Readers fatigue?
Lately I’ve been noticing that I’ll get about halfway through longer fics before I just stop caring enough about the story to continue. Usually those that aren’t terrible, but aren’t really amazing either. Maybe my standards of “readable fics” are just getting stricter, idk.
Anyone else have this issue? Thoughts on how to deal with it?
I feel that. Except I tell myself I’ll come back to it later, or in a couple days, but then I never do. And then I end up having like 300+ tabs open on my phone that I don’t want to delete bc “what if I want to finish reading them later?”
Same, lol. Every so often I’ll do a purge of the worst offenders, but I still have some stories open or followed that haven’t updated in years.
I find myself needing a certain emotional high, a particular stimulus that if a long fic doesn’t hit often enough or at all then I will often drop and say I will come back without ever actually doing it. Longer fics especially have this problem because they can often have pacing issues which can exacerbate this.
Same. It's definitely because I've been reading quality fics so my standards get higher and it leads to a positive feedback loop. I can't even touch fics with concepts that I'm interested in, like Harry getting Horcrux memories, because I open it up and see Lord Potter-Black.
It's rare I get to the end of a fic these days, even the ones recommended here as great. My standards absolutely have got stricter and what I might let slide for a few chapters winds me up further in.
I often find that lack of character development resulting in characters starting to feel flat, poor dialogue. Even when the plot is clearly structured if it seems to me that it should have been split into multiple fics each with a resolution then I just can't keep up with it anymore.
It's rare to find a fic that it well written throughout.
Im really bad for this, I have about 10-15 stories open in Google because I always looking for something new to read, even if I'm half way through a story.
Yes, I blame that on the lack of conciseness among fanfic writers. If you think about it the books are quite packed, but the least terse one is OOP and is quite frankly the hardest to re-read and even then it's not nearly as long-winded as most fanfictions are.
The other day I was reading a fic, don't remember the name, that was recommended here about the Potters surviving the attack but Harry being lost but then found in the streets by Sirius who brought him home. I think I was ten chapters in when I dropped because Harry was still not out of his fucking room and hadn't met his parents. Ten chapters.
This is my biggest reason to drop a fic. The number of fics that I've read that have Harry still being 11 after 100k words is crazy. Otherwise good authors just get stuck I guess.
oh dude yes, i know that feeling, when i get it i usually take a small break from fanfiction and consume a story thats not fanfic or HP related, maybe binge watch a show or read a new series and come back in a week and you'll find you have some patience for bad writing lol
I’m having a similar problem but I figured it was just undiagnosed ADD
This has happened to me most recently with 'By Baker Street Station, I Sat Down and Wept.' It's an incredible story. Really well written, and I've been enjoying the focus on Petunia in a big way. A story of her finding out she's magic, leaving Vernon, becoming her own person. It has some incredible characters. Some awesome situations.
But. I'm 113 chapters in. 29 to go. And the pages, the situations, the /feel/ of the story... Well, it's all just blurring together, feeling the same. and I can't go any further.
I felt like if I read the phrase sotto voce one more time I was legitimately going to start sobbing. I enjoyed the fic otherwise but it was so pretentious and frequently used that I lost immersion everytime I saw it.
This happens to me all the time. Mostly in series fics or long fics where I binge read a bunch and then just can't read anymore.
Most recently with The Pureblood Pretense... It's just so long and the chapters are so long. I did make it all the way to the fourth before it happened.
Only it's genuinely good. So, doesn't really fit with the 'passable' fics theme.
I switch between fandoms when this happens. The conventions and pacing change, so it feels fresh.
All the stories are the same. And if they're not the same they are not finished.
I'll go read Reddit or watch pointless YouTube videos for fifteen minutes before I go back to reading a fic. The criteria I have for abandoning a fic is usually 1) horrible and repetitive grammar/spelling 2) can't keep it's own history straight. And for crossovers 3) a rehash of the original plot with no deviation except introducing a new character or ten who never do anything.
Of the hundreds of fics I've read, I think I've abandoned less than half a dozen. I try to be forgiving with spelling and grammar errors, especially when the sentence structure makes it obvious the author is not a native enhlish speaker. I've tried to learn a second language several times in my life, it is fucking hard to reprogram your brain into accepting a new language, the fact that English is one of (if not THE) hardest languages means I cut ESL authors a lot of slack. However, I still wish they would get native speakers to Beta.
Ignoring your own stories' history however is something that I cut almost no slack on.
