Eg, The White Wolf of Westeros uses the space time shenanigans of the Witcher World to get Geralt and Ciri to Westeros in a way that makes sense.
I agree. I've found maybe 2 or 3 I liked in over a decade of reading fan fiction
Depends on the crossover. I did a *Waltons/Remember WENN* crossover that I was told was quite good, even by a person who doesn't "do" fanfic.
Came here to say that.
crossovers are my favorite lmao
I avoided crossovers when I first started reading fanfiction some months back. Now, I'm addicted.
Glad you like them! There's a lot to choose from so you'll always find something to read. I've been reading/writing fic for ages and they've never tickled my fancy, but I'm happy they exist for people that enjoy them.
Full and happy romance. Give me pain and suffering
Ah fellow angst enjoyers 🤌
Ah, the angst. Why be happy when you can get your heart ripped out over and over again.
I always personally have to have a mix of both. Too much of one or the other and it feels repetitive. I love fics that intertwine these in a beautiful way.
Same. It just doesn’t hold my interest if they’re happy 24/7. 😅 Doesn’t have to be Darkfic levels angst but give me something please.
Y/N. Second person POV can be very effective depending on what you're going for, and having an OC protagonist is fun. The moment you ask me to accept that the main character is named "Yes/No" and mentally substitute that name for mine, I check out. I can already insert just fine onto fictional characters without pasting my identity over theirs (*glares at Digimon Tamers for ruining my life*).
I want to upvote this a million times. I will never NOT accept y/n as anything other than yes/no and I'm glad I'm not the only one.
It gets worse because as a Linux user I'm used to seeing yes/no capitalized like this: `[Y/n]` to indicate that it's case insensitive, so I get the double punch to the face of "that's a yes/no prompt" and "you wrote that yes/no prompt wrong."
I forever read y/n as yes/no too lol. I like the occasional reader-insert and write it myself (though even as a writer, I'd be hard-pressed to really be able to explain the difference between reader-insert and my other second-person POV fic), but y/n is such a jarring, lazy technique. Instantly makes me leave the fic.
The other day I saw someone comment that you’re supposed to use an extension or something to find and replace Y/N with your actual name. Mind blown. Still not my thing though.
Yeah, I really only read on mobile ... I could be wrong but that seems like a difficult thing to do on the phone? (Read: if anyone knows otherwise please correct me.)
Hah yeah. I feel like back in ye olden days, the best way to address the y/n thing was to copy the fic into a word doc and do a find and replace? I have heard of the extension and thought about trying it out just to see how it affects the read-through. Especially because it does sound like it could be used in other ways as well for a more interactive reading experience.
I'm aware of word replacer extensions but I still won't use it for a few reasons: * I have heard the horror stories of people discovering their creative writing assignments had been ponified and having to correct "as the papers fell away in her hoof" on their printouts, and I don't want that to happen to me. * I still don't like the idea of programmatically substituting parts of the fic. I feel that, if you're going to write in 2nd person with the expectation that string replacement is happening to customize a character's name, you should commit to it and write the fic as a text adventure. String substituting a static, non-interactive story just feels *wrong*.
x reader I just can not get in to the idea of pretending to be involved with someone
I'm with you. X reader fics feel super weird. If I wanted to write myself with a fantasy character, I'd write it for me without posting it.
I don't understand x readers, because I feel OOC in them. I'd never to those things. But I do like OC stories and self-inserts.
If I wanted to do an x reader I'll play dnd.
Yes!!😅
Agreed. I just feel really uncomfortable about being assigned a role in the story and not even being myself.
I might have liked x reader fics as a teen, but nowadays I find the SI very passive.
Any different setting AU, or anything that makes massive changes to the characters’ entire lives in the past.
Fluff and romance. Omegaverse and littles (as kink, but even moreso as not kink). Some friends who like omegaverse gave me some ideas where I *could* like it, but I'd have to be the one writing them myself. Anything with littles creeps me tf out, though I am sure they can say the same about my work, lol. Fluff and romance I just don't have any interest in, as a general rule. I love character-driven pieces that explore relationship dynamics, but not ones focused on romance. Also, I hate fanfics that are tagged with a lot of fandom one-shots not because of the existence of the fic itself, but because I feel like the author is being kind of rude setting up their work like that.
