What does it take for an intro to lose you?

[lynestjules]

Personally, I like some slow starts. It depends the type of story it is. Especially when it comes to movies and comics, because it's all very visual and I like to be eased in. However, when it comes to a novel, if it drags on for the first entire chapter, you lost me and I won't continue.
For a novel, I tend to stick of Mysteries, horror and true crime books for the simple reason that they have a hook on the first chapter. Usually not very long either, but just something to catch your attention. I'm a visual person and reading long paragraphs bores me to no end.

For a comic, I drop a story because:
- there's no distinction between character.
- have to wait a long time to get a new page up and I don't know what the plot is yet.
- the artwork is too inconsistent or the quality drops over time.
- the characters are too cliché and have no character development.
- A chapter ends with no hook to continue, so I just assume nothing will ever happen.
- The first page is a long novel like backstory. (I get bored and lose interest)
- The backstory is over complicated and long, but told all at once and not brought up until much later and you're even more confused.
- The plot is too simple and obvious. Meaning it's good vs evil and good always wins, but there's nothing in-between and you basically guessed the entire story just by the first chapter.

I personally like slow starts for a series that the plot is more complicated and/or might introduce a lot of characters. Gives a chance for the reader to keep up, you don't want to confuse or overwhelm the reader. If there is a backstory, keep it short and simple and build the story with time or if it's really complicated and it has a lot material, just incorporate it in the comic over-time so the reader can learn it slowly within the story.

My series Megami Shiizun is definitely a complicated one with a lot of layers and quite a few characters. It's gone through a lot of editing and re-work for years. It needs a slow start or else it's too confusing. I want the reader to be asking the same questions as the characters on their journey. You can't rush it.
However, when I introduced the series to Tapas, I uploaded 17 pages in one day. It gave the readers enough material to be hooked.
And, the first page is the first hook, I did a sort of synopsis to make the reader turn to the 2nd page and so on. I didn't want anybody to doze off by over explaining things that I would eventually be repeated as the story moves forward.

[DiegoPalacios]

Personally:

Walls of text. If people get the urge to press a button that says skip intro, then is not a good intro.

When they fail to make me care or be interested in the characters. For me, characterization is vital.

If it feels too generic and if they don't give a twist to the apparent cliché. If i feel like i already saw this story many times, then i may leave, except if somehow they made me emotionally invested in the characters.

If the pacing is too slow. I have patience for a build-up for something happening. But if the build-up leads to nothing or if it feels like empty filler, then i lose interest.

Redundance. If they keep repeating the same over and over, they lost me.

Those are the points i remember for now.

[shazzbaa]

I think to some extent this depends on what you're "selling," so to speak.

Like, Coraline and Alice in Wonderland aren't the same kind of story. In Alice in Wonderland, the story is Wonderland, so spending a lot of time in the real world would be wasting time. But in the Coraline movie, the story is Coraline and her relationship with her family. The world she enters isn't a fantastical world to explore, it's an eerie mirror of her specific life. If you're not willing to invest in Coraline herself before the fantasy elements come in, that's fine, but it probably means you're not actually here for the kind of story that Coraline is.

Your beginning is a promise of the kind of story you'll be telling. I think you shouldn't waste any time making that promise, but what constitutes the promise will be different from story to story. In some stories it will mean getting to the action -- in other stories it will mean getting to the characters.

[arushiangelica]

For me it's grammatical mistakes, especially spelling errors. I just can't deal with them. It hurts my head. But if the episode is interesting enough, I usually stick around and leave some feedback so that creator's can edit it.

[scythe]

The Hobbit - Yeah yeah it's a classic and all but I really couldn't get past Tolkien's language. It bored me to no end. Mind you I tried reading this when I was maybe 13? I could very well try reading it again, perhaps this time I'll try harder.

It's wasn't your age. The book is literally a medicinal treatment for insomnia. And this is coming from someone who LOVED LOTR, which I devoured over a two week period, feeling like I was on my own journey.

The Hobbit couldn't have been drier and less eventful if it tried.

[Strontium]

I tend to only subscribe to comics with ten or so pages already, since for me one page isn't enough to judge my interest in something (one long update would work in the same way.)

I feel like I don't notice slow intros that much in stories. What bothers me more is slow middles. The intro is enjoyable because I like knowing about the characters and the world, which a good intro should establish. But when a comic spends a lot of time on one scene after we've been introduced to the characters -- that's what bothers me. It's because I lose the thread of the story after sometime. And it doesn't help that I read a lot of comics on this site!

