What makes a story bland and boring?

[Chocolate]

In what ways that made you drop a comic? 🤨🤨🤨

[morganicfoods]

Y'know, I'm actually genu

[morganicfoods]

Yep, that's definitely not a mistake I made hitting reply too early. I'm just gonna leave it there cuz LMAO it's incredibly funny to me and I think everyone needs to appreciate the fact that I'm now "Genu" apparently.

Here's what I meant to say:
Y'know, I'm actually genuinely unsure what makes a story boring and bland. Obviously, my sworn enemy, exposition dumping, can go a long way into killing a story. But I also think characters that aren't fleshed out or are one-note really make something boring. I personally don't care that much if the plot's kinda predictable, if the characters have nothing too them it's yawn and a nope from me. Just put some thought into your characters, how they interact with others and with the world around them. Trust me, it goes a long way.

[river121693]

the main causes for a boring story for me are:
Plot that are bogged down by terrible pacing or meandering storylines-- filler episodes of an anime are a prime example. Plot that doesnt have a purpose to the development of theme or character. Plot that lack interesting meaning.

Characters that are bland or unrelatable.

[harlan]

Nice attempt at deflection. Or should I say genuflection?

But we know what you are now.

[cherrystark]

It can be a million different reasons. Storytelling is similar to cooking and even computer programing to a degree. If you follow the code the way you are supposed to, your project turns out great. If you don't, the project is useless. If I don't think a writer balanced all the elements with their story or tried to toy too much with the code, I stop reading.

[harlan]

Taking too long to get to conflict. When there is no urgency in the plot. The stakes don't get raised.

[Katzalcoatl]

3 things make me drop a series or a comic.

I usually watch first 3 episodes of an anime before judging it but I won't count those since that is me seeing if I like the story or not. I will only refer to the times I have read or watched a series for a long time and then dropped it.

The 3 things that make me drop a series are:

1.- The story gets to a point that feels like it should end. Example, Naruto had a perfect ending thus Boruto feels like something uneeded. Or Bleach the last 2 arcs were unnecesary if you ask me (didn't drop it but I should have to be honest).

2.- Story feels like a copy of something else done previously. Many times stories want to play with nostalgia but making something extremely similar to the original just makes me think the writer is lazy. But that is just my personal opinion.

3.- A character potential is not tapped. It doesn't have to be tapped to their full potential but it has to be tapped at least a little bit.
Examples of this would be when the MC becomes super dumb after being shown as someone smart and eloquent. The MC can be dumb in different ways but in some stories they make the MC become romantically involved with people who literally raped them. Other cases of badly developed characters would be Kylo Ren from Star Wars. He was originally a badass who stopped a laser shot in the middle of the air at the start of the movie but by the end of the movie he got beaten by 2 people with 0 training in the force. 1 being the MC which is understandable but the other being an ex storm trooper who shouldn't even be able to use a lightsaber but somehow he defeated Kylo Ren in a one on one lightsaber fight.... a trained sith lost. There are many more examples in which characters don't live to their initial expectations but I usually just drop the ones in which the character just doesn't fulfill any of the expectations given from their initial introduction.

[Umber]

a big one for me is lack of character development!!

[TheLemmaLlama]

A lack of vision:

What draws you or turns you away from a comic/story?

[Vision is] when [a story] gives me the impression that the creator knows exactly what they're going for, they want to make me feel X and they're going to deliver.

1. If I open the comic and I immediately get hit with vibes, or feel something
2. If I see a piece of conventional wisdom being subverted right out of the gate, in a way that feels like there's a coherent stance behind the subversive take that will get gradually revealed
3. If I immediately see something unusual/resonant about a character's personality/attitude/etc, that feels like part of a coherent psychology that will get gradually revealed
4. If I see an interesting piece of worldbuilding (that feels like part of something greater that will get gradually revealed yada yada XD)
5. Interesting format lmao
6. Plot hooks I guess, but honestly not required if you nail one of the above instead? XD

I'm probably being a nebulous, but it's really not a clear-cut thing; no-one ever said drawing people in will be easy! XD