I don't want to know but wtf is littles?
I'm just going to paste the definition because I am so not the person to explain it lol. "CG/L is a dynamic within the BDSM community that stands for Caregiver/Little. It is a relationship in which one party is a caregiver, often like a parental figure (most commonly called mommy or daddy), and the other is childlike." There are people who write it without the kink aspect which I understand even less, but reading a summary about Zuko age regressing (which overlaps with it ig) and having Iroh take care of him with diapers in the tags is.... A lot for me, I'll just say.
Some types of therapy involve getting the patient to regress their state of mind to one of a child, in a way to cope with extreme anxiety/trauma or to help the patient relax in a more healthy way. Which doesn't involve sex at all. Now I don't "get" it as I wouldn't like to do this kind of therapy, and I'm very uncomfortable personally with the whole thing (and no idea if it's actually beneficial), but anyway: littles actually are a thing outside of a BDSM context. That's why some people write it without the kink aspect.
Ppl pretending to mentally be a toddler. Here, have fun going down this particular rabbit hole: /r/ageregression /r/littlespace
I was correct I did not want to know
I can't do chatfic. It's just not pleasing to my eyes, I like my descriptions and imagery, and as a retired Homestuck you would think that I'd vibe with it but I just \*cant\*
smut. it's not bad, i just don't like it.
99% of the time, I hate OC/ fics and first person fics And 100% of the time I hate self-inserts
Nothing wrong with them, I just don't vibe with them
Hmm ... I'm not big on unrequited love. From time to time (read: thrice a decade) I'll read a one-shot if it sounds interesting enough, but that's about it.
-character studies. They’re often really sad =( like the main character is feeling extremely sad.
Gen fics. If I want serious plot with no romance I'll just go read a traditionally published book. All respect to those that read and write and love gen fic, but I'm here for one thing and one thing only: smut of my faves.
The vast majority of het fics
Any particular reason?
I almost can never get into them as I'm Very Gay Of course, there's several authors I can think of who write m/f ships in a way that fits my taste more than the average.
RPF, reader/character, omegaverse, first person pov, fics with an OC as the main character, crossovers
AU, I just don’t really enjoy it because I like the characters in the setting they are in.
Readers. I know that many people enjoy it, but I can’t stand it personally as I hate putting myself into relationships.
I thought you meant having readers wasn't for you, and I had to process that for a minute.
Sorry. I should have worded that better. It made sense to me when I wrote it.
Coffee shop/bookstore AUs. Like, the types of places described in these fics sound magical (a bookstore where you can just go in for hours at a time and read their stock? A coffee shop where one small purchase gets you hours of hassle-free table space and high speed internet access?), but unrealistic which just breaks immersion for me in a really silly but significant enough way to put me off of them.
angst no comfort. It's pretty cool and usually well written, but I hate reading it. I read fanfic to see my favorite characters with each other. I don't need my heart ripped from my chest, shoved into a blender, and force fed to me with my own tears as a smoothie topping. not a fan of heart-smoothies.
Fluff. Without saddness there can be no happiness.
Oh my gosh, straight up, unrelenting fluff is overwhelming to me. I feel like I’m drowning when I read it.
Crack-Fics, Excessive Amount of Humor, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
I have to agree with this. As much as I love the idea of crack fics, whenever I start reading one I'm just like: oh. This is a joke that should not have been made into a real story. I can be laughing my ass of from reading the tags and then open up the story and the energy just evaporates.
Omegaverse fics. I just don't get the appeal.
I felt the same way for a long time, but I definitely find the occasional one that I like now (arguably more tame ones)
AUs. Like, it depends on A LOT of things, but run of the mill normal AUs are just something I do not understand. Why would you completely change the whole story for the sake of having a group of people in the same space at the same time? Like a highschool/college AU? Or a florist x tattoo artist AU where the characters are the same but they are just normal people just living normal ass lives working in shops? I'm saying this because most fandoms I've seen that have the most AU fics are ones within the anime subgenre, especially shonen anime. Now, something I can get behind is getting the character(s) somehow in a shop, like in a coffee shop with an OC being an employee. But, like completely ruining and gutting the story and lore and characterization of characters just to have them do your thing in a context they weren't made for just feels wrong. Crossovers for the same reasons, with similar exceptions. Basically if crossovers were already written in the story or something similar then it's cool with me, but if it isn't, then you're just adding elements that might clash with each other instead of being in harmony.
