Things that turn you off in fan-fiction

[Crescent Pulsar R]

(After much deliberation, I supposed that this was the right forum for this. If not, I tried.)

Basically, this is about things that, if read in a summary (or other relevant information), would inspire you to not read the story. Or, if you're reading the story, to drop it without finishing. Since I've gotten back to reading this stuff, I wondered what others' standards were.

One of the biggest ones, for me, is if it's obvious enough that the story is written solely for the purpose of pairing certain characters together. In and of itself I have no real problem with it, but these kinds of stories often lend themselves to AU, OOC and a plot that can't suspend disbelief. The only reason why I'd even bother to look is if I know something about the author, or something from what someone else has mentioned, that sounds promising enough.

I have the same reason for why I might check out an AU story, but due to a different cause. I mean, if I want to read fan-fiction, then why should I be interested in reading a story about characters that aren't like the characters from the series at all? It's okay if I find out that there aren't too many changes to the characters in the story, but the closer that a story comes to actually being an original story... I'm not going to be interested.

OOC is another one, though the line I draw is somewhat arbitrary. I can stand it, to a point, but, whenever it reaches that point, depending on my mood and expectations, that's it. But I can tolerate it if the character is acting differently because of the circumstances and developments in the story, which means that, in actuality, they're technically still IC. Really blatant OOC, where the characters act distinctly different without a reasonable explanation for it, are what really pushes things for me. For instance, just recently, I dropped a story after finishing a chapter where Mizuno Ami thought that Ranma was hunky, and was more or less acting like Minako in that regard. (I may decide to pick the story back up at some other time, but still.) Perhaps the only exception to this (sadly, due to its frequency making me more tolerative of it), are stories with Pluto/Setsuna, because almost no one seems to get her character even remotely right. (Well, as far as the manga is concerned. I don't remember much about her behavior and personality in the anime.) I really feel sorry for her.

There's grammar, of course. I have trouble getting into a story if I have to pause in order to substitute what should be there in order to be read correctly, or to figure out what in the world is being said and meant. I think I'm fairly tolerative in this area, but, then again, I often choose my stories wisely and thus don't encounter this problem all that much.

I don't need to mention plot, since we are all searching for one that's good enough to read, in that regard. ;p And that's more or less it, for me. My issues are more on the technical side of things, which, all things considered, makes me pretty picky. So many authors just aren't my type. ;/

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Grammar and plot are the two biggest technicalities that can turn me off. A plot I just find too hard to swallow for the setting, or something that I might enjoy but which has the look of being written by someone who flunked grade 5 english, will put me off a fanfic pretty much permanently.

I don't specifically read stories for pairings, but if the pairing is a big part of the story, then I tend to go for specific matchups and turn away from ones that don't interest me. In Ranma 1/2, for example, I just can't bother to read a story specifically dedicated to hooking up Ranma and Akane, even though I can read and even enjoy fanfics where the assumption of them getting together resides in the background, even if it may be stronger hinted there then in the actual canon. Of course, part of this is because I don't really think of Ranma and Akane being a compatible, healthy couple, and the other part is because of how cliche it is - "Ranma and Akane finally confess their feelings and get together happily ever after" is a story core that's been done to death in the fandom.

Though I see nothing wrong with homosexuality itself, slash fanfiction is not my cup of tea and I pass those by when I see them. When the characters involved are canonically established as straight, or even anti-homosexual (Ranma and Ryoga, for example), then I truly cannot stand to read it. By extension, I just can't bring myself to read male pregnancy fanfiction, even if it's one of the rare examples that doesn't use slash as an "excuse".

Specifically to Ranma 1/2, I loathe "lockfics" and "Ranma becomes a girl" fics - no, that's not repeating myself. Lockfics are where Ranma is physically trapped in his female form, but retains his mind. "Feminize" fics have Ranma mentally become a girl, or decide he prefers to live life as a girl. Not only is this just too out of character for me, it's often portrayed in a way that, to me, has overtones of horror - Ranma's mind and body being taken over by an outside entity and Ranma unable to save himself, as everyone he knows and cares about either ignores it or is helpless to do anything to help him. That these fics and "Pregnant Ranma" fics, which just another form of mpreg to me, often come off as a kind of vengeance/bash fic, with the author portraying what's happening to Ranma as a Good Thing or deserved or otherwise something that Ranma should be happy about, despite this actually being the subject of Ranma's canonical nightmares, makes them even more offputting.

