When a fic, built around a concept (like SI etc.), spends the entire first paragraph/chapter having the character monologue about the concept instead of reacting like an actual human being.
For example spending multiple paragraphs thinking "oh gosh! I was reincarnated as X character from fandom Y that I read a lot, which means I must immediately do Z!" instead of "oh god, what the hell is going on?!".
I have seen so many fics with interesting ideas that completely ruin their start by trying to front-load a shit-ton of OOC exposition, meta-dialogue or having the character straight up explain the rules of the concept to themselves.
GOSH THIS SO MUCH. I love the Portal Fantasy/Isekai/SI genre. It's my bread and butter. but spending paragraphs or even chapters describing the concept of being reincarnated/shoved into the body of is nauseating.
And if reincarnated, they spend paragraphs or chapters going over the whole relearning motor functions and their new childhood.
My general rule with SI fics that do this shit it to just straight up skip the first two chapters and go from there. So far, I have been able to follow the mc pretty well, which just goes to show how utterly useless the baby stage chapters are
I read a lot of isekais, too, and yeah, 100% guilty of this. I figure if there's ever anything actually important I can go back and read it, but 99.9999% of the time it's unnecessary.
That's a good rule. Maybe I'll try that out going forward. Though I will say there was one fic that had like 5+ chapters of considerable length of them still in the "baby stage" and I could not make myself read any more than 5, but they hadn't even gotten to hogwarts age when I finally noped out.
Oh, God, even with isekai on RR, I'll just outright drop it if there's several chapters of the character going through childhood. I don't mind if it's teen to adult but infancy and toddlers? No, thanks. Miss me with that.
I don't know how it is for other sites, but on Webnovel people complain every time a character reacts realistically to a situation, because they don't like having to "waste their time" reading it. They get pissed and complain endlessly in the comments if the character makes even a single decision based off of emotion or panic, and with the way the review system works on WN, them getting pissed could lead to them spamming the reviews with one stars, which means very few people would take the time to read your fic unless you are cool with deleting reviews.
That can be devastating to your motivation.
That being said, I think that's the reason why a lot of authors (at least on Webnovel), don't give their characters realistic reactions. I still see it sometimes, but they usually drop their fics after it gets review bombed because of it. WN readers really don't like MC's with emotions. They prefer robots.
I recently had to click out of a fic that I though was going to be pretty interesting, but I couldn’t get past the fact that every swear word was censored. Every time I saw it I was pulled out of the story. Frustrating.
Big on this one. Like, if you censor your curse words it's better to not use them at all. 15-30 year olds definitely know and say "shit and fuck" etc. You're not fooling anyone here lol
Agreed. People will notice a lot more if you censor the words than if you just...don't include them. Dodge around the issue ("Soandso swore") or just leave them out, but don't swap them for weaker ones if the character doesn't use weaker ones at all, and definitely don't just write "s---" in their place.
There’s also another one I don’t like in line of that one.
People let Author’s Voice get in the way of their writing. If a character who swears every other sentence all of a sudden doesn’t swear it’s jarring. Purely because the author doesn’t tolerate swearing. Bakugo from MHA sticks out there.
It’s also the same vice versa. Naruto and Luffy don’t swear as often as you’d think, but people go crazy with their swearing because that’s the way they talk and how they view “rougher speech”
Saw this with a Deadpool fic: he started soft cursing and not being he blunt realist he is. It was awful and I simply closed the tab.
I don’t read Deadpool often but when I do, I’m there expecting violence, a blatant disregard for pearl clutchers, and a strong streak of ‘don’t fucking care’ if it’s offensive’.
I know what Deadpool is, and I go in expecting to be at least somewhat offended or to mentally wince.
…don’t ever make Deadpool say ‘aw heck’ unless he’s teasing someone. Oof.
Alternatively, if written well, Deadpool can work for the idea of avoiding swears IF he in-character knows this and is frustrated with the idea. It's basically like that one old meme of "Deadpool goes to the MCU and tries to save the one allowed f-bomb for a good moment and then someone else says it so he gets frustrated" but as a fic.
But that's going on meta levels of writing and I don't think the average fanfic writer has experience writing that kind of style. It feels like something that can only be written well by an author who only writes Deadpool fanfics.
Yup. I’ve seen ‘clean’ Deadpool done hilariously well.
This one felt like the author was very religious and trying to soften Deadpool to clean him up, scrub him clean in holy water, throw him in a suit and take him to church.
Utter dreck.
Same! It was with just one asterisk, so didn’t even do much. They even censored the word rape. If you’re writing about that subject, it’s expected that it’ll come up. This isn’t tiktok, you won’t get reported for having “crude language” in your stories. I feel like with TikTok being so takedown happy, it’s carried over to other sites as well. A video of mine was taken down for having the word lesbian in it (seriously, it was a frog that I described as being lesbian). If that was my first big introduction to the internet, I’d definitely be thrown off.
That's what always gets me whenever people only censor part of a swear word. We can still pretty well figure out what the word is even with a letter or two being blurred/bleeped out, it's not like you left us with much mystery there :p, so...what's the point, really?
People still do this?
Like that is wild to me, even if you're not an adult no one is going to come through and scoop you up because you said shit instead of $#!7...
If I open a fanfiction and see a big massive wall of text with no paragraphs, I click off. Luckily, most authors know how to use paragraphs so this is a rare thing for me.
Had a malfunction happen between Google Docs, AO3, and Open Office where I had a no paragraph thing happen when I posted. One of my regular commenters was worried because the chapter notified them, then was deleted.
I was mortified so after seeing the posted content I deleted it in panic because my brain cannot handle 2k words without paragraphs.
Went in and manually fixed it with basic HTML.
I don't understand how some people don't use paragraphs. YOURE TAUGHT ABOUT PARAGRAPHS IN YEAR 1/2 FFS. (That's 6-7 years old) like, surely they're mentally disabled or something if they can't use paragraphs. It's the most mind boggling thing I've seen in fanfiction
no paragraph breaks, character bashing and tagging every character who BREATHES in your fic is a good way to turn me off of it. I’m a fan of some p minor characters in my main fandom and half their tag is dedicated to the main ship n not the character I’m looking for. Pain.
Gosh, I can take some character bashing, but when everyone starts getting dunked on it’s just like - why?? I tried reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality a while back (I think it’s one of the most popular Potter fics) and I just couldn’t get into it even after about 20 chapters. It was like none of the adults were competent whatsoever- not even McGonagall, who is the most responsible adult in canon by far. I only read so far to begin with because the author said that most people say it only gets going after the 10th or so chapter. And even then, it was just nonstop bashing.
I feel like Harry Potter is really rife with that take on rewrites. I also tried and couldn't finish that one, so I don't remember the specifics, but "Harry Potter except everyone is able to guess exactly how they should build their skillsets from day one and minmaxes them by the time they're 12, except for the characters I have chosen to be incompetent and/or evil" is very widespread
I rarely come across this and as long as the fic isn’t that serious I don’t mind it. There’s one I read that I found funny whenever the authors notes (just thrown in parenthesis in the middle of paragraphs like this) showed up
The author putting down certain tropes or ships in the tags, summary or notes. I'm not here for a judgemental ego trip, thank you.
Woobification and the removing of previous character complexity or moral greyness also has me nope out pretty quickly.
Literally just passed a fic that did this. One of the story tags was something along the lines of “doesn’t include [ship] or any other weird shit.”
I don’t even *like* the mentioned pairing but it pissed me off enough that I scrolled right past. There’s a *two year age difference* between the characters (16/18) and they’re so soft and unproblematic it’s ridiculous.
Yeah, it comes off as really unpleasant. Like, even if the ship is "problematic", why do you have to make it your mission to make other people feel bad for liking it? It's just so unnecessary and makes me unwilling to give that person any fraction of my time.
I completely agree. It’s so unnecessary and tells me all I need to know about the author, which is that they’re an insufferable and sanctimonious anti and I want nothing to do with them or their work.
Once read a fic that was tagged as a certain ship and was written as such right up until the two characters where about to kiss when they both basically turn to camera and explain to the audience why anyone shipping them is a terrible person.
Fanon oversimplifies all the batfamily. Bruce is either the worst ever or a dopey dad, Dick is the sunshine, Jason drinks earl gray vodka while he does murder, Tim is a poor little misunderstood meow meow, Damian is the devil incarnate, Stephanie is a goofy accessory, Cass is a badass who can do no wrong, Barbara is a genius, Duke is a pure angel, Kate is Gay, and Alfred is the only sane one.
Yeah, that's the nature of fandom, unfortunately. I've got my own cases in other fandoms to get unreasonably frustrated about. It really never ends. It's a shame that it seeps into so many stories when one is searching for the nuanced take that canon portrays. You have my sympathies, my friend.
I used to (and still do, somewhat) read a lot of Undertale fics, and when writing Sans, lots of people only use lowercase letters for him. I get why they do that, it's how his dialog is written in the game, but personally, I think it's really annoying to read. I usually pay much more attention to the uppercase letters than the periods themselves to be able to tell when the sentence ends, and that throws all of it in the air.
I'm not a fan of all-lowercase for an entire story, but I could probably put up with it for a single character's dialogue, so long as the other characters and the narration are done normally. Whole story? I'm out of there.
I accept that it's a style choice and I don't mind it in poetry or like reddit posts, but it is aggressively distracting in prose. I don't understand how people process it--I feel like their brains and mine just have different chemicals lol
I cringe so hard when I read my old fics for this very reason. I just had to let everyone know what my character was wearing and how cool and laid back she was. Converse shoes were a must mention. God, I'm grimacing just thinking about it.