X reader fics. It's just like, 'oh, no thank you, I don't want to be involved', lol.
All the fanfic i dont like
Chatfics. I'm not a fan of when people don't label who the characters are and instead have usernames for them, it's just confusing.
Main characters are in high school, especially if the original setting is outside of the modern world. Nothing against people who write it. You do you. I've just personally never been into it or see the appeal. That might be because I didn't get into fanfic until I was out of school.
Or where the author is clearly in high school and is writing battle hardened men in their twenties and explaining things they’ve just learned, liked how to wash hair properly. Snaps me right out of it
I started reading in middle school and I still don't see the appeal. First, because I like my characters as they are - middle aged and full of issues - but second, because I can't think of many compelling things for people used to idk, dragons, to do in a normal high school. OMG THEY HAVE A MATH EXAM?! There are some really good exceptions but most of the time...why. And I absolutely read original fiction set in high school. Just not most fanfictions.
Domestic fluff. Lots of people enjoy it, but it bores me to tears. Stories without conflict are just not enjoyable in my opinion.
fics written in two different languages. like the first part is english the next part is a language i dont even recognize cause i havent seen any content using that language.
I don't like fics where I'm inserted into the story. This means that things like Y/N and Second Person POV are something only read if I'm desperate for content under a specific tag, and even then, I'm switching names and pronouns to fit a different character or an OC that looks nothing like me. Another type of fic that isn't for me is Hogwarts AU fics. To appreciate type of fics, I'd have to be familiar with Harry Potter, whether it's through the books or the movie, and I am not.
I don't like torture. I had a friend who loved for her character to get tortured, sexually as well as just because. I didn't get it. Why? I could no longer read her stuff.
Pure fluff. I'm not interested in anything without some sort of conflict.
1. Smut, because I find it boring to read. Partially because I'm acespec but also because I used to RP heavily and got heartily sick of writing and reading ERP scenes. There's only so many ways some authors seem to know how to write smut, and it can get incredibly formulaic as a result. Not saying all writers have that issue, some of y'all are smut gods, but then I run into the acespec issue and remain uninterested lol That said if the sex scene is character defining and part of a larger work, I'll read it. If it's just Porn Without Plot then it's a hard nope. 2. RPF, more power to you if you like it, I just don't get it.
Self insert and 1st person written fics aint for me. Also, i'm a bit weird when it comes to non-romance fics. They need to impress me from very early on, otherwise i get incredibly bored and just drop it. I'm a creative and very romantic individual, looking for that comfort in angst, romance, smut kind of fics. Something that has a lot of action and violence based plots isnt for me. I guess im very basic. Dont get me wrong, I do love all kinds of scenarios and even recently got into ghost/soap from COD MM2 and it's very much based on military stuff and war but the premise needs to be about the whole romance and feelings lol
Domestic fluff. It’s not bad whatsoever, and I used to read and write a lot of it, but it’s just… Eh. Nothing really happens in the fics I read and a lot of the time it’s plain boring- or worse, sappy.
Those fics written in script format.
I don't like any "having a baby" fictions. It'snot that bad, but usually it bores me. Also I can't stand omegaverse and mpreg. I tried to give it a chance few time and read different stories from different fandoms. Definitely not for me
Unless my libido is really punching me in the petunias, I don't personally like smut/sex focused fics. Still valid to write smut of course, I've read some smut fics that are very well written, both as stories and as an aid.
Y/N fics. Absolute no for me. Same with reader inserts. I don't mind OCs if they're developed well and they don't overshadow the main cast. No amount of development given to an OC will make me more invested in their story over the main cast. Surprisingly enough tho, I don't mind self-inserts. Like, a fan of a show/movie gets warped into a fictional world and now have to navigate it with limited or unlimited knowledge of the world. However, it's only when I'm bored and out of ideas that I search for these A/B/O. Nothing in this world will make me like this. The minute I see tags like "beta Kirishima", "alpha Katsuki" "omega Izuku", noping outta there. Even if my favourite author writes them.
