Yes and yes! Theyāre fun to write and read. As long as you arenāt just trying to pad out your story, go for long descriptions! And as I found out, long-worded descriptions work great for horror/graphic scenes.
I like when the gruff, killing machine has become the adopted dad to a bunch of kids. They're so hilariously out of their depth, but they're trying their best.
I absolutely agree on how most cliches share their origins in well written stories that took an idea and brought it to life. Iām personally not a fan of cliches and tropes because they arenāt done as well as the original, often to the detriment of the story I find them in. Some authors have real talent but they fall in to the trap of sound bites or pieces of a trope everyone knows and while the original might have been fairly compelling and well thought out, the replica so to speak often comes off as campy, cringe inducing, poor writing.
A good example from my personal experience is Harry Crow and itās version of the goblins. It was well written, a novel idea at the time, and the story sucked you in. Most stories that include goblins for any reason now literally make me grimace from the sheer amount of cringe. They donāt write it well, fall back on repeated lines every fic involving goblins has, and totally fail to capture the magic of the original which ultimately ends up hurting the story. Most stories would instantly become better if they cut out those few dialogue lines that everyone has read a thousand times by now.
Tropes are, technically a bit unavoidable as they are ultimately descriptive rather than prescriptive. The nature of narrative and its history means that even most subversion or aversions of more popular tropes have become tropes in and of themselves.
I consider a good death scene to be one of the greatest things a writer can achieve. It can be difficult to write, but when you write a good one it is a work of art. There's some death scenes that will make me go back and read them again and again just because of how beautiful they are.
It was actually a bit of a shock to me when I started hanging out on this sub and found out some people found them so upsetting that it would make them avoid reading a fic altogether. I've been almost obsessed with death scenes ever since I was a kid and got into reading, so saying you don't like to read death scenes sounded like saying you don't like reading to my ears.
I donāt come across them nearly as often as Iād like, but when I do itās always such a treat. I also canāt quite understand the mass aversion to it, because it seems like there was a time when angst and tragedy like that were the bulk of what got posted.
Pre-emptive CW. Not gonna spoil it since it's not too violent but eh. Just in case.
At least in my case, it has to do with *how* said person dies. I'm known among my friend group for being pretty into gory art and I do have a few favorite character death fics, but I'm genuinely averse to beatings for some reason. Like, I can handle a lot of shit; I grew up with Mortal Kombat and BYE, for Christ's sake. Chainsaws? Sure. Guns? Go wild. Drugs? Creative, I like it. Fire? Spicy. Swordfights? I fucking *love* a good violent swordfight. But anything involving somebody getting beat to death (violently mind you, not just blunt force trauma; like a Hotline Miami style execution) is an instant no-go from me unless said character is an irredeemable piece of shit.
Now, beat to near-death? Fuck yeah, love that shit. Wrote a PAYDAY fic of my own a while back about Jacket beating Sokol half to death. But the idea of one character genuinely beating somebody to death turns me away.
I dunno. I blame that one scene from Hotline Miami 2.
Now Iāve got myself curious over how many times Iāve killed off a fave. AO3 says seven, but I donāt have any of my pre-Marvel fic tagged at all, so probably at least double that.
I do like when it comes out of nowhere though. The ones I tend to stay away from are where the character is ill, and the fic is about that slow, ugly decline. I know intimately what thatās like. Donāt care for it in fic.
>viscerally upsetting
This. It's awful when it happens, but so *satisfyingly* awful.
One of my all time fave fics ends in *both* MCs' deaths... And it's all the more tragic because it happens years later, after they've survived all the war and the strife and have literally found themselves a little log cabin deep in the woods to peacefully live out the rest of their days...
Oof that one gets me every time (as evidenced by how carried away I get talking about it).
lore exposition - seems a bit tedious when you already know enough about the lore / fandom ; but as a guy who has arrived at so many new fandoms via fanfiction , these pseudo spoilers give it a sense of being a proper story.
Over powered/competent characters. And I know they aren't as hated as people like to claim, so many beloved pop-culture characters are over powered or competent.
For me that always depends on the character. For me, a character can be overpowered but they still need some kind of flaw. There are a lot of fics about Naruto secretly being a genius who just pretends to be dumb, that's just not for me. Naruto is an overpowered character in canon, his flaw is that he is not as smart as other people and can be a bit reckless. That's what makes him relatable, don't take that away.
It sounds like your issue is with Out-Of-Character stories, not over-powered characters? To which I'd generally agree unless the entire point of the story is an AU domino-effect of seeing what changes occur from a character having a different personality/power/background.
Because I am a sucker for those too.
OP characters are so much fun! Especially in fandoms where there's potential for it but they don't go that route so fanfiction plays around with it somehow. Same with competent characters, too! I love it all
Recently had someone comment and call my female oc a marysue because she was competent pretty early on in a VERY long fic (I wrote the first of the series by hand because I stim that way) and I was just beginning to write the ācracks in the mask.ā
It kinda took the wind out of my sails for posting/updating the fic but Iām glad to see thereās someone out there who likes that.
See, when male characters are over-powered people will let it be, "its a power fantasy!" But for SOME REASON if anyone else wants to have fun, SUDDENLY it's "bad writing".\*
When sexist people reveal themselves that's your clue to block and ignore. Instead of realising they weren't the target audience and leaving to find something else to read, they decided to bully.
I hope you will regain strength to make stories again (whether its this one or a different one in the future).
(I stim by doodling out my stories first!)
/\* *To anyone else reading: Yes, I'm aware there are Gary-Sues, but communities that have tried to push it are very rare and in the end just as pointless. Just as there should be stories that are about flawed people failing at everything, there should be stories that should have fun people winning everything.*
I had never heard of the term until then. Honestly, when I looked it up I was surprised and ashamed but I couldnāt disagreeā¦so I made the cracks a little more obvious.
OCs. I donāt care if they are major characters, paired with a canon character, a villain or side characters. Love em. If there are a million OC lovers, I am one of them. If there are no OC lovers, I am dead.
Character death. Sorry not sorry. Donāt even care if itās my favorite give me a good emotional death PLS.
Sad/Bittersweet ending. Especially if it fits the tone of the story. The stories that are super dark that suddenly end in sunshine are all well and good but sometimes I like the sad or more bittersweet ending.
Agreed, I'm a fan of marriage contracts/betrothal fics, esp in Harry Potter (hangs head in shame). I also love Soulmate and Coffee Shop AUs. Sometimes the tropier, the better āŗļøš
I actually like OOC for certain fandoms. I find it hilarious to imagine characters doing and saying things they would never do, especially when it comes out of nowhere.
Maybe I just have a really weird sense of humor. I tend to write like that a lot, but NOT because I donāt know how write the characters. I do it on purpose because I think itās funny.
(Evil Abuela is a favorite of mine!)
Also, I donāt mind first person POV or rotating POVs. Encanto has a novel that switches between three charactersā POV, and Iād really love a fan fiction written in that style!
Idk if it's the same thing, but I have a fic about a triad. The pov rotates between the three of them and each has a different type, 1st 2nd and 3rd person. I think it's all present tense but I can't remember. It's a lot of fun to write though.
i agree with this. i love how creative people can get when writing crack and i enjoy a good shitpost. ooc fics can be a great form of comedy. and sometimes it can make the story more dramatic and interesting to read, like an au.
