Question What makes you drop a novel?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by animefan217, Sep 26, 2019.

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  1. BigBadBoi

    BigBadBoi Well-Known Member

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    Hypocrite MCs that don't kill no matter what. Repetitive plot that are basically recycled. Trash waifus getting added to the harem (Talisman Emperor, etc), Retarded MC that stays retarded and doesn't grow as a person, shit writing (even by my low standards) and OP from the start + Slice-of-Life(there are some good ones tho).
     
  2. Shizun

    Shizun 《Jack of all trades》《Artist/Author》《Dao of BLedia》

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    Yea, i especially love extremely funny anime & manga, that is apparently weird to others.
    Kemono Michi (Natsume Akatsuki) for example.

    The jack of all trades is mostly about my skills. Another thing. Dunno if i offended u in any kind of sorta way. Was not my intention. I just counted everything what makes me drop a novel. Welp, everyone's preferance is different.
     
  3. Zeusomega

    Zeusomega M.D of Olympus Pvt Ltd. Seeking [Boltzmann brain]

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    Taking your asking about light or web novels.

    I never keep any thrilling expectations on these actually, it's just a fun side snacks from the deep&heavy novels.

    So, what really ticks me off will be those with narrow plot lines - CN novels where there's no room for any actual story other than masochism and cultivation, I don't mean the ones with subtle masochism, but those that just defies logic.

    Amateur comedy, it's just awkward sometimes to read what meant to be a joke but just doesn't suit the flow of plot.

    Harem- till now I've never read any decent harems. It's alright though, it's actually comical for me seeing how mc plucks fl's like fruits from tree. Don't even get me started how they never have any individualism, or opinions of there own. XD ok the last one isn't comical, but it's just become norm for me in CN now.

    Plot Armor- I get it, it's all about how destiny chose him/her to be savior of this xxx world, but just face-slapping us with " mc can't be F**ked" with no consideration to creating depths, and interesting plots, you never for a sec even get to imagine of this mc ever being in mortal danger.


    well I guess I really do take it all seriously XD, it's just I can't help being opinionated when reading.

    But I consider light novels to be like written soap opras, with writers looking into quantity over quality, so it's f9.



    I've mostly read CN novels so I'm not sure how the jp, KR works out.
     
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  4. Diametric

    Diametric Waifu Connoisseur

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    When the author doesn't know who best girl is
     
  5. nuttyreader

    nuttyreader Well-Known Member

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    Too many to list.....
    • Misunderstandings misunderstanding....authors think that a misunderstanding can last for ever in their stories. Especially when the so called ML/FL are supposed to be smart. More like brain dead protags.
    • Torture/torture and than some more to the MC or other just because.... they don’t learn from it either and get into the same exact situation again and again.... psychological or physical.
    • Supposedly smart people high iq/eq doing the exact opposite. They either lose brain cells for certain situations which I can understand or they just never use what they are supposed to have. I see this mainly in the ceo/general stories. How did they become so high with that amount of stupidity?????
    • Breaking the plot/ruled just because. What??? They can do that??? Huh??? When you asked yourself about situations and actions which goes against the story premise, you wonder why you read it. Might as well play a game with cheat code on. That’s more fun.
    • Stories where the author has no clue about a subject. I mean if it feels like it works is fine since it does not have to be true but when it’s so outside of the subject... you know it’s wrong or it feels wrong. Unless they are some super writer that can make the readers feel that it’s correct. Some mecha novels have this issue, the ideas don’t really mesh well with what I assume a mecha should be. Especially when the writer just throws stuff in there.
    Ok gonna stop here.... some authors.... auughhhh
    Still, I do continue to read some of these if something else in the story can keep me entertained.
     
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  6. draw2much

    draw2much Well-Known Member

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    I love these kinds of questions!

    1) Harems. Absolutely loath harems. On rare (very extremely endangered species level rare) occasions there's a reasonable explanation for a harem happening inside a story. Most of the time it's just author wish-fulfillment (which makes me not like the author) and/or them regurgitating a tried and true trope in hopes of attracting an audience. Often the women and men in any given harem are quality enough that there's no reason they should settle for "sharing" their love with someone else. If they were in any other story, they'd be living fulfilling lives and probably in a healthy relationship with someone who's loyal to them and treats them like gold. But in the harem story, they're not even second class citizens, they're third class citizens (aka, the third wheel in their own relationship). Just commodities to make the MC look more desirable, or to help the MC at certain parts of the story only to be forgotten later.

    2) Stories that are suppose to be B/G but the author keeps putting B/B and G/G in the secondary characters. Often the tags don't reflect the BL/GL elements because it's not the main couple. I'll be reading along and thinking everything is fine, only to get side swiped by BL/GL. Note that my issue isn't having gay characters in a story, but when the author takes a B/G story and shoe-horns BL/GL in there through the secondary characters. They emphasis the secondary characters relationship to a point it's basically overshadowing the main couple (perhaps not permanently, but often for several chapters). At that point... just go write BL/GL. There's whole genres for that, why are you stuffing such elements so heavy handedly into an unrelated genre? I've dropped stories for this reason alone.

    3) Too much face-slapping (revenge). :sweating_profusely::sweating_profusely::sweating_profusely::sweating_profusely::sweating_profusely: This seems to be a problem almost entirely within Chinese novels, so I guess I've only myself to blame for keep going to them. :blobsweat_2: A little face-slapping at the right time can be VERY satisfying, but often there's just no end to it. Usually in these novels the MC has the philosophy of "hit me once, I hit you back twice as hard" and act like they're righteous and just for thinking so. But... like... doesn't that make the MC intrinsically WORSE than the "villains" supposedly abusing them? While an "eye for an eye" can be classified as justice (punishment fits the crime), a "cut off the limbs for an eye" is just being ruthless and cruel (the electric chair for stealing, as an example). Also, this form of ruthless "justice" simply escalates the grudges into something far worse. I can't get behind a MC like that so I end up dropping the story.
     