Bashing itself is also offputting to me; I may not particularly like Akane much as a romantic choice for Ranma, and think she's rather annoying as a character, but I still cound't stand to read a fanfic devoted to Ranma smacking her around while giving her a You Suck speech, which everyone else in the series either sides with him or is made out to be an ignorant moron for standing beside her. I'm not exactly a big fan of apologetics, either; I wont read a story making out Akane as the Ranmaverse equivalent of the Antichrist, but I won't read one that refuses to accept she has wronged Ranma just as badly as he's wronged her.

Cliches can also make me give up on a story. For example, not only would I not read a Ranma/Akane fanfic, but I wouldn't read Kasumi/Tofu or Ukyo/Ryoga - they've been done to death, so such fanfics bore me, even if I didn't have the extra baggage of not really seeing the couple in question "work".

Finally, I just can't deal with Sues, and am even wary of touching works with original Characters for fear of them either dominating the story or becoming mary sues (same thing really, I guess). Taking an established character and making them ridiculously powerful is also offputting to me... yes, somewhat hypocritical, I know, given I'm writing a Ranma/Infernum cross, but my story's focus is on the centuries of hard work and struggle it's going to take Ranma from climbing from "useful pet" status to "one of The Nine" status, not on Ranma becoming The Head of House Lictat and then using that newfound power to smack down anyone who's ever crossed him.

[PCHeintz72]

I actually have a large document detailing stances, turnoffs, arguments, etc... in BBCode format, as it was originally posted over at TFF.

Here is the section on turnoffs.

GENERAL - TURNOFFS

Surprisingly... I don't have many.

Bad grammar/formatting. If I have trouble reading it, I'm not going to care if it is the best story ever, I'm likely to stop. Paragraphs should change at each change or speaker or point of view. scene breaks etc... The entire story should not be bold, underlined, or centered, nor have outrageous hard to read color schemes or fonts. I do allow some give if the author does not have English as a first language. Also, I do not care on the quality of their comment posts, as I do not check spelling/grammar on most of mine, but story postings should always be checked.

Finally on formatting, I if at all possible, prefer to read my stories in TXT format. Thus, things like bold, underline, and italics to do word highlighting don't work well, authors that go the extra step to use methods that work even in text view are preferred. Sites I don't mind reading in HTML include Anime Addventure, Ranmafics, and Lost Library of Florestica.

Stories that 'Jump Shark', where the plot and dialog are pointing a certain way, and then in the space of a chapter or so, things do a 180.

Stories where the author goes to the trouble to break a couple up, perhaps even as far as to get the readers to hate that character, yet still have them together in the end. An example might be a story where Ranma and Akane get close, then break up do to a long drawn out fight, and it is still an Ranma/Akane match ups in the end.

Unless done really well, or not part of main plot line, Guy/Guy. I'm not against it per se, though I do not seek it out, just it is done crappy in what I've read.

GENERAL - CHAPTER SIZE

Officially... a chapter is supposed to convey a entire piece of a story, that can be a scene, or a concept, or a plotline. As such, length should not be taken into account. Having stated that...

LENGTH PREFERENCES

There are benefits to both long and short chapter lengths.

- Short lengths allow potentially for faster updates, but can leave some readers fustrated.

- Longer lengths can be good for some readers, especially fast readers, and can take the time to draw a reader in, and make them want more. However... potentially, we are looking at longer periods between updates.

SIZE PREFERENCES

Some go by word count when refering to chapter length. For fan fiction I actually prefer physical file size in KB, especially for TXT. While some would argue one should not, with HTML or international text, most of my documents are 8 bit still and I'm fine with it. I like longer chapters, but shorter is acceptable to a degree... Not that average English word size is 5 characters, plus a space, so 6 characters overall. Thus 1kb, which is 1024 characters, is some 171 words on average.