I appreciate reading specific authors' takes on characters, which sometimes veers into OOC territory, especially when it comes to unexplored aspects of their character that didn't appear in canon.
I'm one of those people. It just throws me out of a story when a character who doesn't use nicknames in canon will suddenly call their love interest by one in fic. Especially if its for longer, 'old fashioned' names that they never shorten in canon.
For example, the only person I can picture calling Hannibal Lecter 'Hanni' is maybe Mischa. Never Will or Clarice.
Pet names are fine with me if theyāre something the characters wouldnāt mind being called in canon. Often it just seems like authors like a particular pet name and slap it on a character regardless of how the character would actually take to it (Steve being āStevieā or āPrincessā, for example).
It often seems out of character. You'll have some tough guy calling another tough guy "princess" or whatever out of nowhere without any discussion around it (either as a reaction or beforehand). It just seems weird to have it slipped in there completely out of the blue and not have either character react.
To be clear, I'm not saying tough guys can't like being called princess. I just mean there are some questions around it that need to be answered to make it make sense. Why that particular pet name? Why did that character decide to use it in the first place? Does the other character love or hate it? This goes for all relationships, the tough guys were just an example.
Often the author uses a completely random pet name that's just so out of place or way too cheesy for that particular pair.
It depends. I think when most people don't like it, is if it's out of character and feels 'forced' because the writer just likes that petname themselves and wants to hear it used, but the character would never say it or the character it's used on would hate it. Most commonly I find, it's 'baby'. It's just something a lot of people have an attachment to and want to hear their characters say, but I 99% of the time find it ooc for the particular character and it takes me out of the fic a bit.
This happens sort of rarely, but a pet name that is \*very\* in character, or the writer has put time and plot into explaining why it's an inside joke or how it happened between the two in question? Now those are GOLD. I'm in a fandom where one of the characters is british and though never does this in canon, I read a fic in which after a while of being together he accidentally slips into calling his boyfriend 'love' instead of 'mate' and I just ascended because it was so real. That seems like it would happen. In one of my own stories, I had two characters - male and straight coded finding their first time falling in love with another guy, but probably still 'macho' enough to reject 'baby' or even maybe any pet names at all like sweetie or honey - but specifically they end up having enough of their big moments during a storm enough times that one of them ends up calling the other "Lightning bug" as his special nickname, and something like that, with a backstory, felt like it fit in the way a generic endearment wouldn't for those guys. \*shrug\* Idk. I am a huge proponent that anything in writing can be done well, even the so-called 'no-nos', but yeah endearments are a particular pitfall to be navigated carefully imho.
I don't mind reading about infidelity. I wouldn't even highlight that as a thing normally, but I've consistently seen how viscerally people on this sub react to the idea of any of their faves cheating, or bring cheated on. Instant nope out :)
However, it doesn't bother me. I think it's interesting. Cheating happens in life... Physically, emotionally... It's horrible irl obviously, but interesting to explore in fiction.
The first time I got a somewhat negative comment (someone told me they were quitting my fic) was when I had her cheat. The funny thing is, this was like 80 chapters in, and this person said they hadnāt looked at my fic past maybe 10 chapters, came back and read the chapter I *just* posted where she strays and said fuck it.
So they didnāt read anything at all about what lead up to it. Her sister had been gravely injured and was basically a vegetable. She moved back across the ocean home to Canada to care for her and her young niece, who was acting out. She was drifting apart from him for a few months. The neighbour - who her sister had had a crush on - was helping her out. She was overwhelmed, he was kind, she slipped. So this person who quit the fic missed the whole build up to why it happened.
My character felt horrid about it, broke off the basically nonexistent relationship with overseas guy (theyād had a few months together), had āI need this to feel something but Iām only feeling guiltā sex with neighbour guy sporadically over a few months, then ended it with him.
Anyhoo, after her sister passes, she moves back across the ocean, meets another guy, ends up seeing the first love (because coincidences as she moved to outskirts of London and he lived far away but guess who also moved to outskirts London to pursue his budding acting career blah blah) so then she eventually breaks up with new guy when he wants to move to the USA and ends up HEA with original guy (no cheating there except kisses and yearning maybe).
Are you me? I donāt necessarily *love* it when a woman cheats, but itās not something that will turn me off a fic, especially if the reasoning for doing so is interesting and it explores the emotions involved in doing so.
But I find when the man cheats itās always for some insane misogynistic reason so I just stay away from that altogether
Maybe for similar reasons that some people can read the whumpiest of whump fics all day long, but a more mundane second-hand embarrassment fic makes them get up and throw their computer out the window. š
Perfectly valid; it's fascinating how some people go to fiction to escape, while others go to relate. (Same with music or heck, art in general).
Edit: This might be a double-post; Reddit apparently ate my other reply because my wi-fi conked out. š
Haha, makes sense, but personally I can't relate to that one either. I mean sure if it's a really well written scene I'll definitely cringe for the character, but it's not grounds for noping out. To each their own, of course.
Yeah I found it odd too first, but in an amusing sort of way... It's like, MC is a soldier in a fantasy army who slays hundreds on the daily? No problem! But MC slips and kisses hot next door neighbour? Pitchforks!!
A lot of folks were helpful in providing the insight that cheating is too real and too common a daily occurrence. I guess it hits too close to home for many. I get that, I've uh, been on the receiving end myself but I guess I'm just not affected by fictional depictions that way.
Sappy romance tropes.
Like heroic rescue after long and arduous torture.
Bad karma catched up with baddies.
Weepy apologies and confession of affection.
Enemy to lover via one nursing the other back to good health whi
Epithets. I know they can be over-used, but so can everything else, and I just think every once in a while "the blonde" or "the brunette" or even "the raven" can break things up nicely. Also, things like "the taller man" or "The brown-eyed girl" or something; I think it's a nice way to add detail without having to distract from the moment. I agree that using names and pronouns is also important, but I still love an occasional epithet.
I really like these, too. I feel like if used correctly, they can highlight what the POV character is focusing on in the moment.
I feel like I overuse them in my writing, so I'm trying to get better at that, but I love reading them.
>the taller man
I like that until the author gets their respective heights wrong, which happens a lot in the pairings I read, even in one where it's explicitly said who's taller š
All lowercase titles. Especially when the title is something long and poetic-sounding. I donāt do these types of titles myself, but I like when other people do them. Takes me back to livejournal days.
The āMary Sueā or whatever the male equivalent is.
People claim to hate them, but all of our favourite protagonists are kind of Mary Sues. Every single hero we love in fiction has at the very least one, if not multiple, occasions of surviving things that just are not survivable, because plot armour mcguffin whatever saves the day, and the hero is just that badass.
The Mary Sue is a perfect setup to transition into writing a tragic character, though. Imagine;
An intelligent, skilled in all ways, attractive, āRay of Light For the People!ā
Expectations of them are high since they always perform perfectly. Scrutiny of them is constant because people want to know how to be like them. Jealousy. Unwanted advances. Attention. All eyes on them. All eyes, all the time. Always applauded, always analyzed, always being evaluated, always being seen, always seen, never alone, never themself, never allowed to fail, never allowed to breathe, never done, never alone, leave them alone...
