Very Definitely Maybe

Ummm... I read the first question wrong. I thought it said "which things are relevant". o_o;

I don't read het, gen, slash, or femmeslash, so I had no idea how to answer that one!

I'm not even sure what "gen" is exactly. I thought it was G rated fic... but now I'm thinking that's wrong since it's on this list. It's not a term used in either of my fandoms.

What I read and write is canon queer pairings. I don't write or read "slash" at all -- by which I mean, pairings created in the fiction, where you "slash" two characters together who were never togther in the source material. It doesn't matter to me if the "slashed" pairings are gay or straight, male or female -- I don't read them.

I only read Queer as Folk, and I'll read any of the canon pairings, which are all same sex pairings.

I only write canon QAF and Xena/Gabrielle from the Xena: Warrior Princess fandom.

Okay I fixed my answers... and that being said, I think your first question was poorly worded. None of those things are totally irrelevant to me, but some of them are less important than others; for example, I wouldn't refuse to read a fic because it contains X pairing. So I checked those things.

"It's important, but if the fic is good enough, poor grammar/spelling can be over looked."

Well, kind of. If the fic is good enough, I'll keep reading even though there's the odd grammatical error or spelling mistake. But enough mistakes, and the fic isn't good enough - I might want to keep reading it, but unless I can forcibly correct all the mistakes, I won't.

It depends on the fandom. If it's HP, I'm more into slash and fanon, but if it's Twilight, I'm het and canon.

I'll read WIP if the series is updated relatively frequently - every two weeks to a month. I'm not too picky about grammar, as long as the author uses paragraph breaks, comma splices, spell check.

I've come to loathe AU in HP. What is the point in placing HP characters in a nonmagical world?? Why not pick a different fandom, because magic IS PRETTY MUCH WHAT HP IS ALL ABOUT. OOC bothers me as well. I suppose some people would say this is the point of fanfic, to explore what the books didn't, but to me Draco Malfoy is not a hero. I will never see how Draco/Hermione would ever work.

First, on wordcount in the other, I didn't answer because you listed it by K, not *wordcount*. Wordcount is the number of WORDS, not the size of the file. It's a very specific thing in publishing. 250 words = (roughly) 1 manuscript page. We then work from workcount to pagination to publishing pagination, to the all-important *paper-cost*. I have no idea how to judge by file size. I can't convert that in my head. In any case, however, wordcount isn't that important, but I do prefer longer stories with a plot -- meaning novelette, novella or novel-length. (E.g., anything over about 17,500 words.)

Second, on genre ... you've mixed and matched publishing genres/subgenres with popular fanfic ones to a point it stopped making sense to me. "Angst" isn't a genre, it's a problem in publishing. ;> AU isn't a GENRE, it's a type of story that can cover several genres. Some AU I'd read ... some I wouldn't. Family is the same. I don't know what that *means*. It's a nonsense genre for me, I'm afraid. I'd suggest narrowing "genre" to recognizable ones from publishing, and then perhaps have a category for "type" -- AU, PWP, het, slash, gen, missing scene ... other things that are somewhat unique to or fanfic-specific terms. :-)

I'm probably a horrible person for saying this, but it kills me when I stumble over a story on fanfiction.net that has an incredibly good, even original idea for a plot... but the story is so poorly executed, I find myself wishing "Oh, why couldn't this idea have occurred to [fill in the name of your favorite author] instead of THIS person?"

The only thing that's irrelevant to me when choosing a fic is the writer, though I do look at it and am more likely to read something by someone who's worked I've enjoyed previously, and less likely to read something by someone who's work I didn't much care for.

As for grammar and spelling, I'm not looking for absolute perfection and will overlook the odd typo, but I very easily get annoyed with mistakes, especially if they're very basic English and it's glaringly obvious to a non-native speaker like me.

I read mostly slash, gen, and femmeslash if I can find some nice stuff (atm there's only one pairing I care for), and tend to avoid het. Still, there's one, maybe two pairings I'm slowly getting into.

Though I don't mind a bit of fanon added, I like things to stay canon. I don't read a lot of AU unless it's seriously cracky (I'm in the SGA fandom. There's loads of it. XD) and I'm not usually that interested in fixes and will need a good few other reasons to start reading one.

I rarely read genfic, and I rarely judge a fic on its author. I'm always looking for new stories to enjoy, but reputation matters little to me. Don't get me wrong, I have favorite authors that I shamelessly rec to others, but I don't get myself attached to a single author (I'm in the Kingdom Hearts fandom, so this is practically impossible).

As for Canon versus Fanon, as long as I can somewhat recognize the bits of canon in there, I say stick some fanon in there, too. To me, Canon is a guidebook as opposed to the Bible. ...and I think I've said too much.

I loved the "what's irrelevant" question, because I'm tired of the Grammar Police and of people who won't read something based on author. However, I think the rest is important, especially word count because I don't like 85 chapter-long fics. I think 40 is probably the most I could handle! In fact, I like one-shots!

I didn't answer this one:

How do you feel about grammar/spelling?

I don't need perfection, but I do need "pretty damn good." I can overlook a few scattered errors if the fic is good, but not if it's truly poor throughout, regardless of story quality.

That was interesting. Thanks for asking.

(Coming in late)

I consider word count only in that I don't always have a lot of time available; I like both short fics and long ones, but I'm more often willing to read short ones because I'm not investing several hours into something I'm unsure of the quality of. I can read drabbles on a break at work; I can't enjoy a novel that way.

I don't care much for chapters, though. I want to read them all on one page, regardless of length. I've skipped past chaptered fics that were well-rec'd because they were on websites that make it difficult to open all the chapters at once, because I have dialup internet, and I want to load the story and then get offline to read it.

Author has the same problem as length: limited time. Known authors get preference over unknowns, because I certainly can't read every fic that crosses my f'list. To read an author I don't recognize, I need either a good story summary or a rec (which doesn't have to be a BNF--I'll read fics rec'd by total strangers, if the rec is well-written and intriguing.)

I have genres I like, but none I won't read. But some I'll read without a rec, if the summary sounds good. "Romance" is the only one I can think of that I avoid without a rec (or an author I know I like), because "Mystery" and "Action" (both iffy for me) are rarely identified in summaries.