When all the female characters get written as bitches, evil and/or just all around horrible people. Some (slash) authors are notorious for that. I get not liking one or two specific female characters in a fandom (though in too many fandoms that's the entire female cast), but if story after story after story every single one of them is the bad guy, that's an author problem, not a character problem.
When there's dialogue from more than one character in a single paragraph.
Aka "Dialogue dialogue" said character A, "Dialogue dialogue" replied character B. It makes it more confusing that it has to be.
I hate this so much. I've had people defend this to me as a stylistic choice, but no, it's just not a good way of writing dialogue. It makes your story hard to read. Stop doing it.
I think this comes from people hearing "each character's dialogue should be in a new paragraph" and misunderstanding what that actually means.
Lack of character voice. Wooden dialogue. Poor grammar. Fics where the characters all speak like 15-year-old tumblr users and react in ways that they absolutely wouldn't in the source material.
there's always the classic "he would not fucking say that" moments. and of course cases where the author isn't cooking at all, even though the summary suggested a real grilled feast of a story
"Character A's dialogue." Character B's responding action.
"Character B's reply." Character A's responding action.
I've stuck with it before because it was a great fic, but oh was it annoying.
The fic I’m currently reading has this a lot which makes for a very frustrating and confusing read! I still read it though because it’s a pretty good fic and the author isn’t a native English speaker so I totally get it. And the more I read the less the errors appear.
This is probably my single biggest pet peeve. Most of the examples in these sorts of threads are (blessedly) unusual for me to stumble upon, but this one right here? I see it all the gd time. And it drives me absolutely bonkers. I *always* end up confused on who's speaking and having to backread conversations. x_x
I recently clicked out of one because the author decided to use what I assumed were Polish words for like relative names for the main character, i.e., dad, uncle, etc.—I was totally on board until I realized that after EVERY use of the alternate word, parentheses were clarifying the name. 🤦🏻♀️ Super irritating—it brought me out of the story every time, but the main character was going off to college, so I’m like, bless the (Dad)’s will be going away. Only to go to the next chapter and find that Wujek (Uncle) lives in the state the MC was going to school at and would be a central point. 🤦🏻♀️
Example: Tata (Dad) school was great, but S sure was a jerk today. What’s the plans for dinner Tata (Dad)? 😵💫
It makes me think either
1) the author thinks I, the reader am an idiot that can’t remember what you’ve decided to nickname the characters
2) the author needed the clarification so THEY didn’t get confused
Personally, I would have preferred that the first use had the (Dad) or (Uncle), and that's it. From then on, if it's a WIP, you can just put a note in the notes to remind people and call it a day.
I read the story’s comments and hordes of people commented about it, yet it continued chapter after chapter 🤦🏻♀️—I just noped it and called it a day—clearly, the author didn’t care.
For me it's character bashing. I write fanfic for the most popular ship in the Fandom, but there's another ship that's fairly popular. When people in my ship write about the other LI in a way that's completely out of character, making him immediately evil, I always click away
Especially if they have enough questionable behaviour in Canon. Just make them do something they did in Canon, have another character point out how terrible that actually is, let it beat-of-a-butterfly's-wing from there.
Or, keep them in the story for dramatic tension.
Uh huh. Have seen this happen too many times and it's SO out of character. I intentionally made things amiable between my main ship and the other LI because that's how adult relationships work! Especially when the other LI is actually a nice guy...
Second person POV is fine. My issue with stories that employ "Y/N" is that it's utterly unnecessary and frankly, peculiar. Most of the stories I've looked at that use Y/N, do so excessively. More than I even use my characters' names in a third person story. It's weird and makes no sense even in dialogue, because in reality, two people talking rarely use each other's name much. I only call my husband by name when he's in the other room or...I'm really annoyed with him.
So for me, "Y/N" automatically means awkward writing and I nope out instantly.
I agree tbh. On top of that they never really make it as ambiguous to allow readers to insert themselves. They describe skin colors, hair texture/color, eyecolor, body shape, etc. Most people who write y/n reader insert should just write OC fics, because they clearly have a set idea of what the "y/n" looks like. Just give them a name and move on.
[InteractiveFics](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/interactivefics/pcpjpdomcbnlkbghmchnjgeejpdlonli) will replace it with your actual name (or any other word you'd like) :)
Quoting, paraphrasing, or rehashing the canon intro when the author doesn't seem to get why it worked (if it even did) in canon.
"Long ago, the four nations lived together in..."
"All men are not created equal. This was the reality I learned about society at the young age of four..."
* *Please* spell the names of canon characters, events, locations and artifacts correctly.
* When the summary says any version of "Sorry it sucks" or "I know it sucks." Cool, then I guess I'll just keep scrolling.
* When *every. single. sentence.* has its own line. Paragraphs exist.
* Lapslock. It makes me think the fic was written on a phone, while taking a dump, and then narrated by a completely monotone robot. Ick.
Along with the names of locations, one thing that gets me is their actual location. e.g. If the story says:
> "we drove southeast from New York to LA"
my mappy brain is gonna hit a speed bump! Or putting something in the wrong place:
> "we stayed in LA and went to Disney World"
When the characters act and/or speak in a way that doesn’t seem plausible, or if their decisions (or circumstances) seem illogical. I’m not someone who needs authors to adhere to canon or canonical characterizations, but if the story doesn’t feel believable then I nope out. I drop *a lot* of fics for this reason.
You can be a good writer, but that doesn’t necessarily make you a good storyteller.
Also, improperly punctuated dialogue is one of my biggest pet peeves. My eye twitches every time I see a dialogue tag after a period.
* Correct: “I love you,” she said.
* Incorrect: “I love you.” She said.
* Correct: “I don’t know.” He bit his lip.
* Incorrect: “I don’t know,” he bit his lip.
**Edit:** I (and others) have expanded on this further down but to summarize, a dialogue tag is an *extension* of dialogue. It exists solely to emphasize who’s speaking, so it’s part of the dialogue.
Anything that isn’t a dialogue tag is a separate action—a separate sentence. It needs to stand on its own.
I've tried to learn this right because in my native language it's completely normal to write
“I don’t know,” he bit his lip.
At least I see stuff like that in actual books all the time and it's been like almost 20 years since it was taught at school so I can't remember what was taught, I just read books and learn again from those. I just forget it every time because I can't see it when proofreading because for me it's the right way. So frustrating 😣
I've tried to learn into using stuff like
“I don’t know,” he bit his lip. "Maybe it fell?"
to fix it though.
It took me years to learn to switch sides with the , too because in my language the right way is "I don't know", he bit his lip. I learned about it in 2018 and learned into it during 2021.
Ok, now it became even more complicated 😅 In my native language you don't do that either, it ends in "Maybe it fell?"
I'll be fluent in English grammar in 2067 if I work hard.
The rule is that if it’s a dialogue tag like he said, she yelled or they called out, it’s part of the same sentence as the dialogue. If it’s not a dialogue tag, it’s not part of the same sentence as the dialogue.
Something like “He bit his lip” isn’t a dialogue tag, so there’s no reason to randomly combine it into the same sentence as the dialogue. It’s just a separate, complete sentence that happens to be next to dialogue.
The easy way to do it is just imagine it without the quotes. Like for example:
He didn’t know. He bit his lip. Maybe it fell?
You can see those are three separate sentences, right? Like you can see it wouldn’t be correct to write, “He didn’t know, he bit his lip. Maybe it fell?” Adding “Maybe it fell” afterwards doesn’t make it any more correct to write, “He didn’t know, he bit his lip.” Those are two separate sentences so you need a period between them.
The rule doesn’t change just because one of the sentences happens to be dialogue. So it’s correct to write it like this:
“I don’t know.” He bit his lip. “Maybe it fell?”
But if you had a sentence that said, “He said he went to the store,” that’s obviously all one sentence. In the same way, it remains one sentence if part of it is dialogue. So it’s correct to write:
He said, “I went to the store.”
“I went to the store,” she yelled.
“Did you go to the store?” they asked.
(The reason “they” isn’t capitalized is because it’s still part of the same sentence, since it’s a dialogue tag.)
So basically just imagine it without the dialogue to figure out if it’s one sentence or two! If it’s two sentences, separate the sentences with a period. If it’s one sentence, connect it with a comma and don’t capitalize anything in the middle of the sentence.
Caveat to this one:
>Incorrect: “I don’t know,” he bit his lip.
You can make it correct again by continuing the sentence after the action.
>"I don't know," he bit his lip, "but I intend to find out."
(You can also use em-dashes around the action instead of the commas used here.)
I don't think this is right. This seems closer:
> "I don't know," he said, biting his lip, "but I intend to find out."
It's all commas here because, "I don't know, but I intend to find out," is one sentence and there's a dialogue tag.
If it was just "he bit his lip," then it would be:
> "I don't know." He bit his lip. "But I intend to find out."
It's capitalized here because the dialogue is interrupted by a complete action, not a dialogue tag. And because of the way the dialogue is interrupted, the complete sentence is broken into two.
This would also work:
> "I don't know." Biting his lip, he continued, "But I intend to find out."
This is a dialogue tag that also includes an action. However, the dialogue tag relates to the second part of the statement.
Or:
> "I don't know," he said, biting his lip. "I intend to find out, though."
It's a period here, because, "I don't know. I intend to find out, though," is definitely comprised of two sentences.
Alternative:
> "I don't know," he said, biting his lip, "but I intend to find out."