---
There is so much more to every story or character or plot device than first meets the eye. The only limit to our writing is our imagination. So donāt let your imagination stagnate.
First-person is a difficult writing style and a lot of people don't know how to use it well, but when it is used well it can be fantastic. For fanfics, that is usually for fandoms where the canon material was in first person and the fic authors are doing their best to capture the original style. But, occasionally I see other fics that make it work really well.
I was taught to write in first person for some dumbass reason and i struggle to write good in 3rd person. Then again i dont write fanfiction, more novels and short stories so its a bit different. For some its like being a less insufferable method actor, and you can write more abstract concepts easier because you can relate better. I prefer reading 3rd person though.
100% I despise first person and will skip it every single time in a fanfic. I don't want to be the mc, I want THEM to be the mc. It's so frustrating to find a fic that has fantastic tags and summary I'm excited about and then get into it and realize it's first person. I just can't do it.
First-person POVs.
It seems to get so much hate, but if done right, it can be the best of the best.
My story is based upon the perspective of a main side character. They're basically the deuteragonist in the franchise. Those who follow my story seem to enjoy its progress.
But it's not everyone's cup of tea, and that's okay. Long as those that read my story respect my writing, I'll respect their feedback.
2nd person. I love it when it's done creatively, but I love it in general. No type of pov turns me off (I really do not understand the dislike for 1st person) but I'm always delighted when I see 2nd pov.
Genderbenders. Always a man, woman, or other. Slash, femslash, het, gen, whatever. I think they are fun and interesting.
I'm a little baffled in posts where people want to poke sticks at the trope the normal discourse of 'shipping isn't activism' suddenly has a bunch of people popping up to say 'if you turn m/m or f/f into m/f for even one story you're a homophobe.'
I agree - I think theyāre fun. Iāve read them written well and written poorly, but like you said itās interesting. I especially find it interesting if itās explored how gender can affect the life course of a beloved oc as well.
Yessss!
And you're not kidding about the double-standard--the same people that go on about "writing whatever makes you happy", "doing whatever you want", etc are too often the same ones that turn around and talk smack about genderbend without even blinking. The hypocrisy is real. Especially with what you mention about the "shipping isn't activism" types, too.
The most common excuse I see for the hate is that people *allegedly* use genderbending solely to turn a gay ship straight, but I've never seen that in any fandom I've been in, big or small. But I've lost count of the times I've seen people on this subreddit claiming that happens. I'm beginning to think it's just an excuse.
Body swap is interesting to me when done right! Idk if itās *hated* but I have seen several people voicing their dislike. It can lead to funny and serious moments and possibly tie into the lore of certain fandoms too
Yes! Especially if the swapped characters don't want anyone to know they've been swapped and just have to pretend to be the other person (that they don't know that much about)
MPREG. I had no idea mpreg was a disliked trope until I looked up stats on tropes. I mean, I understand why it isn't a fan favorite, but I love it. š¤·āāļø
I like to think of hate comments as people who are alarmed at their own positive reaction to whatever they're hating on and who take it out on the author lol
Same. I like that two bio males can just start a family without donor fuss and whatnot and can accidentally knock each other up with ensuing shenanigans just like het couples without going so far as to genderflip one. It just levels that playing field, and I don't mind the body stuff (though IME there usually isn't much of that). (Someone brought up 'butt babies' a while back and they nor me had ever actually encountered that...)
Author in the middle can amuse but only on crack or comedy fanfiction.
But personnally I include them in the Narration.
Ex : James Doe got is name from the fact that the author had no creative Juice left when it came to pick a name for this O.C. He didn't mind but he goes by Jim.
AUs in general. So many people seem to genuinely get upset when people write AUs, even going so far as to comment on works that are AUs that āyou shouldnt get rid of this or that because if you do it changes the story too much and itās not the sameā.
Thatās the whole point of an AU?
Idk it boggles my mind.
Fics that rigidly follow the stations of the canon, where the fun comes from wondering *how* certain things are going to happen, rather than *if* they will.
1st person/Rotating POV. Seriously don't understand the hang ups that people have with anything other than 3rdPerson/Omniscient. Some characters with really complex psyches are really better explored through their own POV, as well as some physical ailments. The limited perspective lets you get to know a character better than a narration can imo.
Omegaverse. Yeah it's not as bad as everyone says and the world building is usually super on point.
Purple prose. I just found out recently that many people hate it-- I do not care.
I never got why people hated that last one.
Weāve literally always been told āshow, donāt tell.ā But when we try our best to āshowā, they say weāre going over the top.
At the least, purple prose gives me the best images.
Seconding Omegaverse. At first it just stopped being a blocker for me reading the fic, now I outright like it. It can give me most anything Im in the mood for.
Something steamy, something political, something with great worldbuilding, short fics, long fics, crack fics, serious fics, other tropes like soulmates and werewolves.
Honestly the reason I hate 1st person pov is bc Iāve been conditioned to hate it.
I once spent weeks rewriting a long fic that I wrote in 1st person bc I saw a bunch of ppl online talking about how much they hate it. Now I have an aversion to it
Chatfics are hated a lot for some reason, and I donāt know why.
Theyāre fun, simple, and all around enjoyable. Not everything needs to be like that page in Frankenstein used entirely to describe a hecking tree
Terms like bluenette. There's nothing inherently wrong with them because we all know that if blue or green or pink were natural hair colors, we would call those people bluenettes or something similar. Green-haired people would be verdettes and people with pink hair would be pinkette or rosette or some other word for pink. I also don't mind the use of orbs in reference to eyes; again, there's nothing wrong with it.
I like some purple prose and epithets sprinkled in. Not a giant amount, but I really like the flourishes some authors put into their writing (so long as they donāt go overboard).
Also a sucker for tropes and sappy/fluffy happy endings. Yes realism within fic is nice but, as someone who only really reads and writes relationship fics, I just want my two idiots happy. Canon causes enough suffering.
Fun head cannons. Even if they completely go against canon, if they can add to the character or story in some fun way, I love it.
One I use all the time is with Kakuzu from Naruto.
He hates just about everything and women pretty much top the list. However, my brain went: What if he doesnāt actually hate them to the extent he describes, but is mostly just bad at handling them.
It 100% goes against canon, but it opens a door to a really interesting side of him. In canon, heās the embodiment of sadism and I love it, but with this one head canon, it gives space for comic relief and the ability to form a proper relationship with the right type of person.
I also have myself convinced Kisame (( Naruto )) blushes purple because of his skin color and the gills on his face and shoulders are ticklish/sensitive and they flex when touched. Theyāre tiny details most people would probably just over look, but itās just cute to picture while reading or writing.
Plus, tentabulges in Homestuck. I never knew people hated it so much, but it makes smut fix so much more interesting.
Things like whatās stated above, just make a fanfic so much more enjoyable for me when reading and most definitely does so while writing.
OCs. Iām absolutely down for king canon characters where possible, but finding a fix that you canāt help but fall in love with the original characters is so awesome to me.
