What does it take for an intro to lose you?

[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

[Zpreader]

You're kind. I started judging her when she put an apostrophe in "Darkness"

[zuggarts]

What does it take for an intro to lose you?
Specifically for webcomics, I tend to drop stuff that give me the immediate vibe of "this was inspired and totally not derivative of the last three anime I watched". If it starts with a young man/boy who is totally average at everything and suddenly encounters a bright red/blue/green/etc.-haired girl with magical powers who drags him off to fulfil some kind of heroic purpose then I've pretty much conked out. If everyone has vaguely Japanese names and outfits that look like an edgy 13-year-old's ideal wardrobe then I'm out.

There are also series that feel like they were made just so the author can show off how subversive they are. If the series description is insert common storyline/trope here BUT THE OPPOSITE HAPPENS DUN DUN DUN that's a huge red flag for me and I tend to drop those comics early.

How long are you willing to wait for things to get interesting?
If the series gets some kind of reaction out of me every chapter then I guess forever . I don't think emotional stake in an incomplete/abandoned series is a bad thing. Sure it might not feel good, but I don't ever think of it as a waste of time. With that being said, I also drop most comics/books within the first 10 pages so maybe that's really how long I'm willing to wait.

What makes you stick with one medium longer than the other?
I usually stick with books and movies for no reason than that there are more of them out there to choose from, and so more unique offerings. Comics are great too, but the time gap between finding excellent comics is usually way longer than finding excellent films/books for me. Books particularly stick in the head longer, for the reasons that OP already mentioned. You spent the time imagining everything and so you remember easily; with most blockbuster the visuals/sounds just do the thinking for you and I usually can only remember the direct series of events and nothing else (no nuanced emotions, etc.) upon leaving the theatre.

How long was the intro in your story?
Tbh going by the little amount of time I have to spend on it probably 7 years.