Yes I agree DANCOR I do not like super long fics!!! :( Especially if nothing really does change about the situation or the plot and stuff. Like those 10000000 word first year fics! That was kind of why my own fic Fight For Rights does try to go to a new place every few chapters, to keep it moving and feeling like an actual adventure! :)
Their host is quite adept at fighting off possession, so remains completely in control. Thus, Harry returns from Limbo to find he's begun to hear the voices of long dead wizards in his head, urging him to do various insane things. Like Antioch urging him to kill random people who are even passingly discourteous, Cadmus trying to get him into Necromancy for Fun and Profittm, and Ignotus suggesting he steal anything not nailed down. Harry is understandably annoyed with the latest development in his insane life.
Inspired by re-reading "The Lesser Sadness" linkffn(10959046) for the umpteenth time.
Specifically, fanfics where Dumbledore not giving Harry his goddamn banking paperwork when he was at the Dursley’s is treated like some horrible crime. Who in the blue hell gives a child account reports? Please end this trope.
you know the riddles, I found a loophole, and i was thinking, Luna probably found it too, considering she's Luna.
it asks you a riddle, you give it a logical answer, but what of you gave it a nonsensical answer? one that wouldn't make sense without magic.
as the famous sphinx asks "What creature walks with four legs it the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?
a sane person would reply "a man, as he walks through the stages of life"
and Luna? would she make up an answer to fulfill the riddle, would the door open?
would she reply with "a rather fashionable Inferi that attaches and detaches limbs at will."
Ronald Weasley never knew he was brilliant before he stumbled upon Muggle mathematics. Hermione might be the brightest witch of her age, but her husband is now on his way to becoming the brightest astrophysicist.
Featuring :
— Smart Ron winning lots of chess games ; — And pretending to be a simple Muggle as he completes his PHD at Cambridge ; — Arthur being super proud of his son’s interest in Muggle sciences ; — Hermione/Ron genius super couple.
Had this crazy idea yesterday. Please make it real haha.
It never really made sense to me why Aragog doesn't speak with Hagrids accent considering it was Hagrid who raised him.
Also I just thought this scene would be pretty funny.
The true manipulator of Harry's life was never Dumbledore, it was Voldemort.
That night, when everything fell apart... when Tom Riddle finally died, the man was finally able to come to terms with his mortality. He could not, and would not, live forever. His followers were a group of turncoats who sold out one another and renounced all he'd stood for in the face of the consequences. His power alone would not guarantee him victory.
He slipped into the shadows, vaguely aware that Dumbledore did not at all believe he was gone. For of course he wasn't, the genius of his forays into immortality meant he wouldn't be defeated by a mere spell backfire.
His movements were subtle, inhabiting animals to move into places he shouldn't be. A shade whispering into all the expected ears, and even a few that weren't. All until 1990 when the perfect vessel for his designs made itself known: When Quirinus Quirrel came calling and he finally had his in at Hogwarts...
Target, Potter.
No, best be calling him Harry, even in his own mind. He smiled fondly at the boy he saw through Quirrel's eyes. Hand me downs and skinny, afraid of his new environment but desperate not to leave. A sickly desire to prove himself JUST under his skin. He just was the same as him, all those years ago, moulding him would not be hard.
Quirrel lasted two years as the Defense Professor before Dumbledore and Snape took him down. In that time Harry had a primer in the Dark Arts, a prodigy with a wand given just the right push in the right direction to further study without his direct involvement. But that hadn't been his only student...
Yes, Harry WOULD be his crowning achievement, but there were others worthy of his attention.
Weasley had the same overwhelming ambition as his friend, a desire to stand out from his own pack. When subtly taught his place as beneath him, he's made a far worthier confidant to young Harry. Granger had been a more challenging student, dead set on her morals but still so eager to learn the "secret magicks" Professor Quirrell was offering her and her friends. Grey at best he had feared. But his own students were the ones to prove his assessment incorrect, bless his Harry's sadistic streak. A seductive voice in her ear FAR more potent than he could ever have been (a more relatable figure, perhaps), he first aimed her towards Malfoy as she belittled her, but then she became such a pretty little attack dog who snapped at any Harry's eyes lingered upon...
Of course this is what really had Snape and Dumbledore catch on, on top of little Ginerva's opening of the Chamber with his trusted Horcrux. He was fortunate to take it from her and remove it from the Castle, but alas not before being caught "red-handed" in a scheme Lucius would be made to explain. Body destroyed again, he was thrown to the wind.
But not for long...
Pettigrew had found him, too cowardly to dare try cosying up with the light. Followed by the return of Crouch and he would be back to a body (HIS body) before long.
Then he would sink his claws into Harry once again and work on removing any hang-ups or misinformation that pesky Headmaster had put in his head in his absence.
