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What Kills A Story For You?


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Probably the same as "cookie-cutter houses". They all look amazingly alike, or in the case of stories, if you've read one, you've read them all. Currently I'm really enjoying "City Slicker" and started reading but just quit one that was way too over the top with sadistic activities and public displays that it fails the reasonableness test others have mentioned. That noted, "City Slicker" does have an unreasonable universe, but the plot and the characters stay within that universe. In fact, it is the author's creation of this universe that makes the story so interesting!

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  • 4 years later...

Pretty much all that has been mentioned will kill off a story for me.

I am not a fan of having minors as the centre of a story (sexual or not), I think that it can show our community in a bad light; I do of course make exceptions when people talk about their own childhoods in a discussion for example.

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Several things will kill a story for me. At the top of the list is poor spelling and bad grammar. Secondly is bad sentence structure; writing in incomplete sentences or thoughts. That's the mechanical not-to-dos. Story-wise, you need to build characters that the reader can relate to. The story has to be more than just about using diapers. Include other aspects of the person's life as well as other people--whether diaper lovers or not. Include other activities in the main character's life. Re-read what you have written and ask yourself if it would appeal to a wider audience than just yourself. (Write for the reader and not just

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On a mechanical level, bad grammar and spelling ranks high. I'm sure I've missed out on an otherwise good story or two because it was nigh-on unreadable. I briefly beta'd for someone but had to cut it off because I started feeling less like I was offering suggestions and correcting errors and more like I was personally re-writing the story from scratch. Though, in their defense, last I saw they had improved on their own merit.

In the story itself: getting sexual. Or, more specifically, getting dirty and sexual. I can abide a sex scene or two, but the moment such a scene or a diaper change or similar starts talking about cocks and pussies, I check out.

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Maybe I'm the only one, but I'm not into abuse. Total turn off. Yes, this means any one belittling another. I like nurturing relationships, but a total turn-off is the BDSM relationship. That includes spankings, public shaming...

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What turns me off to a story:

I'm not a big fan of magic, and magical transformations. This is because in most stories the magic only exists to make littles. The way I find it works best is when the magic exists in a way the implies a larger world, and not just as a crutch to allow some Big to baby a little. It has to function to consistent rules that don't contradict each other for the convenience of plot.

Paragraphs, learn how to use them. Same goes for chapters.

Writing good dialogue is a difficult skill to learn. It can be frustrating to read, but I can take bad dialogue if its formatted well.

The Victorian Matron domme that is also common in crossdressing fantasies. She is really just a caricature that exists solely to satisfy the fantasies of the little/crossdresser. She is also a bitch. I have never in my life met a woman that acts like this.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I despise stories that are overly sexualized or involve entirely unrealistic BS (i.e some sexy single woman that just SO HAPPENS to have a fully stocked adult size nursery in her house? Who would have guessed..?!). Same goes for female violence/domination---this is not a thing 99% of the time in real life, so it gets exhausting and frankly, boring when it pops up in an enormous amount of ABDL stories.

Stories that involve 'slice of life' type stuff, with REALISM,

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  • 3 months later...

Sexual content, especially non-consensual.

And the protagonist coming to love and care for someone who has kidnapped them and done horrific kinky torture to them.

And the "they're secretly an ABDL, so they'd totally like being kidnapped and forced into diapers". I'd warrant that even most of the people who want to be 24/7 incontinent would be upset if they were kidnapped and forced to wear diapers. And not all ABDLs or people who like ABDL fics even want 24/7 incontinence at all. (I get turned on by ABDL fics, but I like the idea of

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  • 3 years later...

Edit- I have re-edited this post to better reflect my thoughts

When it comes to stories, it all narrows down to what mood i'm in, I read all sorts of different types of stories ,some of my favorite being Humiliation stories, but also really love More Wholesome stories as well like characters who come to discover their love for diapers,. but either way, there is always something that can " kill " a story for me regardless of what type it is,. which would be the fallowing.

Mental regression - ( especially if forced or permanent)  :  even though I know it is a rather popular theme in a lot of stories. to have someone revert to a mental infantile state acting like a baby, it's something I just don't really find myself liking so much, mainly two reasons, and that being, One, it sorta takes away how I can identify or understand what the characters going through, if the main character is acting like a baby because of some, use of hypnosis, brainwashing or some Magical reason, I feel it's not the same character were supposed to be learning and fallowing along in the journey with. one of my favorite things to do when reading a story is sorta imagine myself in the characters role or try to feel or understand what they are going through, and in ABDL Literature.
I love to hear how a character reacts or feels naturally to things like wearing diapers or how they feel being dressed like a baby, hearing their emotions being described and own personals thoughts is one of the most important things to me. and if they are reverted to acting like a baby who has no thoughts other then just crawling around or sucking their thumb, doesn't really feel like a character to me., however, it's a something I can tolerate if it isn't the theme that takes up most of the story's plot.
However, the other reason it can be a put off for me is, when it becomes a permanent outcome for the character. especially if it's how a story is supposed to end. as to me, it sorta comes of as Killing the character in a Mental way as appose to physically, as yes they are still alive and breathing but it's not the true characters mind, their memories and personality is all gone, all that's left is a big body acting like a big baby. and it can kind of come off as a bit dark in that aspect when you look into it. again especially if the effects are  forced onto the character or are meant to be permanent.

