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I'm a pretty picky reader. To the point that I don't read or finish the vast majority of the stories here and on similar sites. I might start many of them, but then lose interest someway through.
To be more specific about my pickiness, it mainly has to do with the sexuality of the main character. It's a major turn off when the character starts liking guys. So much so that from the moment I realize that, I often stop reading. There are exceptions of course, like Somewhere Else Entirely for example.
Another thing is that I prefer to read transformation stories. I don't really care how the transformation comes about, or if the transformation itself takes the entire duration of the story, as long as the character goes from being a guy to a girl (and not a she-male). Again, there are exceptions of course. Most transformation stories often include a change in sexuality though, something I really dislike but can understand. It just means I must likely won't read or finish reading that story.
Is anyone else a picky reader? What turns you away from a story? Or do you think my pickiness is just weird?
P.S. I'm posting this in both the forum and as a blog as I'm not quite sure where to post it.
P.P.S. Don't worry about my eating habits guys. I'm no picky eater. :P
Comments
Believe it or not
I'm pretty much the complete OPPOSITE of you when it comes to pickiness. No, not as in I'm less picky, but as in on the sexuality scale thing.
I'm a pretty hetero-focused individual, sadly, so if I'm supposed to identify with the main character in a story I find it really hard to maintain interest if they end up being a lesbian. Like with you, there are exceptions, but they are rare and far between. I even have trouble maintaining interest if their partner is a fellow TG or TS individual. I have no problem with side-characters with other sexualities, but I don't enjoy romance plots where the main character's gender identity and sexuality don't line up along hetero-normative lines, I guess because I find little attraction to that kind of relationship myself.
*shrug*
Surprisingly enough, I've felt that the majority of stories on the site over the last year or two have leaned strongly in the lesbian favor versus straight, which while perfectly fine, especially given the site's origins, has partly lead to my largely being absent from commenting or reading the last couple of years.
I guess we all have our little quirks, huh?
Melanie E.
ahh.. eaten post....
Arrgh ... post eaten. And it wasn't one of those times I was smart enough to hit select-all and copy first.
Oh well, let's see if I can re-create it before I have to to make dinner.
A lot of us are picky readers. But, this is a site that caters to amateur writers. The quality you're going to find here is going to be very inconsistent. Writing is a craft, it takes training, and practice. Some folks here are quite good and probably should be considering writing professionally. Others are just starting out and have a long way to go. Some people here are writing as a personal hobby, or as a form of therapy, and some are actually working towards professionalism.
The only way you're ever going to find exactly what you're looking for is if you write it yourself. And yes, that's work.
That having been said, I'm sure there are plenty of stories here that will indeed inspire a resonation with your personal interests.
Speaking personally, I too prefer transformation stories. But for myself... lets get the transformation over with and get on with the repercussions. Let's have an actual story in which a transformation features rather than a piece of writing that's only a transformation. I'll also read transitioning stories, if they're well written. I don't gravitate towards them, but sometimes they still catch my eye.
Also, I prefer stories in which there's a shift or change in sexuality. I find watching a character deal with that kind of an internal shift to be fascinating. I can't personally imagine something as radical as a complete body change and having what goes on in my head remain consistent. For me, the body is a huge part of the self. The idea that the "self" is an internal thing, and that the body is only an external adjunct to the self doesn't really work (for me). "Body" is a big part of who we are, it effects how we think and how we experience the world and how we react to it.
If a story is well written, I'll read it regardless of whether the main character experiences a shift in sexuality or not, but if that character doesn't ... the story always ends up feeling somewhat flat to me, as if there's something missing. (Probably my favorite story on the site is Swishy's Kate Draffen, although given your personal preferences I don't know if you'd enjoy it).
What do I search for?
Authors. If I think an author is good, I'll read his/her work regardless of the tags on the specific story.
If I'm looking for something new, then I will search by tag. Some tags are favorites, and I look for those. Other tags are the opposite, and I'll avoid them like the plague.
I have my issues
One is a physical transformation that produces immediate and massive changes in personality. Sorry, I don't believe that being changed into a woman when you were a comfortable adult man would suddenly make you love shopping for shoes and want to wear frilly things. I don't believe it would even suddenly make you prefer men when you were previously attracted to women. Some or all of these changes might happen, but it would take time. A grown man has had a decade or more learning to behave how he behaves, and a sudden transformation will not immediately change that.
Now, they might change over time, and I have no issue with that. I have an issue with the proposition that it would be immediate. Unless there's some form of explicit mind control, anyway.
My other big issue is with injustice, particularly when it is not addressed. Does a wizard maliciously transform somebody just because he can and he enjoys seeing them hurt? Sorry, living well is not the best revenge in my book. Kill him, strip him of his powers, whatever - just don't let him get away with it. Especially don't let him get away with an insincere-seeming "Oh, did I ruin your life and permanently split you up from your family? Sorry about that, but I won't do anything to help fix it or help you deal with it." When the victim just accepts an apology as adequate recompense for such malicious cruelty, it grates on me. It cheapens the suffering of all his other victims who are usually peripherally referenced in the story, and never get even the apology. Remorse is only the first step on the road to redemption. Restitution is too often ignored, especially in stories on certain other sites featuring TG stories.
personal choice = clear tags
Actually I think we're all picky in some ways, which is why we have the tags. As much as they protect us from stories that may be outside our comfort zone they also help guide our decisions on what to read in more positive ways, whether that be sci-fi, superheroes or lesbian.
As for your individual preferences in story, that's fine. It's your choice. Mine aren't the same as yours and IMHO you are missing out on some great stories but you'll find plenty here that will fit with your reading choices.
Good luck with your reading anyway.
(Probably best not to read anything I've written so far though as it tends to be of a boy-girl romantic variety.)