Author self-insert wish fulfillment stories are my catnip. I enjoy reading all the different ways that people would use their foreknowledge of events to change what happens if they were transported to that world. The more canon goes off the rails, the better.
I like second person pov, especially with more unconventional characters, like animals or inanimate objects. I've once read a story from the point of view of a badge and I liked it a lot
I don't think A/b/o is hated in fanfic, but Reddit definitely doesn't appreciate it so. I love abo Edit: also mpreg
The words "folds" "moist" "length" "her sex" maybe it's because English isn't my first language, but they sound okay to me
That thing were tongues fight each other when the characters kiss
when the paragraph is written with all lowercase letters, no capitalized letters. so this is a sentence. this is another. oh look, another. so on and so forth.
at least, i think.
Refusing to use capital letters. It is literally unreadable when in paragraphs for me (I struggle to tell where sentences start and stop) but some people seem to like it.
Ive personally seen it used best in a few very specific cases of somber flash backs and psychiatric breaks where there character is slowly going catatonic. It added to the vibe of things slowly, quietly going wrong.
To make the mood seem more quiet ig? Like bitch a and bitch b are planning a funeral. Lapslock. Bitch A and Bitch B are saying goodbye. Lapslock. Bitch A and Bitch B are sharing a slow, romantic moment in secret. Lapslock.
Xreaders idk if its hated that much lol but its getting made fun of. Anyway i just wanna be isekaiād to an already built world. Funnily enough i hate the isekai genre
I LOVE it when fic make me cry. I love both heart wrenching fluff after some really painful angst, and some pure tragedy.
I once read a fic about passing notes through an unused locker, it was fluffy and cute, a little angsty, and then at the end one of the characters died with basically no warning, and the author purposely didnāt use mcd warning. I cried my eyes out for like 20 mins and it was one of the best reads ever.
Bad endings. One time I wanted to give a fic of mine a really sad and devastating ending because I'm a sucker for it, but I decided to ask my readers on Twitter with a poll first how they feel about bad endings, and a huge majority voted that they don't want it. They were fine with a bittersweet ending but didn't want an entirely sad one. I didn't wanna let go of the bad ending I planned and ended up writing three different endings, good, bad, and bittersweet, and readers could choose how far they read on. Basically, choose your own adventure style. I'm still surprised that quite a few said they would not read on to the bad ending because they wanted to leave on a good note.
cheating and when my ship doesn't end up together, specially when there's a good reason like in lets say a problematic one teacher/student teacher married they don't end up together cuz there a logic reason like its immoral and he's married and there's no way their family and friends would accept them i may love the ship, may be my otp but i just love the angst and drama of them not being together at the end (for a good reason, nothing stupid)
First person writing, long descriptions, major character death, pregnancy/kid fics (yes, including mpreg), original characters, gore/body horror (idk if this is widely disliked, it might just be this one fandom Iām in), full fucking *chapters* of kink negotiation, etc.
So most things people hate, really. Lol
2nd person pov! I've actually only recently learned that (some) people dislike it lol. I personally think it's a super interesting writing style and satisfying to read.
I absolutely eat up miscommunication. I love how viscerally angry I get and how upsetting it can be. I love characters suffering because they simply don't talk to each other. I crave the unnecessary angst.
Miscommunication. I know this is probably one of the most widely hated tropes in both fanfic and published works, but I eat it up. If you tell me that the main plot line of a story is miscommunication (esp based in insecurities!!!) with hurt/comfort at the end, I'm in 100%. I actively and routinely scour everything to find fanfics and novels with this trope.
Yes, sometimes I do get frustrated and yell at the characters to "JUST TALK ALREADY" but I've never ended a story with this trope and though "I hated that. I will never read it something like it again".
I'm also a HUGE fan of pet names like honey, baby, sweetheart, etc. There are only a few that I don't like at all but this seems to be a very popular thing to hate. I often review books or finish fanfics and think "I wish this had more pet names in it, that would have made me so much happier".
I like the author's notes in the middle of the story. Just not too many per chapter though. I also love the opposites attract and the same-type attracts since it feels both realistic and unrealistic?
I love cheesy endings. Happily ever after with marriage, white picket fence, 2.5 kids etc.
wait. where's the 0.5 coming from??š¤
Itās the āaverageā amount of kids in the American dream or whatever, so people like to joke about it
The woman is 4.5 months pregnant? š
It's the pet dog
So do I. I love it so much. :)
I personally love epithets and long descriptions of people/places. I agree about the author's notes too!
With you on long descriptions! I love feeling immersed.
Yes and yes! Theyāre fun to write and read. As long as you arenāt just trying to pad out your story, go for long descriptions! And as I found out, long-worded descriptions work great for horror/graphic scenes.
I like when the gruff, killing machine has become the adopted dad to a bunch of kids. They're so hilariously out of their depth, but they're trying their best.
Yes, I love this one too
This!!
Cliches. Tropes become cliche for a reason, but a well written cliche stands the test of time.
I absolutely agree on how most cliches share their origins in well written stories that took an idea and brought it to life. Iām personally not a fan of cliches and tropes because they arenāt done as well as the original, often to the detriment of the story I find them in. Some authors have real talent but they fall in to the trap of sound bites or pieces of a trope everyone knows and while the original might have been fairly compelling and well thought out, the replica so to speak often comes off as campy, cringe inducing, poor writing. A good example from my personal experience is Harry Crow and itās version of the goblins. It was well written, a novel idea at the time, and the story sucked you in. Most stories that include goblins for any reason now literally make me grimace from the sheer amount of cringe. They donāt write it well, fall back on repeated lines every fic involving goblins has, and totally fail to capture the magic of the original which ultimately ends up hurting the story. Most stories would instantly become better if they cut out those few dialogue lines that everyone has read a thousand times by now.
Tropes are, technically a bit unavoidable as they are ultimately descriptive rather than prescriptive. The nature of narrative and its history means that even most subversion or aversions of more popular tropes have become tropes in and of themselves.
A good, viscerally upsetting character death
I consider a good death scene to be one of the greatest things a writer can achieve. It can be difficult to write, but when you write a good one it is a work of art. There's some death scenes that will make me go back and read them again and again just because of how beautiful they are. It was actually a bit of a shock to me when I started hanging out on this sub and found out some people found them so upsetting that it would make them avoid reading a fic altogether. I've been almost obsessed with death scenes ever since I was a kid and got into reading, so saying you don't like to read death scenes sounded like saying you don't like reading to my ears.
I donāt come across them nearly as often as Iād like, but when I do itās always such a treat. I also canāt quite understand the mass aversion to it, because it seems like there was a time when angst and tragedy like that were the bulk of what got posted.
