I have a criminally short attention span, so it's generally because the pacing was too short, or a particular arc was dragging out too long, or it started to feel repetitive. But, I also have high standards despite my short attention span, so I have also dropped things strictly because the plot twist was just too much and out of character, or it felt like the twist wasn't the result of foreshadowing, but patting some putty over some plot holes.
I think for me I unsub from a comic usually for one of two reasons:
The story doesn't go anywhere: If you are on episode 170 and your main character has done absolutely nothing but follow around her crush and only talk to him twice and feel bad for herself, with no other character interaction... yah, that's boring.
The creator deleted the toon and keeps re-booting it: this is a huge super irritating trend on webtoons right now, especially with isekai genre comics. So, a creator will make a comic for about 30 episodes, build an audience, and then delete all the episodes and start over with a similar new comic. So it makes it look like you have thousands of subscribers with only 3 episodes, but they are left over from the previous comic. I honestly don't want to keep re-reading the same comic over and over with minor changes, especially when its an attention grab.
You know I never really put much thought into how some projects have so many views/subs with so few posts....Thank you, it makes sense now and I feel dumb for not catching onto that lol. I'm sure some are legit and they are just great works. But I will definitely 2nd guess those kinds of numbers when I see those numbers in future lol.
Why did you [I] stop reading a comic/story?
If I have to be brutally honest, it's because I believe that I could have wrote those stories better than them. But since I'm not them, then I'd write my own stories that have each of their themes.
P.S. This doesn't apply to stories here in Tapas. Tapas is still a fresh territory to me.
This is a great topic to bring up cause its actually a good list for storytellers on how not to tell a story!
Me personally, I stop reading if
The Story is too slow paced and doesn't get to the gist quickly.- for me the story has to at least let me know what I'm in for in at least the first chapter if not the first upload or else its not worth my time.
BAD dialogue- this could be subjective, but there is such a thing as flow when it comes to this kind of stuff. Some authors just copy and past stereotypical phrases and call it dialogue when it truly doesn't feel genuine in the slightest.
Lazy Artstyle - I say lazy because art style is subjective so bad doesn't really come into play for me. But lazy art is the worst. If the author has a specific style and then just doesn't focus on it anymore or doesn't clean up than it puts me off for sure.
No Theme - I might be alone in this but I love a story that is thought provoking even if its a comedy. Without a good strong central theme (no matter what it is) I can't invest my time in that story. It feels useless.
Cliche - Anything that does not have a unique concept and simply rides off the back of already successful works (fan fiction), or simply adds more monotony to a genre of work without innovating will most likely get boring quickly for me. I don't know I guess I just like cool concepts in storytelling!
Thats it for me, but this thread for me is a good way to gauge peoples tastes and am thankful you brought this up!
Just plain boring - I get bored pretty fast and if the page is 70% text I'm not reading any of it.
The comic feels off - I dropped a comic once for sexualizing the young main character. I didn't want to know how that one would end.
I don't find the humor interesting or the comic relatable - Dropped a comic once for having boomer humor. I just don't find that interesting. There have been slice of life comics full of references that I just didn't get or just didn't find interesting.
The comic just takes a turn and changes - There was one romance comic on webtoon that had something going on between the main character and another character. For the next season everything just went poof and the MC got with someone else that was new to the story.
I'm 38. I have amassed a list of things I just don't read.
If you character is a poor unfortunate soul. Their situation in life is just so depressing. EX, my character Sarah is hated by her class. She is an outcaste and is bullied everyday. She's so alone and... omg stop.
The main character is a tween, and is literally living life as an adult. Got an apartment, no parents, for some reason NOT IN FOSTER CARE. BONUS - they have some handicap yet still not in foster care and appear to be able to pay for everything without a job while still going to school and actually not having any adult responsibilities at all.
References to Japanese Culture that are learned solely from ANIME. I lived in Japan for 10 years. I cannot read stories that are set in Tokyo by people that have never been there. There are culture references and pop culture references to the culture that are based solely on things fans have learned from anime and it's just strange. And when authors start half talking in sprinkled japanese, I am turned off immediately. "Wow! She's so kawaii!"
Overusing adverbs.
First person writing. I really don't want to imagine MYSELF in a relationship with Edward Cullen. If you get my drift.
- One more - Werewolf alpha stories.
I don't think I've ever stopped reading a story for anything except pacing
Actually one of my favorite webcomics is The Rock Cocks which is partly nsfw but it's so fun and the characters are so great that I feel like it's easy to look past the porn.
There's a LOT of comics which I haven't read in years because they're just too frickin long, but I haven't dropped them. I plan to read them once they've finished
I'm really not all that picky, but if the pacing or the tone is off you probably weren't ready to post it yet.