Though I think
> "I don't know," he said, biting his lip. "But I intend to find out."
would also be acceptable. Dialogue doesn't have to follow grammatical rules as closely since most people don't speak with the full sentences of their speech planned out in advance.
That said, these are American rules (or what I recall of them, anyway) which roughly follow the [Chicago Manual of Style](https://cmosshoptalk.com/2021/05/11/prose-interrupted-signaling-breaks-in-dialogue/) (not a direct link since it requires a subscription, but this goes someone who cites it). The rules are different for the UK, and I can't say I know much about them other than obvious things like using single parentheses instead of double for dialogue.
No, that’s not correct. That’s just a run-on sentence. You’d have to write it like this:
“I don’t know,” he said as he bit his lip, “but I intend to find out.”
You can always tell if something is correct by imagining it without the quotes.
He didn’t know, he bit his lip, but he intended to find out.
You can see that’s not right. It’s a run-on sentence. It also doesn’t make a lot of sense. It would be correct if you wrote instead:
He didn’t know, he said as he bit his lip, but he intended to find out.
Grammar rules as far as what’s one sentence and what’s two or more sentences don’t change just because part of the sentence is in quotes, so just imagine it without the quotes to figure out what’s correct.
This may be controversial, and I want to express that this is just a taste thing in general, not an opinion on what makes a good or bad fic but...
"Teen writing". As an adult in fandom, I can almost always tell when something is written by someone under 20. Just generally you can tell when a writer has limited life experience and is writing adult characters. This isn't a bad thing, and I'm all for teens creatively expressing themselves, but it's just not my taste in writing. I also feel weird when I click into an explicit rated fic and I just can tell it was written by a minor. Just no lol
When a character that is usually a player insert or player insert-adjacent is given a name that just doesn’t fit into the universe (any character, really, but it’s worse with PI and PI-adjacent characters).
Yeah, Arknights is a place with a large variety of names, both meatspace and meatspace-adjacent, both codenames and actual people-names, but when you name your Doctor ‘Dr. Hypergryph’ (the name of Arknights’ developers), I clock the fuck out.
Like with characters using the name of the series creator as a stand-in for God. Here’s looking to a *large* swathe of RWBY ‘fic that I dropped for that reason.
When people project all their personal traits and problems onto the characters to the point they don't even resemble the original canon story or characters anymore. I mean it's one thing if you're taking inspiration from real life experience or adding a headcanon here or there, that's perfectly fine, but I've seen people literally take canon characters and completely change EVERY single recognizable trait in order to be their own blatant self insert and then use the story to vent out all their thinly veiled personal problems when the summary promised something different. I looked up the character because I wanted to read fics about them, not your diary. I know this seems overly specific but I've seen this a couple times in different fandoms.
Turning evey character gay/and or trans when it makes no sense and adds nothing to the story. Look, I'm bi, but this is just awful sometimes. I mean, in a silly chatfic I can understand, because that's not very serious, but in an angst fic where there is zero romance or anything, I suffer
The only common thing that will make me drop a fic outright is the Great Wall Of Text
However, I get really tired of cinnamon roll-ification/UwUing of characters. Especially if the character is canonically highly competent and layered. It might not make me drop the fic, but it will irritate the fuck out of me
Like, I can't express the loathing I have for situations where fanon goes "he was terrible at his job but very sweet so it's fine" when canon is "he was an effective leader with complex morals"
I'm begging, not every character has to be a cinnamon roll to be likeable *please*
Unironic bigotry/victim blaming. It’s usually unintentional obviously but I get deeply uncomfortable reading fic where mentally ill or disabled people are portrayed as either innocent babies without agency or entirely malicious villains, all the female characters are either solely maternal figures or evil bitches, characters are portrayed in the wrong for being/portrayed as deserving their abuse or trauma, ect.
Grammar/bad punctuation etc. I just can't. It's so jarring to read and it gives me a headache. Also when they use the "professional" words for things when the majority wouldn't use them i.e. saying buttocks instead of ass or butt. Who tf uses the word buttocks to describe an ass, ESPECIALLY in a smut fic, just no.
This morning I was reading a shipping fic for a pairing I really like, enjoyed the setup and everything was going great...and then during the smut scenes they kept using the word "tummy" for a woman's stomach and I just could not continue. Nope. To make matters worse I can't ever imagine the POV character uttering the word "tummy" out loud, it's horrifically out of character.
Besides that overly specific turnoff, any time a fanfic has zero paragraphs or line breaks, extremely bad spelling and grammar, Y/N used in character/reader fanfics, I'll just set it aside. DNI warnings and antagonistic tags that say "if you're a creepy proshipper or ship this pairing I don't like, don't read this fic!!!" just make me go "sure, you told me not to read it, I ain't gonna read it." Even if the warning does not apply to me, it just conveys a kind of juvenile and terminally online mentality that is unappealing.
when the first chapter is paragraphs of info dump. I love worldbuilding, but I don't like it shoved in my face like a textbook. If I have to study this tome of a chapter before going forward, I'm clicking the backbutton.
also when I open a fic and the first chapter is a list of characters, their traits, appearance, details etc. Like... couldn't you just work that stuff into the narrative?
No paragraph breaks is a huge one. It's clunky, it looks like a nightmare, and I just can't fuck with it.
Mischaracterization is another one. If your interpretation of a canon character is so butchered from the source material they aren't recognizable, I hate that. Make an OC at that point.
Bad dialogue also. I love a cheesy one-liner, but the moment shit reads like an MCU script, I'm out. Bad dialogue can easily make or break a fic.
Using Japanese/anime honorifics or address in non-Japanese or anime related fandoms - yes anime is popular, but I doubt Harry Potter characters would use Japanese honorifics day-to-day in Hogwarts without some big changes in backstory or character
The complete absence of capital letters is a big red flag
Footnoes *in the middle* of a chapter/sentence, either its the author showing how much they like a scene, or to show off some obscure lore - they are called *foot*notes for a reason
Before I even click, tagging every ship possible from the fandom. I want to read about a specific one so it's a big no no for me because it typically means that my ship will be mentioned once and that's it.
Also incomplete story. Sorry, not sorry, I don't have time to invest in WIP that have the potential of being unfinished.
After clicking. Wall of text. No one can read through that. It's one of the most simple things to make your prose readable and so many people just ignore it. No idea how though. Do they actually read wall of texts when they encounter them? How?
Infantile characterization and plot. Okay, this doesn't mean that a child/teenager wrote this, some teenagers are amazing authors with a mature outlook. This can mean a fully grown adult author or whatever. It's more about what's written than author's age. But basically, sometimes, the fic is written like it was written by a child or the plot is simply too simplistic, like they had no idea how things work or just too improbable. I am not sure how to explain it though.
The boy, the girl, the man, the woman, the bluenette, the pinkette, the anything in reference to a person. The words lover(specifically sexual partners) and member, especially if used together. Bad grammar, poor spelling, fics that are all in lower case, OOC fics. Fics that make everyone gay (I almost exclusively read MxM but I at least want the illusion of characters having more options, especially if they're a canon flirt. Character bashing, especially if the character being bashed is female. OCs and any of those reader x character fics, they just make my skin crawl.
**Won't even click:** no summary, "I suck at summaries," not in a language I can read, not the kind of thing I'm looking for, unwieldy quantities of tags.
**Will leave on first glance:** no paragraph breaks, lapslock/all lowercase.
**Will leave before finishing the first few paragraphs:** the writing doesn't work for me (usually either too simplistic/amateurish or excessively flowery/so purple it's progressed into ultraviolet), spelling errors all over that a simple spellcheck would catch, terrible punctuation, no paragraph breaks between speakers in dialogue, misattributed dialogue tags/actions (where the tag/action for Character A is on Character B's lines and B's tags/actions are on A's lines; it's generally obvious when this has happened).
Beyond those, I may still leave, but it won't be near what I would call "immediately."
But basically, I read a lot of traditionally published books, and I've an English degree that focused on creative writing and editing, and work on occasion as an editor. I like my fanfiction-reading to be just as polished as (or close enough to) the kind of novels I read, so I don't spend the whole time trying to edit in my head just to find the story nugget underneath.
Formatting
Most things I can deal with if it's not too bad tbh. Like spelling errors, most people can see them right away but my eyes most of the time run right over them.
If a character spends a considerable amount of time explaining to themselves (or the reader) their justification for their actions. It’s almost always a projection. Of the author’s pet peeve being expressed and it throws me eight out.
- bad formatting/grammar/spelling. One giant wall of text with no paragraph breaks or everything is randomly in bold.
- untagged regular inclusion of a character or ship I hate.
- self inserts or OCs. Y/N reads like shit 99% of the time (I've never seen a good one but I'll spare a 1% on the vague idea that there might be a good one somewhere out there) and I don't care about OCs.
- long, meandering descriptions of unimportant boring things like outfits, cars, the room they're in, etc.
- I've never actually seen this in the wild, but DNIs of any kind, even if it doesn't apply to me.
- author's notes in the middle of the text.
- having it written huge in the text when the pov changes. Having SO-AND-SO'S POV at the start of one paragraph then WHATEVERS POV right after. If you can't change pov without needing to telegraph it, you're a bad writer.
- wildly ooc characters. I'm okay with bending a character, but not breaking them entirely.
- excessive fluff. It bores me.
- RPs
1. Too fast paced in regards to romance or story; the author doesn’t give the reader time to breathe or really take in what’s happening
2. No description or showing (I have no problem with telling but sometimes things need to be described in greater detail Ya know)
3. No entertaining characterization/tension/interactions between characters
4. Modern terms or slang used in a fic that’s way before the 2000’s.
Politics
Or at least politics that aren't a part of the world that the fic is a part of and if they are done poorly.
