So we all know Summaries can be used as a key to getting cheap hits. Independent/Harry, Grey/Harry etc; are all used to enable to reader to identify the story easily.

Generally I avoid the majority of stories with these tags, but out of those the one that immediately turns me off even clicking the link to a chapter is 'Bashing'.

Any pet hates that you guys have in particular?

 

I thought this thread was going to be about words in the stories themselves.
In which case my answer would've been the typical words associated with bad fanfiction, like "coot", "Moldyshorts", "manipulat[ing/ive/ed]" or shit like that.

In summaries, though? Generally, spelling mistakes in the summary makes me avoid the story, no matter how good it's supposed to be. An overdose of 'if's is almost as bad.

 

When I use Scryer I often put '-manipulat*' in the search terms. In my experience the words 'manipulate', 'manipulations', or 'manipulative' pretty much guarantee something boring and formulaic.

'Voldy', 'Moldyshorts' and 'Dumbles' in a summary will make me go elsewhere. It's either a serious story and the author has no idea what tonal dissonance is or it's a stupid story.

If the summary starts with 'What if' then I won't bother. The author has already demonstrated an impressive lack of imagination. Why would I read the story?

If the summary mentions 'Draco' or 'Severus' then I have no interest in whatever the author is peddling. I like Harry centred stories. No Harry centred story should ever refer to Malfoy and Snape by their first name in the summary. Fact.

 

I thought this was what the pet peeves thread was for.

 

Word "Inner", be it an animal (animagus), wolf (werewolf), magical core, or whatever. If I see that word anywhere, I usually stop reading.

 

Mostly the word 'inheritance'. Either money or genetics.

 

I thought this was a forum, and not a complex sorting algorithm.
This thread is more specific then the pet peeves thread.

There aren't many words that turn me off stories though. I would say bashing, but sometimes a summary includes the word bashing because it says "no bashing".

 

"Slash", "Draco", "Severus", "-bashing", "a certain []", "fem!"

That's the stuff that comes to mind first. There's probably more that I'm overlooking.

 

Voldy, Manipulative!Dumbledore, Light side, Light Magic.

Shit like this : Response to Paladeus's challenge "Champions of Lilith". Harry, Hermione, and Luna get a chance to travel back in time and prevent the hell that England became under Voldemort's rule, and maybe line their pockets while they're at it. Lunar Harmony; plenty of innuendo, dark humor; manipulative!Dumbles; jerk!Snape; bad!Molly, Ron, Ginny

 

I try to avoid reading stories written before DH was published.

I'm sure that many of them are actually very good, but they're not canon compliant and it turns me off.


As for actual words in summaries, I of course avoid the usual horrors of fanon like bashing and manipulations.

 

Any summary that says anything about "pranks." Or "A certain..." anything.

 

If I see 'Mpreg' in the summary, it's a guarantee I'll never read this.

 

Lewd. Seriously. Never ever seen it used in a fic that isn't retarded hentai-inspired smut.

 

But Zeelthor! You write retarded hentai-inspired smut.

 

"training/trains/train".

Harry Potter isn't Rocky.

 

Ice Queen.

 

"Slytherin side."

 

I don't have hard and fast rules, although any variation of "a certain bushy-haired Gryffindor" better come with a glowing recommendation from someone whose opinion matters to me before I'll even read past that phrase.

For me it's a critical mass thing. Like, the word "goblins" popping up isn't bad in and of itself, but if there are other phrases, like "Lordship," "emancipation," "will reading," "Potter-Black," "betrayal," etc., then it's not happening.

 

Well not with that attitude he isn't.

 

Lies and slander of the worst kind!