Personally? When the author(s) make the character do something uncharacteristic like "stab ponies HURR HURR" without prior explanation or justification. It makes me just want to put it down and shove it down a dark corner.

Also, anything that defies science and logic so badly that it breaks immersion.

Oh wow, I can't even...

80% of my posts are about that. No, seriously. And I can take way more then most people. Mary Sues, polish notation, Spanish dialog attribution, quick and dirty script format conversion, troll ficery... Those I can handle.

Everything *can* make me stop reading a story midway through, it's not like I can narrow it down to any single event. Too many little things pile up though. More painfully, too many annoying things makes me not want to read chapter two.

Fluttermac shipping

*pic slightly related*

(What do you mean "if the story adds up to 1000 words in every chapter" exactly?)

Anyway, if I finish one chapter of the story, I'll usually finish all of them.

The only exception is when it looks like there's no progress in the story. When it's as if the reason I wanted to read the story in the first place suddenly seems like it's been put aside or forgotten about (usually due to the sudden appearance of some character or subplot that was "more important").

>I stop reading when I realize the story could have worked without ponies at all
Any of the stories in the fandom could apply to this. I'd say just about all of them could've been done by Pokemon, all things considered. Also, what happens if you're reading a good story and you happen to have this revelation? Do you just drop it for that reason, no matter how good the rest of the elements are?

Logic holes tend to kill stories for me, since once I've noticed one I begin psycho-analyzing everything I've read up to that point. Bad action scenes are also a deal breaker. The writer spends several hours of my life building up to a climax that fizzles with all of the energy of a shaken can of flat pop. Past Sins and Antipodes are both notable examples.

Gore. Fuck gore.

Boring hooks.

Overly telly paragraphs.

A plot that is stupid beyond belief and isn't going anywhere.

I can read through most grammar errors.

Not really midway, but I flinch whenever I see a friendship report at the end.

And when the story gives too much importance to an absolute side character, or two paragraphs-long character introductions. It doesn't make stop though, but it does add up.

>I stop reading when I realize the story could have worked without ponies at all
I find that most of my favorite stories could very well have easily worked without ponies. Hell, I'd call this a sign of strength, not one of weakness. Then again, I favor slice-of-life over any other genre.

Things that make me stop reading a story midway through?
-Anything without proper buildup. I don't care if your Trixie's destined to save all of Equestria and she has to travel to five other countries to gather legendary artifacts to re-power the Elements of Harmony,
-Terrible, terrible sentence structure. I honestly don't actually care about grammar if the auto-correct in my head catches it, but when I see sentences like
>Trixie caught the ball with her hooves, her mane blowing valiantly in the wind.
I will eject from the story faster than an adult video tape in a VCR being watched by a teenage boy when his parents walk into the room.
-Trixie.

>>86302
Just an example.
Though it does bug me after I had read the story.

Take White Box as a recent instance. I felt somewhat moved by the story, but it hit me after that Twilight's role was fully interchangeable.

>>86308
Well, there's interchangable races, but then there's interchangable characters. The former is good, since it hits closer to home that way and makes the characters more relatable. The second is bad, since it makes the characters boring. [/opinion]

>>86302
I disagree entirely. I've thought of porting my Gilda story over to a "fantasy realm," but frankly, the story wouldn't work as well if I used anthropomorphic entities for the characters (orcs / humans instead of griffins / ponies).


Anyway, as for what makes me stop reading midway through... really, it boils down to if the story abruptly goes in a way that wasn't built up to sufficiently. This includes but is not limited to random sex scenes, random gore scenes, and random... nonsensical scenes.

>>86338
However, the list of things that get me to quit reading in the first page is slightly more robust:

-Terrible grammar/formatting
-Terrible/boring premise
-Out-of-character ponies
-Boring OCs
-"Weather report intros" that aren't related to the story at hand
-Descriptions of the main character that prattle on for too long
-Purple prose
-clichés from the show
-Stuff that SHOULD be tagged that's not in the tags
-Any mention of:
---The New Lunar Republic
---A Pinkie Pie Party
---"Celestia's Sun/Luna's Moon" I will forgive this if they include Gushnor, the god of the Sewers, and refer to using the restroom as taking a "Gushnor's Shit." It has never happened.

>>86338
You could always write it with original characters. Griffons are hardly MLP-only territory, and I'm sure you could find a suitable substitute for the ponies.

>>86342
"Gushnor's Shit"
I am laughing at this far too hard.

>>86346
A race that griffins have a mythologically-based hatred of? So... switch my story about griffins and ponies out for a story about griffins and horses?

>>86349
Humans and elves?

>>86346
Also, this.

>>86355
I will one day use Gushnor's Shit in a story, just because that is amazing.

Something I find an instant turn-off is when authors pander to an audience way too hard and it's noticeable. That and memes. Things such as wing-boners.

