Hey everyone,

I was wondering, what are the top reasons for why do you drop fics and novels?

Here are my own:
- slow release rate / can't remember most of the story because it wasn't unique enough.

  • temp hiatus due to author break / can't remember most of the story because it wasn't unique enough.

  • author writes too much shit each chapter as fact when everyone can tell he has no idea what he's writing about as a simple search can confirm.

  • too many baby pov chapters

  • the work is nearly a complete copy with a different skin of another fic or Canon.

  • main character is more of a spectator.

  • too little changes from Canon / Canon preserver mc

  • author keeps using the story to vent his real life situation up to and including an existential crisis.

  • reincarnation fic spends too much time in original world.

  • more than one chapter used for a prologue....

  • whole chapters used for authors notes instead of continuing the story.

  • paragraphs r too large

  • too slow progression

  • too emo

Funny enough, whilst I get pissed off at works that are in really poor English, I often manage to read all of the chapters before I decide its not worth continuing.

On the other hand most of the other reasons can cause me to write a work off within the first chapter and I only read till the 3rd to give things a chance.

How about you? Why do you drop most of the stuff you read?

    Many times i drop novels because some authors think "harem" is what the story need. Some novel have a nice balance like " strongest father in marvel (sry if i butcherd the name)
    Or way too many r-18 chapters ( sex )
    Also those which you mentioned.
    + babys (isekai) which run around reading books or talking to adults and no adult questions it

    If it reads like a twelve year old wrote it. (tweens, please don't kill me)

    If the grammatical errors take up every other sentence. (If the story is good enough, I might deal with this issue.)

    If there is too much hate mongering. The occasional slur I might overlook... if it's an antagonist being evil. But seriously, who needs that kind of thing on the daily?

    If the author is rude to their readers. No matter how good their work is, I'll stop reading.

    No discernible plot or nothing but gratuitous sex.

    • 1) Not interesting enough
      What is the plot? How is it gonna be resolve? Did the main character learn something?
    • 2) Too many grammar mistakes
      Misspelled words, Punctuation Issue
    • 3) A plot that does not fit the story itself
      Does not fit the story or does not go there at all.
    • 4) Disrespectful authors
      Need to say more?

    If it strays too far from what was initially written. Not the plot, of course, that has to move forward. I'm talking about the heart, what the story makes me feel.

    For example, Overgeared made me feel glad to watch as a man who had nothing going right in his life change his attitude and he got better because of it. Treating the world like shit makes it fuck you back, without consent if that matters. Treat it like how you want to be treated and people would respond positively to you.

    From the first arc to the latest chapter, the novel stuck to that. It still makes me glad to see the MC happy. His happiness is my happiness, his sadness is mine as well. I grew to love the characters because they feel like a living person.

    As for those I dropped, they don't necessarily dip in quality in terms of writing or even how the plot is laid out. I can say that I liked the first few arcs of The Novel's Extra, but it lost my interest after a while.

    It didn't change a lot, characters are the same, world setting is the same, but the focus changed over the arcs. From a man who wants to keep things from going bad, as what he did in previous arcs showed, he suddenly turned into a bad guy with the emotions of a child. He regressed into an idiot without any actual explanation or reason, and the heart was lost.

    So I drop novels that become longer because the author doesn't know what to do with his characters, making them lifeless and, since they become erratic, pretty much unrelatable.

    1. The plot is not interesting enough for me - yes, this is subjective
    2. Too many harem and explicit mature content
    3. Too many filler
    4. Repetitive plot
    5. Slow update

    Usually, for points 3 - 5, I will come back after > 3 months to continue it once more. Or, I will skip some chapters.

    In order of ascending annoyance

    1. An excess of filler or just a lack of action in general. I read to be entertained, so entertain me! Detail is fine so long as it's interesting.
    1. Boring characters. I don't expect everyone to be super relateable or likable, but I don't want passive cardboard cutouts floating along.
    1. A lack of any twist or uniqueness. If you're inspired by another work that's reasonable, but if you're following so closely it borders on plagiarism it's not.
    1. Bad English. Poor formatting, confusing grammar, garbled translations, constant misspellings and just a generally poor grasp of the language.

    Hm... there’s few originals I didn’t give up early... main reasons:

    1- Too poor of a grammar... I mean... those google tr copy paste ones with bad phrasing you know? At some point it gets unbearable.

    2- Those who you just know are a teenagers dream. The author may not be a teen anyone, but they overprojects themself and their old and new fantasy into it... usually resulting in Mary/Jack Sues with too much plot armor.

    3- Hiatus... cuz I end up giving up on the wait...

    4- The author. Writing notes on the novel. Writing 2 or more novels at the same time or starting a new one. Promoting the other novels on a novel. Sorry, this just screams I’ll end up dropping this one or going into a loooooong hiatus. A sure drop for me.

    5- This one... is the worst novel-wise... Badly written bed scenes. M/J Sue harem? Super fine. But if you can feel the author is a virgin or a dead fish using 4th, not even 3rd, rate AV and his way too wild fantasies as reference, usually with all women squealing like pigs and turning the bed into a lake by squirting... or the guy having a holy rod making women fall like flies with it... it gets too funny/disturbing and messes up even a real good plot... I’ll insert any kind of inces here since is not my thing.

    And well... the saddest is going premium... because they are good, and it’s good to the author... but if I went for a original is because it was free... and when they go premium I usually can’t afford it...

    Hatake_Shirou 1) I do not have enough ss to open chapters
    2) the story is at least written in good English, but suddenly in chapter 30 the topic of LGBT appears and in the tags it was not stated, I do not read it
    3) a lot of water, little work
    4) the text is too naive, in reality this cannot be, but what can we say about science fiction, a person who has lived 1,000,000 years should have experience and good understanding of human nature, and in the novel this is some kind of navigable junior high school student, admits strategic and tactical miscalculations reading this is not interesting
    5) I don’t have enough time to read other short stories (except for 1-2 novels, 2 chapters a day) since I have to write my own chapters for my story

      Different reasons like author keep repeating the same scenarios over and over showing how awesome the MC when he fight side characters too many slaps.

      Hiatus u don't know if author sick of writing or what for leaving novel hanging 🙄for good.

      copy paste work with different names and same resemblance 😒.

      Or author write too many shit in novel , or the story it self have no meaning keep dragging filler 😒😅 seen it in many novels .

      If novel good so I wait for stockpiles for couple month to read again then forgets the old ones one to start new novel.

      The plot, week MC, bad translation , grammar etc.

      If author start strong then keep dragging with nonsense over and over just to increase word counts .

      If translators have no respect for reader stop updating for months without notice
      I know everyone have issues in live

      If story coast too many coins and as free user I used to wait for check in to open chapter now 100% of novel won't be read unless it was still free or open of limited time, I can't buy SS it's too much expensive in my country 😅 .

      Too much censorship in MMO: Pierce the Heavens Until it Breaks. Like, if it's remotely r18 then it's out, kills characters development. literally feel castrated reading it.

      1. Recycled/reused plots (Looking at you Tempest of the Stellar War, Super Gene, and I'm Really A Superstar)

      2. Plots that revolve around every other character proverbially jerking off the MC because he/she is perfect or close to it.

      3. Plots where preteens or early teens that were normal kids before are suddenly mature enough to understand politics on a macro scale, have unlimited willpower, ridiculous work ethics, and never seem to be tempted by the opposite sex.

      4. Abusing Plot Armor or abusing plot convenience. I understand this is necessary sometimes, but sometimes this is just overdone.

      5. Reading novels that steal, borrow, or "receive inspiration" from other novels and then only changing the character/location/power names.

      Web Novel Novel Ask