HTML and other formats are always inflated numbers due to fact the formatting inflates the file size. Thus 100kb TXT has more content to read than 100kb of HTML.

Unless it is on something like the Anime Addventure, I prefer chapters be at least 8kb. For me, longer is better.

SIZE STATISTICS

For all non-lemon stories I've downloaded over the years... I get:

TXT Smallest - 1kb - estimated 171 words
TXT Largest - 2,409kb - estimated 411,136 words
TXT Average - 28kb - estimated 4,775 words average

HTML (non AA) Smallest - 1kb
HTML (non AA) Largest - 824kb
HTML (non AA) Average - 47kb

HTML (AA) Smallest - 1kb
HTML (AA) Largest - 68kb
HTML (AA) Average - 7kb

I probably should have tossed out the top 10 or so TXT and HTML, since those skew the results slightly. But did not feel up to going to that much trouble.

Note the numbers for chapters sizes were accurate as of the original posting, I've not updated it.

EDIT: I've been tempted to add another item, as I am seeing it more and more, but have not done so yet. I think I will keep it to myself for a bit longer and stew on it.

[Spokavriel]

I'm not making a long list or anything like that. But for me the biggest turn off is Ranma being instantly cured of anything. Be it the Neko-Ken without a strong side effect or even worse the Jusenkyo curse. I can barely tolerate it in any instance where it occurs.

The next thing is Dragonball Takeover. Whenever the history of a story gets taken over by Dragonball without the continuity adjusted to let it work it just gets jarring.

[PCHeintz72]

I wonder if turnoffs to fan fiction discussions should be included in posts in this thread, or just fan fiction stories. I've got more that would apply to that.

[Crescent Pulsar R]

I don't mind. It is still related, in the end.

Speaking of homosexuality in fan-fiction: if a story's focus is on two guys, I'm not going to read it. It's not that I never gave it a look, since there was a time where my sister would spend hours upon hours reading stories with male couples and male pregnancy, but the plot, OOC and grammar alone would have turned me off. I don't mind if this sort of relationship occurs in a story, but I just prefer other things. Which might go without saying that the relationship between two females is most welcome.

[PCHeintz72]

These are the canon arguments I've seen repeated time and again over the years... very few ever change their stances on them. I normally agrree to disagree.

CANON ARGUEMENTS - ANIME NOT BEING CANON, MANGA IS ONLY TRUE CANON

My view is anime is just as canon as manga, just that they should generally be considered different continuities of each other.

Canon to me is anything within the series source material. For a anime, OAV, or movie, within series airtime. For manga, within the story pages, and not before or after them. Covers would count in manga and on the DVD/VHS/VCD's in anime.

Anything stated by an author after series, or during interviews is not part of series, and this not admissible in my eyes as canon. If a series is ever extended, then that becomes part of canon.

Every page of a manga, every second of an anime, it is all canon, I do not consider something not canon merely due to it not adding to plot. About the only exceptions would be end of episode shorts some series and manga have... such as the super deformed conversations at the end of each Lodoss Wars Chronicles of the Heroic Knights... that breaks plot, breaks 4th wall, and breaks characterization by having them directly address an audience.

CANON ARGUEMENTS - MANGA COVERS, US RELEASE VERSIONS, AND RANMA'S HAIR COLOR

Some argue the manga has female Ranma's hair as black. I in fact have been told the first chapter in the Japanese edition is in color and shows it as black. My own U.S. release 1st chapter is not in color.

I will not dispute any fan fiction author using black. But the anime and most of the covers show it as red.

I should note also, there are two US releases. The first US release went only to volume 21. The second US release went and did the whole series, but they:

- renumbered the chapters and volumes to be 36, not 38 volumes as the rest of the world.
- changed the covers and the size of the manga itself for the 2nd release.

My copy is first release for 1-3, 7-21, and second release for 4-6, and 22-36.