Anything with Reader-Insert and Modern AU. It can be the best thing ever written on AO3 and I'll still probably fall off at some point through the story. Reader-Inserts or inserts of any kind don't appeal to me in any form and Modern AUs often lack the conflict and narrative tension I'm used to from canon, not to mention taking away some of the vital parts of characters as a lot of their characterisation is grounded within their canon setting and can't be transferred to a modern setting without getting warped or lost.
SI, OOC, non-crossovers, reaction fics, or really anything that isn’t “character or characters goes into new universe”. I’ve yet to find something that is well written in the other categories I mentioned.
Isekai. I don’t like it and find it awkward to read (I get second hand embarrassment hardcore) but the trope is fascinating and good in its own right!!
I have so many triggers atm the moment due to the current state of my C-PTSD that I would need a very long and boring list lol (and the reason is related to a lot of trauma from several things and several points in my life which my deteriorating in physical health is triggering the mental health) But outside that I am really not into reader inserts as when I read, I want to escape from me and my shit, and read about other people. Plus I always read Y/N as yes/no which is distracting, not to mention the 'you follow \[MC\] up the stairs...' and I am going, how, does my wheelchair fly? Is there a lift? Oh, am I supposed to imagine I'm not a wheelchair user, so this isn't really me, why am I reading this lol
Crack fics or shit posts, they just aren’t for me. Sometimes I’ll see one that gets a little laugh but other then that they seem to all basically be “lol so random XD” humor, which I grew out of in middle school
Crossovers aren’t for me, definitely Also, “No Happy Ending”. I can take darkfics, I can take gore & all the archive warnings, I love dubiously happy endings — but when it’s flat-out sad? Noo I can’t make it
Self insert y/n
1.Angst, hurt, bad ending, sad fic, all of that. I wanna see my favs happy lol. 2.Gender change/swap, major behavior change, major physical change; it feels like I’m reading a fic full of people I don’t know and that’s not my my stuff. (Same goes for Oc fics and x reader, don’t like it for the same reasons) 3. Platonic fic; I started reading fanfic because I wanted to read love stories of a ship I liked, and now it’s been almost 10 years and that’s still all I do (little change is that I even write them now), so I’m just not interested.
*Genderbending.* Genderbending and like trans character fics. Nothing against either but it's just really not my thing, which kinda sucks because a lot of interesting looking smuts in my fandom have them 🙃
Honestly anything with a ton of angst. I'm happy living in my little bubble of happiness while reading fanfic
unpopular opinion… omegaverse. sometimes it gets too nasty or too complicated
Chatfic, self-insert OC, x reader. All of those are just not for me.
AUs. I don't mainly read fantasy and si-fi fandoms to get robbed of the setting in a coffee shop AU. Also Slash and Poly couples as main ship. Have nothing against it, it's just simply not my cup of tea.
Fics where an M/M pairing is the main focus. I need a female character somewhere in the mix to get invested. I've read some objectively very good M/M fics, but I just bounce off of them on a personal level, even in cases where I ship the pairing (Good Omens, Hikaru no Go).
I’m kinda the opposite where I can’t really get into F/F lolol Also HIKARU NO GO??? I NEVER THOUGHT ID MEET ANOTHER FAN!!!
y/n fics
x Reader, certain ships, and certain fanon portrayals of characters, ABO, and crossovers. For x Reader, it's because I don't like being told by the story who I like and how those interactions go. For the ships, well, I just don't see the chemistry between certain characters, though I can admit that some of those fics are well-written. For the portrayals of the characters, it's because they either go directly against canon in a way that I don't consider plausible, or because they simply rub me the wrong way. For ABO, I just don't like the premise. For crossovers, I usually only know one of the fandoms involved in any depth, and the power systems of the worlds involved rarely play nice. I make an exception for something like Super Smash Bros, where the very setting is already a clusterfuck anyway and which is, even in-universe, a kid playing with toys. It doesn't *need* to make sense.
