What do you prefer to read in a novel-

[anonymous_buttfart]

A] A shitty story, good as pointless but with interesting narration and writing skills followed by perfect grammar

OR

B] A good story with good ch, the narration is a bit meh and the grammar needs work.

OR

C] I'll just watch another episode of Rick & Morty... peace out.

*Just asking for a survey... thank you.

[RainbowCat]

B
I don't really care about grammar as long as I understand the story. The story is everything to me!

[violin]

B, but if the grammar is really bad (like past a certain threshold) that will prevent me from reading further, because the errors are so annoying

[Iris-Grimoire]

B, as long as it's still readable. A bad meal with the best ingredients is still a bad meal, because it overpowers everything that went into it. If it's unreadable, though, then you can't even identify the good story that's there.

[M.ComicFan]

I don't watch Rick & Morty, so I guess B.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I'm kinda torn between A and B.

Like, a good story and good characters are definitely key to truly enjoying a book...even if the grammar makes your eyes bleed.
But the 'narration is a bit meh' part...I dunno, can you fully enjoy a novel with boring narration?? How exactly do the characters and story come off as 'good' when the voice telling you about them is just 'meh'? It sounds like a book that'll leave me wanting; like I'll be working harder to convince myself to like the characters and story than the author will.

On the other hand, 'shitty stories'...every writer knows at least one story that they vehemently believe does not deserve a dime of profit. But honestly, when garbage is actually written well, it's kind of fun. ^^; I'll never read the Maximum Ride series again, but I have to admit that it was VERY entertaining, and it still serves as an inspiration (of sorts) to me. I've read a lot of good books, but there are few that I remember as vividly as the beautiful dumpster fire that was MaxRide...

[rajillustration]

If the narration is terrible I have a really hard time justifying reading it, and the same goes for a bad story, I really don't think it's an either/or thing. You gotta have both a good story and good narration or it just won't do.

BUT if I was held at knife point and had to make a choice, I would choose A, because...that's where most poetry and philisophical writing hang out. Yeah, I'll reread Walden Pond although it's just a guy in the woods failing to sell beans.

[Drewbie]

Is none of the above an option? I can't read a boring story no matter how well its written (if its boring it isn't well written anyways) however I also can't sit through bad writing because I will spend the whole time editing it in my head and wont be able to get into the story.

[BlunderingAlbatross]

Definitely B, I always find that it's the characters that are what really gets me into a story

[Jenny-Toons]

I'm gonna go with D -- move on to a story with effort.

I am very finicky about narrative voice and grammar. If you want to tell me a good story, put effort into it so I can see it.

I have dumped stories for having droning narrtives and stories that didn't bother to make paragraphs and read like a middle schooler's diary.

If you didn't go to the effort to make it readable, grammar and story wise, why should I make an effort to attempt to figure out your work?

That, and I don't watch Rick n Morty like that

[yoanna]

B.
As long as the grammar is understandable and the narration isn't too confusing, then I think the plot and the characters will carry the story.

[ivanskilling]

None of the above lol.

I don't have much free time, so I'd rather spend it reading countless other good books that I haven't gotten to.

[SleepingPoppy]

Hard pass on the whole thing, sorry!

A. There's plenty of stories that are both genuinely good and well written that I'm not interested in reading, def don't have time for abad story just because the writing is good.

B. I don't require flawless writing by any means, just some level of "good enough" that's arbitrary to me. But generally no, if the writing is really bad, the story just isn't going to come through to me.

C. I just don't watch this. I'll go read something that's well written and a likable story!

[ratscout]

Hmmmm B. I should preface this by saying that my bar for stories that are unpublished (i.e., writers on Tapas who don't have editors and are working by themselves) is far lower than a traditionally published book. I am more than willing to give a book that isn't perfectly written (grammatically, etc.) a chance if it's an unpublished book on Tapas/other writing website because I understand that, without a team of editors, the author is going to make grammatical mistakes no matter how good a writer they are. As for published writers... They really have no excuse, so I wouldn't have the patience for a published book that was poorly written. XD

I also want to say that a lot of books that are unpublished have ideas that are far more interesting than a lot of published books because the author doesn't have to obey any current trends/write commercial af stories. That's why I'm nice and I say giving a story that isn't perfectly written a chance can pay off.

[Maps]

Same, I can’t look past little errors as long as the story is good and the characters/plot are written in a way that I want to follow them.
But if it’s clearly just difficult to read, because the writing and grammar are so awful, I will drop it.
It’s B for me.

For A... I’ve started stories that are written really well but are almost too much. Like... very flowery with a ton of big words that look like they were googled in place of a normal word that would have totally sufficed. I drop those too.

Rick and Morty is something I will watch if someone has it on, but I will not search for it actively.

[darkone4587]

I honestly can't get into something if the story is shit so I gotta go with B. Doesn't help that my own grammar is kind of crap to.

[WOSTR]

I like to know a lot about the antagonist, so many stories that follows a villainous character as a or the lead interested me, such as clockwork orange, American psycho and the Tom Harris (Hannibal) books.
I'm not into first person writing yet a few of the books I mentioned are exceptions.

[gmaximin]

My mind immediately made that comparison:
A - A meal from three stars Michelin cook, but using ingredients I hate.
B - A meal from downstairs hole in the wall, cooking my favorite ingredients.
(I have no idea what is C... and from other comments, I feel that it might not be worth checking)

So if I had a good day -> A, because I’m really curious to see if excellent delivery can make me enjoy something I’d normally not bother with.
If I had a bad day -> B, because I don’t want trouble, I want to play safe, and make sure I’ll enjoy in a way. Of course that’s assuming the meal is digest (so that you can actually read the story).

So for me, it’d be A or B depending on my mood...

[abbigailchris]

I f the story being told is well described, if it is orderly and not all over the place, if it written convincingly then I wouldn't care about the errors unless they r too much. Also if your characters are not well fleshed out then sorry. Exra points if it is fantasy or sci fi.