Some had black, most were red or redish. For my copy:

- edition 1. Vol 1,2,3,7,9,18 - red
- edition 1. Vol 12,17 - pink
- edition 1. Vol 13,16 - purple
- edition 1. Vol 20 - black

- edition 2. Vol 4,6,22,25,27,28 - red
- edition 2. Vol 5 - black
- edition 2. Vol 23,34 - purple
- edition 2. Vol 32 - blue
- edition 2. Vol 33 - brownish/black
- edition 2. Vol 35 - pink

That yields 12 red, 4 purple, 3 pink, 2 black, 1 brownish black, 1 blue

Thus, since so many are red on manga covers (all other colors combined do not match number of red), and anime was consistently red. I see little issue with fan fiction authors using red.

CANON ARGUEMENTS - LAW ENFORCEMENT

Sniggers, what law enforcement. Only time I recall it in Ranma canon is Ryoga helping a little old lady to a police roadside assistance guy, and a couple instances with Zoo personnel attempting to contain Genma in panda form.

Heck... when Happosai appears, the town council puts Soun in charge of getting him, not the police. Likewise, when the store owner needed that magical possessed brassier kept away from Happosai, they got Soun and Genma to do it, likewise a cursed mirror, and the case of the octopus pot at the seaside resort.

I have been informed there were a couple scenes in the background showing them, but not actually doing anything. Also a scene were Ranma dresses as a female police officer against the Oorochi. I do not count them.

CANON ARGUEMENTS - TIMELINE

Snorts... what timeline. In both anime and manga, we see multiple seasons go by, we see holidays, celebrations, etc... yet no one ages, no one advances. Kuno is proclaiming himself as a junior and 17 in the start of the series, and the end of the series.

[three headed dog]

Lots of things bother me. One thing that bothers me a lot lately though in Ranma fanfiction is the excessive use of ya for you, ta for to, or the truncating words. No one uses ya for you every single time. Beyond that Ranma does not talk like that all the time in the VIZ version, they decided to have Ranma occasionally do so mostly when he would have used rude language in the original Japanese (basically when he was upset or angry). I particularly dislike it when Ranma is the only character to talk like that since it was not limited to Ranma in the manga and is used in other manga translated by VIZ for example in the Tenchi Muyo manga Ryoko did so and even Sasami had done so when angry.

Fics in general:
Related to the above: Rendering the character's speech phonetically using nonstandard spellings. Once in a while to show that the person has an accent or is talking slurred for some reason is fine but it gets really annoying really fast.

I don't bother to read fan fics shorter than 1000 words.

Difficult to read; as in very poor grammar and spelling.

I don't read Yaoi (the vast majority are terrible even if I were so inclined).

I don't like character bashing for the sake of character bashing (plot relevant is okay).

I do not understand why people tell you who the pairing is going to be with in the summary, or what not, when the entire plot is based on resolving a love triangle.

I will stop reading a fic if too many things don't make sense to me. For example if I wonder too often why did the character do that or the technology used does not make any sense even in universe (your telling me that the ship that is home to more than a thousand beings has no means of getting off of it except one small transporter room?).

[PCHeintz72]

These are a bit different from the canon arguements I posted. Some of these I've seen so often over the years, I just am tired of seeing them.

COMMON ARGUEMENTS - AKANE IS *SO* MUCH NICER IN MANGA THAN ANIME TO RANMA

Sigh... having seen both, and seen this one must wonder what some are smoking.

An example would be the scene early on where he is listening in on Akane and Nabiki talking about him:

- In the dubbing, she does state: "Think about it, I am engaged to my worst nightmare".

- In the subtitles, it is: "I can't stand the thought of being associated with that pervert. I mean, honestly."

- In the manga, it is: "But everyone's spreading rumors about me. They're saying I'm his fiancee! Do you think I want everyone thinking *I'M* a pervert TOO!"

Really, none of the variations above are too kind toward him. Though the manga is *slightly* nicer in my own opinion. If anything, after reading the manga, I cannot understand how she generally considered so much better in manga than anime. Though I can see her as much better than fan fiction makes her out to be.

