I've done that if the angst just keeps building and building for chapter after chapter, and skipped ahead to see if it was worth it and found it wasn't. I've now developed an internal gage, if it's bringing me down to a certain point where it is no longer fun to read, and is making me feel worse than the Real Life stresses I'm trying to escape at that point in time, then I quit. I don't care how touted the story is. If it's not making me feel good to read it, then why bother? Some people like that, and it's therapy for them. Not me. I want to drift off to that better than real life fantasy and escape for a while.

Does that answer your original question? Or did I head off in the wrong direction?

Hugs,
Aery

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Surprise Het! (you knew I was gonna say that)

There are other things, but they're often different for different fics, things that just don't fit. The Games this year had a number of "Team Shoutouts" that totally threw me out of the stories they were in, for instance, because none of them actually fit in the context of the story. Gratuitous things like that will often get me, though really my #2 thing (HET being #1 of course) is Bad Writing, which isn't something you can quantify.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Surprise infidelity.

Also surprise ships I hate.

Someone had written a gift(exchange) fic for me and included a surprise almost pairing that I hated...like HATED hated. and I couldn't finish it at all.

By almost pairing, there was a scene where one character offers to jerk off the other and it was so in my squick center, I couldn't finish.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

OOC :-/. I don't squick easily, so content isn't an issue, but if characters keep acting like someone else - yeah. Not possible to enjoy the story, and it won't be engaging :).

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Hmm, the biggest for me is probably characterisation. If the characters suddenly start behaving and acting in a way that doesn't fit with the previous parts of the story. Or in a way that I feel their canon selves would never do. Of course, I realise that's very subjective, since we all have our own interpretations of the characters.

I also don't like when a story suddenly becomes way too romantic, as in sappily romantic. But again, this is just me.

And I really can't stand things like "the green-eyed Gryffindor" and the like. But those are usually there from the beginning and unlikely to only start showing up halfway through a story.

I'm sure there are more things but I can't think of anything else right now.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

I'm sensitive to non-Brit wording ... if I see the word ass instead of arse, I cringe. I won't necessarily back-pedal, but if it's mentioned frequently, and there are other non-Brit words in the story, it does take some of the gloss off for me.

Also, I'm not keen on Snape's or Harry's appearances being altered too much. Natural aging's okay, but when one of them's completely altered, it's a bit difficult for me to still see them as Snape and Harry.

The same goes with characterisation. "Girly" or weak Harry is off-putting, and the opposite is equally true. Nasty Harry can put me right off a story too.

Cruelty and humiliation is a big squick for me. If a story contains BDSM without a warning, I'll probably not finish it.

Gee, I sound picky! But truly, there are heaps of stories I really like out there. :D

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Character bashing. (Yes, even Ginny). It just comes across as petty, especially if it involves someone who one of the characters in canonically interested in.

Rape-as-love, cause if I'm reading rape-fic I want it to be at least mildly realistic and IC.

I might be a minority in this one, but 'everybody-is-gay-and-lesbian', because I just laugh. Het-phobia! :D

And I wasn't expecting this one, but pasta in a Victorian AU (among other anachronisms, but that was the final straw).

(Reply to this)(Thread)

I have to say I usually can finish what I start so if I'd don't it's because pretty early on it started going South. But I agree that surprise pairings (whether a graphic het or a jealousy provoking OMC-just the mere mention isn't usually a problem) really jolt a story. And I admit to having been a Ginny basher myself but it's really old now-the visceral need to do away with her needs to be replaced with more creativity. The atrocious spelling of canon characters names wrong, complete disregard for canon without warning for AU (which is to say-look up what the darn spells do).

Now here's where I'll get myself in trouble-Unless it's chan, Harry has probably caught up to Severus's height (which is not quite as impressive as the movie's suggest-see POA as the example-Sirius is meant to be noticably taller than Snape (see OotP) and yet here obviously it's backward). In DH Harry is the same height as his father. I don't get the need to have Harry be a twink (unless again it's chan). They are both men, let's have them act like men.

I dislike when Snape is portrayed as a pureblood, having no clue about the Muggle world. Perhaps he's never seen a Playstation but I'm quite sure he can make himself a cuppa from 'scratch' so to speak.