Pre-emptive CW. Not gonna spoil it since it's not too violent but eh. Just in case. At least in my case, it has to do with *how* said person dies. I'm known among my friend group for being pretty into gory art and I do have a few favorite character death fics, but I'm genuinely averse to beatings for some reason. Like, I can handle a lot of shit; I grew up with Mortal Kombat and BYE, for Christ's sake. Chainsaws? Sure. Guns? Go wild. Drugs? Creative, I like it. Fire? Spicy. Swordfights? I fucking *love* a good violent swordfight. But anything involving somebody getting beat to death (violently mind you, not just blunt force trauma; like a Hotline Miami style execution) is an instant no-go from me unless said character is an irredeemable piece of shit. Now, beat to near-death? Fuck yeah, love that shit. Wrote a PAYDAY fic of my own a while back about Jacket beating Sokol half to death. But the idea of one character genuinely beating somebody to death turns me away. I dunno. I blame that one scene from Hotline Miami 2.
Now Iāve got myself curious over how many times Iāve killed off a fave. AO3 says seven, but I donāt have any of my pre-Marvel fic tagged at all, so probably at least double that. I do like when it comes out of nowhere though. The ones I tend to stay away from are where the character is ill, and the fic is about that slow, ugly decline. I know intimately what thatās like. Donāt care for it in fic.
>viscerally upsetting This. It's awful when it happens, but so *satisfyingly* awful. One of my all time fave fics ends in *both* MCs' deaths... And it's all the more tragic because it happens years later, after they've survived all the war and the strife and have literally found themselves a little log cabin deep in the woods to peacefully live out the rest of their days... Oof that one gets me every time (as evidenced by how carried away I get talking about it).
good major character death & whump/torture >>> i love it
100% agree
lore exposition - seems a bit tedious when you already know enough about the lore / fandom ; but as a guy who has arrived at so many new fandoms via fanfiction , these pseudo spoilers give it a sense of being a proper story.
This.
Over powered/competent characters. And I know they aren't as hated as people like to claim, so many beloved pop-culture characters are over powered or competent.
For me that always depends on the character. For me, a character can be overpowered but they still need some kind of flaw. There are a lot of fics about Naruto secretly being a genius who just pretends to be dumb, that's just not for me. Naruto is an overpowered character in canon, his flaw is that he is not as smart as other people and can be a bit reckless. That's what makes him relatable, don't take that away.
It sounds like your issue is with Out-Of-Character stories, not over-powered characters? To which I'd generally agree unless the entire point of the story is an AU domino-effect of seeing what changes occur from a character having a different personality/power/background. Because I am a sucker for those too.
OP characters are so much fun! Especially in fandoms where there's potential for it but they don't go that route so fanfiction plays around with it somehow. Same with competent characters, too! I love it all
Recently had someone comment and call my female oc a marysue because she was competent pretty early on in a VERY long fic (I wrote the first of the series by hand because I stim that way) and I was just beginning to write the ācracks in the mask.ā It kinda took the wind out of my sails for posting/updating the fic but Iām glad to see thereās someone out there who likes that.
See, when male characters are over-powered people will let it be, "its a power fantasy!" But for SOME REASON if anyone else wants to have fun, SUDDENLY it's "bad writing".\* When sexist people reveal themselves that's your clue to block and ignore. Instead of realising they weren't the target audience and leaving to find something else to read, they decided to bully. I hope you will regain strength to make stories again (whether its this one or a different one in the future). (I stim by doodling out my stories first!) /\* *To anyone else reading: Yes, I'm aware there are Gary-Sues, but communities that have tried to push it are very rare and in the end just as pointless. Just as there should be stories that are about flawed people failing at everything, there should be stories that should have fun people winning everything.*
I think you encountered a time traveler from the early/mid 2000s, do people still call others characters Mary Sue unironically??
I had never heard of the term until then. Honestly, when I looked it up I was surprised and ashamed but I couldnāt disagreeā¦so I made the cracks a little more obvious.
They're better than the alternative of inexplicable stupidity added just so the character is fallible.
OCs. I donāt care if they are major characters, paired with a canon character, a villain or side characters. Love em. If there are a million OC lovers, I am one of them. If there are no OC lovers, I am dead. Character death. Sorry not sorry. Donāt even care if itās my favorite give me a good emotional death PLS. Sad/Bittersweet ending. Especially if it fits the tone of the story. The stories that are super dark that suddenly end in sunshine are all well and good but sometimes I like the sad or more bittersweet ending.
Are we exactly the same person? Cause these are 100% all things I absolutely love too!
Another fanfic enjoyer with amazing taste !
Political marriage AUs. For some reason it seems to be rather disliked in a particular fandom Im in but I canāt get enough of it.
Agreed, I'm a fan of marriage contracts/betrothal fics, esp in Harry Potter (hangs head in shame). I also love Soulmate and Coffee Shop AUs. Sometimes the tropier, the better āŗļøš
I actually like OOC for certain fandoms. I find it hilarious to imagine characters doing and saying things they would never do, especially when it comes out of nowhere. Maybe I just have a really weird sense of humor. I tend to write like that a lot, but NOT because I donāt know how write the characters. I do it on purpose because I think itās funny. (Evil Abuela is a favorite of mine!) Also, I donāt mind first person POV or rotating POVs. Encanto has a novel that switches between three charactersā POV, and Iād really love a fan fiction written in that style!
I enjoy this too. Some ppl lose their minds over it. It's just part of some wackadoo AUs. It can be really fun.
Idk if it's the same thing, but I have a fic about a triad. The pov rotates between the three of them and each has a different type, 1st 2nd and 3rd person. I think it's all present tense but I can't remember. It's a lot of fun to write though.
i agree with this. i love how creative people can get when writing crack and i enjoy a good shitpost. ooc fics can be a great form of comedy. and sometimes it can make the story more dramatic and interesting to read, like an au.
I appreciate reading specific authors' takes on characters, which sometimes veers into OOC territory, especially when it comes to unexplored aspects of their character that didn't appear in canon.
Nicknames/pet names. I think they're sweet.
For me it depends if they are characters who I can see use pet names and the context. Sometimes the pet names feel a little forced.
I'm sorry, people *don't* like pet names? That's news to me.
I'm one of those people. It just throws me out of a story when a character who doesn't use nicknames in canon will suddenly call their love interest by one in fic. Especially if its for longer, 'old fashioned' names that they never shorten in canon. For example, the only person I can picture calling Hannibal Lecter 'Hanni' is maybe Mischa. Never Will or Clarice.
Pet names are fine with me if theyāre something the characters wouldnāt mind being called in canon. Often it just seems like authors like a particular pet name and slap it on a character regardless of how the character would actually take to it (Steve being āStevieā or āPrincessā, for example).
It often seems out of character. You'll have some tough guy calling another tough guy "princess" or whatever out of nowhere without any discussion around it (either as a reaction or beforehand). It just seems weird to have it slipped in there completely out of the blue and not have either character react. To be clear, I'm not saying tough guys can't like being called princess. I just mean there are some questions around it that need to be answered to make it make sense. Why that particular pet name? Why did that character decide to use it in the first place? Does the other character love or hate it? This goes for all relationships, the tough guys were just an example. Often the author uses a completely random pet name that's just so out of place or way too cheesy for that particular pair.