And I've been accused that is merely due to it being an early scene, and she gets better further in. For that, I normally refer those individuals to:

Ranma vs Akane Argument League Tables

• [Direct] http://web.archive.org/web/200604150304 ... ument.html

Some have told me in the last arc, she does not do as much violence toward him. See the notes under my views of Akane for why I think this does not matter.

COMMON ARGUEMENTS - BY SERIES END, RANMA AND AKANE ARE MEANT TO BE TOGETHER

The wedding incident resolved absolutely nothing. Soun even puts off anything more until the fiancee mess is resolved. They are shown insulting each other, and going off to school together like a normal day in the manga.

COMMON ARGUEMENTS - PROPER NAME FOR FEMALE RANMA STORIES

This particular arguement came up in a preview thread by Toasted Pine on The Fanfiction Forum.

I've read fan fiction long enough it barely registers. I see the terms and just automatically make the association to know what is meant.

- Yoiko/Yoiko-chan
- Lanko/Ranko/Ranko-chan (almost no-one uses the first, which is how Nodoka pronouces it in anime)
- Ranma-chan/onna/sama
- Pig Tailed Girl
- Osage no Onna
- Tree Borne Kettle Girl (I notice this used least in fan fiction, despite fact he called her that first in anime and manga)
- couple other varients.

Heck, even the term fuku-fic, despite it being a generic term that *could* refer to among other things female Ranma in a skirt, I generally assume it *is* that until I read otherwise in the story.

So I've no preference or complaint on if an author uses any of them for female Ranma.

One additional note... Only if a story has both characters present, I'd rather:

- the original canon or male cursed/locked persona be called Ranma or Ranma-chan.
- the separate or new female split/twin/sister persona be called Ranko or Ranko-chan.

COMMON ARGUEMENTS - RANMA DOES NOT HIT GIRLS

Another fannon cliche. He hits Shampoo, he fights Kodachi, he fought Ukyo, though that was before discovering she was a girl.

I think it more accurate he does not hit someone that cannot take it. Which is why he does not hit Akane. Besides, canon would make it a world of trouble if he did. Akane would complain (not that she has the moral high ground or right to), Soun would complain, Nabiki and Kasumi would complain, his own father would complain. He might be forced out.

COMMON ARGUEMENTS - RANMA DOES NOT USE/LOOKS DOWN UPON WEAPONS

I never could exactly figure where this fannon one came from.

Ranma never struck me that way, and did not seem to have any reservations on using weapons against Kodachi in the Rhythmic Gymnastics, among others.

It would be a serious hole in at least not being able to defend against them. It is after all 'Anything Goes'. To defend against them, I would think one would need to somewhat be able to understand them.

COMMON ARGUEMENTS - RANMA IS A CHAOS MAGNET, AND THE ONLY SUCH ONE IN CANON

Fannon and overdone. It has always bugged me. Everyone assumes Ranma is the only chaos generator/causing agent. Which I can somewhat follow, as is it a somewhat obvious conclusion. However, is that really the case or is it more they blame him out of convenience. I think it more a unwanted joint effort from both of them rather than just Ranma. Consider, who is it that had to fight those boys in the morning at the start of the series. Who is it that seems to get into trouble and need rescuing from despite numerous other martial artists it could happen to? Who is it that had a poetry sprouting swordsman obsessed with her? Who got them into the skating match? Who got them in the gymnastics match? None of the above is even remotely normal, though toned down for a normal Ranma episode with both Ranma and Akane. Several of the above happened without Ranma even there. Ranma did not run into any of his problems while on the move, even when settled down in places for a while, it was only while with Akane.

COMMON ARGUEMENTS - THE SO CALLED 'JOINING OF THE SCHOOLS'

It has been pointed out to me that many manga fans, and some anime fans, insist there is no such thing as a 'Joining of the schools' in the Tendo/Saotome agreement. Some others have stated that was only in the Ranma scan translation. Looking at my VIZ retail copy, however, depending upon interpretation of Souns statements, certainly can lead one to believe it is a 'joining of the schools'.