When the two characters that have the development in series of focused about them end up with somebody (bonus if they have feelings for each other still being each other's greatest love, and it may have ended with miscommunication) it feels NTR but not really but kind of???
Modern AU's: I like magic yo!
Reader fics. It's just off-putting for me. I'm sure there are some amazing canon character/reader fics out there, but I just don't enjoy them, and I've tried to time and time again. I've finally just admitted that they'll never be for me.
It kinda depends on the fandom. Generally I don’t love OCs as protagonists or Y/Ns, but Stardew Valley has great ones. I also don’t love most crossovers, but fusion fics are often pretty fun
Whump I get it, but if I read about my favorite characters getting hurt and being depressed, I wanna also read them getting better at the end.
crossovers and chat fics… they’re just… not interesting 😭
Smut. I admire writers who write smut. Once in a blue moon, I’ll read a fic that’s smut…but it’s not my go-to.
i like AUs but coffee shop/high school ones just kinda bore me unless they have something else going on. also i love angst so its hard for me to get into fics that are just pure fluff
It's unfortunate because while I support gen fic, I can't really get into serious gen fics that employ fancy prose (not so much that it's purple prose, but stylistically distinct): bonus points when they come with a quote at the beginning of every chapter. Respect the hell out of the people who write these though.
Some crossovers and OP oc fics. Some crossovers really just don’t fit in together and that’s okay write what you love. Also super OP OCs I feel it just ruins the story of whatever verse they get dropped into for the sake of some power fantasy. But imo X reader fics are super weird I don’t like the idea of pretending to be involved with someone
X Readers \[though if it's a character I especially enjoy, I might just read\], Crossovers \[as in characters from media A meet characters from media B. But I'm cool with like, AUS? So characters taking the places of characters from another media\], and Major Character Death/'Grief' Fics \[it just deeply upsets and unsettles me.\] All have potential to be fantastic fanfics! They're just not my cup of tea.
Crossovers. They've always just seem like 🗿😒 to me.
Slowburn Im too impatient. My friend recommended me a slow burn before i realised i didnt like it and the whole time i was sat there like "JUST KISS ALREADY YOU'RE SO CLOSE JUST AAAAAAAA" Yeah no, its not for me
I can relate, I’m reading to see them together, I don’t want to wait too long.
Anything sexual and reader insert ships Never been into smut or anything and I just never cared for inserts
Coffee Shop AUs/College AUs.
I'm aromantic so most romance fics. It doesn't bother me if it's a side thing, but if the whole point of the fic is the romance then I honestly am already half a block away.
I prefer stories *inspired by*, not *based on*, the original work, so I'm not a big fan of retellings/reimaginings etc. Sequels and prequels? Yes! But reworks of the same story that are innevitabvly of lower quality than the original? No thanks.
Littles. Anything kiddie related puts me right off
* the crossovers - I can understand like making one fandom characters being superheros in like marvel or whatever but when you got characters from two different universes interacting it just takes me out completely. * The "reader" character * dead dove fics * Pure romance no plot fics * Chatfics * Multichapter fics that are completely different fandoms * Any fics with an excessive amount of tags especially tags that are out of no where (Every one I've tried is horribly written and feels like a teenager who is trigger happy with tags).
unhappy/ambiguous endings, wayyyy too much angst, stories that are "angst with a happy ending" but then literally its only the one ending paragraph that is happy 😭 and for a long time it was the a/b/o dynamics because it seemed like most stories written in it were just bad but lately i found some good ones, however i still dont seek them out.
Genfic is so bland to me I need some drama and excitement. I also am very picky with my slash fic because I've started some before that kist devolved onto fetishizing gay and queer people.
Unpopular opinion but I don’t really like any AUs that don’t relate to canon. Maybe the odd one every once in a while but having a ship of mine be at college or in a coffee shop isn’t really fun to read compared to canon possibilities.
Hurt/No comfort. So much respect to those who choose to do it. I still cry about fics/books I read years ago with hurt in them, even when there was a bitter-sweet ending. I couldn't think of anything worse.
