So I've been here for a while now, reading and passing through but not yet making any stories of my own. I decided it was finally time to try my own hand and see what happens.

The Type of Stories I like (and What I dislike)

Cliches

I really like all kinds of Fanfiction, whether it's drama, romance, action, etc. I only ask that it's well-written and legible, and that it doesn't involve standard cliches and tropes. I uphold myself to that same standard but if a story requires the use of a cliche, then at least try to do something more with it. I don't want to read what's essentially the same story over a hundred times, and I don't want to read the same badly written story over a hundred times.

Romance, Pairings, etc.

-Like I've said, I can appreciate a good romance story. I don't, however, like when a story says Action/Adventure, but the first thing the author is writing in their summary is what pairing is in the story. It can have those, true, but I don't believe authors should just add pairings because they feel like no one will read it without them, or because they feel the pairings in a story matters (ex. Bleach is a good anime because of the interesting characters and action scenes, regardless of whether he ends up with Rukia or Orihime). Make a good story first before you worry about pairing characters off.

-I'm not a huge fan of Yaoi, Yuri, or Harem stories. Not because of homophobia or anything, but because the majority rarely come off as being particularly good or they fall into a lot of typical cliches;

Majority of Yaoi stories typically involve characters who are not actually gay. It's never explained why they suddenly changed preferences, and the story pretends that they've been gay all their lives.

Majority of them also write the stories as if everyone in their universe is gay (ex. if Naruto and Sasuke are together, then Kakashi and Iruka are gay, Itachi's gay, Kiba's obviously gay, Neji and Gaara are also gay, and all girls are either supportive that every male around them is gay, bashed to all high-hell, or they're gay too). This comes off as an unbelievable, imaginary reversal of society now. Can we get explanations on how straight characters have just become gay? Can this choice of being gay create some kind of tension (ex. Can Konoha not be so gay tolerant so that Naruto's relationship with Sasuke/Kakashi/Iruka/Kiba/Gaara etc. have some sort of tension and hurdle to overcome?) It feels like authors try to avoid having tension and problems so that they can imagine themselves in a world of sunshine and rainbows where society's not judging them and everyone's a tolerable individual. Especially when we know that's not all true.

And let's...let's just not talk about Mpreg...

Yuri essentially devolves into the same thing; the only difference is that Yuri is more for girl-on-girl action than anything truly meaningful. I'm all for gay characters, but can we write them better, please?

Harem is just like Yuri; there's nothing meaningful about it, it's just the thought of "Let's put the main character/oc with as many girls because...!". Emotional investment in these relationships are practically non-existent. Every girl in this story is completely tolerable of the fact that they have to take turns and that they share their love with other women. I don't know many women in this world who are like that (Most of them, in fact, have problems with cheating). I also don't know many harem anime that are like that, as the main character typically never picks and the girls are fighting over him the whole series.

Character Development

-I don't like overpowered, god-like, unnecessarily dark (The "Grays" or "Dark Grays" usually just as bad), or bashing for almost the same reasons as above; they're usually badly-written and they fall for the same tropes and cliches.

If a character is overpowered or god-like, then give them a build up to that. They have to lose some and win some. Characters who suffer and fail come out better overall when they finally succeed.

Bashing is pretty bad; the author comes off as immature and being unable to write a good character because they succumb to their emotions. It's okay to not like characters that everyone typically hates, but try to make them better overall characters instead of just shitting on them.

Dark stories, I think, comes off as the worst. It's basically bashing, but it devolves into character assassinating really hard. Naruto doesn't need to get revenge for how Konoha treated him nor does Harry doesn't need to hate Dumbledore because he manipulated him. Last time I checked, that's why Naruto is Naruto and Harry didn't degenerate into a crap character. But I don't think there isn't any good in them. If it's well-explained how the hero descended into evil or if the reason for it is something other than "Isn't angry Main Character cool!? It's great that he snaps and kills all the characters I don't like!", then it can be a good story (ex. If Naruto's life is set to parallel Tobi's or Pain because he lost Sakura/Sasuke/Hinata, then a good story can be born. That is, as long as it doesn't devolve into giving Naruto the Sharingan/Rinnegan/Bloodline because that's not original).

-OCs are a hit or miss; OCs are bad to me when they are designed to replace major characters or positions. That isn't to say that they can't be important, but OCs should never break an already existing stone (that is, replace a character's role). To have characters like Naruto/Ichigo break character by falling for a character/being best friends with a character that doesn't officially exist in Canon. (I will forever hate Trascender and Kill the Moonlight because of this). I'd rather dig deep into the depths of the Manga and Anime and select filler characters or characters with minor roles (Like with Tetsuo/Ryou/Gina in Quincy Craft) so that there's a visual baseline than make more up.

I think OCs are fine if they fulfill a small role. Villain's are pushing it, but I think it's understandable. Like stated, it's when the OC is the main character/main character's love interest/main character's best friend that I lose interest.

-Self-inserts are bad. You see, I like Naruto/Bleach/Harry Potter, etc. I like the characters of those stories. That is why I'm a fan.

Unfotunately, I don't care about you nor am I interested in your fantasy of being with any of those characters. I'm interested in your portrayal of those characters that I like. That's why I like Fanfiction. But not you.