The boy, once upon a time, had been his enemy. The threat sent by fate to halt his own destiny. But in reality, he was his legacy, a dear apprentice to carry in when he could not, to assist where he would fall short. He was not a perfect being, this shade form a constant reminder, but he was worthy of being the boys Professor and to teach him his place and worth in this world.
There is more than one path to immortality after all...
I mean, here is the most recent example I've seen, but there's also (for example) these threads:
And I've seen a couple more. But canon Harry isn't close to lazy, in PS, next to his school work, he researches Nicholas Flamel, help Hagrid, figures out Fluffy, ...
In CoS, he has the whole "the school hates him" thing going on, yet he also helps brewing a potion in his free time. In PoA, there's the whole buckbeak thing, where they read through tons of legal documents. (As an aside: have you ever done that? That's exhausting af). In GoF, he prepares for the tournament, also while the school hates him. In OotP, he starts a club where he actually teaches magic, ...
Harry does apply himself, he isn't lazy -- he just doesn't focus all of it on academia, but tries to make a difference in other ways. That's quite the achievement, in my opinion, and more than 95% of high-school students I've met do.
And yes, out of subjects that don't inherently interest him, he choses the easy ones. Which is also natural, why work unneccessarily hard for something you don't care much for?
Sooo yeah, please don't characterize Harry as lazy, it hurts me a little. Thanks!
Am I the only one who hates it when a fic has Hermione or any other muggleborn witches or wizards take an inheritance test and its revealed that they're secretly descended from a long line of squibs and they're the last descendants from a long though dead line if pureblood wizards? I feel like it completely misses the point. Muggleborns aren't to be respected because they're secretly noble. They're to be respected and regarded as equal irrespective of their blood or background.
It will be fun reading about Voldy trying to control his teenaged self who is drawing too much attention to him and hence is distracting him from pursuing the Stone.
Hagrid doesn't stop Harry from buying a solid gold cauldron and Harry gives an aneurysm to Snape within 2 minutes of meeting each other
So I know some of us find glaring horror in the way a lot of people in cannon act and we know it's just to drive the plot and it's basically JKR writing them like that.
So that got me thinking, I'd like to see a one-shot crackfic that basically makes it so that everything that happened so far was basically Fate and the Prophecy forcing things to go in such a way that the prophecy is fulfilled. Once it was, the moment Harry kills Voldemort, everyone just snaps out of it and they're like "WTF HAVE I BEEN THINKING/DOING FOR THE LAST 7 YEARS? I would never act like <example>" and then everyone just talks about what they did the last seven years.
Humor me, it's a crackfic prompt.
I’m so sick of stories, including canon, where Harry gets this bizarre idea of Snape as a tragic Byronic hero and not the bitter narcissist he is. So what are some stories of Harry is more like “ooh, mad, instead of a sadistic sociopath who works for wizard nazis, you’re a sadistic sociopath who betrayed the wizard nazis solely because you were obsessed with my mum. What a hero you are”
Stories where Harry can do unheard of magical things like apparating across the globe or breaking the transfiguring laws because he was never told that you can't do that with magic.
I'm looking for fics where harry doesn't really care about voldemort and have no intention of fighting him. He just want to learn magic and be left alone
This happens after he reaches Grimmauld Place coz Harry is certain that they'd force him anyway if he protests, thinking back to how he'd been forced into the Triwizard tournament.
He questions why they didn't side-along apparate him instead of flying over the countryside. (Now the Doylist explanation is that side-along apparition was invented for the 6th book; not an acceptable excuse for fanfiction)
This Harry has read the Daily Prophet cover to cover out of sheer frustration because his friends aren't writing to him properly so he knows about the smear campaign. He realizes that he's been followed by the Order in secret but given no information (enforced isolation). He also realizes that with Mrs Figg being a squib, Dumbledore knew about the Dursleys' abuse and nothing was done.
Edit: Since it isn't clear to some people, assume everything that happens before Harry first reaches Grimmauld Place in OotP is the same as canon.
So I remembered that in the books, harry was asked to the ball by a older student and he mentioned she had a mean look about her like she would hurt him if he rejected her. Is there any fanfics where he does get asked to the ball by an older student and he decides to go, because he wants too or doesn't see anyway he could get out of it?
A few of them continue to operate outside the trunk as well, transporting it to new places to protect it and add plants and animals to its environment. Literal world-building.
Alternatively, Hermit!Harry tires of people worshiping him post-war so he builds an old-school wizard's tower in a trunk and moves there.