So a bland/boring story would be the opposite:

• If I start reading the story, and feel nothing. No humour, no excitement, no curiosity, no awe, no empathy, no sadness, no anger, no dread.
• If the story opens on navel-gazing about a piece of wisdom I consider 'conventional' or 'basic', and it's portrayed as profound or otherwise gives me the impression that the author hasn't thought past this idea
• If the characters I'm introduced to are all either stock humans, or conversely act so randomly and incongruously that I have trouble believing they're a real person
• If nothing meaningful happens.
  (This isn't to be confused with nothing urgent/'exciting' happening; an event can still be meaningful without being super dramatic or high stakes. The conflict could be a meta-conflict with the reader's expectations/the real world the reader is familiar with, rather than an internal conflict within the story proper :])
  (Aside from (meta)conflict, an event is meaningful if it's part of a 'plot'/'arc' that says something. For instance, 'knock knock' by itself isn't meaningful until you've told the whole knock knock joke. This is why random scenes with no overarching plot tying them together is considered 'meandering' and 'filler' :P)

[alexwells]

Definitely exposition dumping. I don't need to know everything about the world from the very first chapter (or the first few). I want to get to know the characters first. Sometimes, I'll start reading a novel and feel like I'm reading a textbook. Not fun.

[darthmongoose]

In professional works, it's usually because the story feels like it exists because an executive said, "make a story about [X]! It's big right now!", or "Make a sequel to [X]! People want one!" and some mediocre writer got out a beat sheet, filled in all the beats mechanically and created a roughly functional, but completely soulless execution of a story about that thing. Everyone's a stock archetype going through the least imaginative set of derivative plot beats to learn a lesson the writer doesn't believe in, but thinks people will react to, and then throw in some emotional music or imagery and ship it off to print.

In amateur, small press and self-published works, it's usually because somebody came up with some OCs they think are so very precious, and thinks that a good story is a collection of basically any old stuff happening to their OCs, even if it's completely aimless and pointless. They think that if the superficial details are a combination of things that they haven't seen put together before, that makes it a good original story, like "Aha! You've all seen stories where a handsome man is a superhero! But what about... a story where a purple dog is a superhero!?" It's like... yes, that is a combination of things I haven't seen before, but if it's not using being about a purple dog to say anything new and interesting about... I don't know, anything! The superhero genre itself! What it means to be "human"! How people react to strange things they don't understand! and instead, it's just a generic superhero story... what's even the point?

In the first case, it's not a lack of skill, but just a laziness and lack of ambition or artistic expression. It's soulless "art as a product", and I've worked on stuff like that to pay the bills and now know the mechanics so well, it's hard to enjoy any more like I might have done as a teenager.

In the second, it's a lack of creative development. It's like being told a story by a child; you can be like "awww, that's cute! What a creative idea!" and want to help them grow, but you wouldn't choose it if you wanted a really good tale to get lost in and feel inspired by, because it's too random and without a unifying point to make.

[thepenmonster]

If the character is charismatic or unique enough I'll stick around and read them talking about or doing "boring" things. As long as those boring things are well written.

ex- Talking about diet choices
(NSFW)

However, few people can write this sort of snappy dialog.

What does bore me is something that is deeply derivative of more popular works: Dumb fight comics. Office romance comics. Isekai. Isekai romance. Just about anything set in a Japanese or pseudo-Japanese high school. Most cape comics. Comics that provide only nihilism.

But if the characters in those comics are likable and the story is well written I'll be down with reading them.

I will add that works that fall into the endless plot cycle * AHEM * dragonball * HEM * I'll drop even if I do like the series simply because I already saw that shit.

[JoshRaed]

I guess a lack of anything new and unique. You ever see something so bad it’s good? It’s unique.

I read a webcomic called ghost eyes and I like it. I heavily suspect it to be hot garbage. I don’t know for sure but it’s possible. But I still read it. Because it’s so distinctly itself in a way I haven’t seen before. Like the art style is super cutesy and the plot is super dark, but not in a way where it feels ironic or like it’s being “Oooh isn’t it clever that we put two opposite things together, like instead the two facets of the series just fit together perfectly well.