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
Don't ramble on, don't ramble on, don't... darnit!
Fortunately for those who enjoy certain things, the Big Closet is a vast buffet, rich with a multitude of flavours and themes. I sincerely believe that there is something for most of us among these many, many pages. That is an awesome thing, that I hope we'll never take for granted :D (Thanks Erin!)
Me, I really like stories where transformation or change is just a PART of the story, and not THE story. While I've read plenty of very good coming-of-age, finding-yourself stories, the ones I remember most fondly are those where the protagonist's experience is a part of their life, but not their entire raison d'etre. Because, after all, once the change is complete in those stories, the tale is over. I'm the kind of reader who wants to continue one more chapter, or five :)
Speaking of chapters: I enjoy series more than one-shots, just like I enjoy telly series more than films. For me, it's all about character development and relationships evolving. In a single, short story there's just not enough time!
But what about the other side of it all? I can only speak for myself, of course, but I find stories about domination and (emotional or actual) enslavement deeply unappealing. By extent, I don't really like forced feminization stories either (although, irony, my own story contains involuntary elements). If the protagonist doesn't have choices and the freedom to pursue them, my heartplaces get sad :(
However, on the subject of sexuality, I don't really have any preferences. For me, it's all about what seems right. Some stories allow for the main character to discover their sexuality, others simply translate their old ways it into their new lives - whether that is by embracing the norm of their new circumstances, or retaining their previous inclinations. I'm happy as long as they are true to themselves (and the story).
Let's digress! One commenter (snicker-snack!) mentioned radical personality changes. Now, I have sympathy for authors who push their protagonists into embracing their new circumstances. For the sake of this, let's assume a man ending up as a woman. If a story moves from semi-masculine person (with maybe hidden sides, sure), to "I can't leave home without make-up" within a chapter or so, I flip the table and go "Nope! I'm done!" I honestly don't believe that people work like that (barring some fancy drugs or brainwashing, but that falls under "control and loss of choice" in my book, too).
Interesting discussion, Angaratoling! :)
It's a curious thing...
I generally hate/despise stories about the subjugation of someone's will and/or personality.
Yet when the idea for the story I'm working on came to me, the piece that flashed into my mind (first) was my main character in the process of rejecting that domination. Hurling invective at (one of) my key antagonists, as my main character engineered and executed his/her break away.
And as I pondered what fit around that scene, I realized that if I wanted to tell a story about someone breaking free from that kind of domination, and tell about what their life was like afterwards, then I actually had to tell about the domination too. The process of character development, of climbing back out of that morass to be a whole person, required that I show what that pit looked like.
It's something of a struggle for me. I don't like that kind of stuff. But if I want my story to actually have emotional weight, then I need to represent it.
From a more technical perspective, I need to figure out what that looks like in a story, and my mind just doesn't go there. I've got something set up in those portions of the story, but I'm not convinced it works ... however, I'll worry about that if/when I finish the first draft.
I also hate when someone who was perfectly happy as a guy ends up female and gets completely sucked/forced into the most feminine presentation possible almost immediately in the story. It seems completely unrealistic to me, and I have also stopped reading stories where that occurred too quickly for my personal sensibilities.
That having been said, I think the reason it's common in a lot of stories here, is because for most of the people who frequent this site, things like clothing and makeup are approachable aspects of femininity. They are things that one can easily achieve regardless of what is between one's legs. So ... that's why many stories feature frequent departures into feminine styling. I still don't like it, or agree, but I think I understand why it's such a consistent theme in many TG works of fiction.
Almost any caution
Almost any caution with the exception of tissue alert will cause me skip a story. The exception to that would be an author who's work has proven itself to worthy of a read, or the sequel to a story that has really grabbed me.
Number one on the list of turn off tags, Explicit. Blow by blow (no pun intended) recounting of sexual a situation is just a turn off. If I wanted to read porn, there are plenty of site out there that would let me do that, even TG porn.
Number two would probably be anything that smacks of BDSM. Pain for the sake of pain has no interest from me.
Forced fem when there's no indication of there being an inclination of it in the protagonist's past is just cruelty. Even if the protagonist has dabbled before if the force require physical restraint and/or punishment for failure to comply with some else's idea of what they should do doesn't work well for me.
Another thing that will turn me off is the protagonist dealing with deep psychological problems. I know this makes me a bit shallow, but I have enough of my own to deal with without borrowing from someone else.
As for the sexuality issue, I class myself as a male lesbian. I'm heterosexual according to my plumbing. At risk of offering to much information, I rather enjoy the response my plumbing to sexual stimulation. I'm not transsexual therefore stories that end up there must be really well written for me to enjoy them.
Stories I like deal with a person (male) who discovers something about themselves that doesn't fit the mold of masculine and, for various reasons, explores and struggles/learns to deal with it.
An all-time favorite theme is one where our hero/ine has some outside reason to explore femininity (such as to help someone else solve a problem) after the time is up and they should return to being as they were they find that they have come to enjoy the feminine expression and now to be happy they need to incorporate some amount of feminine expression in their daily lives, such as they now prefer women's underwear, or stockings or whatever. In a perfect ending the man would marry a woman who finds this just another aspect of their personality and accepts what ever level of feminine the man has. Of course, to make the story worthwhile, there must be a certain level of angst as they come to terms with who and what they are.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
The reason I became a writer
Is because I'm picky. I had a hard time finding stories I liked so i decided to write my own. I reallly don't like magic or sci fi very much, but that's not to say a story isn't well written, its just not my thing. I've written one magic story and the only reason it contains magic is it has to be part of the plot. The rest of my stories are what I consider real life. I try not to make the change of sex the focus of the story, but an important part of real life. There's nothing wrong with being picky and why BC is such a wonderful site. There's something for everybody, Arecee