[ quote ]SOUN: "If one of you three girls were to marry him... and carry on this training center... then the Tendo family Legacy would be secure.[ /quote ]

So... the goal is to carry on the school, and Ranma is needed to secure their family legacy, which apparently cannot be done on their own without him... Thus both are needed and bring something to the table, the marriage joins those somethings... both are different branches of the same school. Thus, a joining of the schools. And despite the fact Soun opened it to the three of the daughters, he was quite clear it was to carry on the training center.

COMMON ARGUEMENTS - VIEWS ON CAT'S TONGUE PRESSURE POINT

Actually, my pet peeve is that the cats tongue should not have worked... at all... To my eyes it is a case of bad logic on the part of Rumiko Takahishi.

Think about it... you take hot water, your curse deactivates with hot water, and put the hot water on you when female. What is supposed to happen.

Now... I can understand you being burned, or imagining it, if the skin is more sensitive.

But there is no reason whatsoever the curse should not still have deactivated. After all, the curse was supposedly not affected (Remember Tofu's Tokyo grandfather point fixed Ranma temporarily). Heck... if anything, with the body being more sensitive it should have made it easier for the curse to deactivate and turn him to his natural male form and harder to turn female.

[three headed dog]

Some argue the manga has female Ranma's hair as black. I in fact have been told the first chapter in the Japanese edition is in color and shows it as black. My own U.S. release 1st chapter is not in color.

More than the first chapter initially published in Shonen Sunday were in color; 33 out of 407 chapters included color art. They were then converted to gray scale in the tankobans. VIZ also released one volume (in comic book not graphic novel format) in color. In all the parts of the manga that were colored both VIZ and Shonen Sunday Ranma had black hair in female form. The Tankobans covers also had different color hair for Ranma-onna than the VIZ releases did going by my collection of the Tankobans and your list of VIZ's. Though red is used more than any other single color besides black used throughout the supplemental material by Takahashi like the artbook and covers (other supplementary material like the games and anime not written or drawn by Takahashi used red).

Tatewaki did not proclaim himself to be 17 in the manga at the beginning of the series. The only time Tatewaki gave his age in the manga was during the mushrooms of aging arc.

Ranma did not dress as a police officer during the Orachi arc: Shinnosuke did (female traffic officer to be more specific).

[PCHeintz72]

Thanks... I've made minor notations in my master copy. But those have little impact overall.

[Tornado Ninja Fan]

COMMON ARGUEMENTS - VIEWS ON CAT'S TONGUE PRESSURE POINT

Actually, my pet peeve is that the cats tongue should not have worked... at all... To my eyes it is a case of bad logic on the part of Rumiko Takahishi.

Think about it... you take hot water, your curse deactivates with hot water, and put the hot water on you when female. What is supposed to happen.

Now... I can understand you being burned, or imagining it, if the skin is more sensitive.

But there is no reason whatsoever the curse should not still have deactivated. After all, the curse was supposedly not affected (Remember Tofu's Tokyo grandfather point fixed Ranma temporarily). Heck... if anything, with the body being more sensitive it should have made it easier for the curse to deactivate and turn him to his natural male form and harder to turn female.

As I understood it, the hot water deactivated the curse, but Ranma immediately doused himself with cold water to stop the burning sensation. They just didn't show a panel with his male body, only the resulting female body.

I think that to change back, he could have used hot water and ice in a plastic bag to stop the pain, but that's pure speculation on my part.

[JustinD]

Turn offs

-Fics when Ranma is cured right at the start or when the curse has a minor role. It is to major a plot point to ignore or remove.

-Mental challenged Ranma. Okay he's not smart, but not truly dumb either, just ignorant and insensitive on occasion.

-Ignorant of sex Ranma. Seriously, give him some credit no ones that naive and if he was before because of Genma he probably ain't now after going to Furinken school.

-Weapon hating Ranma. This is simple not true, sure he preffers not to use them if he does not have to, but it is clearly shown that Ranma will uses weapons when he faces Saffron and I don't remember him procrastinating over it.