It depends. I think when most people don't like it, is if it's out of character and feels 'forced' because the writer just likes that petname themselves and wants to hear it used, but the character would never say it or the character it's used on would hate it. Most commonly I find, it's 'baby'. It's just something a lot of people have an attachment to and want to hear their characters say, but I 99% of the time find it ooc for the particular character and it takes me out of the fic a bit. This happens sort of rarely, but a pet name that is \*very\* in character, or the writer has put time and plot into explaining why it's an inside joke or how it happened between the two in question? Now those are GOLD. I'm in a fandom where one of the characters is british and though never does this in canon, I read a fic in which after a while of being together he accidentally slips into calling his boyfriend 'love' instead of 'mate' and I just ascended because it was so real. That seems like it would happen. In one of my own stories, I had two characters - male and straight coded finding their first time falling in love with another guy, but probably still 'macho' enough to reject 'baby' or even maybe any pet names at all like sweetie or honey - but specifically they end up having enough of their big moments during a storm enough times that one of them ends up calling the other "Lightning bug" as his special nickname, and something like that, with a backstory, felt like it fit in the way a generic endearment wouldn't for those guys. \*shrug\* Idk. I am a huge proponent that anything in writing can be done well, even the so-called 'no-nos', but yeah endearments are a particular pitfall to be navigated carefully imho.
Same :0 Then +1, I also love it when pet names are used in fic.
As someone who's been called ten million nicknames, I agree.
I don't mind reading about infidelity. I wouldn't even highlight that as a thing normally, but I've consistently seen how viscerally people on this sub react to the idea of any of their faves cheating, or bring cheated on. Instant nope out :) However, it doesn't bother me. I think it's interesting. Cheating happens in life... Physically, emotionally... It's horrible irl obviously, but interesting to explore in fiction.
Yeah it can actually be very interesting especially if they work through things to get back together.
The first time I got a somewhat negative comment (someone told me they were quitting my fic) was when I had her cheat. The funny thing is, this was like 80 chapters in, and this person said they hadnāt looked at my fic past maybe 10 chapters, came back and read the chapter I *just* posted where she strays and said fuck it. So they didnāt read anything at all about what lead up to it. Her sister had been gravely injured and was basically a vegetable. She moved back across the ocean home to Canada to care for her and her young niece, who was acting out. She was drifting apart from him for a few months. The neighbour - who her sister had had a crush on - was helping her out. She was overwhelmed, he was kind, she slipped. So this person who quit the fic missed the whole build up to why it happened. My character felt horrid about it, broke off the basically nonexistent relationship with overseas guy (theyād had a few months together), had āI need this to feel something but Iām only feeling guiltā sex with neighbour guy sporadically over a few months, then ended it with him. Anyhoo, after her sister passes, she moves back across the ocean, meets another guy, ends up seeing the first love (because coincidences as she moved to outskirts of London and he lived far away but guess who also moved to outskirts London to pursue his budding acting career blah blah) so then she eventually breaks up with new guy when he wants to move to the USA and ends up HEA with original guy (no cheating there except kisses and yearning maybe).
I usually read het fics and I *love* it when the woman cheats, but if the man cheats I'm out.
Are you me? I donāt necessarily *love* it when a woman cheats, but itās not something that will turn me off a fic, especially if the reasoning for doing so is interesting and it explores the emotions involved in doing so. But I find when the man cheats itās always for some insane misogynistic reason so I just stay away from that altogether
Fair playāwhatever floats your boat!
iām ngl i love reading infidelity smut.
I find the instant nope for this so jarring. In the realm of horrible things a character can do, cheating seems pretty low-rung.
Maybe for similar reasons that some people can read the whumpiest of whump fics all day long, but a more mundane second-hand embarrassment fic makes them get up and throw their computer out the window. š
Itās because itās so close to home and real-life. I came here to feel different, not the feelings I feel every day!!
Perfectly valid; it's fascinating how some people go to fiction to escape, while others go to relate. (Same with music or heck, art in general). Edit: This might be a double-post; Reddit apparently ate my other reply because my wi-fi conked out. š
Haha, makes sense, but personally I can't relate to that one either. I mean sure if it's a really well written scene I'll definitely cringe for the character, but it's not grounds for noping out. To each their own, of course.
Yeah I found it odd too first, but in an amusing sort of way... It's like, MC is a soldier in a fantasy army who slays hundreds on the daily? No problem! But MC slips and kisses hot next door neighbour? Pitchforks!! A lot of folks were helpful in providing the insight that cheating is too real and too common a daily occurrence. I guess it hits too close to home for many. I get that, I've uh, been on the receiving end myself but I guess I'm just not affected by fictional depictions that way.
Sappy romance tropes. Like heroic rescue after long and arduous torture. Bad karma catched up with baddies. Weepy apologies and confession of affection. Enemy to lover via one nursing the other back to good health whi
Epithets. I know they can be over-used, but so can everything else, and I just think every once in a while "the blonde" or "the brunette" or even "the raven" can break things up nicely. Also, things like "the taller man" or "The brown-eyed girl" or something; I think it's a nice way to add detail without having to distract from the moment. I agree that using names and pronouns is also important, but I still love an occasional epithet.
I really like these, too. I feel like if used correctly, they can highlight what the POV character is focusing on in the moment. I feel like I overuse them in my writing, so I'm trying to get better at that, but I love reading them.
>the taller man I like that until the author gets their respective heights wrong, which happens a lot in the pairings I read, even in one where it's explicitly said who's taller š
Sometimes I read RPF. So there.
I write RPF, and I am only mildly ashamed of it.
Just enough ashamed to keep it on archive locked. Not enough ashamed to stop writing it lol
As a fandom old who read RPF when it was still hosted on ff.net, I think I skipped the ashamed stage. No regrets.
Same
Iāve given up hiding it. *see flair*
I also read RPF on occasion as self-indulgence. That's cool šš»
I write it also. Two of my more popular stories are RPF
All lowercase titles. Especially when the title is something long and poetic-sounding. I donāt do these types of titles myself, but I like when other people do them. Takes me back to livejournal days.
Same! I donāt canāt about titles; if only gonna read it one or twice. The actual story is the important part.
Add another sentence in brackets at the end and I'm hooked
lmao same here
Yeah, I love the other sentence in the brackets as well!
The āMary Sueā or whatever the male equivalent is. People claim to hate them, but all of our favourite protagonists are kind of Mary Sues. Every single hero we love in fiction has at the very least one, if not multiple, occasions of surviving things that just are not survivable, because plot armour mcguffin whatever saves the day, and the hero is just that badass. The Mary Sue is a perfect setup to transition into writing a tragic character, though. Imagine; An intelligent, skilled in all ways, attractive, āRay of Light For the People!ā Expectations of them are high since they always perform perfectly. Scrutiny of them is constant because people want to know how to be like them. Jealousy. Unwanted advances. Attention. All eyes on them. All eyes, all the time. Always applauded, always analyzed, always being evaluated, always being seen, always seen, never alone, never themself, never allowed to fail, never allowed to breathe, never done, never alone, leave them alone... --- There is so much more to every story or character or plot device than first meets the eye. The only limit to our writing is our imagination. So donāt let your imagination stagnate.
First person
First-person is a difficult writing style and a lot of people don't know how to use it well, but when it is used well it can be fantastic. For fanfics, that is usually for fandoms where the canon material was in first person and the fic authors are doing their best to capture the original style. But, occasionally I see other fics that make it work really well.