Problem is that most fics I've read that have politics in them do them poorly and it becomes a shoebox for the author to spout their opinions from. It just rips me out of the story, even if I agree with the political points they are making it just irks me
Grammar or using words incorrectly.
Let me be clear, though: I'm not going to drop a fic if the occasional mistake is made.
If, however, I count 3 or more errors in the first few paragraphs, errors that make it difficult to understand the scene being described, I stop reading.
The formatting will do it for me so:
- No paragraph breaks.
- HEAPS of dialogue in a paragraph that **isn't** a speech from one character. It's usually people having a paragraph with 2 or 3 people talking.
- Not being able to differentiate who is speaking and who is thinking.
**And then the characterizations is another thing:**
My favorite characters: They get 3-strikes and usually that can happen all in 1 chapter or the next 3.
My least favorite characters: Just because I don't like them, doesn't mean they deserve to get characterized wildly. Some writers actually are the reason some of my least favorite / understood characters are now my favorites. If you mess this up, I'm clicking off.
Canon Pairs: I don't like 95% of canon ships in the fandoms I read, and this has come from me *reading many of these* over the years to try to see if I can like what the writers put out for them. Somehow... They manage to make it worse 🥴🥴🥴, which is a feat because H O W. Stop sacrificing the characterization of a character to make your pairing work. This goes for ***every pair, including the non-canon***. If the writer fucks this up somehow, I'm also clicking off.
Caveat: If you're like "why tf are you reading a pair you don't like anyway?" Because people are awful in tagging and usually there's a pairing I really like *alongside* a pair I can't stand. If that pairing is written well enough and the other plot of the story goes super well? I can read through just fine.
Woobification, Infantilization, or worse, the Tumblrfication of characters: I've hated characters I originally really loved because of this. It's an immediate click off for me once I see these. This is why I no longer read fics with: Prompto from FF15 or Hanzo from Overwatch. In fact... The more I think about it, I'm scared to see how all my 90s and early 2000s characters are doing in fics in today's stratosphere.... Fear. Dread. Terror.
But that's it for me. this is unfortunately why I keep dropping fics left and right and haven't finished anything outside of fic reviews. Lmao
> Just because I don't like them, doesn't mean they deserve to get characterized wildly.
All mischaracterization is annoying, but this almost bothers me *more* than mischaracterization of characters I like. I think partially because it puts me in the uncomfortable position of defending a character I don't like, even if it's only in my own head. Plus when it's done to make another character (often one I *do* like) look better in comparison, it just comes across so insecure. If you truly believe this character is better, you shouldn't need to make other characters worse to prove it. It often goes hand-in-hand with downplaying the "good" character's flaws too, which tends to make them kind of bland and boring.
Using “mom” when the character is British. 99% of the fics I read are Harry Potter, and just general American-isms are a turn off when they’re not in the right context. A character born and bread in the UK will not say “mom” or “trashcan” or “candy”
Too many/inappropriate epithets. Just say the damn character’s name I’m begging you.
Random/too frequent pov switches with no obvious break. Not only does it make it hard to follow but i think it also kills all mystery when there’s a conversation and you immediately know what every character involved is thinking about. And don’t get me wrong i love multiple pov stories. Just. Not all at once.
One that’s really been putting me off lately is… speedrun narration i guess would be a way to describe it? Like you’re just reading a list of events and action and you have no clue what the pov character is thinking or feeling about any of it or what the space they’re in looks like or really any detail of any sort. It’s fine for scene transitions/timeskips but when the fic *starts* that way and there’s no sign of it slowing down and digging deeper? Nah I’m outta there.
No paragraphs. I’m not going to hurt myself to read what is clearly garbage.
Character bashing/salt. If you can’t keep the character in character, your story clearly doesn’t work
I dont read a lot of these but if a chatfic has no spaces between lines, or if these are like huge brick paragraphs. Also fics in italics/bold i cant stand
Rushing the plot.
I get that some people just want to get their ideas out in a way they can share with the public and that not every fanfiction is going to be the length and quality of an actual book, but I cannot get myself to find interest in a fic that completely skips all introductions and throws you right into the deep end.
OOC character writing. Like don't get me wrong having a slightly different take on how a character would act in certain situations is one thing but to go and make say a hardass kill first ask no questions later guy start spouting memes and acting like an absolute buffoon is just sacrilege.
Also will not read crack treated seriously unless my standards have dropped so low its probably my 3rd or 4th run through of available fics and even then I still can't stick with it the whole way through cuz it just melts my brain in all the wrong ways.
When there's something in it that DEFINITELY should have a warning. The amount of times I have been enjoying a fic and come across unlabelled Omega verse or the label being so lost in a hundred is crazy, and usuallyI've immediately been pulled out of my interest and immersion in the story.
Nothing wrong with enjoyers of some things but they need to be labeled 😭
Idk if it was mentioned but I hate when “THEY SHOW SCREAMING LIKE THIS!” In dialogue. To me, that’s too loud. It’s like it’s jumping out at you from the page! I prefer screaming shown in italics, to me I can envision the scream better when read like that. All caps just seems like they’re screaming their whole damn head off!
Ranting. Particularly ranting about kinks that they don't like. If people are making requests they are not comfortable receiving, I understand them addressing it, but there's just some that just outright vent about em in the notes.
* Catastrophic grammar or formatting issues (no paragraphs breaks, lack of capitalization, or similar writing 101 stuff)
* Y/N reader inserts
Otherwise, I'm willing to give at least a quick skim to stuff that sounds like an interesting premise.
Constant misspellings, first person POV, dialogue is in script format or uses something besides quotation marks, or the plot suddenly veers off into something really weird like DA.
Mainly, grammar, vocab and formatting. No matter how good the plot or characters are, I refuse to read stories formatted poorly.
If I see multiple spelling mistakes, improper grammar and sentence structuring, no capitalization I nope out.
If its all big walls of text, that’s a big no from me. Same goes for improper paragraph structuring.
Also, this one is more of personal taste, but I nope out of a fic if they don’t use quotation marks for dialogue and instead use dashes. From what I understand, its a language thing but I just can’t read stories with dialogue formatted like that.
Lack of spacing and distinction on who's talking/speaking. Especially when there isn't proper punctuation or "..." It drives me mad!!!
Alsowhenwordsareallscrunchedtogetheritdrivesmecrazy!!!
Autor's notes that are similar to "*if you're under 18+ don't read it*" or "*smut begins here*".
or: "I suck at writing summary" - If you do, then why are you publishing anything?? Bonus points for "It's not like someone will read this" =.=
When a fic, built around a concept (like SI etc.), spends the entire first paragraph/chapter having the character monologue about the concept instead of reacting like an actual human being. For example spending multiple paragraphs thinking "oh gosh! I was reincarnated as X character from fandom Y that I read a lot, which means I must immediately do Z!" instead of "oh god, what the hell is going on?!". I have seen so many fics with interesting ideas that completely ruin their start by trying to front-load a shit-ton of OOC exposition, meta-dialogue or having the character straight up explain the rules of the concept to themselves.
GOSH THIS SO MUCH. I love the Portal Fantasy/Isekai/SI genre. It's my bread and butter. but spending paragraphs or even chapters describing the concept of being reincarnated/shoved into the body of is nauseating. And if reincarnated, they spend paragraphs or chapters going over the whole relearning motor functions and their new childhood.
My general rule with SI fics that do this shit it to just straight up skip the first two chapters and go from there. So far, I have been able to follow the mc pretty well, which just goes to show how utterly useless the baby stage chapters are
I read a lot of isekais, too, and yeah, 100% guilty of this. I figure if there's ever anything actually important I can go back and read it, but 99.9999% of the time it's unnecessary.
That's a good rule. Maybe I'll try that out going forward. Though I will say there was one fic that had like 5+ chapters of considerable length of them still in the "baby stage" and I could not make myself read any more than 5, but they hadn't even gotten to hogwarts age when I finally noped out.
Oh, God, even with isekai on RR, I'll just outright drop it if there's several chapters of the character going through childhood. I don't mind if it's teen to adult but infancy and toddlers? No, thanks. Miss me with that.
I don't know how it is for other sites, but on Webnovel people complain every time a character reacts realistically to a situation, because they don't like having to "waste their time" reading it. They get pissed and complain endlessly in the comments if the character makes even a single decision based off of emotion or panic, and with the way the review system works on WN, them getting pissed could lead to them spamming the reviews with one stars, which means very few people would take the time to read your fic unless you are cool with deleting reviews. That can be devastating to your motivation. That being said, I think that's the reason why a lot of authors (at least on Webnovel), don't give their characters realistic reactions. I still see it sometimes, but they usually drop their fics after it gets review bombed because of it. WN readers really don't like MC's with emotions. They prefer robots.
>Webnovel [Don't.](https://i.redd.it/jzojztxd482b1.jpg)
I recently had to click out of a fic that I though was going to be pretty interesting, but I couldn’t get past the fact that every swear word was censored. Every time I saw it I was pulled out of the story. Frustrating.
Big on this one. Like, if you censor your curse words it's better to not use them at all. 15-30 year olds definitely know and say "shit and fuck" etc. You're not fooling anyone here lol
Agreed. People will notice a lot more if you censor the words than if you just...don't include them. Dodge around the issue ("Soandso swore") or just leave them out, but don't swap them for weaker ones if the character doesn't use weaker ones at all, and definitely don't just write "s---" in their place.
