I've no idea why you're reading this, as I have no stories or favorites. I used to, but... well, my tastes have changed, I guess. I'm a little pickier than I used to be and I didn't feel like going through everything or leaving up fics that will never be touched.

So, you probably stumbled on this page because I reviewed your fic, or you saw me review someone else's, right? (I actually doubt it. I'm bad at guessing, after all)

So, since you're here, I guess I'll say a few things about myself, writing wise.

First off, I like reviewing and helping people improve. I hate changing a person's style, though, which makes reviewing difficult. In other words, I can't correct anything but grammar. I can, however, tell people when I am confused and what part of their style/story catches my eye. My first review is often longwinded, but I don't always follow through and review every chapter unless I think the writer needs a boost of confidence, a tip (although it usually has to be requested in an author's note), or if I just really love the chapter.

About my own writing, I have a poor vocabulary and I need to work on sentence structure. That's not to say that I can't understand a lot of words (I'd say that skill is slightly above average), but I don't tend to use a wide variety. I have to go back over what I write to vary how the sentences are worded as my style is blunt and choppy, as you can probably tell by this profile. (I didn't bother correcting anything but spelling.)

As for what I read... Well... I don't have a high opinion of most fanfics. I barely make it through a few paragraphs, nowadays. I want to finish the chapters and tell the writer some things that he or she could improve on, but every time I get better at understanding writing it's harder for me to handle some types of stories. I'm working on it, though. (that probably sounded like I had a high opinion of my own works. Let me say this now: I don't. I have just as hard a time applying what I see in other's stories to my own as others do.)

To be fair, it's not really the style that bothers me in over half of what I see. I'm not going into much detail on any of these (heh, I am going to regret saying that. Believe it or not, the following is a condensed version of my thoughts), but this is what I can't stand:

Out of character... ness: There's a difference between showing another side of a person and making he/she out of character. The "other side" of a personality is usually only seen in or after unusual and extreme situations. I can tolerate some OOCness, though, as long as it's in very small amounts. However, it tends to lower my opinion of a story.

yaoi/yuri or shonen ai/sojo ai: This is also technically out of character if the original character isn't homosexual. Since it's romance (which I prefer avoiding as they don't interest me) the writer needs to be very careful, as love is an extreme emotion and relies on nothing but personalities. There is a HUGE difference between a character loving another in a familial sense and loving another in a romantic sense.

Crossovers: Some people have been able to make this work, I'll admit. If worlds are very similar to the point where rules don't need to be changed and characters don't have to be sucked to another dimension then it can actually be interesting. However, a crossover between two worlds is enough. Three or more is ridiculous.

Character bashing: This takes away from stories. Not only does it distract me, but it makes almost everyone associated with the bashed character OOC. (I'm not going into how badly out of character the bashed one is) A word of advice - if you don't like a character, simply write about that person as little as possible. You don't HAVE to accentuate what you don't like. Besides, if you don't like it, why would you want it to be in your story more?

Male pregnancy: No. This is wrong. There might be some exceptions to how wrong this is, but it would take... really, really impossible things happening. Not to mention the amount of research the writer would have to go through in order to accurately portray the changes that he would have to experience. I don't think I'd want to read about that, anyway. It just sounds disgusting. Something that makes me say "too much information" every sentence. The excuse that the writer doesn't have to go into detail doesn't work on me; if the story is about a guy being pregnant, then it's going to go into detail.

Gender bending: While we're on the topic... These seem a little ridiculous to me. I've never read one, but they seem like an excuse to make the main character a different gender because the writer wants to pair him or her (who becomes a her or him?) up with someone or because the writer respects a certain gender more. It seems a little "girl power!"-ish a lot of the time. I've never seen one with a girl turning into a guy, in case you were wondering after that last comment.

Self-insertion or original characters: They just don't interest me. The self insertion more-so than the OCs since it seems a little childish. I will read fics with OCs as long as he or she isn't the main character.

Time travel: This technically isn't bad. I should specifically say "time travel with no ending." A time travel fic needs to have a planned stopping point, not a vague goal.

Stories exceeding 150k words: A long story isn't always a good one. Sometimes I think all the story needs is to be broken up into several, but generally I avoid these fics because the word count hints that they have no ending. There are many exceptions to this, such as there simply being a little "completed" under the summary.

Bad summaries: Please proofread your summary. Paste it into word or something if you can't catch everything, but don't leave typos in it. I know a lot of people who judge another's writing by looking at summaries, so if there are typos then it is assumed that the story itself is filled with them. Putting things that look as though they could be on a billboard like "Chapter -- UP!" and "Vote Now!" make the writer look immature in my eyes, and I can't take the story seriously. The worst thing I've seen is the most common: "suck at summaries." If you can't write a good summary, then please, either don't state that fact, keep trying, or take a quote from something (your fic or famous quotes specifically. If you take a quote remember to give credit when due)

That's about it. I'm pretty picky, as you can see. There are more, but I've never stopped reading something because of it. I probably came off as a little judgmental after this, but it's not like I flame others about it. If I can't stand something that much then I don't read it.