>>86354
Flight's an integral part of my Gilda's character, as is her, in general, being a griffin and having to deal with those primal instincts.

I don't see it transposing 1:1 to a fantasy realm outside of My Little Pony, is all. And also, I don't want to at this point.

>>86307
Partially because I've written a few sentences similar to that myself and partially because I'm generally curious...

Is that really THAT bad? Sure, it's not good. At all. But it's comprehensible. You can tell what the author is trying to say with relative ease.

On topic, I've dropped a few stories for being unjustifiably lengthy. They just keep going without really DOING much in all that space and it tires me out. Don't get me wrong, the main plot can be put on hold for a bit to do some character development, but don't leave it hanging while you go write a whole other story on the side unless that other story is both important to yours and COMPELLING.

I'll generally read half way through a story before I give up on it, regardless of the length. Things that bother me are poor characterization, plot holes, meme abuse, imaginativeness, and stupidity.

When I say stupidity, I'm talking about the things that lower my opinion of the author. Things like characters out of character, wrong information, any kind of balls (idiot ball, villain ball, etc...), unrealistic moments. Of course, I'm not talking about our reality. I am talking about the reality of the story. Rules are established by the story to allow us to gauge how for from our reality the story is. The author must abide by those rules. When he doesn't, it pisses me off.

Creativity is probably the biggest thing for me. Creativity is an intriguing idea. Taking something and looking at it in a different light. I'll read through a creative story I don't like because creative acts deserve acknowledgement. This is why the "Goddess Celestia/Luna" characters drive me up a wall. It's the most obvious interpretation of their characters, but it's not necessary. They don't have to be goddesses to fit the cannon of the show. Am I the only person who knows that?

Creativity is the deal killer. I can put up with a lot if the story is creative. If its not, I'm not going to waste my time.

I usually take my reviewing seriously and, even going through horrible things (like homophobic scenes and worse things I've come to read), I try to not throw the fic away. Only sheer boredom could make me stop reading. And happened only once.

Yes, it was a decent story about detectives, excellent first person narration. But, every once in a while, the flow stopped because the one of the characters started remembering things that, if they had something to add or explain to the story, it could be decent, but it was seldom the case. So I ended saying "Darn, I'm sick of this". The story was good though, but that thing killed it for me.

Sure, I'm a writer who makes enough worldbuilding to make the reader hop on the story. They get slapped by the environment hard enough for them to be able to see, without problem, where's the action taking place. But I try to make it interesting so, even though it's no plot there (until the plot comes back after the worldbuilding), the readers keeps reading an "doooood" expression.

So, the only reason, for now, that I have to drop a story is because, as Luna would say, "We art not entertained."

>>86306
This, badly written friendship reports. Especially the ones rife with typos and grammatical errors.

Like numerous other reading machines here on /fic/, I have a built-in Stuometer much akin to Bender's Gaydar.

I stop reading once the Stuometer's measurement of the story's protagonist reaches 0.8 Edwards.

Stop reading?

I read voraciously. The only time I stop reading is when it's obvious the author has no intention of doing anything more than waste my time.
That's happened precisely once in the past two years.
Even the worst style, grammar, and characterization can hold a kernel of a message.

Actually, I take it back.

It's fun picking out Stu points and calling shots, just to spotlight how ridiculous and contrived the story is, as merely a means to the end of exalting an imaginary character.

>>82372 (MintyRest)
> If you want to do a story where Twist takes over after Cheerilee retires, and you've got an entire class of OC foals, we're cool with that. If you want to do a fic where a mysterious hero appears from no where, beats up everybody, and proceeds to bone Fluttershy and Luna in a threeway... Then we have some issues to bring up.

>reading decent adventure story
>suddenly implied shipping
No.

Also, stuff that takes obvious influence suddenly essentially copying its influence. Dangerous Business had me really wrapped up in the plot, and I enjoyed the Rohirrim stand-ins thanks to their slight differences; but then the deer were essentially mapped 1:1 with elves (he even re-worded the Gil-Galad poem with very few changes). I nearly stopped reading right then, but thankfully the ending was good enough to put it on my "enjoyed" list.

most of the times, only the author makes me stop reading halfway. If he stops writing it. Other things not that much. I come for a story, grammar and all are nice. But why read a boring story with perfect grammar if there is a story with a few hiccups here and there. but really awesome?