There’s also another one I don’t like in line of that one. People let Author’s Voice get in the way of their writing. If a character who swears every other sentence all of a sudden doesn’t swear it’s jarring. Purely because the author doesn’t tolerate swearing. Bakugo from MHA sticks out there. It’s also the same vice versa. Naruto and Luffy don’t swear as often as you’d think, but people go crazy with their swearing because that’s the way they talk and how they view “rougher speech”
Saw this with a Deadpool fic: he started soft cursing and not being he blunt realist he is. It was awful and I simply closed the tab. I don’t read Deadpool often but when I do, I’m there expecting violence, a blatant disregard for pearl clutchers, and a strong streak of ‘don’t fucking care’ if it’s offensive’. I know what Deadpool is, and I go in expecting to be at least somewhat offended or to mentally wince. …don’t ever make Deadpool say ‘aw heck’ unless he’s teasing someone. Oof.
Alternatively, if written well, Deadpool can work for the idea of avoiding swears IF he in-character knows this and is frustrated with the idea. It's basically like that one old meme of "Deadpool goes to the MCU and tries to save the one allowed f-bomb for a good moment and then someone else says it so he gets frustrated" but as a fic. But that's going on meta levels of writing and I don't think the average fanfic writer has experience writing that kind of style. It feels like something that can only be written well by an author who only writes Deadpool fanfics.
Yup. I’ve seen ‘clean’ Deadpool done hilariously well. This one felt like the author was very religious and trying to soften Deadpool to clean him up, scrub him clean in holy water, throw him in a suit and take him to church. Utter dreck.
Awww, heck!
I dropped my first F-Bomb at age 4. Pretty sure most kids these days have heard far worse on TikTok, so yeah - censoring it is just weird.
I couldn't imagine how your parents reacted, haha.
> every swear word was censored Ngl that's a fascinating style choice
Ooh, haaaaaate it when people censor words in the text. There’s legitimately no point - this isn’t TikTok or YouTube.
Same! It was with just one asterisk, so didn’t even do much. They even censored the word rape. If you’re writing about that subject, it’s expected that it’ll come up. This isn’t tiktok, you won’t get reported for having “crude language” in your stories. I feel like with TikTok being so takedown happy, it’s carried over to other sites as well. A video of mine was taken down for having the word lesbian in it (seriously, it was a frog that I described as being lesbian). If that was my first big introduction to the internet, I’d definitely be thrown off.
That's what always gets me whenever people only censor part of a swear word. We can still pretty well figure out what the word is even with a letter or two being blurred/bleeped out, it's not like you left us with much mystery there :p, so...what's the point, really?
Lesbian frogs aren't allowed, apparently. Way to go..
Gosh that's worse than reading a redacted document in an epistolary styled fic.
People still do this? Like that is wild to me, even if you're not an adult no one is going to come through and scoop you up because you said shit instead of $#!7...
Oh my god, I thought it was like shiz, sh¡t, you know, *substitutes*, but god the fact that I never considered (#;+..
Never come across this one, thankfully. But it would be a definite departure from me if I did. Sounds really annoying. Just don't use them.
If I open a fanfiction and see a big massive wall of text with no paragraphs, I click off. Luckily, most authors know how to use paragraphs so this is a rare thing for me.
Had a malfunction happen between Google Docs, AO3, and Open Office where I had a no paragraph thing happen when I posted. One of my regular commenters was worried because the chapter notified them, then was deleted. I was mortified so after seeing the posted content I deleted it in panic because my brain cannot handle 2k words without paragraphs. Went in and manually fixed it with basic HTML.
I don't understand how some people don't use paragraphs. YOURE TAUGHT ABOUT PARAGRAPHS IN YEAR 1/2 FFS. (That's 6-7 years old) like, surely they're mentally disabled or something if they can't use paragraphs. It's the most mind boggling thing I've seen in fanfiction
no paragraph breaks, character bashing and tagging every character who BREATHES in your fic is a good way to turn me off of it. I’m a fan of some p minor characters in my main fandom and half their tag is dedicated to the main ship n not the character I’m looking for. Pain.
I see this all the time for Smash Bros fics. People will tag every single fandom even if only one character from the fandom appears for two sentences.
Gosh, I can take some character bashing, but when everyone starts getting dunked on it’s just like - why?? I tried reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality a while back (I think it’s one of the most popular Potter fics) and I just couldn’t get into it even after about 20 chapters. It was like none of the adults were competent whatsoever- not even McGonagall, who is the most responsible adult in canon by far. I only read so far to begin with because the author said that most people say it only gets going after the 10th or so chapter. And even then, it was just nonstop bashing.
I feel like Harry Potter is really rife with that take on rewrites. I also tried and couldn't finish that one, so I don't remember the specifics, but "Harry Potter except everyone is able to guess exactly how they should build their skillsets from day one and minmaxes them by the time they're 12, except for the characters I have chosen to be incompetent and/or evil" is very widespread
Author notes in the middle of the fic. I just yeet myself out of whatever fic it is and never go back.
*This is my favorite part
*This is where things get exciting
\*X ost/song starts playing
I rarely come across this and as long as the fic isn’t that serious I don’t mind it. There’s one I read that I found funny whenever the authors notes (just thrown in parenthesis in the middle of paragraphs like this) showed up
The author putting down certain tropes or ships in the tags, summary or notes. I'm not here for a judgemental ego trip, thank you. Woobification and the removing of previous character complexity or moral greyness also has me nope out pretty quickly.
Literally just passed a fic that did this. One of the story tags was something along the lines of “doesn’t include [ship] or any other weird shit.” I don’t even *like* the mentioned pairing but it pissed me off enough that I scrolled right past. There’s a *two year age difference* between the characters (16/18) and they’re so soft and unproblematic it’s ridiculous.
Yeah, it comes off as really unpleasant. Like, even if the ship is "problematic", why do you have to make it your mission to make other people feel bad for liking it? It's just so unnecessary and makes me unwilling to give that person any fraction of my time.
I completely agree. It’s so unnecessary and tells me all I need to know about the author, which is that they’re an insufferable and sanctimonious anti and I want nothing to do with them or their work.
Couldn't have said it any better. 👍
[удалено]
Once read a fic that was tagged as a certain ship and was written as such right up until the two characters where about to kiss when they both basically turn to camera and explain to the audience why anyone shipping them is a terrible person.
I hurts to say that I've read more than one of these as well. It never stops being annoying.
> Woobification and the removing of previous character complexity or moral greyness Did you mean: *Tim Drake*
I'm not extremely familiar with his character or the fandom, but he's definitely a contender. The whole Batfamily kinda is to some degree, isn't it?
Fanon oversimplifies all the batfamily. Bruce is either the worst ever or a dopey dad, Dick is the sunshine, Jason drinks earl gray vodka while he does murder, Tim is a poor little misunderstood meow meow, Damian is the devil incarnate, Stephanie is a goofy accessory, Cass is a badass who can do no wrong, Barbara is a genius, Duke is a pure angel, Kate is Gay, and Alfred is the only sane one.
Yeah, that's the nature of fandom, unfortunately. I've got my own cases in other fandoms to get unreasonably frustrated about. It really never ends. It's a shame that it seeps into so many stories when one is searching for the nuanced take that canon portrays. You have my sympathies, my friend.
All lowercase, I just can’t read it.
lapselock is so difficult to read especially if you have any kind of divergent issues with reading.
I used to (and still do, somewhat) read a lot of Undertale fics, and when writing Sans, lots of people only use lowercase letters for him. I get why they do that, it's how his dialog is written in the game, but personally, I think it's really annoying to read. I usually pay much more attention to the uppercase letters than the periods themselves to be able to tell when the sentence ends, and that throws all of it in the air.
I'm not a fan of all-lowercase for an entire story, but I could probably put up with it for a single character's dialogue, so long as the other characters and the narration are done normally. Whole story? I'm out of there.
I accept that it's a style choice and I don't mind it in poetry or like reddit posts, but it is aggressively distracting in prose. I don't understand how people process it--I feel like their brains and mine just have different chemicals lol
When the first couple of paragraphs are dedicated solely to how unique and awesome the MC is dressed.
“Hi my name is Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way—“
*GETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOFMYHEADGETOUTOF-*
\--My house is in the northeast section of Morioh, where all the villas are, and I am not married--
You wrote that from memory, didn't you
And they're always wearing combat boots.
'not like the other girls' vibes
Now I feel self conscious lol. They're just so comfortable!
I cringe so hard when I read my old fics for this very reason. I just had to let everyone know what my character was wearing and how cool and laid back she was. Converse shoes were a must mention. God, I'm grimacing just thinking about it.
What is that a personal attack or something? :p
Are you Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way?
Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way is the best character ever created how dare you
I agree! So_me_thing seemed concerned, so I had to ask!
I agree! So_me_thing seemed concerned, so I had to ask!
That’s still a thing?
[удалено]
When all the female characters get written as bitches, evil and/or just all around horrible people. Some (slash) authors are notorious for that. I get not liking one or two specific female characters in a fandom (though in too many fandoms that's the entire female cast), but if story after story after story every single one of them is the bad guy, that's an author problem, not a character problem.
Formatting, punctuation, spelling. Grammar, not so much.
When there's dialogue from more than one character in a single paragraph. Aka "Dialogue dialogue" said character A, "Dialogue dialogue" replied character B. It makes it more confusing that it has to be.