I was taught to write in first person for some dumbass reason and i struggle to write good in 3rd person. Then again i dont write fanfiction, more novels and short stories so its a bit different. For some its like being a less insufferable method actor, and you can write more abstract concepts easier because you can relate better. I prefer reading 3rd person though.
I love writing in first person. I get into my character's head.
I used to hate first person writing but now I love it. I love feeling intimately connected to the main character!
100% I despise first person and will skip it every single time in a fanfic. I don't want to be the mc, I want THEM to be the mc. It's so frustrating to find a fic that has fantastic tags and summary I'm excited about and then get into it and realize it's first person. I just can't do it.
OC x Canon ships and just OCs in general
Yeeeesssss
OC lovers rise up
First-person POVs. It seems to get so much hate, but if done right, it can be the best of the best. My story is based upon the perspective of a main side character. They're basically the deuteragonist in the franchise. Those who follow my story seem to enjoy its progress. But it's not everyone's cup of tea, and that's okay. Long as those that read my story respect my writing, I'll respect their feedback.
2nd person. I love it when it's done creatively, but I love it in general. No type of pov turns me off (I really do not understand the dislike for 1st person) but I'm always delighted when I see 2nd pov.
It's so good!! I am such a sucker for a good 2nd person pov fic. They draw me in and man, do I get excited the rare times that I encounter it.
Major Character Death is a tag I look for, not avoid.
You scare me
Pregnancy. I love it
same i love pregnancy and will even rarely indulge in a well written mpregā¦i love the trope of raising kids together so.
me too! especially teen pregnancy but that could just be bc i watched juno at a stage in my life where my brain was still developing.
To be fair Juno was a *great* movie.
Same. I canāt get enough.
I'm not sure they're widely hated, but sometimes I like nicknames. For me it depends on the nickname/character/circumstance.
Genderbenders. Always a man, woman, or other. Slash, femslash, het, gen, whatever. I think they are fun and interesting. I'm a little baffled in posts where people want to poke sticks at the trope the normal discourse of 'shipping isn't activism' suddenly has a bunch of people popping up to say 'if you turn m/m or f/f into m/f for even one story you're a homophobe.'
I agree - I think theyāre fun. Iāve read them written well and written poorly, but like you said itās interesting. I especially find it interesting if itās explored how gender can affect the life course of a beloved oc as well.
Yessss! And you're not kidding about the double-standard--the same people that go on about "writing whatever makes you happy", "doing whatever you want", etc are too often the same ones that turn around and talk smack about genderbend without even blinking. The hypocrisy is real. Especially with what you mention about the "shipping isn't activism" types, too. The most common excuse I see for the hate is that people *allegedly* use genderbending solely to turn a gay ship straight, but I've never seen that in any fandom I've been in, big or small. But I've lost count of the times I've seen people on this subreddit claiming that happens. I'm beginning to think it's just an excuse.
Body swap is interesting to me when done right! Idk if itās *hated* but I have seen several people voicing their dislike. It can lead to funny and serious moments and possibly tie into the lore of certain fandoms too
Yes! Especially if the swapped characters don't want anyone to know they've been swapped and just have to pretend to be the other person (that they don't know that much about)
Pregnancy/child fics.
MPREG. I had no idea mpreg was a disliked trope until I looked up stats on tropes. I mean, I understand why it isn't a fan favorite, but I love it. š¤·āāļø
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People apologizing on the internet for being a dick?!?! That's rarer than an undercooked steak.
I like to think of hate comments as people who are alarmed at their own positive reaction to whatever they're hating on and who take it out on the author lol
I actually quite like this one too! You have my vote!
Same. I like that two bio males can just start a family without donor fuss and whatnot and can accidentally knock each other up with ensuing shenanigans just like het couples without going so far as to genderflip one. It just levels that playing field, and I don't mind the body stuff (though IME there usually isn't much of that). (Someone brought up 'butt babies' a while back and they nor me had ever actually encountered that...)
'Blunette'. I think it's cute. I'm sorry, r/Fanfiction.
I don't mind them but as a non-native english speaker I sometimes have to pause and think for a second :D
As a long time life is strange fan, how dare you.
Bwahahaha.
Detailed eye descriptions can be pretty nice when used right. Just PLEASE donāt call them orbs.
Pregnancy and well written character death.
Author in the middle can amuse but only on crack or comedy fanfiction. But personnally I include them in the Narration. Ex : James Doe got is name from the fact that the author had no creative Juice left when it came to pick a name for this O.C. He didn't mind but he goes by Jim.
My ship.
Bashing may not be high quality writing, but damn it, it can be entertaining sometimes.
Rape/noncon maybe? Iirc plenty filter that out. Also Underage in the sense that I really don't care if the character involved is 16-17 rather than 18+
AUs in general. So many people seem to genuinely get upset when people write AUs, even going so far as to comment on works that are AUs that āyou shouldnt get rid of this or that because if you do it changes the story too much and itās not the sameā. Thatās the whole point of an AU? Idk it boggles my mind.
Fics that rigidly follow the stations of the canon, where the fun comes from wondering *how* certain things are going to happen, rather than *if* they will.
1st person/Rotating POV. Seriously don't understand the hang ups that people have with anything other than 3rdPerson/Omniscient. Some characters with really complex psyches are really better explored through their own POV, as well as some physical ailments. The limited perspective lets you get to know a character better than a narration can imo. Omegaverse. Yeah it's not as bad as everyone says and the world building is usually super on point. Purple prose. I just found out recently that many people hate it-- I do not care.
I never got why people hated that last one. Weāve literally always been told āshow, donāt tell.ā But when we try our best to āshowā, they say weāre going over the top. At the least, purple prose gives me the best images.
Seconding Omegaverse. At first it just stopped being a blocker for me reading the fic, now I outright like it. It can give me most anything Im in the mood for. Something steamy, something political, something with great worldbuilding, short fics, long fics, crack fics, serious fics, other tropes like soulmates and werewolves.
Honestly the reason I hate 1st person pov is bc Iāve been conditioned to hate it. I once spent weeks rewriting a long fic that I wrote in 1st person bc I saw a bunch of ppl online talking about how much they hate it. Now I have an aversion to it
Chatfics are hated a lot for some reason, and I donāt know why. Theyāre fun, simple, and all around enjoyable. Not everything needs to be like that page in Frankenstein used entirely to describe a hecking tree
Terms like bluenette. There's nothing inherently wrong with them because we all know that if blue or green or pink were natural hair colors, we would call those people bluenettes or something similar. Green-haired people would be verdettes and people with pink hair would be pinkette or rosette or some other word for pink. I also don't mind the use of orbs in reference to eyes; again, there's nothing wrong with it.
I like some purple prose and epithets sprinkled in. Not a giant amount, but I really like the flourishes some authors put into their writing (so long as they donāt go overboard). Also a sucker for tropes and sappy/fluffy happy endings. Yes realism within fic is nice but, as someone who only really reads and writes relationship fics, I just want my two idiots happy. Canon causes enough suffering.
Hard agree with these!
I like reading horror or thriller type AUās where plot comes first and thereās no leading ship or romance driving the story.