Finally, the thing that dooms me-I read a true story about some poor guy left tied up in a closet who died. I realize in fic we want to escape reality but when I read a BDSM fic and Snape leaves Harry tied up and says 'I'll be back in an hour', gosh, that rubs me the wrong way. I know that's my problem less than the authors but when we vanilla folk read about something that in real life could seriously cause harm . . . *sigh* I'll just stop before I say something that offends someone. Too late, I suspect.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

I can't read fics that jump forward and backward in time. Present, past, present, past, different past, different present, past...

If it's a progression back, or jumping forward, or flashbacks here and there, it's fine. However, unless it's a time travel story, there really is no need for it, and it's just something I can't read. My mind doesn't work like that.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Heh. This is the second in as many days that this question popped up on my flist.

*Misspelling canon names - if you can't spell it, you don't need to write it.
*Turning Harry into emo!girly!Harry - if you want a girl, write het.
*BDSM done without SSC or RACK - honestly, do a bit of research before writing such an already touchy subject.
*Leaps in logic that only the author can follow - really now, I don't want it spelled out as if you were engaging a child but a little information goes a long way to me buying what you're selling.
*Surprise pairings - that is why we have a pairing field in the header.

All done now. *g*

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Oh, fun discussion. *g* I think I have levels of being thrown.

Minor things, which won't necessarily make me stop reading:
- Not using British English terms. Students there do not graduate, they leave school. It's not a sidewalk, it's a pavement. Etc. :)
- A sudden rambling discourse in the fic of what the author has learned while researching for their fic. Yes, it seems a bit much sometimes to research for two hours just to get one phrase right, but it only pays off if nobody knows that you needed two hours to figure out that phrase.

Medium things:
- OOC characters. Unless it's crack!fic and purposely OOC, do not want. (Of course, what OOC is can vary between author and reader.)
- Character bashing. Just gets annoying after a while.

Major things - as in, I will probably stop reading:
- Bad sex. This ranges from not using lubrication (I have read fic where a guy was so aroused he was "wet back there"... news for you - if it's wet back there, it's probably not something you want to stick your fingers/cock in.) to inaccurate BDSM portrayals.
- No warnings for rape, dub-con, chan, character death, etc. I respect that some authors don't want to warn, but warn me that you don't warn.

I think that's about it. *g*

(Reply to this)(Thread)

I like angst, and H/C, but when there is gratuitous graphic over-the-top gore and torture I've got to stop reading.

I'm not fond of unwarned major character death, although it isn't too disruptive if warned for. (I love the highlight-to-read warnings, as they may be ignored if someone dislikes warnings.)

I notice bad SPAG, but can easily read past it if the story captures my interest.

OoC doesn't bother me unless it is terribly over done. A good writer can sell me, usually, on a character's formation or motivation.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Characters suddenly acting OOC because the author wants them to have a misunderstanding and separate them for a while, and in this case I mean OOC even for the story.

Gratuitous romantic misunderstandings that cause relationship problems because the characters just don't talk about the basics really is becoming a squick of mine. It can be nicely done, but so much of the time an author does it because he/she doesn't want to do the work and it's "easy".

Can you tell that it's happening in a story I'm reading now?

I'm sure there are others. This is the one that's beating me over the head right now though.

And, seriously, if any problem like tosses you out happens in one of my stories, write to me and tell me. I'm not ever going to take it the wrong way or go off in a huff. I might ask you some questions about it, mind you.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

*whispers* I know what you mean - I go through the same thing, but it's usually odd things that irritate me. I might have different limits than you, and I guess you really liked this fic? Can you tell me which one it was? It sounds really good, with something that maybe won't bother me. You can email me privately at bella.harper@gmail.com, if you don't want to mention it here, and if you don't want this message on your IJ, you can delete it.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Sorry had a major spelling error...

There are a lot of things that bothers me about a story, but not so much as to turn me off of it. There are only a few things.

Minor things I can overlook would be the SPaG errors, epithets, non-brit usages, Het thrown in, characters that are a little OoC and a few others things I can tolerate.

Now the things I cannot...

