Things You Love in Stories

When characters are jealous but they recognise that their jealousy is stupid and unfounded and irrational and get over it.

Also, things that are domestic but not in traditionally domestic ways, if that makes sense.

Fanfics that sort of completely mess with canon in some ways but also manage to not disrupt it instead adding a new level of awesome to everything all over it.

@ Katlight Sparkle
I love that.

I love my canon-based fic, but I love when then can stick to can and create such an out there storyline. I've read vampire canon fics. I've read disability canon fics. I've read M-preg canon fics. Love it

hear dru's song.:

@ amaranthine.
On the note of this, when not all the bad guys are bad or all the good guys are good. When there's a sort of middle ground.

Yeah, I love this too - when there's a character you love, but you don't support their cause, or vice versa. Or when, although someone is considered 'bad,' you can see their reasons behind whatever they're doing, and they're actually completely valid reasons.

I think I just love messing around with the typical perceptions of good and evil in general.

Natural dialogue that belies interpersonal relationships. Like two people who bicker like an old married couple, or someone who is mothered by someone else. Probably I like this because it happens in my life, but I can't do dialogue at all :/
For the same reason, humour. Any type of humour.

When there is a strong sense of place. I like to be able to read something and say 'this is London' without being told it's London. Also, strong characterisation, when you know exactly who has said what without tags.

@ Blackjack.

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When there is a strong sense of place. I like to be able to read something and say 'this is London' without being told it's London. Also, strong characterisation, when you know exactly who has said what without tags.

This. And going off this, I love it when the author really makes the story setting realistic. Like mentioning specific quirks and traits that are specific to that one city/state/town/country and really making you feel as if you've gotten a good knowledge of the city, WITHOUT sounding like a tourist map.

@ the power of justice
Again, I find myself agreeing with you. I just have to love an autgor that has done their homework. If I'm sitting down to read a fic, I want the story to sweep me off my feet. I know a lot about Tokyo and Kyoto, but I love a good glance into the little things that I might have never noticed before.

Another thing I adore in a story is when an author withholds infprnation from the character without me even realizing that they are doing it -to if it's done well, I love sitting there and thinking, "well fuck me I wouldn't jave seen that coming if it had been a high-speed train." I love connecting the dots! And I loved the way Christopher Paolini did it in the final book of the Inheritance cycle. There were these tiny little details scattered throughout the series that none of the characters gave two fucks about, and then bam. By the end of that book, it all came together, and I sat there staring at the back cover for a while. It was awesome.

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Characters that hit multiple points of a stereotype but aren't one-dimensional. eg a beautiful skinny blonde working as a model who isn't a mean bitch out to steal your boyfriend. Obviously I don't like characters that are just stereotypes, but it's often pretty transparent when an author's trying desperately to avoid a stereotype and I don't like that either. Characters can be similar to a stereotype, or even be a stereotype, and still be complex and interesting if they're written well.

@ battalions
I agree. It's kind of like how people try desperately to not repeat cliches even though cliches can work. And it's realistic, I think; everyone's got a few stereotypical traits and we all know people who may somewhat fit in to a stereotype, whether's it's the flamboyant gay dude, the bitchy popular girl, the brooding loner, etc. Personally, I'm more impressed by writers who can add dimension to stereotypes and cliches than people who go out of their way to oppose these things in an attempt at "originality".

I like when parents are included in the story, and they have more character than Parent to X.

chai latte:

@ of dru's being.
"Life humor"--yes! That's the perfect term for it because that's exactly what it is. I love reading something and half the reason it's funny is because it's totally something I could see myself or one of my friends doing/saying/whatever. I mean, life is so ridiculous all on it's own; there's usually no reason to go out of your way to try to force comedy.

I love that too. It's so great when the writer doesn't force trying to make it funny but is able to just write things that make you laugh.

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I love impossible imagery. Like "Just his rag-and-bone soul exposed against the dirty grey sky, tortured and filthy and smashed beyond repair..." from Choke. by carcinogenic. or "...pealing the layers to expose the blueprint of justice, the anatomy of God..." from the lyrics to Song From A Stranger's House by Dave Smallen. I love imagery that is abstract like that.

I love it when a character aren't perfect. In some stories I've read the main character is perfect because the author didn't want to make the character seem annoying by having a very human flaw. Some people are pretentious, hypocritical, have an unnecessarily bed temper, or what-have-you. Those types of flaws can make characters more human. There is sometimes a fine line between an irritating character and one with flawed behaviors, and I love it when an author can tread that line well.

+ awesome characters. when you can just tell they're awesome. they're simply being who they are and you can't help but love them for it.

+ poetic yet concise writing. unf.

+ plots that don't seem to go anywhere. it's as if the author is simply showcasing snippets of a day in their lives, or when it makes the reader feel like they're just hanging out with them or something. there's gotta be some unifying theme/goal that ties them all together, of course.

+ not necessarily nice, but sweet characters. with or without a dark side.

+ cross dressing, gender ambiguous stories, not gender-conscious stories

+ when a character does things you would never suspect them to do in a million years. and the author executes it as development, not inconsistency.

+ oh, and merciless cliff hangers.

Characters with double names.

Stories that are funny without coming across as trying too hard to be funny (aka realistic humor). I don't really care to read a story that's humor relies entirely on perverted jokes, that's filled with randomness like sugar rushes that aren't even really funny, or something that's dripping with sarcasm. In my day-to-day life, I'm the queen of zingers and observations, but I don't want to read a story that has a zinger every other line.

Going off of that, when a story (a comedy) plays around with different types of humor through the use of various characters. I feel like the US version of The Office did an incredible job of doing that. As a reader, it comes across more as being "oh, that's so *insert character name*'s sense of humor" instead of feeling only the writer's sense of humor. Juno was incredibly annoying to me because at least three of the characters employed the exact same type of humor.

Little anecdotal tidbits that the writer weaves in about a character that seem to have nothing to do with the story at all, but it serves as comic relief and gives you an insight into the character's thoughts, especially when it's done in third person.

I love both writing and reading really interesting or strange metaphors and similes, especially extended metaphors. Like a unique and well-written extended metaphor is just for me, especially if it's sort of abstract or it makes the narrative more abstract. [/rambling and cannot properly explain...]

When two characters become friends first then lovers instead of instant lovers.

@ unapalomayunaflor
I love this, and there's that gradual tension that just builds really nicely - not too sudden yet not slow at the same time. And when the moment of 'oh hey, I like you' happens and it's written to perfection, it's probably the best thing for me to read. I LOVE moments like those.

• Crazy, alcohol fueled, party type drama
• Suspicions of cheating
• Clever titles
• A lead female character who isn't the typical shy, nervous type, but isn't overalls bad ass either
• Parents that are there and give advice/act like parents