What interests you most in a story?

[Dragon]

I wanna know for reasons.

Do you like stories because their characters are interesting? Maybe you're interested in their relationships/romance? Maybe the setting is an open sandbox, or it's so well developed you want to see more of it. Maybe it's the plot and how everything comes together in the end? Maybe it's something else entirely leave a comment.

Personally, I like really developed/extensive settings and worldbuilding because there's a lot fans can do with them. Though that's not to say the other things don't have merit! I like a bunch of other things that don't have as developed settings and focus on characters/whatnot. What about you guys?

 

[shy ♡]

I'll consume anything that's well-written, and obviously the better it's written the more I'll like it. Of course, there are specific things I like more than others, that I'm biased towards, and I'll always look for those things... I love dystopias, or even just au's, generally scifi-fantasy, for the same reason you mentioned - you can really delve into the world and get absorbed in it. I especially love things that deal with mythology and reinterpret it in interesting ways.

 

[I liek Squirtles]

I like something that you can go back to, read it again, and still love it. I like everything, but I prefer, as pathos said, a big world with a huge history, lots of background.

 

[Noctowl]

The characters. :)

 

[Tailsy]

Death.

But usually it depends on what I'm watching/reading/playing? I don't have any particular preference... the whole story has to be appealing on some level, even if I end up mostly focusing my attention on characterisation or worldbuilding or the plotline.

 

[Vipera Magnifica]

Seeing as I mostly love dystopian novels like 1984 or A Clockwork Orange, the thing that impresses me the most is worldbuilding. The author has to create their own universe, rich with layers upon layers of backstory. If that's done right, a story is doubleplusgood to me.

 

[hopeandjoy]

Characters! I'm one of those people who go all mushy over characters. I typically create characters before I write and the plot and changes to the plot revolve around characters and changes to the characters.

 

[kyeugh]

I like those really mysterious characters who the main character is constantly trying to find out more about

Like Saint Dane in Pendragon

 

[Zero Moment]

I like great plot and characters intertwined with awesome fighting scenes.

 

[Momo(th)]

The characters. :)

Yeah, this is basically me.

 

[Hippy]

I like something that you can go back to, read it again, and still love it. [...]

This exactly!! And also, I like a story that really makes you stop and think. Like things that make you question the world around you. Like The Giver by Louis Lowry (It is a very easy read, but the story is so very amazing). And also, I love it when an author describes something in such detail, using so many different types of figurative language and stuff. Like Delores Clairborne by Stephen King.

Oh I just love that book with all of my heart. I just finished it, and it is so spectacular! That book really stopped and made me wonder. And King described everything in such an excellent way, I could just imagine everything he was writing about so perfectly. Some parts were described so perfectly, I had to stop reading for a moment to let the image sink into my mind. XP I'm rambling here, so I'll just end this here, but I just love that book :) I recommend it to anybody who likes horror. It isn't that extremely bad though, not as bad as Stephen King's other works, though.

 

[Negrek]

Pretty much what Tailsy said--what I like most about a story varies from story to story. If it's something I really love it's probably going to have at least above-average scores in all categories, but there are some stories where I just adore the characters, and some where I can't get over the plot, and even some where I simply drool all over the author's gorgeous prose.

 

[Phantom]

For reading books, it has to be the plot/characters both. Having great characters is good and all, but it is boring without a good plot to go with them. Things get static otherwise, and I just end up using the book to keep my coffee table from wobbling.

For fanfiction, characters and that special something. First off with characters, I severely dislike people writing characters wrong. The plot can be amazing, but if you can't personify the characters from the fandom right, just go home I say. Fanfiction also needs a hook of sorts for me. I'm not into THAT area of fanfiction. I go to see a story I know from a different light, that's what I get addicted to. Something that can make me see something I've already seen a dozen times and make it feel like the first.

 

[Keldeo]

plot. I don't know why but just plot.

 

[yiran]

Emotions. Whatever makes me emotional tends to make me love the story. This means that it's usually characters. However, if something about the world makes me emotional, say, the history of Adam and Lilith for Neon Genesis Evangelion, the "intelligent animal" concept of Pokémon, or the sci-fi technology and varied environs for Metroid. I am interested in plot, too, like with Harry Potter, but only when I'm reading it – upon reflection I wouldn't like a story as much solely for its plot, but if it has something that really makes me emotional I'm bound to remember it forever. However, there are a few cases where I utterly love the plot, if only for its effects on the character, such as Ender's Game's plot's effect on Ender, Foregone Conclusion's plot effect on Tefiren, or NGE's plot's effect on pretty much every character.

So basically, characters.

I typically create characters before I write and the plot and changes to the plot revolve around characters and changes to the characters.

That happens to me too! But then my characters never end up performing any "radical" acts, as in, things that I myself would never do, because I empathise too much with them. So eh, maybe I need to stop doing that for some characters.