What makes me stop reading or watching a story or fanfic...

[shadowkat]

Woke up to dense fog this morning which still appears to be dense. The temperature is supposed to rise to a rather balmy 56 degrees. I have no idea what that is in Celsius.

Highly aggravated. Feel profoundly stuck and want snipe at things. Hopefully it'll pass.

On a side note, one of my uncles has announced on Facebook that his...supernatural Christmas thriller about the birth of Jesus has stayed in Amazon's Top Ten list in...Denmark for three weeks.
Yes, I said Denmark. This was not a misprint. He's doing the happy snoopy dance or as he put it Snoopy is dancing because it's on the Amazon top ten list in Denmark. I restrained myself from telling him, "it's "the "happy snoopy dance" NOT Snoopy is dancing". Seriously, Denmark? I haven't read the book - the story isn't my cup of tea or coco as the case may be. (In that I don't tend to like preachy Christian/religious supernatural thrillers...I have enough problems with Jim Butcher.)

Talking about stories that don't work for you or rather plot-threads or tropes that take you out of the story or make you stop reading...

There's about four or five in fanfiction and specifically genre fiction that will make me stop watching or give up on the story entirely. These are narrative devices or tropes or whatever you want to call them because really drawing a blank here - that disrupt the story for me personally and make me stop reading.


1. The Sire Bond. This is basically the hold that the vampire who sires another has over them. In short, I sired you, now you are my sex slave because I turned you into a vampire. I'm your maker and now you are my slave.

Forgetting the gross incestuous implications for a minute...I find it silly And it has pulled me out of various stories...regardless of the writer. I don't think anyone has pulled it off. I stopped reading Dracula by Bram Stoker in part because of it and he created the stupid trope. I rather liked what Joss Whedon did with it - which was make fun of it and shrug it off.

Fanfic writers and romance writers invariably consider it romantic or cool and overdo it. The gist of it is...I didn't do these things, my maker made me do them...so I get a "get out of jail" free card. In short I was under his or her control.

2. Loss of Character Agency - the Devil Made Me Do it storyline. Or I was possessed by an evil spirit. Or under mind control.

Unfortunately this bit has been over-done. I've only liked in some situations - examples when it works? Spike in S7 Buffy, with the trigger. I like the trigger and the psychology behind it.
He didn't really lose his agency, he gave it up - so he wouldn't have to feel pain. So he does take responsibility for it. Or in S4 Buffy - with Riley...who fights the control of Professor Walsh. Or Clockwork Orange...also done with Spike in Buffy - the attempt to change or modify behavior. That is interesting and builds plot and character, because the character is active, not passive.

What is not interesting is what they did with Angel. Oh, I lost my soul - it's all Angelus fault.
Or oh I was possessed by the evil Twilight...or in short someone else's puppet against my will.
They do this a lot in comic books. It's always annoying. And the character doesn't change or grow.
We just go back to the way things were. There's no real plot progression. And it happens again and again, and again and again her or she is excused.

3. Soul Mates...it's EPIC!

Oh please.

Two characters meet, they exchange five words, and its instant love. And of course continues forever. They get involved with other people, but are always drawn back to each other...because we are each others one true love. The romeo/juliet syndrom...forgetting of course that they died.
It's all fine and well for about five months...then after a bit one gets tired of the speechifying.
And groping. There's no plot progression, no character advancement. It's just OMG, I love you so much I will die! Bored now. The characters are passive - love controls them. They have no choice in the matter. And the story doesn't move it hovers.

4. The Oppressive Love Triangle, which is only there to create conflict for the One True Love.


Often a third character is introduced, who is hot and sexy, and used to pry the OTL or OTP apart.
They don't of course, because we must have the epic love. But it creates conflict. The pitfall of this approach is sometimes the third character is more interesting, less passive, more aggressive and more proactive to the plot. The third character may change and evolve due to the unrequited love, while the central two remain stagnant.

It's okay for about one or two seasons or five minutes, but if the writer doesn't move on and keeps the love triangle past a certain point - we start to wonder about the characters sanity.

5. The Grudge Story Line - or have a character you don't like do horrible things or bash them to prove a point.

Mainly in fanfic, but also a stand-by in long running soap operas and comic books, unfortunately. Often writers will feel the need to make a character they don't like and don't want the readers to like - do something that will piss the reader's or audience off. ie. "This is supposed to be a villain - you are supposed to love to hate them, you nitwits! And be rooting for Character A over here!" Often the action is either out of character or would have been in character a year or so ago, but isn't now - because the writers evolved the character over the course of the last three years. But now, they want to set them back a bit...for whatever reason. The audience thinks wait, I thought XYZ was on the path to redeemption. Why did they do that? That makes no sense. Damn. This alienates your reader and audience, don't do it.

