sign of getting old

[kaigou]

Used to be, stories came down the pike, and I'd read at least the first chapter, no attention paid to warnings, ratings, or pairings. Less time, less energy, less inclination, and an author who doesn't list pairings will get the delete key from me faster than anything. (The old n+? at least tells me there's a reason the author doesn't want to state the pairing.) Yes, no pairing listed will launch delete action even faster than finding seven misspellings in the first two paragraphs, or use of the dreaded fanon cliches -- banged boy or little one or the ever popular braided baka and if I see so much as a perfect anywhere and the next word starts with an s, shwooooop, and that would be the sound of my mail program sending yet another email down the chutes.

No rating, no warning, no pairing, no nothing, no read.

*stomps off*

Comments

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

I'm with you 100%. If I don't know what I'm getting into before I start reading, I won't read. Or, I'll skim through the story to see if there's a pairing or subject I won't like. I'm not going to waste my time reading something that will likely piss me off.

Reading is supposed to be about entertainment. If there are things I don't like to read, that will upset me, I want to be able to avoid them. If I'm not warned and I read something I don't like, that author may never get a second chance from me. If I'm warned and still read, it's my own fault and I can't complain.

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

Which is the same thing as when we purchase (or check out from the library) published fiction, only then we can go read someone's review in the NY Book Review or online, and say, "hmm, this sounds like A Very Sad Story. Skip!" Or we can look to an author's previous works and figure that the new pieces are going to be roughly similar, or at least have the same sensibilities.

Which, tangentially, is why I'm always surprised when authors act startled at the notion that they shouldn't write outside their genre without a great deal of warning to the fans. They seem surprised by the notion that fans would feel betrayed; I suppose after enough time in fandom, I can get this. I sure as hell got a bit of "how could you" wailing the first time I wrote a story in which 03 and 04 were not together, or at least, not apart and wanting to be together. It turned me into an unpredictable writer and no longer a "safe bet" for readers who wanted some idea ahead of time before plunking their asses down before the computer and committing any amount of energy to my stories. Why would it be any different if one has always written historical fantasy and suddenly tries to jump over into writing westerns?