Having been on this site for over a decade, I'd like to think I have a pretty good grasp on the in's and out's of this site and fanfiction in general. I know how incredible it feels to write something that people enjoy, and I know how awful it feels to have people spit on a story you poured your heart into. In fact, I made this account because I had a review that was absolutely soul crushing, but completely accurate in its critique, and I wanted to distance myself from it. I haven't written since then, but maybe I'll pick it up again.

I absolutely adore the Mass Effect universe and it will always be my favorite, but lately I've found that I really enjoy Naruto stories as well. I also dabble in House M.D and other Bioware games.

The way I browse stories is by setting the filter to 100k words and working my way through every story on the list that grabs my interest. I don't really know how common that is or not. I'm sure that I miss out on a lot of good stories by doing this, but that's something I can live with. I don't think it's worth getting invested into a story that I'll finish in a few hours or less. I want a long story with a lot of depth that I can get lost in for a while.

I made my way through the Mass Effect section years ago, and I'm due to make another pass through there again soon. Lately though, I've been working my way through the Naruto section. There's about 4.7k stories there over 100k words, and I've just recently hit the halfway mark. Eventually, I'll compile a list of the best ones and why I think so. My favorite stories list on here doesn't provide a good reflection of what I think are the best, because there's a lot out there that I didn't favorite at the time, as well as some from my old account that I haven't transferred over.

I don't think I qualify as a beta reader on this account, but if you need an editor and/or someone to bounce ideas off of, hit me up with your story and if I find it interesting, I'll gladly help out.

I'm somewhat harsh in my criteria to read a story, but I can't force myself to read something that holds no interest for me. Here's a rough guideline I use:

Instant Skip:

No self inserts.

No highschool/extreme AU/etc.

No first person, unless the plot is really something incredible. I've only found two stories that have managed to do this so far.

No "sorry haha i'm not good at coming up with descriptions but i promise the story is real good man pls click". If you can't come up with a decent description, it's unlikely you can come up with a good story. Unlucky.

Non-english. Sorry, I'm a dumb American. I've put some time into learning Swedish, Spanish, and a bit of Korean, but I'm nowhere even remotely close to fluent, and probably won't ever be.

I used to put time travel on this list, but I've since learned that when done correctly, time travel stories can be incredible.

Things that generally make me stop reading:

Fox ears, fox tail, any of that stuff. I'll usually try to overlook it if the story is interesting though. Naruko Stygian Taint is a very good example of this.

Stories with a ton of OC's. A few are fine, but I typically quit reading if they start to overshadow canon characters.

Consistently bad formatting/grammar. Mistakes are fine, typos are fine. But nothing irks me more than someone who is consistently using quotation marks incorrectly, or anything similar. Doesn't matter how good the content of the story is if it hurts to look at.

Very bad grammar or spelling. I make it a point to try and overlook a lot of bad spelling and grammar, because there's a lot of people who write stories with English not being their first language. I've found some incredible stories by sticking to this policy, even if I've wanted to close it in the first few chapters. That only goes so far though. If I want to claw my eyes out within the first few paragraphs, I'm probably going to close it.

Pairings I like:

Anything Femslash/Yuri. Inject it into my veins.

FemShep/Miranda

FemShep/Samantha

FemShep/Garrus

Anything with FemNaruto.

Naruto/Kushina

Naruto/Mei

Naruto/Tayuya

Naruto/Haku

Naruto/FemKyuubi

Naruto/Hinata

Pairings I don't like:

Very few, honestly. Maybe Kakashi/Iruka. I typically don't like most Yaoi pairings, but I've read some Naruto/Sasuke fics that have made me reconsider this.

Best Naruto fics, by category, in no particular order:

* for unfinished stories

Blind protagonist:

Naruko Stygian Taint* by blazord (/s/7724919/1/Naruko-Stygian-Taint)

Blind by ObsidianSickle (/s/3371184/1/Blind)

Time Travel:

After the Rain* by Quill Q (/s/11931226/1/After-the-Rain)

Second Wind by Quill Q (/s/11716290/1/Second-Wind)

Chasing Yesterday* by The-Jingo (/s/7897193/1/Chasing-Yesterday)

ANBU:

Sign here for ANBU* by Zabzab (/s/13233146/1/Sign-here-for-ANBU)

Shadows of Konoha by Amora Journeys (/s/7474227/1/Shadows-of-Konoha)

Ghost by Onmysignalunleashwords (/s/8116183/1/Ghost)

Kusari no Naruto by Digitize27 (/s/10500180/1/Kusari-no-Naruto)

Small Changes by Digitize27 (/s/9166436/1/Small-Changes)

Everything else:

All Started With a Smell* by o0Black-Sand0o (/s/10977670/1/All-Started-With-A-Smell)

Plucking Strings by Digitize27 (/s/10499318/1/Plucking-Strings)

Sage by Digitize27 (/s/9486691/1/Sage)

Yellow and Red Makes by Digitize27 (/s/8779174/1/Yellow-and-Red-makes)

House of Glass by UrBoiPedro12 (/s/13442550/1/House-of-Glass)

The Emperor by The Omnipresent Sage (/s/13032001/1/The-Emperor)

A Mother's Knight by The Omnipresent Sage (/s/11449480/1/A-Mother-s-Knight)

The Prodigy Namikaze* by SoulReaperCrewe (/s/9078436/1/The-Prodigy-Namikaze

Houses of the Holy* by HowdyU (/s/4451412/1/Houses-of-the-Holy

Ragdoll Requiem by Kamui-Senketsu (/s/11205364/1/Ragdoll-Requiem)

Reaching for a Dream by Noodlehammer (/s/9920512/1/Reaching-for-a-Dream)

Best Mass Effect fics, in no particular order: I need to go to my old account and pull the favorites off there at some point. Here's a few:

Sense and Flexibility by Roarkshop (/s/7440992/1/Sense-and-Flexibility)

The story that got me into Fanfiction. This is an incredible work of art, and I've been praying for a sequel for years. Unfortunately doesn't look like it will ever happen, but I'll always be grateful to Roarkshop for what she made here.

Patchwork Girl by Mighty-Crouton (/s/7778308/1/Patchwork-Girl)

One of the very few stories under 100k words that I've read, just around 90k. If you like a dark, cold Shepard, you absolutely need to read this. There's no real pairing, which in most cases would turn me off from a story. The fact that it didn't is a testament to how good this is. The storytelling, the interactions between the characters, the visualized artwork, it's nothing short of amazing. I only wish it was longer.