Had one of these experiences yesterday. I was reading a Kung-Fu Panda fic. Quite well-written, a diverse OC cast with a varied backstory that meshed well with the established characters. None of them were particularly Sue-y. A more-than-fair bit of shipping going on, but I dealt with it since it wasn't overtly stupid. The problem arose when the author began to elaborate on the backstory of Tai-Lung (typical redemption story for a defeated villain, if largely well-done). Now, I'm all for this sort of thing, and it was mostly working until the author did one of the most contrived forms of flashbacks possible, wherein a character suddenly remembers a single extremely specific memory that had been completely forgotten up to this point. Then he started crying. Now, this set off more than a few alarms, but damnit, I could muscle through this scene. I mean, it's established canon that Tai-Lung has Daddy issues, and suddenly remembering how his biological father died would probably be truamatizing. But no, the author couldn't stop there, they had to beat the "You should feel really, really sad for him" into me.
Which is why its been heavily (as in, without a doubt by the time I finished) implied that he was raped in the prison by the rhino leader.
I can deal with rape when it makes sense to the plot, but that was just there to stir up the emotions of people who lack a logical process in their brains. I closed the chapter half-way through and I doubt I'll be going back to finish it, which is a shame, since it was otherwise quite good.

Other than memes, I hate it when they start shoehorning in characters. Like Gilda, where she's always the Griffon King's daughter or some sort of gryphon ambassador meaning that if griffins are involved she'll pop-up too.

>>86483
This ties into the larger issue of small reference pools. I will die happy if I never read another mention of "dandelion sandwiches" again. There's literally thousands of edible flowers. Pick another one.

>>86491
Incidently, daffodils are not one of them.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, kills a story for me faster than author's notes in the middle of it. It's like having someone read you a story and then insert their own thoughts into the plot for no damn reason.

>>86360
It's comprehensible, but sentences like those often come in droves.

1.) Learning suddenly that Pen Stroke is the author of the fic.
2.) I guess... shipping, mostly for me. I don't object directly to it, as I do have a special place in my heart for Flutterpie, but most shipping is either done incorrectly, illogical, or just plain clichéd in its own right. Most romance stories have never hit a chord for me, and justifiably; almost no author can do it right, especially when it's done amongst little ponies. Special exceptions are made for fics like Silent Ponyville and The Vinyl Scratch Tapes, but they have their own levels of awesome that are not to be trifled with.
3.) A lot of mechanical errors. The sad thing is, most of these stories are posted on Equestria Daily, and the prereaders will often fail to detect the smallest of screwups. This normally launches me into another revision of my own fic, but I digress.
4.) An overwhelmingly normal scene. The one thing I can't stand in a fic is seeing something just... too normal to be notable. In my eyes, something exciting and/or interesting MUST happen in every scene of a fic. I tend to immediately drop a fic if it opens with a few characters just sitting around discussing life. These scenes are for later in the fanfic. Every scene must either define the character or the fanfiction as a whole.
5.) I'm actually perfectly okay with things like purple prose and verbosity. In all seriousness, it’s the reverse that annoys me a lot of the time. I personally don't love it when a writer uses too simple of language. I assume it's something I've picked up by reading nineteenth century literature all the time, but it does peeve me quite a bit.

However, all these stated, it takes quite a bit for me to just drop a fanfiction outright. I love most writers automatically for having the bravery to go public with their fics in the first place, and I guess sometimes the respect grows too great for me to just stop reading a fic once I've started. I guess it’s really only larger mistakes that grab my attention most of the time.

>>86538
Do you still have a review thread, Ryonne?

>"I stop reading when I realize the story could have worked without ponies at all"

This applies to me, in two ways:

1) The world it is set in is too much unlike Equestria. Ponies are described as using their hooves just like hands (i.e. firing guns). Or the technology is too much like Earth (i.e. guns) - I'm choosing to ignore the video games from Hearts and Hooves day, since those didn't even impact that episode's plot. I believe Lauren Faust said that Equestria was essentially medieval, so having too many modern, Earthlike conveniences separates the story from canon too much.

2) The characters don't fit into Equestria. Either canon characters are twisted too far, or the OCs don't make any sense in the context of the show.

I also just don't like fics that take themselves too seriously... The show is lighthearted and fun. There should at least be SOME of that in your story. You can still have an overall serious plot, but those lighthearted moments are what's going to make me like your characters.

I'm often pretty critical of other people's work (although I make up for it by hating my own work even more), but there are actually surprisingly few things that will make me just stop reading in disgust. I feel it's a little arorgant and self-indulgent of me to list all of them, but here's one of the absolute worst:

Be in no doubt that if I see a single "u" in place of "you", your fic gets closed.

>>86546

Actually I think Faust just said that the show isn't intended to be logical or really all that chronologically consistent. I, personally, am not a big fan of picking and choosing canon but whatever. Also, ponies do use their hooves as hands a lot in the show, but I guess that's just something that doesn't translate well to fic.

>>86549
I think every show should have a bible for it that could be released to the public fanbase. I'm constantly wondering just how far I can take Equestrian technology (or magitech).

>>86554

I generally don't like TV, computers, or video games in Equestria... Unless you can make it convincing why they have those, and there's a reason to have them in the plot.