None consistent themes - basically, when a story tends to have an unrealistic premise that tries to make work in our real world logic, which just tends to put me off.
I don't mind if a story is silly, over the top or even unrealistic as long as the story makes it easy for that to to see happening in that world. ( basically any story that is making suspension of disbelief work for itself ) 
so I'd rather read a realistic story that tries to stick to being realistic all the way through, and read a more unrealistic story that tries to stick to being a bit more farfetched most of it's way through then trying to make sense of it's unrealism. 

Main character deciding they like diapers and being babied suddenly out of nowhere : now this needs some explaining from me, as the thing is, I actually like stories that deal with a character having to wear diapers usually against their wishes,( could be for a Varity of reasons ) but overtime they find themselves starting to like or enjoy the feelings of being diapered and being babied, however when I read a story like this I really like that sort of discovery to be built up upon and not just happen the moment they slip the garment on, like they could maybe find it different from how they felt it would but not understand the feeling instantly, and as the story progresses they start to learn that they are enjoying the sensation of a diaper between their legs and the treatment of being babied. 

Overly sexual themes- Now I'm not against a story that has sexual element in it, but when whole story is  basically just diaper sex, I'm going to pretty much loose interest. 

Physical abuse or changes - now as said above, I do enjoy a humiliation or forced regression story, however with that said, I personally prefer it be a story where character finds the thought of wearing diapers and be dressed as a baby humiliating enough to them, ( but also  great if made to act and do babyish things to go along )  but what I don't enjoy is when the themes go full on abuse in a physical nature. like being whipped, shocked or physical changes ( I can tolerate some spanking )  such a surgery done to alter a persons body. ( like teeth removing, messing with nerves and muscles to make them weaker or become incontinence ) it just kills the story  when that type of damage is done to a person. the only time I can, tolerate it is, if it's done through a magical nature, so there being a possibly way to refers any effects. 

Sexual content involving Underaged characters. so still on the topic on sexual themes,  this is a pretty big one for me and really can break a story, like but let me say first, I don't mind if underaged characters are  in a story, it's only when the story focus on or features sexual scenes regarding them it becomes a big problem,,  it especially starts apply if the content is meant to be abusive in nature or be written solely as as some ones fantasy ,( like  if the story in question is written by some over the age of 18, ) , Like I can at times understand if the story is written by someone who themselves is under 18,  but regardless it's something I'm not comfortable with and one of the major things I'm glad this site takes into account about not letting be tolerated here.  
 

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I didn't resurrect this, so I will add to it.

Stories that:

Start with a list of characters, ages, and descriptions. Work the necessary bits into the story.

Are written like a play, but lack all the play directions.

Have the inability to use the word "crotch." Seriously, it's not a naughty word, it's not a couch, crutch, conch, crouch, or any of the other words I see used.

Use the character names and descriptions over and over that are by the same author. Can you imagine Steven King writing every story about a guy named Steve?

Use the same story line over and over by the same author. I've read about the teenager tricked by his little sister, write something new. And changing it from baseball to football doesn't make it new.

Are set in the "real world," but virtually impossible things happen. Like in one day finding teen/adult sized baby clothes locally, finding teen/adult sized baby furniture locally, remodeling a bedroom into a teen/adult nursery in a day, taking someone out into public and conducting activities that would, at the minimum, get them questioned by the police, if not arrested. 

Switch between calling them diapers and nappies. I have in-laws that are British, but long term US citizens. They don't switch back and forth.

Contain Rape. And yes men can be raped. By women.

 

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3 hours ago, ValentinesStuff said:

Have the inability to use the word "crotch."

For the record, if my protag is female, I tend to avoid using this term, because it is coarse, and unless her personality is coarse as well, I'll find as many other ways to say it as I can before I use it.  

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2 hours ago, ValentinesStuff said:

I'm not saying you have to use the word in your story, but that it isn't crutch, couch, crouch, conch, or whatever misspelling is there.

Oh, so it's more about the brutal spelling than the use of the word.  Gotcha. 

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On 10/26/2020 at 7:37 AM, ValentinesStuff said:

Stories that:

Start with a list of characters, ages, and descriptions. Work the necessary bits into the story.

Are written like a play, but lack all the play directions.