-Super sexist, won't hit girls Ranma. Okay he's a bit sexist but that due to the way he was raised. And about the only martial artist Ranma won't hit male or female is Akane, but not girls in general. Point encase is Ranma's first defeat of Shampoo, when Ranma kicks her several feet into the air off the log.

-Fics that are OOC with out proper character development. Okay I accept that a character may act differently after 'x' amount of life changing events. However I don't like it when an author simple states that Ranma secretly prefers being female and is really smart, with out telling us why. This is not to say I don't like Ranma-chan fics, because I do as long as the charector development is done.

-Over play on the Neko-Ken fear. I don't mind if it has a minor role, but it is annoying if Ranma spends half the story avoiding cats. Plus I prefer it when he masters it.

-Spliting Ranma's curse. This is because I don't like one Ranma getting what he wants while the female Ranma is left in the gutter effectivly locked in cursed form. Or shudder worse than that, Ranma X Ranko pairings.

However there are some exception but I'm not sure what they are.

[three headed dog]

And about the only martial artist Ranma won't hit male or female is Akane

Actually Ranma has hit Akane in the manga. Though not in anger and not hard. During the time Nabiki is his fiancee he hits Akane on the back the way guys sometimes do to their friends. After sparing with her in one arc he can be seen pinning her to the floor by sitting on top of her. He hit her with popcorn during the Dojo Destroyer arc to show her that her guard was down.

[Konsaki]

Note: Not listed in priority...

Length: I'm a speed reader and when I search for new stories to read, I generally will pass over any work which is less than 3000 words per chapter. There are noticeable exceptions, such as if the story has enough chapters out in which to finally peak my interest, which usually involves having 25k words or more total. As a speed reader, I find it very annoying to see a story with short chapters as the author has to do away with any details to get anything done in such a short section.

Summaries: If the summary is poorly worded with a bunch of nonsense or they update the summary to spoil the current chapter, I am disinclined to read the story. This is most noticeable on FF.net where you will see 'Review and CC PLZ' or 'New girl in town, will Akane keep Ranma? RA/AK'... The last one really annoys me sometimes due to giving away the entire plot right in the summary. There's no suspense.

Style of Writing: As a speed reader, I find myself disinclined to read stories which involve little to no detail. The works that I will immediately close and disavow, though, are stories... works written in script format.
Ranma - "I don't know what you're talking about!"
Akane - "Ranma no baka!" Hit's Ranma with Hammer
... Yeah. That kind of shit.

Grammar and Spelling: Unfortunately here, I can't really quantify the level in which I get turned off. Really, it's at the point you notice that the person never used a program with a spell-check feature or just failed to use it. I personally have errors in my own works, even with the advantage of using spell-check and grammar-check features, so I can't expect someone else's work to be perfect without my own being such. It would be hypocritical of me.

Plot Items:
Super powered crossovers; where you have to create a brand new villain/antagonist due to the 'cannon' ones being two weak. This is more likely to show up in crossovers where Ranma, for example, pops into the crossover universe and is already Superman™ somehow and can wipe the floor with the current crossover villain. This isn't to say that having an original villain by itself isn't a bad thing, as I use this avenue myself, but to have the current villain AND HERO's seem so inept that you need to make a new villain just for Ranma due to how uber he is... shows a lack of imagination in my opinion.
Over stereotyping; Ranma is a sexist who never hits girls, Akane is always 'baka-bashing', Shampoo/Xian Pu is an airhead, Genma being the most evil parent ever, etc. I can take some over stereotyping with a grain of salt, but many times it's just too much and makes the character a caricature of their true self.
Super speedy plot development/resolution; i.e. anything that just ups and changes the status quo without any reasoning for it happening, akin to you walking down an empty hall and someone appears behind you instantly to shoot you in the back of the head. Leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth and the examples are numerous in many works.
Mary-Sues: Look it up on TVTropes.org... Hell, there are a lot of tropes which are prevalent in fan fics which are put-offs to me, but Original Character 'Mary-Sues' are a major issue, followed by Self Insertion 'Mary-Sues'.