Since many here seem to have had bad experiences with novels/comics containing long text & dialogues & slow pacing, I just wanna chime in to say that it does work for certain story types, especially works meant to be informative, fact-base and/or philosophical. Or some cases of "ridiculous comedy".
Text blurb
If the work is mainly about professions/topics most people don't know, like gluteology (study of... butts, don't ask me) OR vets OR pro gaming, it would be weird to not expect any text blurbs at some point.
Even if the author adds tons of engaging illustrations, memorable characters, concise scripts, sprinkled drama romance mystery and so on, the info is still the series' main draw.
For those, I'm happy with blurbs as long as the info is relevant, well-presented and connects back to the main characters. But if a not-so-factual series suddenly becomes an infodump without warning, I'd consider dropping.
A successful example is Heart of a Companion. Episode 24 is mostly just 3 (more like 2) people discussing issues with pet adoption systems with a sprinkle of drama & comedy structured in scrolling format. It works for me.
I haven't read enough novels on Tapas to give a convincing example. If anyone knows a good one, do showcase them here.
Except for reference and case studies, I don't sub series that don't click with me after the first few eps. I casually check them out sometimes though, to see if they've improved. So can't say I dropped those series cuz I didn't really pick them up.
In cases where I unbookmark or drop series, it's mostly one of these things:
Obvious plot holes: especially in sci-fi, mystery & complex-ish fantasy.
Character regression: usually, bad post-romance development or character nerfing is the culprit.
Exaggerations inconsistent with world building: this disturbs me the most when sports and talent-based stories go supernatural, or the author just churns out nonsensical stats to impress readers. Like, jumping 2 meters high in a basketball match, or playing the piano at around 2000 BPM (the latter is a real example from a comic
)
Fluctuation in art quality: I strongly prefer hiatuses (unintentional or not) to the authors taking "shortcuts" every now and then. Many say the average reader's only gonna stare at each panel for like 30 sec, and everyone has bad days, but if I consistently spot missing fingers, lazy line art/coloring, wrong eye color, stiff poses etc. in an ongoing work, it's very tempting to unsub.
Lack of planning for series: this kinda leads to one or more issues above, and is common after a series' big break as the author(s) are often under huge pressure, or long-running series.
Exact same set as you ESPECIALLY #2 and 3 which seem to make up a lot of things out there. But yeah nothing gets under my skin more than the inappropriate usage of anything Japanese as I had lived there for years as well and man that gets irritating :\
It does make me more aware of what I need to do to make sure my own locales are done right by checking with those who have experience etc. Like for one of my upcoming locales I had to talk to one of my students who is from that country to make sure I am avoiding any unnecessary mistakes or misinterpretations etc.
I agree with everything you said, even though I think 3/4 of those that you listed probably apply to my comic hence why I don't see you around my comments anymore LOL (I'm not offended at all btw, I know stories can't appeal to everyone! )
Ridiculously huge info dumps/character dumps - I can't stand being introduced to an entire cast of 15+ characters at once. I won't remember anybody therefore it makes it really difficult to continue reading. There have been a few concepts that I've been super interested in, but the giant character introduction arcs made it hard for me to follow what is happening
Poor spelling/grammar - I can definitely forgive a few mistakes if the story and art are super compelling, but otherwise it's challenging to get through a story when I have trouble understanding what they're saying
Offensive slurs/insensitive language - I've started a couple stories and noped out pretty quickly when I saw really insensitive, derogatory language in the regular banter/dialogue between main characters.
Not my genre type - I tried to give it a chance because I really like the art and/or creator, but there are some genres that just don't appeal to me like medieval fantasy or historical fiction... I always find myself trying to get into them but I've only ever really enjoyed one story out of the many I have started.
I just don't have time - As a creator myself, I can only keep up with so many stories/webcomics. Sometimes it doesn't have anything to do with the comic itself... I just can only keep up with so many stories at one time and I'd prefer to read something that closely aligns with my interests. I feel a little bad about this one because there are so many people that I want to support, but I'd rather my support not be spread thin just to accommodate everyone.
@pilot-obvious Yo that time one is huge. My current backlog is so embarrassing--especially for novels.
I'm patient and can forgive a lot, but I dropped a series a few times when art went poor from a chapter to another. I could see that author just wanted to finish it as soon as possible, but I couldn't focus on the action when I noticed changes in every line.
As for the novels, when characters started behaving more childish as the story went on. Or in romances when one of the main characters started behaving like a child instead of a partner.
Some ridiculous plot or unrealistic actions just killed all the joy. It's a pity as I loved one book and dropped it for that reason.
I dropped a few Webtoon Originals because:
- Poorly written female characters, existing just to be romance/sexual interests or prop up male MCs
- The plot changed from A genre to C genre, which I wasn't interested in
- Pacing too slow (get that miscommunication over with! y'all have smartphones!! you can text!!)
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