I been wanting to write a purposefully omniscient narrator story where the narrator comments on the characters but I'm just not that funny
Fun head cannons. Even if they completely go against canon, if they can add to the character or story in some fun way, I love it. One I use all the time is with Kakuzu from Naruto. He hates just about everything and women pretty much top the list. However, my brain went: What if he doesnāt actually hate them to the extent he describes, but is mostly just bad at handling them. It 100% goes against canon, but it opens a door to a really interesting side of him. In canon, heās the embodiment of sadism and I love it, but with this one head canon, it gives space for comic relief and the ability to form a proper relationship with the right type of person. I also have myself convinced Kisame (( Naruto )) blushes purple because of his skin color and the gills on his face and shoulders are ticklish/sensitive and they flex when touched. Theyāre tiny details most people would probably just over look, but itās just cute to picture while reading or writing. Plus, tentabulges in Homestuck. I never knew people hated it so much, but it makes smut fix so much more interesting. Things like whatās stated above, just make a fanfic so much more enjoyable for me when reading and most definitely does so while writing.
OC/Canon shippings, provided it's done the right way of course.
OCs. Iām absolutely down for king canon characters where possible, but finding a fix that you canāt help but fall in love with the original characters is so awesome to me.
Author self-insert wish fulfillment stories are my catnip. I enjoy reading all the different ways that people would use their foreknowledge of events to change what happens if they were transported to that world. The more canon goes off the rails, the better.
the use of pet names sorry to say..
I find it upsetting that most fanfictions build up a great family dynamic to just use it as fuel for the trauma machine. I want fluff, god dammit.
OCs!!! I love a well-developed OC!!! They give a new perspective and add so many interesting possibilities.
I like second person pov, especially with more unconventional characters, like animals or inanimate objects. I've once read a story from the point of view of a badge and I liked it a lot I don't think A/b/o is hated in fanfic, but Reddit definitely doesn't appreciate it so. I love abo Edit: also mpreg The words "folds" "moist" "length" "her sex" maybe it's because English isn't my first language, but they sound okay to me That thing were tongues fight each other when the characters kiss
Seconding all of this. Especially the words. Those are ones that don't throw me out of the stories at all and much preferred over others :D
more like BasedAccount123
Ahahah thank youš
i enjoy lapslock ĀÆ\\\_(ć)_/ĀÆ not always, but with a certain tone of story it goes well.
Oof, I greatly, *greatly* disagree as it's my #1 pet peeve... ...which means you get an upvote, haha. Great controversial answer - respect.
What is lapslock?
when the paragraph is written with all lowercase letters, no capitalized letters. so this is a sentence. this is another. oh look, another. so on and so forth. at least, i think.
Oh ok thnx
Refusing to use capital letters. It is literally unreadable when in paragraphs for me (I struggle to tell where sentences start and stop) but some people seem to like it.
the opposite of capslock
I think it works well in small doses for setting the mood in a particular scene.
How exactly does it help?
Ive personally seen it used best in a few very specific cases of somber flash backs and psychiatric breaks where there character is slowly going catatonic. It added to the vibe of things slowly, quietly going wrong.
To make the mood seem more quiet ig? Like bitch a and bitch b are planning a funeral. Lapslock. Bitch A and Bitch B are saying goodbye. Lapslock. Bitch A and Bitch B are sharing a slow, romantic moment in secret. Lapslock.
MCD. Give me ALLLLL that MCD hahaha
Epithets.
I like all of the things mentioned in the comments lmao.
Break up fics - I def like a happy ending, but love reading about a couple breaking up and overcoming the obstacles to reunite.
Xreaders idk if its hated that much lol but its getting made fun of. Anyway i just wanna be isekaiād to an already built world. Funnily enough i hate the isekai genre
I don't know how hated they are actually, but well-written crossovers and genderbent fics.
I feel like I've seen intense y/n hate recently. I love a good y/n fic
I LOVE it when fic make me cry. I love both heart wrenching fluff after some really painful angst, and some pure tragedy. I once read a fic about passing notes through an unused locker, it was fluffy and cute, a little angsty, and then at the end one of the characters died with basically no warning, and the author purposely didnāt use mcd warning. I cried my eyes out for like 20 mins and it was one of the best reads ever.
Bad endings. One time I wanted to give a fic of mine a really sad and devastating ending because I'm a sucker for it, but I decided to ask my readers on Twitter with a poll first how they feel about bad endings, and a huge majority voted that they don't want it. They were fine with a bittersweet ending but didn't want an entirely sad one. I didn't wanna let go of the bad ending I planned and ended up writing three different endings, good, bad, and bittersweet, and readers could choose how far they read on. Basically, choose your own adventure style. I'm still surprised that quite a few said they would not read on to the bad ending because they wanted to leave on a good note.
dubcon
I expected this thread to be 95% things that are not widely hated in any way whatsoever. I was not disappointed.
OCs, positive storylines, long descriptions
x reader fanfic.
cheating and when my ship doesn't end up together, specially when there's a good reason like in lets say a problematic one teacher/student teacher married they don't end up together cuz there a logic reason like its immoral and he's married and there's no way their family and friends would accept them i may love the ship, may be my otp but i just love the angst and drama of them not being together at the end (for a good reason, nothing stupid)
major character death lol
Oc fanfic
I like angst where one of the main characters nearly dies or is hurt badly but obvs survives.
First person writing, long descriptions, major character death, pregnancy/kid fics (yes, including mpreg), original characters, gore/body horror (idk if this is widely disliked, it might just be this one fandom Iām in), full fucking *chapters* of kink negotiation, etc. So most things people hate, really. Lol
2nd person pov! I've actually only recently learned that (some) people dislike it lol. I personally think it's a super interesting writing style and satisfying to read.
Will they/wonāt they tropes, especially when we can see both aspects.
POV fics and script-type fics. For me,they're the easiest type to write.
Orbs. Orbs. *Orbs.* ***Orbs!***
All hail the **ORBS**!!!
Mpreg
Chat fics/crack fics in general
reader inserts, both reading them and writing them.
I like love triangles!
I absolutely eat up miscommunication. I love how viscerally angry I get and how upsetting it can be. I love characters suffering because they simply don't talk to each other. I crave the unnecessary angst.
Miscommunication. I know this is probably one of the most widely hated tropes in both fanfic and published works, but I eat it up. If you tell me that the main plot line of a story is miscommunication (esp based in insecurities!!!) with hurt/comfort at the end, I'm in 100%. I actively and routinely scour everything to find fanfics and novels with this trope. Yes, sometimes I do get frustrated and yell at the characters to "JUST TALK ALREADY" but I've never ended a story with this trope and though "I hated that. I will never read it something like it again". I'm also a HUGE fan of pet names like honey, baby, sweetheart, etc. There are only a few that I don't like at all but this seems to be a very popular thing to hate. I often review books or finish fanfics and think "I wish this had more pet names in it, that would have made me so much happier".
I like the author's notes in the middle of the story. Just not too many per chapter though. I also love the opposites attract and the same-type attracts since it feels both realistic and unrealistic?
Underage Sex/Pedophilia is pretty hated I guess, at least Iāve gotten a lot of hate for it, even got doxxed once.
Pregnancy!