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  7. nuttyreader

    nuttyreader Well-Known Member

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    This remind of the words that villains always say which makes me facepalm and the drop it for a while before I can read again.

    Villain tries to kill MC. MC fights back and villain says, do you have a death wish or similar. Ummmm, your trying to kill them and they are fighting back to kill you so why are you spouting this nonsense. I don’t get this. This does happen mostly in Chinese novels but stilllllll. Whhhhyyyyyyy. Drives me crazy reading that. Is it for the word count???? The only time I can understand is when the villain is brain dead so don’t expect the person your trying to kill to fight back which is another problem entirely.
     
  8. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    A true asexual
    I applaud you.
    Me its rape and female leads who arent successful independent from male protagonists which is why I avoid romance and female protagonist novels
     
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  9. kennykdogg

    kennykdogg Sage of 7 sins

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    No I like the concept of Jack of all trades but most if not all stories take it to far with the master of none part for the plot. All trades beside the main/best become hindrance that slow story and power progression.
     
  10. Yamatohime

    Yamatohime Well-Known Member

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    Characters without consistency.
     
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  11. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    Bad writing. If the novel is bad, why would I keep reading it?

    That's basically it I guess... If anything, I guess I also dislike when a novel stems too far from it's original premise... Like, a happy-go-lucky slice of life novel becoming focused on a big war and/or rebellion for a long amount of chapters can feel kinda annoying... But this generally won't be enough to make me drop it.
     
  12. nuubman

    nuubman Russia greatest love machine !

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    Harems are just illogical to begin with that's why so many people hate the freaking genre, only novel that I've read where actually the harem makes some sense was sevens, and that was bcuz the Mc actually had balls to reject the other girls and pursue the one he liked (he got screwed in the end anyway and had to accept the harem ending ) but beyond that every female character was pretty well developed and didn't seemed like the usual one that only served to praise the mc, the issue is that if someone knows that he has enough qualities as a person then why should he give up in his love interests?? That's what would lead to the harem but things in reality would end up differently (ntr, cheating, "stealing" the couple etc) after all no one likes to share, cn people seem to really care about "face" that's why shit escalates so quickly when someone offends someone else and his "dignity", is not a problem with the novels is a issue of different culture
     
  13. checkm8

    checkm8 Well-Known Member

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    For me there are a few things:
    A. Obvious stupidity in a story. Like boosting a character's stats only to have them do something so mind-boggling inane & counter to their boosted stats that it makes no sense whatsoever. It's just bad writing.

    B. Short chapters - I read fairly fast so when I start reading a story that has chapters that are only a few pages I tend to drop it quickly. If it comes out as an ebook I might consider checking it out then.

    C. Overly repetitive plots. I tend to drop most web novels once it reaches this point.

    D. Too much face-slapping. I don't mind some face-slapping but after a point, it just gets too ridiculous.,
     
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  14. draw2much

    draw2much Well-Known Member

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    I dunno, I've read some good/decent CN novels that involved SENSIBLE face slapping. As in, if you publicly humiliate me, I'll publicly humiliate you. (Eye for an eye.) And in those novels, there's also some reasonable explanations for the face slapping that goes beyond "I transmigrated here so I'm taking on my host body's grudges FOR REASONS(tm)". So I know that CN novels can do face slapping well... if the writer is inclined.
     
  15. Defiring

    Defiring Well-Known Member

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    When the author's awful personality starts manifesting in the MC's moral compass out of nowhere.
     
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  16. gnessa14

    gnessa14 Well-Known Member

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    Usually, it's because there's too much romance/fluff or nothing is going on in the story. I need constant drama or plot to keep my interest. Slow update is also a big killer no matter how good a novel is.
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2019
  17. Melodious Nocturne

    Melodious Nocturne [Dance, water, dance!] [My name is Demyx!]

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    Too boring or, more usually, the relationships’ are too unhealthy.
     
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  18. philosopher17

    philosopher17 Well-Known Member

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    Excessive repetition, lack of humor, excessive seriousness, justifying or celebrating rape, ridiculous feats.
     
  19. MintMousse

    MintMousse Active Member

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    When all the Gary Stu's love Mary Sue ... Just shoot me in the face with a shotgun instead mmmkay. Also if they start getting repetitive, it's why I dropped reading any binding system novels, they are kinda all the same as far as I can see .. except maybe the empress livestream so far lol. I like that one. I hate when a change in character isn't explained, I come to read about this person and suddenly what?!? Changes everything about her/him because ... Dunno, convenient much lol. (Often turns into Mary Sue easyly too) Otherwise ... I am not much a fan of too much face slapping. It feels too fake. So that's a balancing act not every author can pull, and maybe makes me drop a story. Or the last and saddest ... Realising a story is like a few thousand chapters , still WIP and only translated a bit ... Ahhh do I look like I have time to wait 10+ years for a conclusion?!?!? So sad T.T
     
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  20. BurgerKong

    BurgerKong Well-Known Member

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    1. Bad translations Either in the traditional "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US" fashion or "onii-senpai makes my heart go doki-doki" hyperauthenticity. Tale of Demons and Gods read worse than a machine translation.
    2. A lack of consistency. It's very important for an author to check themselves and make sure all information lines up. Legend of the Mythological Gene couldn't keep anything straight and constantly contradicted itself.
    3. Unlikable MCs. This is self-explanatory Li Yao of Forty Millennium of Cultivation is an example of someone I don't want to read about.
    This is just off the top of my head I'm very tired
     
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