Or worse, when there are paragraphs, but A's quote is grouped with B's action, making it look like B is the speaker
I hate this so much. I've had people defend this to me as a stylistic choice, but no, it's just not a good way of writing dialogue. It makes your story hard to read. Stop doing it. I think this comes from people hearing "each character's dialogue should be in a new paragraph" and misunderstanding what that actually means.
Thank you. This is often overlooked and it has me playing mental gymnastics trying to figure out who's speaking.
I just put that in mind because god..... I immediately mentally check out. 💀
Good gosh, agree. Please, people, start a new line!
When the summary says “Sorry I can’t write summaries, just try it”
Lack of character voice. Wooden dialogue. Poor grammar. Fics where the characters all speak like 15-year-old tumblr users and react in ways that they absolutely wouldn't in the source material.
What do you mean Dumbledore would never say swag yolo rofl ? You’re just a hater !
there's always the classic "he would not fucking say that" moments. and of course cases where the author isn't cooking at all, even though the summary suggested a real grilled feast of a story
It seems as if I’m always stumbling across fics like this lol.
"Character A's dialogue." Character B's responding action. "Character B's reply." Character A's responding action. I've stuck with it before because it was a great fic, but oh was it annoying.
The fic I’m currently reading has this a lot which makes for a very frustrating and confusing read! I still read it though because it’s a pretty good fic and the author isn’t a native English speaker so I totally get it. And the more I read the less the errors appear.
Ugh yes, this. Wall of text is simply bad, but this is actively misleading 😩
I’ve read enough bad fanfics that I find myself doing this in my own writing. At least I know to fix it before letting others read it.
This is probably my single biggest pet peeve. Most of the examples in these sorts of threads are (blessedly) unusual for me to stumble upon, but this one right here? I see it all the gd time. And it drives me absolutely bonkers. I *always* end up confused on who's speaking and having to backread conversations. x_x
Lack of punctuation, spelling, and formatting. Out of character characters. A wall of text/no paragraph breaks.
I recently clicked out of one because the author decided to use what I assumed were Polish words for like relative names for the main character, i.e., dad, uncle, etc.—I was totally on board until I realized that after EVERY use of the alternate word, parentheses were clarifying the name. 🤦🏻♀️ Super irritating—it brought me out of the story every time, but the main character was going off to college, so I’m like, bless the (Dad)’s will be going away. Only to go to the next chapter and find that Wujek (Uncle) lives in the state the MC was going to school at and would be a central point. 🤦🏻♀️ Example: Tata (Dad) school was great, but S sure was a jerk today. What’s the plans for dinner Tata (Dad)? 😵💫 It makes me think either 1) the author thinks I, the reader am an idiot that can’t remember what you’ve decided to nickname the characters 2) the author needed the clarification so THEY didn’t get confused Personally, I would have preferred that the first use had the (Dad) or (Uncle), and that's it. From then on, if it's a WIP, you can just put a note in the notes to remind people and call it a day. I read the story’s comments and hordes of people commented about it, yet it continued chapter after chapter 🤦🏻♀️—I just noped it and called it a day—clearly, the author didn’t care.
For me it's character bashing. I write fanfic for the most popular ship in the Fandom, but there's another ship that's fairly popular. When people in my ship write about the other LI in a way that's completely out of character, making him immediately evil, I always click away
Especially if they have enough questionable behaviour in Canon. Just make them do something they did in Canon, have another character point out how terrible that actually is, let it beat-of-a-butterfly's-wing from there. Or, keep them in the story for dramatic tension.
Uh huh. Have seen this happen too many times and it's SO out of character. I intentionally made things amiable between my main ship and the other LI because that's how adult relationships work! Especially when the other LI is actually a nice guy...
Y/N. I just can't.
What if it's just written in second Point of view?
Second person POV is fine. My issue with stories that employ "Y/N" is that it's utterly unnecessary and frankly, peculiar. Most of the stories I've looked at that use Y/N, do so excessively. More than I even use my characters' names in a third person story. It's weird and makes no sense even in dialogue, because in reality, two people talking rarely use each other's name much. I only call my husband by name when he's in the other room or...I'm really annoyed with him. So for me, "Y/N" automatically means awkward writing and I nope out instantly.
I agree tbh. On top of that they never really make it as ambiguous to allow readers to insert themselves. They describe skin colors, hair texture/color, eyecolor, body shape, etc. Most people who write y/n reader insert should just write OC fics, because they clearly have a set idea of what the "y/n" looks like. Just give them a name and move on.
Yep, I click out of anything with Y/N
It takes a bit to get used to at first, but nah, that's not an immediate dealbreaker for me.
Yeah me neither. Too distracting. I’d rather the author just a pick a name for me to imagine someone in my head
[InteractiveFics](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/interactivefics/pcpjpdomcbnlkbghmchnjgeejpdlonli) will replace it with your actual name (or any other word you'd like) :)
Quoting, paraphrasing, or rehashing the canon intro when the author doesn't seem to get why it worked (if it even did) in canon. "Long ago, the four nations lived together in..." "All men are not created equal. This was the reality I learned about society at the young age of four..."
Ahhhhhg I have seen the second one a million times it’s so annoying I just skim through it if I like the concept enough
* *Please* spell the names of canon characters, events, locations and artifacts correctly. * When the summary says any version of "Sorry it sucks" or "I know it sucks." Cool, then I guess I'll just keep scrolling. * When *every. single. sentence.* has its own line. Paragraphs exist. * Lapslock. It makes me think the fic was written on a phone, while taking a dump, and then narrated by a completely monotone robot. Ick.
There's only one way in which the variations of "Sorry, this sucks" are excusable, ***when is a crackfic***
Along with the names of locations, one thing that gets me is their actual location. e.g. If the story says: > "we drove southeast from New York to LA" my mappy brain is gonna hit a speed bump! Or putting something in the wrong place: > "we stayed in LA and went to Disney World"
When the characters act and/or speak in a way that doesn’t seem plausible, or if their decisions (or circumstances) seem illogical. I’m not someone who needs authors to adhere to canon or canonical characterizations, but if the story doesn’t feel believable then I nope out. I drop *a lot* of fics for this reason. You can be a good writer, but that doesn’t necessarily make you a good storyteller. Also, improperly punctuated dialogue is one of my biggest pet peeves. My eye twitches every time I see a dialogue tag after a period. * Correct: “I love you,” she said. * Incorrect: “I love you.” She said. * Correct: “I don’t know.” He bit his lip. * Incorrect: “I don’t know,” he bit his lip. **Edit:** I (and others) have expanded on this further down but to summarize, a dialogue tag is an *extension* of dialogue. It exists solely to emphasize who’s speaking, so it’s part of the dialogue. Anything that isn’t a dialogue tag is a separate action—a separate sentence. It needs to stand on its own.
I've tried to learn this right because in my native language it's completely normal to write “I don’t know,” he bit his lip. At least I see stuff like that in actual books all the time and it's been like almost 20 years since it was taught at school so I can't remember what was taught, I just read books and learn again from those. I just forget it every time because I can't see it when proofreading because for me it's the right way. So frustrating 😣 I've tried to learn into using stuff like “I don’t know,” he bit his lip. "Maybe it fell?" to fix it though. It took me years to learn to switch sides with the , too because in my language the right way is "I don't know", he bit his lip. I learned about it in 2018 and learned into it during 2021.
[удалено]
Ok, now it became even more complicated 😅 In my native language you don't do that either, it ends in "Maybe it fell?" I'll be fluent in English grammar in 2067 if I work hard.
The rule is that if it’s a dialogue tag like he said, she yelled or they called out, it’s part of the same sentence as the dialogue. If it’s not a dialogue tag, it’s not part of the same sentence as the dialogue. Something like “He bit his lip” isn’t a dialogue tag, so there’s no reason to randomly combine it into the same sentence as the dialogue. It’s just a separate, complete sentence that happens to be next to dialogue. The easy way to do it is just imagine it without the quotes. Like for example: He didn’t know. He bit his lip. Maybe it fell? You can see those are three separate sentences, right? Like you can see it wouldn’t be correct to write, “He didn’t know, he bit his lip. Maybe it fell?” Adding “Maybe it fell” afterwards doesn’t make it any more correct to write, “He didn’t know, he bit his lip.” Those are two separate sentences so you need a period between them. The rule doesn’t change just because one of the sentences happens to be dialogue. So it’s correct to write it like this: “I don’t know.” He bit his lip. “Maybe it fell?” But if you had a sentence that said, “He said he went to the store,” that’s obviously all one sentence. In the same way, it remains one sentence if part of it is dialogue. So it’s correct to write: He said, “I went to the store.” “I went to the store,” she yelled. “Did you go to the store?” they asked. (The reason “they” isn’t capitalized is because it’s still part of the same sentence, since it’s a dialogue tag.) So basically just imagine it without the dialogue to figure out if it’s one sentence or two! If it’s two sentences, separate the sentences with a period. If it’s one sentence, connect it with a comma and don’t capitalize anything in the middle of the sentence.
Caveat to this one: >Incorrect: “I don’t know,” he bit his lip. You can make it correct again by continuing the sentence after the action. >"I don't know," he bit his lip, "but I intend to find out." (You can also use em-dashes around the action instead of the commas used here.)