The past year or so I've begun searching WattPad and publishing on it. These are both singularly my most hated literary issues on there. People who feel a need to put a bunch of photos up for their characters are right up there as well. Describe them and leave them up to my imagination! 

Several other sites seem to fall prey to people like that as well. Big blocks of text without separation of dialog also drive me away pretty quickly.

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Structurally, when people using something other than quotation marks to set off dialogue. Some people write it like a (poorly formatted) script or use different colors. I can’t read that. Bad grammar, blatant misspellings, failure to use paragraphs, failing to start a new paragraph when switching between speakers.

In terms of content, violence, extreme grossness, gratuitous sex (which isn’t because I’m a prude and is partly because pretty much no one writes it well), and bad things happening to sweet characters out of nowhere. As an example, on another site someone decided to write some new chapters to a story that’s more than ten years old. Sweet story, and then bam: gives a kid testicular cancer and describes the tumor in detail. Totally and completely ruined the story. It’s depressing, it’s gross, it was out of left field, and turned a sweet story into a horror story.

I think it’s misogynistic for writers to describe the physical measurements of a female character. It’s unnecessary as the writer shouldn’t force their ideal of a body on their readers and is always always always a sure sign the story is shallow and bad.

In general, poor writing, like plot turns that rely on magic or coincidences, unreality to the point of absurdity, bad sentence structure, dialogue that reads like a prepared speech instead of how people actually talk ... 
 

Being somewhat discerning, probably won’t surprise folks that I actually read very few of the stories posted here.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/20/2012 at 1:24 PM, lilJester said:

the right balance of information..... don't pulla stephen king and spend too much time detailing w creaky floorboard.....

 

I know you wrote this a billion years ago but I gotta disagree. 

Given that Stephen King is one of the literary giants of our time, taking a (metaphorical) page out of his book would actually do some good if you're trying to hook an audience, especially when you're writing to a very specific crowd such as this one.

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8 hours ago, NateSean said:

I know you wrote this a billion years ago but I gotta disagree. 

Given that Stephen King is one of the literary giants of our time, taking a (metaphorical) page out of his book would actually do some good if you're trying to hook an audience, especially when you're writing to a very specific crowd such as this one.

IMO Mr. King couldn't write his way out of a wet paper bag. He's a literary giant ego.

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I'm not saying he is a bad or hack writer, but damn some things you don't need to put an over abundance of detail in. To me you should give jsut enough information to put the image in the readers mind, not overload on simple things such as a creaky floor board. I don't care how many steps it took till they hit that board, or why it creeks, or how long it has creeked..... I'm just more of a "to the point" kind of person.

 

"While making their way through the room they suddenly stopped as Jim stumbled upon a creaky floorboard. They feared their presence was made known by the noise and waited in silence to hear if anything shifted in the darkness."

 

"while they slowly crept through the room, the party stopped three steps in as Jim mistakenly stepped on the off colored floorboard which gave out a loud creeking sound as it had for the past several years as it had become slightly dislodged from the floor joists below by a faulty set of nails. The group steadied themselves glaring at Jim on this loose, off colored and creaky floor board wondering if he had doomed them all."

When I think of SOME of kings writing, I think of the later not the former.

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On 11/28/2020 at 10:41 AM, lilJester said:

I'm not saying he is a bad or hack writer, but damn some things you don't need to put an over abundance of detail in. To me you should give jsut enough information to put the image in the readers mind, not overload on simple things such as a creaky floor board. I don't care how many steps it took till they hit that board, or why it creeks, or how long it has creeked..... I'm just more of a "to the point" kind of person.

 

"While making their way through the room they suddenly stopped as Jim stumbled upon a creaky floorboard. They feared their presence was made known by the noise and waited in silence to hear if anything shifted in the darkness."

 

"while they slowly crept through the room, the party stopped three steps in as Jim mistakenly stepped on the off colored floorboard which gave out a loud creeking sound as it had for the past several years as it had become slightly dislodged from the floor joists below by a faulty set of nails. The group steadied themselves glaring at Jim on this loose, off colored and creaky floor board wondering if he had doomed them all."

When I think of SOME of kings writing, I think of the later not the former.

While I can't speak for all of King's writing, (because I haven't read it all,) I feel like this misses the point of using intensive details, and why - when he's doing it right - it can work so well. 

Using words to paint a picture can be used to convey pacing and tone. When you're trying to built tension, and especially when you're working towards something like horror, slowing down and really getting into the gritty details can help give you a sense of what a character is thinking, their emotional state, the sort of things that are important to *them*. It can also be a way to bury details without it being painfully obvious that you're planting information which will be important later, which matters when intrigue and mystery are going to be important elements later on. The details can be used to build a rich world, in short.

Your hypothetical example paragraph is bad, partly because it's just very repetitive, but also because it isn't focusing in on the senses or the mental state of the characters and it doesn't convey any details that actually help set the mood. 

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