Just a strange idea that popped into my head while eating breakfast. I feel that the magic expanded trunk is often overused but underutilized. I'd like to see a fic where the trunk takes center stage, as opposed to being a shiny new toy mentioned in the obligatory shopping trip and then hardly ever mentioned again.
Note: I've already read the story where the DA find a spaceship with the room, D.S.S. Requirement I think its called? Also, I've read Seventh Horcrux, where Harrymort lives in a trunk.
After the death of Ariana, Albus feels like he has to make her death mean something, that he owes it to her to make the world better for the Greater Good, and goes off with Gellert, committing to the path that led Gellert to darkness.
After acquiring the Elder wand, they return to England searching for the other Hallows and kill Marvolo and Morfin to claim the stone, as well as the Potters to claim the cloak.
11 years later Tom Riddle Jr comes to Hogwarts and becomes friends with a young wizard that he later discovers to be the last surviving Potter. The two of them, as rightful owners of their Hallows, are prophesied to take down the burgeoning Dark Lords of Death.
Merope maintains her control over Tom Sr to survive, hiding as his loving wife and raising her son. She tells him his heritage but sends him to school as a muggleborn to avoid bringing down Albus or Gellert on him.
Fleamont survives the attack on his family by being out of the home and is taken in by another family, who change his name to hide him.
What would have Tom Riddle’s life been like , if instead of being the orphan Halfblood in Slytherin, he had an ally from day one, An aristocrat Muggleborn who bank rolled both of them.
Tom Riddle is still a psychopathic little shit, but instead of dominating the purebloods he finds another way to make a power play in Slytherin, instead of Promoting pure blood Ideology, Tom comes of age a proud Halfblood Spending his days plotting with a lord’s son . Who’s father just so happened To be familiar with another Riddle From his days as a Etonian.
For me, it's linkffn(Make a Wish). No matter how many times I read it, it never fails to make me laugh. It's just a light hearted, fun story where Harry gets a vacation (sort of) and the death eaters get exactly what they deserve.
Inspired by the "What if Vernon didn't hate Harry" thread by u/ValirysReinhald
For those unfamiliar with the concept, from Wikipedia:
Tiger parenting is strict or demanding parenting. Tiger parents push and pressure their children to attaining high levels of academic achievement or success in high-status extracurricular activities such as music, using authoritarian parenting methods. The term "tiger mother" (虎妈 or "tiger mom") was coined by Yale Law School professor Amy Chua in her 2011 memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. A largely Chinese-American concept, the term draws parallels to strict parenting styles typically enforced throughout households in East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia. Since the rise of Amy Chua's memoir and the tiger mom phenomenon into the American mainstream during the early 2010s, the tiger mom has been a caricatured figure in modern Chinese society as well as in Overseas Chinese communities around the world. Chua's rise to fame quickly popularized the concept and term "tiger mother" spawning numerous caricatures while also becoming the inspiration for the 2014-2015 Singaporean TV show Tiger Mum, the 2015 mainland Chinese drama Tiger Mom, and the 2017 Hong Kong series Tiger Mom Blues. The stereotyped figure often portrays a Chinese mother who relentlessly drives her child to study hard, to the detriment of the child's social and physical development, and emotional well-being.
You know all those fanfiction where Harry is living a shitty future so he travels back in time to change things. 90% of the times he always hooks up with the girl he fell in love in the future(because true love and all that shit). Now here's the thing. Even though future Harry is back in his teenage or prebubescent body,his mind is still that of an adult. So when he romances the girl who will be his girlfriend/wife in the future,who are still teenagers btw, doesn't that seem weird? I mean technically it's an adult man in a teen's body? Doesn't it sound like grooming when he uses his knowledge of the future to influence the girl's opinion of her,like knowing her favourite food/location or her secrets?
It's quite sickening that in many fics, Ron, Molly and Ginny are thoroughly bashed whereas twins are revered as pranksters with no mean bone in their bodies. I mean, they actually burnt a hole in five year old Ron's tongue with an Acid Pop (what if it were the intestines) , transformed his teddy bear into a spider thus imprinting him with arachnophobia (when he was around five). It's quite sad to know that Ron's worst fear is spiders when he has already battled Lord Voldemort. Furthermore, Fred has killed his puffskein by bludgeoning it with a Beater's bat and their harrassment of Percy Weasley and the Slytherins by booing at first years who were sorted in Slytherin and not to mention, locking Montague in a vanishing cabinet where he could have starved to death . In the Muggle world, quite a few of these offenses can land one up in jail for a significantly long time, and hence, I would like to read a fic where they get their just desserts.
believers in magical cores
complainers of magical cores