There’s also the genre of it. It’s a queer teen drama/ psychological horror/ mystery/ the worlds longest hurt comfort fanfic for a series that doesn’t exist yet. None of this can really come from any other series.

And no surprise, the worst character is one that fits neatly into a generic fiction trope as the typical closeted bully, Carmelo De monte. Like he seems shallowly built from cliches. I do not understand why he has feelings for Rudy, or why he insists on hurting Rudy in spite of this, or why he’s possessive of Rudy sexually when he’s in denial about his sexuality and wants to hurt him. I’m fact other characters make less sense when they’re around him.

So I guess it’s what makes it unique, when it’s built upon your own distinctive ideas that make it what it is and not interchangeable with something else. Which I imagine is largely execution, but also quite a bit of creativity and vision.

[powerplantanimations]

That's tricky... I think the definitive answer is "execution".

Like take the Dragon Quest franchise for example. Their stories are REALLY traditional and basic. They revel in tropes and mostly give out basic lessons. They only deviated once but that was it. Does that make the franchise boring? HELLLLL NO. It's actually more impressive seeing how the writers do a plotline in this tight box for like... four decades.

Then you got stories like Black Clover which, according to friends, is generic af. But they love it because you can sense the HEART into it. Yeah, it doesn't say anything new. Yeah, it's your typical shonen trash. Does it matter though? Of course not... because it's fun.

Then you got cases like bad films like Birdemic. That was fun because the director generally thought he was making art. You can SEE effort. Now of course, this isn't enough to make a story great, but when he did the sequel to try and make it goofy as possible (since people thought the first one was comical), he fell on his face hard. Ironically, he tried a little TOO much.

But yeah... if you're going to do an idea you better find a great angle to make it FUN. That is, if you aren't willing to say anything interesting.

[MelancholicOtaku]

To me I find a story bland and boring if I can’t connect with the characters,if the characters are boring then most likely I’ll find the story boring.

[NickRowler]

Boring can be a bit subjective. Like, I tend to find action thrillers to be extremely boring but I will easily sit through a long documentary.

I think for me personally it is a lack of strong characters. Nice art or flashy visuals can take you so far, I want to feel some sort of connection to the characters and their journey. I know there are people who just want to turn off their brain and look at gun/sword fights but your story should have more depth than just that.

[Headypigeon4180]

Generic fantasy stories switch me off pretty fast.

Stuff that's pretty much somebody's DnD campaign turned into a story doesn't do it for me so much because I see so much of it when i'm reading. Especially if the female characters are over sexualised wearing skimpy clothes I've seen so much of it at this point i've become numb to it. Comic in particular are very very inspired by Final Fantasy and it shows, the costume design can be so tired and overdone it just doesn't look fun. I like a good knight suit don't get me wrong but this kind of outfit. I see it in way too many places, I admit I hang out on the Duck Webcomics a lot so I admit I'm more likely to run into it but.. yeah sorry Fran.

Fantasy Hybrids I like a lot more, Like it it's Glam Rock looking or futuristic it's cooler because I don't often run into stuff like it but yeah... It's not Fran's fault so many webcomic artists want to be Final Fantasy. It is Fran's fault; however for not having a costume that functions well in battle. The whole Magic Bikini trope needs to die, so do Keyblades they're ridiculous and are not functional in any way

[Chibicat16]

Just boring development...characters that take to long to develop...or boring storyline.

[ThunderChicken]

For me a big thing is repetition. When you see a new update and 75% of that update is pixel-for-pixel from the last update. I mean, if you've got a series and it only updates once every two weeks a small recap isn't terrible, but I hate having to scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll to finally get to the new stuff...

...Only to have two panels of new stuff in which absolutely nothing happens, which is another turn-off. Somebody walks into a room... and nothing. A car dives down the road... and nothing. If it takes four months worth of updates to make a point that could have been done with one or two updates I'm gonna lose interest.