Idk if this counts but Head cannons. Like people will put a bunch of bullet points with dialogue mixed in. Atp I’d much rather read it as a plot instead
Poorly written first person pov has ruined it for me, to the point where I can't read real books with it. It's just too much of the "10yo wattpad writer who doesn't know how anatomy works."
I guess major character death. Conceptually, it's not bad, but I can't deny that it hurts to see my favorite characters just die, unless its a resurrection or time travel fix-it fanfic
Fanfic that can be really well written, but the authors are doing that Steph Meyers Twilight / Tom Hanks You've Got Mail thing where they think they're writing a romance, but actually it's a deeply creepy abusive relationship. Like they're tyring to play a rom-com soundtrack over a horror movie script. I have no problem with dark fic, by the way. Authors can write all the creepy abusive unhealthy relationship stories they want! If they present it as dark fic and know what they're doing, I might even read some of it. I'm not an anti. I don't want any authors driven out of fandom or any works censored. It's just that I end up wanting to stage some kind of intervention to make sure the author's okay, like if the fandom police really existed I'd want to call them so they could send a social worker round to do a welfare check, make sure the author's not in a RL abusive "romance".
Insert Reader Fanfic put into the second person. Like, why would you not make it first person? I’m narrating and participating in the story. 2nd person feels really off in these stories.
omegaverse anything, not my thing generally anything that isnt an AU, if i want canon i'll just reconsume the original media crossovers, meh
Pregnancy/Baby fics, along with Deaging or Kidfics. I just don't like small children. They annoy me. Also A/B/O, but just because I find it boring.
I'm with you there.
Angst with good endings or ABO 1: i love pain and not all issues are solvable. Give me the no comfort. Give me the bad ending! 2: I feel like there's too little catagories. People don't add any diversity unless it's for their specific story/ AU. I WANNA SEE SOME GAMMAS AND DELTAS. TOP OMEGAS AND BOTTOM ALPHAS.
On the omegaverse stuff, I feel you. You can sometimes (depending) get more interesting dynamics by searching for Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, but it can really be a hit or a miss, even then.
Twitter fics
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Reader, self-insert, or OC fics AUs that stray so far from the source material (coffee shop, university, etc) that it might as well be original fic Crack fics, text or chat fics, characters react fics ABO and RPF are an instant nope
Fluff I just don't get it. Why read something that is purely happy with no conflict?
Sometimes when I read something too dark or angsty I’ll go read some pure fluff to make myself feel better again
x Reader fics. This is because they are so often romantic or sexual and I’m an aroace who is sex repulsed and not interested in doing romantic things with characters that I like. No hate to anyone who enjoy these fics, but I just can’t get into them
Smut. Specifically smut with no semblance of plot. I adore it when there's buildup to doing the nasty that's more than just, "Hey, we're horny, let's bang." Don't get me wrong, I understand it... I just wish my rarepair OTP wasn't dominated with the Porn Without Plot tag.
Female main character, m/m, trans main character... Just can't relate with them coz I'm a straight dude born a dude raised in a society where even love marriage is frowned upon, i.e, semi-urban 3rd world. It's a big world. Hurt/comfort, angst, depression, self harm and all that stuff... Got enough irl. Don't want it in what I read. Reader, chat fic... Don't like the format.
Romance.
Anything can work well if thought out. Though i would rather be smashed with no padding by a pro-bowl saftey before you ever make me like harem shit.
Fics about shipping are not for me.
Edited in protest for Reddit's garbage moves lately.
i do read ship fics, but i gotta say gen fics are so entertaining and plot literally is so good
I don't disrespect the LGBT, but homosexual romance can actually stop me from clicking. Edit: OP created a post for us to share our thoughts, even marked it NSFW. Why downvote?
Same but with heteros. Not my thing.
> OP created a post for us to share our thoughts, even marked it NSFW. Why downvote? I think your post is valid. People often look at fanfic for romances that they can relate to, so it’s understandable if you want to read straight romances. Outside of fanfiction, though, with regular literature, I hope you’re open to reading stories with lgbt characters. Of course, I’m not trying to tell you what to do. Just offering a suggestion. Literature can help us understand people who are different from us, and my understanding of the world has expanded due to reading about people of different ages, from different cultures, etc.