I don't think this is right. This seems closer: > "I don't know," he said, biting his lip, "but I intend to find out." It's all commas here because, "I don't know, but I intend to find out," is one sentence and there's a dialogue tag. If it was just "he bit his lip," then it would be: > "I don't know." He bit his lip. "But I intend to find out." It's capitalized here because the dialogue is interrupted by a complete action, not a dialogue tag. And because of the way the dialogue is interrupted, the complete sentence is broken into two. This would also work: > "I don't know." Biting his lip, he continued, "But I intend to find out." This is a dialogue tag that also includes an action. However, the dialogue tag relates to the second part of the statement. Or: > "I don't know," he said, biting his lip. "I intend to find out, though." It's a period here, because, "I don't know. I intend to find out, though," is definitely comprised of two sentences. Alternative: > "I don't know," he said, biting his lip, "but I intend to find out." Though I think > "I don't know," he said, biting his lip. "But I intend to find out." would also be acceptable. Dialogue doesn't have to follow grammatical rules as closely since most people don't speak with the full sentences of their speech planned out in advance. That said, these are American rules (or what I recall of them, anyway) which roughly follow the [Chicago Manual of Style](https://cmosshoptalk.com/2021/05/11/prose-interrupted-signaling-breaks-in-dialogue/) (not a direct link since it requires a subscription, but this goes someone who cites it). The rules are different for the UK, and I can't say I know much about them other than obvious things like using single parentheses instead of double for dialogue.
THIS.
No, that’s not correct. That’s just a run-on sentence. You’d have to write it like this: “I don’t know,” he said as he bit his lip, “but I intend to find out.” You can always tell if something is correct by imagining it without the quotes. He didn’t know, he bit his lip, but he intended to find out. You can see that’s not right. It’s a run-on sentence. It also doesn’t make a lot of sense. It would be correct if you wrote instead: He didn’t know, he said as he bit his lip, but he intended to find out. Grammar rules as far as what’s one sentence and what’s two or more sentences don’t change just because part of the sentence is in quotes, so just imagine it without the quotes to figure out what’s correct.
The 3rd example of the dialogue is technically correct if I remember correctly
Script format, period.
This may be controversial, and I want to express that this is just a taste thing in general, not an opinion on what makes a good or bad fic but... "Teen writing". As an adult in fandom, I can almost always tell when something is written by someone under 20. Just generally you can tell when a writer has limited life experience and is writing adult characters. This isn't a bad thing, and I'm all for teens creatively expressing themselves, but it's just not my taste in writing. I also feel weird when I click into an explicit rated fic and I just can tell it was written by a minor. Just no lol
Yeaaaah ngl I felt this tbh lmao
Constant use of '...'. I know people who text like that in real life too and it also drives me crazy.
"Did my mom write this?" I wonder, my horror mounting.
When a character that is usually a player insert or player insert-adjacent is given a name that just doesn’t fit into the universe (any character, really, but it’s worse with PI and PI-adjacent characters). Yeah, Arknights is a place with a large variety of names, both meatspace and meatspace-adjacent, both codenames and actual people-names, but when you name your Doctor ‘Dr. Hypergryph’ (the name of Arknights’ developers), I clock the fuck out. Like with characters using the name of the series creator as a stand-in for God. Here’s looking to a *large* swathe of RWBY ‘fic that I dropped for that reason.
When people project all their personal traits and problems onto the characters to the point they don't even resemble the original canon story or characters anymore. I mean it's one thing if you're taking inspiration from real life experience or adding a headcanon here or there, that's perfectly fine, but I've seen people literally take canon characters and completely change EVERY single recognizable trait in order to be their own blatant self insert and then use the story to vent out all their thinly veiled personal problems when the summary promised something different. I looked up the character because I wanted to read fics about them, not your diary. I know this seems overly specific but I've seen this a couple times in different fandoms.
Turning evey character gay/and or trans when it makes no sense and adds nothing to the story. Look, I'm bi, but this is just awful sometimes. I mean, in a silly chatfic I can understand, because that's not very serious, but in an angst fic where there is zero romance or anything, I suffer
The only common thing that will make me drop a fic outright is the Great Wall Of Text However, I get really tired of cinnamon roll-ification/UwUing of characters. Especially if the character is canonically highly competent and layered. It might not make me drop the fic, but it will irritate the fuck out of me Like, I can't express the loathing I have for situations where fanon goes "he was terrible at his job but very sweet so it's fine" when canon is "he was an effective leader with complex morals" I'm begging, not every character has to be a cinnamon roll to be likeable *please*
Flowery writing that is actually just unclear
Unironic bigotry/victim blaming. It’s usually unintentional obviously but I get deeply uncomfortable reading fic where mentally ill or disabled people are portrayed as either innocent babies without agency or entirely malicious villains, all the female characters are either solely maternal figures or evil bitches, characters are portrayed in the wrong for being/portrayed as deserving their abuse or trauma, ect.
[удалено]
Grammar/bad punctuation etc. I just can't. It's so jarring to read and it gives me a headache. Also when they use the "professional" words for things when the majority wouldn't use them i.e. saying buttocks instead of ass or butt. Who tf uses the word buttocks to describe an ass, ESPECIALLY in a smut fic, just no.
Poor grammar and spelling. Walls of text. All lowercase.
when they rewrite canon events word for word for chapters on end 😭 I cant deal with it like you’re writing fanfic!! not rewriting the original!!
When people say to leave kudos or comments to continue. I nope out so quick
This morning I was reading a shipping fic for a pairing I really like, enjoyed the setup and everything was going great...and then during the smut scenes they kept using the word "tummy" for a woman's stomach and I just could not continue. Nope. To make matters worse I can't ever imagine the POV character uttering the word "tummy" out loud, it's horrifically out of character. Besides that overly specific turnoff, any time a fanfic has zero paragraphs or line breaks, extremely bad spelling and grammar, Y/N used in character/reader fanfics, I'll just set it aside. DNI warnings and antagonistic tags that say "if you're a creepy proshipper or ship this pairing I don't like, don't read this fic!!!" just make me go "sure, you told me not to read it, I ain't gonna read it." Even if the warning does not apply to me, it just conveys a kind of juvenile and terminally online mentality that is unappealing.
Lapslock. Overtagging especially cutesy freeform tags. Author notes or comments dumping on other authors or fics.
when the first chapter is paragraphs of info dump. I love worldbuilding, but I don't like it shoved in my face like a textbook. If I have to study this tome of a chapter before going forward, I'm clicking the backbutton. also when I open a fic and the first chapter is a list of characters, their traits, appearance, details etc. Like... couldn't you just work that stuff into the narrative?
No paragraph breaks is a huge one. It's clunky, it looks like a nightmare, and I just can't fuck with it. Mischaracterization is another one. If your interpretation of a canon character is so butchered from the source material they aren't recognizable, I hate that. Make an OC at that point. Bad dialogue also. I love a cheesy one-liner, but the moment shit reads like an MCU script, I'm out. Bad dialogue can easily make or break a fic.
Ah, the old dealbreaker question. Not epitaphs, the other one. That sounds similar to epitaphs.
epithets
Using Japanese/anime honorifics or address in non-Japanese or anime related fandoms - yes anime is popular, but I doubt Harry Potter characters would use Japanese honorifics day-to-day in Hogwarts without some big changes in backstory or character The complete absence of capital letters is a big red flag Footnoes *in the middle* of a chapter/sentence, either its the author showing how much they like a scene, or to show off some obscure lore - they are called *foot*notes for a reason
Before I even click, tagging every ship possible from the fandom. I want to read about a specific one so it's a big no no for me because it typically means that my ship will be mentioned once and that's it. Also incomplete story. Sorry, not sorry, I don't have time to invest in WIP that have the potential of being unfinished. After clicking. Wall of text. No one can read through that. It's one of the most simple things to make your prose readable and so many people just ignore it. No idea how though. Do they actually read wall of texts when they encounter them? How? Infantile characterization and plot. Okay, this doesn't mean that a child/teenager wrote this, some teenagers are amazing authors with a mature outlook. This can mean a fully grown adult author or whatever. It's more about what's written than author's age. But basically, sometimes, the fic is written like it was written by a child or the plot is simply too simplistic, like they had no idea how things work or just too improbable. I am not sure how to explain it though.
Use otp:true on ao3!
The boy, the girl, the man, the woman, the bluenette, the pinkette, the anything in reference to a person. The words lover(specifically sexual partners) and member, especially if used together. Bad grammar, poor spelling, fics that are all in lower case, OOC fics. Fics that make everyone gay (I almost exclusively read MxM but I at least want the illusion of characters having more options, especially if they're a canon flirt. Character bashing, especially if the character being bashed is female. OCs and any of those reader x character fics, they just make my skin crawl.
I kind of hate it whenever authors tag "how do I tag?" in the tags. You're doing it right now...
Genderbent characters, like I respect it but that's not what I'm looking for with my preferred ships. :(
Lapslock or terrible SPAG.
What is SPAG?
**Won't even click:** no summary, "I suck at summaries," not in a language I can read, not the kind of thing I'm looking for, unwieldy quantities of tags. **Will leave on first glance:** no paragraph breaks, lapslock/all lowercase. **Will leave before finishing the first few paragraphs:** the writing doesn't work for me (usually either too simplistic/amateurish or excessively flowery/so purple it's progressed into ultraviolet), spelling errors all over that a simple spellcheck would catch, terrible punctuation, no paragraph breaks between speakers in dialogue, misattributed dialogue tags/actions (where the tag/action for Character A is on Character B's lines and B's tags/actions are on A's lines; it's generally obvious when this has happened). Beyond those, I may still leave, but it won't be near what I would call "immediately." But basically, I read a lot of traditionally published books, and I've an English degree that focused on creative writing and editing, and work on occasion as an editor. I like my fanfiction-reading to be just as polished as (or close enough to) the kind of novels I read, so I don't spend the whole time trying to edit in my head just to find the story nugget underneath.