If I pay for a book I'll always read it to the end, unless it causes me some kind of distress or it's poorly written to the point of being offending. No matter how laborious the middle is, I'm a speed reader and I'll finish the book soon enough.

For a comic that updates weekly, if I can't follow the story anymore because of a dragged-out middle, what I usually do is continue to click on updates and press the like button, so the author can earn some ad revenue and feel good about getting likes.

[Strontium]

It was the total opposite for me. I loved the Hobbit, but literally fell asleep without realizing it while reading The Two Towers XP

[xanedis]

Many writers maintain that the middle is the hardest part to write. I can certainly understand why.

[spicy_sweets]

Oof, yes. The middle, and the end cx

[dawgofdawgness]

An intro should give a good sense of the characters and world at first glance. For example, this excerpt from My Immortal:

"Hi my name is Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way and I have long ebony black hair (that’s how I got my name) with purple streaks and red tips that reaches my mid-back and icy blue eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like Amy Lee (AN: if u don’t know who she is get da hell out of here!). [[I’m not related to Gerard Way but I wish I was because he’s a major fucking hottie. I’m a vampire but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I’m also a witch, and I go to a magic school called Hogwarts in England where I’m in the seventh year (I’m seventeen). I’m a goth (in case you couldn’t tell) and I wear mostly black. I love Hot Topic and I buy all my clothes from there. For example today I was wearing a black corset with matching lace around it and a black leather miniskirt, pink fishnets and black combat boots. I was wearing black lipstick, white foundation, black eyeliner and red eye shadow. I was walking outside Hogwarts"

[silverraven0]

I personally think that the ending is the easiest part to write (most likely, idk), since the ending part is always, always the first one to come to me when I started the beginning. I have no idea why, and the middle is something that is constantly changing for me since I couldn't even followed my own script (ah, the pain of me trying to make s few different script just for it to go down the drain...) and ended up making a new story line that's somehow connecting my character from this sort to the character of another story (mine), like a multiverse or something. I'm weird, I know, and why the he'll am I rambling there?

[xanedis]

I...

curls in a corner, and cries because of a violent display of unedited word-magery

[VibrantFox]

and that's merely the beginning

[DiegoPalacios]

(starts silently judging the main character from my inmortal....)

[xanedis]

Look. I'm not saying I haven't been there(I started writing on fanfiction.net), but I am getting physical symptoms from reading that excerpt. My goodness. I had heard the stories of bad writing, but this...? This is not right.

That said, I do hope that the writer eventually finds their way as a writer. For now, the story is a good example of show-don't-tell gone mightily wrong.

[VibrantFox]

Oh yeah everyone has their rough starts, myself included. I've no idea whatever happened to the writer but I do hope they've gone through their improvements. After all, everyone's got their learning curves

[xanedis]

If there's ABSOLUTELY nothing for me to hold onto(if the characters are too generic, or if I don't get to know anything about the world, or if there's no overarching sense of mystery and/or interesting plot points). Basically, if the story doesn't feel real enough for me from the get-go.

Another big one is when the main conflict(or at least the first conflict) isn't established quickly enough. This is why I, personally, am a fan of starting stories with a bang. Then it can safely fall into this "buildup period" as we slowly see the results of the initial inertia surface in our characters' lives. Eventually, this buildup leads to a big conflict that may signify the end of the story(or just the first book - who knows?).

So, to summarize: the more of those aforementioned things(characters, world building, overarching mystery, plot points) you manage to establish in your intro, the better.

[spicy_sweets]

Nah, not weird. It's kinda like "I made it; but can I write the ending right?" I usually know exactly how my stories end, but them out's the hard part.

Ah, the closest I got to multiverse was an anniversal AU where all of my MCs + any books I finish the year I update go on an adventure lol

[feuersichel]

For me it ends with stiff characters. I love expresions and quirky characters. Even if the story starts slow, aslong as the characters keep me interested, I stay. Thats why I have a problem with copypasted panels.
Also, the wall of text and when the story repeats itself botters me alot. There was a pretty popular comic on tapas recently but I often just scrolled through the pages because the pages had the same message.

For my own comic I 'm unsure if its interesting. Until page 68 there is just meaningles stuff (the main charas are pretending to be a couple, so mama is happy...) And no hint where the story is going. But jeah, it was meant for practice anyway.

[onyefrankie]

I read his stuff when I was 8 and liked it though XD