I don't usually pick-and-choose from canon. But the arcade just struck me as odd, and like I said, there's no good reason for it to be there.

>>86554
When you have telegrams, refrigerators, and arcade machines in the same setting, the bible tends to be "Make shit up and run with it."

>>86545
Uh, well, I've eased off of my review thread for now, at least. I really loved reviewing, but I had gone into heavy work on my own fanfiction at the time; said work was taking up way too much of my freetime to solidly maintain my queue. I do plan to get back into my thread and do some serious reviews once my fanfiction is rejected from Equestria Daily for the third time I finish up writing my fic, though. Sorry.

>>86301
I've got a variation of this: if there's no progress in the story and the author chooses instead to spend multiple chapter beating up on the viewpoint character(s), esp. when the antagonists motivations for doing so are poorly explained.

I've read a few promising stories where the author totally derailed the plot was for me by spending far too long abusing the characters for no understandable reason. I can understand putting characters that the reader sympathizes with through adversity and painful situations, but if the characters are just repeatedly beaten down and the plot stays stationary, the whole story just turns into an emotionally draining quagmire. The worst part is these stories are generally well written and hard to walk away from because I genuinely want to find out what happens next.

There's a variant of this where the protagonists go from one awful situation to a new awful situation without really seeming to progress towards some goal. I'll stick with those longer, but that's only because it takes me longer to recognize that things aren't going anywhere.

>>86342
Someday, somewhere, I will include Gushnor in one of my stories. If at all possible, it will be something that will actually see print. This I vow.

>>86342
>List
Oh good, you just listed all the concerns I always have about my own work (except for the "weather report" thing - what's with that?).

>Celestia's Sun/Luna's Moon
Is an exclamation like "Celestia's wings" OK?

>>86588
That's not as bad, I guess.

>>86588
>(except for the "weather report" thing - what's with that?).

It ranks up with Celestia's sun/Luna's moon. It's actually so reoccurring it causes dangerous levels of eye rolling once you start going through about one fic a day over a long enough period.
It's a way of conveying simple information in a way that's so cloyingly artistic, but trite.

> Is an exclamation like "Celestia's wings" OK?
Celestia has wings, they're fairly large, so yeah, that makes sense.

I use cloying for Celestia's sun because: To cause distaste or disgust by supplying with too much of something originally pleasant, especially something rich or sweet.

It's a very artistic phrase. That's why everyone tries to use it. That's why it's sickening. It's usually forced in, hammed up, and awkward where it comes in. The author can't tell, they don't read 7-10 fics every few days. It seems like a cruise control too coolness.

While I'm complaining, my problem with 'Luna's Moon' is that canonically until about... a year prior, Luna wasn't the Goddess of the Night. She was at best the Mare in the Moon, a spiteful, rage fueled spirit that wanted to rule the world. Most ponies over Apple Bloom's age would be used to Celestia raising the moon. Ergo, it would be Celestia's moon too.

Weather reports are such a normal way to start a story, they don't even have information in them any more most of the time. It was a beautiful day in Ponyville has as much impact as 'It was a dark and stormy night'. Some of the time the author is trying to juxtapose the weather versus mood, but that's pretty rare, and can be done differently. Most of the time it's wasted space when we could be starting with something to bait the reader to continue, rather then slamming the doc shut and swearing off the author FOREVER.

>>86600
I actually agree quite a bit with this. There is a fine line between a weather report opening and setting up the scene, and an author should always note that. Therefore, you don't always have to avoid explaining the weather completely; if it's relevant to the scene, comes into importance later on, and/or is worded in a different way than several infamous ones we should all recognize, it's fine. However, a first line is best for action, as that's the line that makes the reader buy the story (not literally, but I've heard numerous readers tell me that they judge an entire fic based on the first line; many readers are pressed for time or are scourging through a vast quantity of fics, and can't read every one).

In fact, I think the same could be said for most ponies here. Not many readers will wish to drop a fic after they've become emotionally invested in it, or even genuinely interested in the storyline (unless, of course, the fic really does suck). I personally would never drop a fic after I've made it past the opening. It's really the general... air of the story which dictates its readers dedication. I guess the only time I've stopped reading a fic is when I become bored with it. If I become bored, I'll begin to notice smaller errors, and thus, will begin to judge the fanfic a bit more harshly. It's not really as if in a particularly fast-paced scene I'll see one sentence that incites an absolute rage in me, causing me to throw my computer out the window and destroy the town: it's normally what happens in the fanfiction as a whole.

Then again, I've only really exposed myself to the top fics in the fandom, so I can't specifically speak for the lower works.

>>86604
You can always tell it in a way that involves the character so that it's not so telly. For example, if you want to show that it's a dark and stormy night, you could do, "She galloped through the sheets of rain, barely avoiding low-hanging branches as they materialzed from seemingly nothing more than the darkness surrounding her."