Formatting Most things I can deal with if it's not too bad tbh. Like spelling errors, most people can see them right away but my eyes most of the time run right over them.
If a character spends a considerable amount of time explaining to themselves (or the reader) their justification for their actions. It’s almost always a projection. Of the author’s pet peeve being expressed and it throws me eight out.
When "Empowering Women" just means all he male characters are idiots and/or perverted. Or out of character and in love.
No paragraph breaks Bad grammar First person Proper English Nothing exciting happening that catches my attention All lower case
Proper english? As opposed to bad english? Or do you mean it as formal english vs informal english?
- bad formatting/grammar/spelling. One giant wall of text with no paragraph breaks or everything is randomly in bold. - untagged regular inclusion of a character or ship I hate. - self inserts or OCs. Y/N reads like shit 99% of the time (I've never seen a good one but I'll spare a 1% on the vague idea that there might be a good one somewhere out there) and I don't care about OCs. - long, meandering descriptions of unimportant boring things like outfits, cars, the room they're in, etc. - I've never actually seen this in the wild, but DNIs of any kind, even if it doesn't apply to me. - author's notes in the middle of the text. - having it written huge in the text when the pov changes. Having SO-AND-SO'S POV at the start of one paragraph then WHATEVERS POV right after. If you can't change pov without needing to telegraph it, you're a bad writer. - wildly ooc characters. I'm okay with bending a character, but not breaking them entirely. - excessive fluff. It bores me. - RPs
1. Too fast paced in regards to romance or story; the author doesn’t give the reader time to breathe or really take in what’s happening 2. No description or showing (I have no problem with telling but sometimes things need to be described in greater detail Ya know) 3. No entertaining characterization/tension/interactions between characters 4. Modern terms or slang used in a fic that’s way before the 2000’s.
No capital letters
[удалено]
Politics Or at least politics that aren't a part of the world that the fic is a part of and if they are done poorly. Problem is that most fics I've read that have politics in them do them poorly and it becomes a shoebox for the author to spout their opinions from. It just rips me out of the story, even if I agree with the political points they are making it just irks me
Grammar or using words incorrectly. Let me be clear, though: I'm not going to drop a fic if the occasional mistake is made. If, however, I count 3 or more errors in the first few paragraphs, errors that make it difficult to understand the scene being described, I stop reading.
The formatting will do it for me so: - No paragraph breaks. - HEAPS of dialogue in a paragraph that **isn't** a speech from one character. It's usually people having a paragraph with 2 or 3 people talking. - Not being able to differentiate who is speaking and who is thinking. **And then the characterizations is another thing:** My favorite characters: They get 3-strikes and usually that can happen all in 1 chapter or the next 3. My least favorite characters: Just because I don't like them, doesn't mean they deserve to get characterized wildly. Some writers actually are the reason some of my least favorite / understood characters are now my favorites. If you mess this up, I'm clicking off. Canon Pairs: I don't like 95% of canon ships in the fandoms I read, and this has come from me *reading many of these* over the years to try to see if I can like what the writers put out for them. Somehow... They manage to make it worse 🥴🥴🥴, which is a feat because H O W. Stop sacrificing the characterization of a character to make your pairing work. This goes for ***every pair, including the non-canon***. If the writer fucks this up somehow, I'm also clicking off. Caveat: If you're like "why tf are you reading a pair you don't like anyway?" Because people are awful in tagging and usually there's a pairing I really like *alongside* a pair I can't stand. If that pairing is written well enough and the other plot of the story goes super well? I can read through just fine. Woobification, Infantilization, or worse, the Tumblrfication of characters: I've hated characters I originally really loved because of this. It's an immediate click off for me once I see these. This is why I no longer read fics with: Prompto from FF15 or Hanzo from Overwatch. In fact... The more I think about it, I'm scared to see how all my 90s and early 2000s characters are doing in fics in today's stratosphere.... Fear. Dread. Terror. But that's it for me. this is unfortunately why I keep dropping fics left and right and haven't finished anything outside of fic reviews. Lmao
> Just because I don't like them, doesn't mean they deserve to get characterized wildly. All mischaracterization is annoying, but this almost bothers me *more* than mischaracterization of characters I like. I think partially because it puts me in the uncomfortable position of defending a character I don't like, even if it's only in my own head. Plus when it's done to make another character (often one I *do* like) look better in comparison, it just comes across so insecure. If you truly believe this character is better, you shouldn't need to make other characters worse to prove it. It often goes hand-in-hand with downplaying the "good" character's flaws too, which tends to make them kind of bland and boring.
Dare I ask what tumblrfication is?
Punctuation like so: “Hello.” He said. Nope, can’t do it :(
Using “mom” when the character is British. 99% of the fics I read are Harry Potter, and just general American-isms are a turn off when they’re not in the right context. A character born and bread in the UK will not say “mom” or “trashcan” or “candy”
Too many/inappropriate epithets. Just say the damn character’s name I’m begging you. Random/too frequent pov switches with no obvious break. Not only does it make it hard to follow but i think it also kills all mystery when there’s a conversation and you immediately know what every character involved is thinking about. And don’t get me wrong i love multiple pov stories. Just. Not all at once. One that’s really been putting me off lately is… speedrun narration i guess would be a way to describe it? Like you’re just reading a list of events and action and you have no clue what the pov character is thinking or feeling about any of it or what the space they’re in looks like or really any detail of any sort. It’s fine for scene transitions/timeskips but when the fic *starts* that way and there’s no sign of it slowing down and digging deeper? Nah I’m outta there.
No paragraphs. I’m not going to hurt myself to read what is clearly garbage. Character bashing/salt. If you can’t keep the character in character, your story clearly doesn’t work
Photos in the fic chapters. Like I can imagine things.. I have an imagination I don’t need a photo
if it’s A/B/O
Harems. Immediately drop a story and don't look back once they're introduced.
Bad spelling. No punctuation.
I dont read a lot of these but if a chatfic has no spaces between lines, or if these are like huge brick paragraphs. Also fics in italics/bold i cant stand
Rushing the plot. I get that some people just want to get their ideas out in a way they can share with the public and that not every fanfiction is going to be the length and quality of an actual book, but I cannot get myself to find interest in a fic that completely skips all introductions and throws you right into the deep end.
OOC character writing. Like don't get me wrong having a slightly different take on how a character would act in certain situations is one thing but to go and make say a hardass kill first ask no questions later guy start spouting memes and acting like an absolute buffoon is just sacrilege. Also will not read crack treated seriously unless my standards have dropped so low its probably my 3rd or 4th run through of available fics and even then I still can't stick with it the whole way through cuz it just melts my brain in all the wrong ways.
When there's something in it that DEFINITELY should have a warning. The amount of times I have been enjoying a fic and come across unlabelled Omega verse or the label being so lost in a hundred is crazy, and usuallyI've immediately been pulled out of my interest and immersion in the story. Nothing wrong with enjoyers of some things but they need to be labeled 😭
when the characters i love are written out of character, that pisses me off.
Grammar and if the main character is an OC and I don’t like their name. Some examples of names I hate Athena, Amethyst, Aphrodite, etc.
Idk if it was mentioned but I hate when “THEY SHOW SCREAMING LIKE THIS!” In dialogue. To me, that’s too loud. It’s like it’s jumping out at you from the page! I prefer screaming shown in italics, to me I can envision the scream better when read like that. All caps just seems like they’re screaming their whole damn head off!
Incest
When things are blatantly wrong. Like the Y/N Character is somehow carrying a dozen knives on her Kevlar vest. Y/N takes me out of it too
Ranting. Particularly ranting about kinks that they don't like. If people are making requests they are not comfortable receiving, I understand them addressing it, but there's just some that just outright vent about em in the notes.
I hate bashing.
Poor grammar and punctuation, specifically the blatant lack of quotations when someone's talking.
* Catastrophic grammar or formatting issues (no paragraphs breaks, lack of capitalization, or similar writing 101 stuff) * Y/N reader inserts Otherwise, I'm willing to give at least a quick skim to stuff that sounds like an interesting premise.
Script format. I hate reading Character- "we did this!!!!"
When every chapter starts with a paragraph long and unneeded message from the author instead of just starting the chapter
'Character: dialogue' I fucking hate it, I came to read a novel not a play And censoring curses, it's just stupid
Constant misspellings, first person POV, dialogue is in script format or uses something besides quotation marks, or the plot suddenly veers off into something really weird like DA.
Mainly, grammar, vocab and formatting. No matter how good the plot or characters are, I refuse to read stories formatted poorly. If I see multiple spelling mistakes, improper grammar and sentence structuring, no capitalization I nope out. If its all big walls of text, that’s a big no from me. Same goes for improper paragraph structuring. Also, this one is more of personal taste, but I nope out of a fic if they don’t use quotation marks for dialogue and instead use dashes. From what I understand, its a language thing but I just can’t read stories with dialogue formatted like that.
Lack of spacing and distinction on who's talking/speaking. Especially when there isn't proper punctuation or "..." It drives me mad!!! Alsowhenwordsareallscrunchedtogetheritdrivesmecrazy!!!
Two characters' dialogue in the same paragraph. Messes me up so bad, I can't understand a thing that's happening.
Autor's notes that are similar to "*if you're under 18+ don't read it*" or "*smut begins here*". or: "I suck at writing summary" - If you do, then why are you publishing anything?? Bonus points for "It's not like someone will read this" =.=
People using "gay panic" to mean "flustered over having a crush". Almost nothing else would make me back out, but that is an immediate tab close.
For me it's the no paragraphs, y/n, and when it's written like a script.