Character bashing. Especially Ginny. Granted I didn't see any spark or chemistry between Harry and Ginny in the book and at times she was just plain annoying to me, but I don't think she deserves to be crucified. She's not that bad of a character to be punished like that.

Everyone is gay. When I realise that, I stop reading. Period. I don't care how great the story is. It's an insult to my intelligence and to heterosexuals. It's like saying that being straight is bad. It's also very unrealistic.

Surprise endings. I hate to be led in one direction in a story and then have the ending come out of the blue enough for me to say, "WTF? Where the hell did that come from??" I especially hate it when it's done for shock purposes.

Ambiguous endings. I hate reading a story that is so full of life, wonderfully detailed, and extremely entertaining, only to have it dangling in mid-air at the end. It feels incomplete. If the story - or somewhere in the story gave a hint as to where the story was leading or how a character really felt about another character, then fine. But if I'm left clueless and I'm supposed to make up my own ending... forget it. I walk away feeling cheated.

No warnings for main character deaths. I loathe those stories and I do NOT want to be surprised.

Characterisation. Not a little OoC, but the extreme. If I can't recognise a character, I'm gone. I can't even count how many times I've read a story where you could seriously put ANY character's name in place of another.

That's not too many, is it? *g*

(Reply to this)(Thread)

I seem to have developed an internal excess-omoter that counts down expository lumps, unnecessarily detailed descriptions, redundant scenes, crises, plot twists ... number of characters, even. Just when it'll register 'too much' varies by fic, but once it's reached that point fatigue kicks in and I stop reading.

But yeah, there are things that'll just, bang, toss me right out. Aside from squicks that pop up without warning, they're mostly internal inconsistencies. Especially when they seem to occur because of a lack of planning -- 'Oops, this was supposed to be a romance, I'd better squeeze some in.' Or, 'Oops, I need some more conflict ... I know! Big Misunderstanding!'

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Interesting question.
This seems to evolve the more I read (and write).
A lot has been covered here, I suppose the biggest thing for me is inconsistent characterizations. If the characters started out a certain way (whether it be canon or fanon or something in between) but then devolve into unrecognizable pods then you've lost me.
I suppose this is a bit of a vague answer, but it's the best I can do. It's a bit like 'art'. I may not be able to describe what makes something art but I know it when I see it. ;)

And, as an aside, I really hate it when people don't warn for major things (death, torture, non-con). Yes, I get that people don't want to ruin their plot or whatever, but authors who do that to me once will find that I won't read their stuff ever again. Life is angsty enough without having to deal with it in my hobby. *shrug*

(Reply to this)(Thread)

It takes a lot to make me give up reading a fic. I often finish fics I don't like at all because once I've started reading something it's like a compulsion to finish.
That said - there are a few things I've developed an intolerance for over time (though more often than not I'll just start skimming through the story to skip parts I don't like)--

Extremely long, poorly written stories where the main pairing hooks up halfway through. I admit it, I like plot, but I read slash because I want to see the romance develop. There seem to be a lot of these stories on fanfic.net -- multi-chaptered and snape/harry are together by chapter three, and the rest of the story is them against voldemort/the world. I lose interest. There are exceptions, when the story is actually well written, of course. The're exceptions to almost everything.

Ridiculously OOC characters -- when they're so bad they're not recognizable as the characters anymore, and there's no explanation given in the story for a drastic change of personality.

OCs. one or two is believable and tolerable when they're relatively minor characters -- Harry makes new friends as he grows up, etc. but the moment one of them becomes a primary character, the moment it seems like the author is going "look, isn't this OC COOL?", I'm probably hitting the back button. I don't know what it is...

Stories filled with long expository scenes, or an overabundance of scenes from the lives of Harry's friends. Honestly? I just don't care what Ron and Hermione are doing in a Snarry story, so if you're repeatedly showing me scenes from their life that I don't feel do anything more for the story than take up space... well, I'll skip those scenes or stop reading (if it's really bad).

That's all I can think of... I don't have any real squicks in the kink department. There are a lot of other things that annoy me (everyone's Gay!) but not enough to make me stop reading. Even the ones I listed... they have to be extreme examples to make me totally give up a fic.

(Reply to this)(Thread)