In fanfic it's worse - often they'll take a character that other's love and make them horrible in the fic. The Grudge Fic.

6. Saint to Sinner and back again. Rinse and Repeat as needed.

They also do the opposite...in which they take a character they've turned darker, then suddenly out of the blue redeem them. The character is saintly again. There's no build-up. Or anything.
Or they'll build up to it - but just over two episodes...after spending five episodes making them dark. The audience has whip lash. There's really no in-between, they are either evil or saintly and we bounce back and forth.


Okay, came up with 6. Feel free to share yours..if you feel so inclined.

Comments

[ann1962]

Rape trope. Especially if it's followed by #3 or #4.

[kikimay]

Gah! I need to share this list!

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

Re: Denmark. It's one of my favorite places, a small country and very nice. I'd be thrilled if it were my story, too. Yes, it's nice to be a big fish in a small pond. Even if it's one you hadn't really considered dipping into. ;o) I can't say why the Danes are taken with your uncle's religious story. But once in Copenhagen I had to fend off a Danish Jehovah's Witness in the square in front of the central rail station, by explaining that there was no point in me taking a copy of his Watchtower since I couldn't read Danish!

My biggest story turn off? Churning through relationships (starting and ending them and often restarting them) for no other reason than jerking the reader/viewer around.

[liliaeth]

My biggest turn off... a lack of tension.

This may be silly, but the one thing most likely to stop me from reading a story is if nothing actually happens.

For example, two people are in love, they get together, they angst a bit, but without anything actually in the way of them getting together, and then they sleep together, promise eternal love, end of story....

I've seen a few fics like that and it's booooooring as hell.

[ponygirl2000.livejournal.com]

I'll offer the caveat that I think an author can get away with anything if the writing's good enough. I've certainly enjoyed books or shows that should put me off but don't because they do it so well. That said - as a riff on your #2, something that really bugs me is loss of reader agency, when we're told and expected to feel a certain way or draw conclusions about characters' actions that absolutely have to be the way the author intended or the story's universe won't work. Like say the series 24 where Jack was constantly put in situations where he just had to torture someone and his actions were always supposed to be admirable while anyone who opposed him was clearly shown to be wrong and punished for it. Or another Jack on Lost who we kept being told was a natural leader yet whose decisions always worked out badly. See also Angel constantly called a champion - which the show to its credit later mocked and subverted but I got the feeling at the time they wanted us to believe.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

For extra "huh?" about your uncle, you might be interested to know that there is no Amazon.dk. If you're in Denmark and want to buy books from Amazon, you have to go through one of the British, German, French, US etc branches. So as far as I know, they don't even have an official Danish top ten list. If there is an unofficial one, you probably don't have to sell a huge amount of books to get on it. (And generally speaking Danes, like all Scandinavians, tend to be pretty secular and irreligious - of course, there are always tiny minorities who make up for it by being extra devoted.)

And yeah, I pretty much agree with your irk factors. All of them can probably be done well - I'm firmly convinced that there's no trope that's universally awful - but damn, they're overused and very hard to get right.

[spikesjojo.livejournal.com]

Harsh - but I understand the frustration.

However, I think tropes are a useful writing tool for beginners, and folks sharpening their skills. The give space to concentrate on skills - internal monologue, balance of thoughts and sensory, when to dramatize and to summarize, creating an organic plot, character driven plot points, etc. The challenge for either new or old writers is to bring a fresh sense to the trope. I find it's more useful to look at what they're doing right, and point it out. And point out if something doesn't work for me - if they want to engage, fine.

Right now I am working on sire/child and trying to go somewhere other than true love - it's kinda fun to subvert the trope and try to make it mine. That's another thing writers might try - The Princess Bride effect. Not sure if I have the skills warmed up yet, but trying.

There have been stories I put down because they weren't fresh for me and found others who loved them. Each person decides where the line is crossed for them on each story they take the time to read. I think that's where you're going on this part of the rant.

[berric.livejournal.com]

The whole Soul Mates, One True Love thing bugs me too, it is one of the problems I have with Once Upon a Time.

I also really hate love triangles.

Ah #5, Ron the Deatheater trope. I also hate this one, especially when they are bashing a character that I love because the author sees them as a threat to their prefered character or ship.

With #2 I do like it when the character in question takes responsibility for what they have done despite having the out of not being fully in control.

I will stop reading something if the author has a character do something that I feel they would not do.