Things You Don't Like in Stories

@ Rosamarie
The thing is the development of a relationship can actually make a good plot in and of itself; it's just most people, even people who otherwise write well, don't do it well. That said, I'm not really a fan of romance stories. Like you said, the romance should be a b-plot not the sole plot, at least that's the sort of story I prefer to read and write.
Also the other thing you said, I pretty much agree with too. It's unrealistic and just so, so cliche for the first love to be the only love. Like yes, that sometimes happens in real life and sometimes can work for a story, but yeah usually not.

little tea-pot; said something similar, so to add to that: When someone is writing fanfiction and the character is nothing like they actually are. Lets use band fiction for example. The musician should act the same way he/she does in real life if you're writing about them. I read one once where the guy was 180 degrees different, just beyond unrealistic.

I nicely mentioned in a comment that it wasn't realistic and the author replied "well it's my version". I hate this. If you're going to make up a whole new personality, why don't you just write an original fiction? It seems lazy to me.

There's this very amether sort of thing I see a lot on here and in any pieces when someone has just started writing, particular in sci-fi fantasy. It's a sort of deus ex machina where the characters are put in a conflict situation and something miraculous happens that draws them out or ends the conflict right away, before there's any action.

For example: say you have two protagonists in this world where only certain people have magical abilities. One protagonist has them while the other does not. The characters encounter a situation where the magical one has no powers, and before anything is done—by some unexplained deus ex machina—the one who didn't originally have powers got them and saves the day right away.

Not only does that make the hero an infallible marry sue, it's just bad plot. Very amateur.

When sexual assault is used either as a device to show how strong a female character is, or how "good"/"moral" a male character is for saving them from it, proving they're not a rapist and don't condone it because apparently that can't be assumed.

@ The God of Thunder.
This, so much this. I see this so much, and it's one of the most cliched and often horribly-done sequences to ever exist.

This is for all my Walking Dead fiction readers here: pregnancies at the end of the world. Bah. Maybe I'm just so turned off by the whole "pregnancy glow" thing, but any time the OC is pregnant, I have to stop reading. I mean, it's the end of the world for Pete's sake - who would actually want to raise a baby in that? And sure, there's not really much in the way of modern medicine so there aren't too many solutions. Doesn't mean there are none, though. What makes me dislike it even more is oftentimes, the OC just decides she's going to see the pregnancy through. Maybe it's the author's viewpoints on accidental pregnancies shining through, or whatever, but for once I'd like to see an OC do something about an unwanted pregnancy.

-People using mental illnesses or huge matters to further their plot. I can't tell you how many times I've read a story where the heroine is r*ped or is depressed, but gets over it completely after two chapters. It doesn't work like that, sorry. If you're going to include those things in your story, at least research it.

-Love triangles. This wasn't a huge thing for me in the past, but the beauty of polyamory means those love triangles don't have to be that big of a problem. I can't tell you how much I've sighed when reading a story and the heroine is out of sorts because she can't choose between the two hunky hunky men in her life. Shit, girl, date both of 'em!
Then again, part of me is happy polyamory isn't in that many stories, because I can't even imagine how people would completely butcher it, lmao.

removed because i felt like my comment broke the rules

I haven't read many stories lately but one thing I dislike in stories is when someone makes a character with the same exact abilities/character traits/personality as the main character of a fandom and the said "mary sue/gary stu" suddenly becomes better than the said main character, like he/she practically takes the place of the main character for no reason and all the other characters dont seem to mind at all even though the main character has been part of the group of main characters (and possibly the "lead(er)" from the start.

If you're going to have an OC replace the main character or a main character, there has to be a good reason for it or make it to where maybe your OC actually doesn't have the same powers as the main/lead character and it's just a ruse and the character has some sort of ability to sort of maybe hypnotize the other characters? or something. idk.

I just don't like seeing in action oriented fandoms (Marvel, DC, ThunderCats, etc) where the fanfic writer comes up with an OC that pretty much replaces a character they don't like and the other characters are just, "That's cool. This new unknown person can join us right away." It especially irks me when people do this for a superhero fanfic.

Switching the writing style mid way through a story or chapter. They'll start in, say, third person, and switch to first, or whatever. If that happens I often stop reading, same with paragraph structure. If someone has more than one person talking in a paragraph I go absolutely nuts. It's just confusing and it makes the story hard to read.

This is similar to something I've said in the past in here, but I dislike when the message, theme, or symbolism in a work are too heavy-handed or otherwise not subtle. Like, subtle symbolism or themes is so much better and more enjoyable to read. Like, how in the film Zootopia the theme in the film dealt with racism, but was done in a way that wasn't like a copy and paste of our real world race dynamics and was done in a way that was nuanced and not overly preachy. Meanwhile, so many Zootopia fics get that wrong.

I dislike that stuff in other fandoms and also in original fics, by the way, that movie and its fandom was just like, my go to example. (Also, I am not trying to bash anybody or their fic. It's just a tendency I dislike!)

(Reviving another old thread. Lol)
This is petty as heck, but I tend to dislike phonetically written accents.