I've spent the past 36 hours reading a 790K story without pause (The Blue Core on RoyalRoad, for reference), and it brought to mind a question I've previously had; what qualities differ between the stories that I pass on and those that I obsessively consume?
This is not the first time I've pondered this question, most recently having a discussion with my dad where I tried to explain that, among other topics (most unsuccessfully being my attempt to explain what makes a story "wholesome"). Yet, I think one idea satisfactorily ties together each of the previous factors I've identified; immersion. How well can a story hold me - not merely my attention, but hold me in that half-conscious state of reading where you aren't really processing each individual word as an individual, but rather a cohesive and captivating narrative?
As easy as it is to leave this as one, simple explanation, there are many factors that all, to varying degrees, impact a story's immersion for me. It can be as simple as the formatting of a story - on Reddit, for example, many posters forget that to create a line break requires entering enter twice, which would otherwise leave their stories as an undigestable singular block - though this isn't a dealbreaker if the story is otherwise appealing. Alternatively, it can be as confounding as the label anxiety-inducing - stories which, for one reason or another, act as a trigger for my anxiety to the point that I cannot continue them. Anxiety, however, typically doesn't immediately rule out a story -- rather, it usually is the impetus for a dropped story (defined as one that I stop reading partway through for one reason or another).
Most commonly, however, the Immersion Factor relates to more fundamental aspects of the story in question: everything from genre tropes to world settings to character traits can and have resulted in a story being either immediately dropped or ruled out entirely before even reading. Considering that I most often consume the fantasy genre, the most pervasive trope that I strongly dislike is what I will refer to as the 'Hidden Villian Conspiracy'; this is where (seemingly) every peripheral subplot, small-scale disaster, and minor hurdle are all the influence of some (typically) unknown antagonist, with some (typically) hidden agenda. This trope is in no way restricted to fantasy serials; I've seen it plenty in (especially long-running) television series, like Criminal Minds, in a couple of their later seasons. I will very often shy away from stories that lean into this trope in their description, where authors use phrases like "embroiled in a power game he barely understands" (Magik Online). [AN: It was surprisingly difficult to find a story whose description highlighted that, although, in hindsight, that was because I searched through my personal 'Read Later' list, which would be naturally devoid of that particular trope, considering my distaste for it]. That phrase, in particular, highlights part of the reason I dislike this trope - it tends to create stories where the main character can neither trust nor believe any of the characters surrounding them, oftentimes displayed with later betrayal.
For my musings on characters and settings, my understanding of my own preferences is less refined. Simply put, I think it comes down to escapism. I read for the same reason people watch The Bachelorette; to entertain themselves by escaping their reality, at least for a little while. Thus, I tend to dislike characters I cannot relate to and worlds I cannot escape to. Character-wise, a lack of empathy or a complete lack of intelligence tend to be the easiest ways to create characters I struggle to relate to (though overwhelming sweetness has done it before), but neither is indiscriminately true (for example, the main male lead of The Stars Have Eyes is a self-admitted buffoon, and yet that's one of my favorite stories). Relatedly, settings that are too close to reality are ones that I tend to avoid - post-apocalyptic worlds are one, particularly if that world is a future earth (there is, in fact, an entire sub-genre dedicated to this, with some incredibly well-written stories). All of that said, I am aware that this is neither a conclusive list nor one of absolute deal-breakers -- I've enjoyed serials with these aspects and disliked those without.
Last but most certainly not least, the style, quality, and flow of the writing will all impact how immersible I find the story. However, it's not as simple as more well-written equates to more better; as an individual, I find that I need a little bit of telling instead of showing in order to easily grasp everything without having to parse it (ie I don't want to read stories which require skills from Honors English ). There is strong correlation, though; better written stories tend to avoid anything that jolts me out of my immersion (whether that be grammatical errors that require thought to decode into sensible sentences, or poor writing that makes it difficult to parse the actual events of the story), while poor writing tends to include an abundance of them. Stylistically, I simply leave it at everyone has their own style they enjoy, and I have nowhere near the literary chops to dissect my own preferences to any presentable degree.
In the end, all of these are merely general trends I have identified; not only do I strongly wish to remind that I am capable of being wrong about myself, I also wish to point out that trends are capable of being bucked - one of my recent favorites, a serial by the name of DMG=MA, is about a somewhat sentient rock with a complete lack of empathy who (SPOILERS) goes on to literally kill everything on the planet, up-to and including said planet. I guess the best I can conclude is as follows; I understand my preferences for stories about as well as I understand myself -- surprisingly well and yet simultaneously not at all.