Current information on chapter progress can be found at the bottom of this profile.

I have no idea how to start this off, so can we pretend I wrote something amazing and get down to the meat of the matter?

I assume you're on this profile because you liked one of my stories well enough that you're interested in seeing other things I've written, gaining insight into my stories and my thoughts through whatever I've written here, seeing what I read and what authors I like in. To that end, I've tried to only favorite the stories and authors that I can wholeheartedly recommend, rather than just anything I'm keeping an eye on. I'm still sorting through them to figure out which ones meet that criteria.

I don't write slash, and I don't read it. Just a personal preference.

Its been brought to my attention that a list of things I don't like isn't a great way to show my interests, but that's essentially how I judge most fanfics. Any interesting premise gets my attention until the parts that annoy me get too prominent. There are things that I really like though.

Things that I like:

Time travel or dimension travel with a competent protagonist who also knows how to keep it a secret. More than just the protagonist usually bores me for some reason. Any anachronism counts against it.(i.e. A and B have a relationship in the future, therefore their past selves are perfect for each other as well. People change over time. Relationships are the culmination of experiences, not just compatibility.)

Independent Protagonist. It's distressingly common that the main character has to be deficient in some, or many ways in order so that another character can occupy a 'vital' niche in the story, such as being the smart one, or to augment an overblown romance. Or both.

I'll add things in as I think of them, so if anyone actually cares about me rambling about things I don't like, check back every once in a while.

Things that I don't like:

Bad summaries. The summary is usually all an author's got to draw in readers. If you can't spend the effort to get the right spelling and capitalization in the summary, I'm not inclined to believe your actual story is actually going to be worth reading. I'm not completely happy with the vagueness of my own summary for Konoha's Maelstrom, but I'm thinking about it.

Basic grammar and spelling mistakes. Doesn't have to be perfect, but if an author is always mixing up the possessive with the plural, their's/there's and wary/weary it gets really frustrating to read. To be honest I'm still not clear on where to use who vs whom, but I'll get it eventually.

Bashing and shallow or one dimensional characters. Sometimes it works, but usually only for crack or silly humor type stories. If you don't like a character, spend the effort to write them as a real person in such a way that I don't like them in your story. And not because they're poorly written or a joke. For instance, I like Severus Snape as a character. His character has depth, and he can be used in many ways to enhance the story. This does not mean I think he's a good person. Canon Snape is a mean, obsessive bully whose character flaws far outweigh his meager 'noble' characteristics. You do a disservice to one of the most important and interesting characters in Harry Potter when you write Snape superficially. I like to see Snape well-written. I've seen Good!Snape and Mentor!Snape stories that I like, but I find in general most are pretty hand wavy about exactly how he's good, and write off a lot of his behavior in Canon with unsatisfactory explanations. To be totally honest, a bit of bashing isn't always a deal breaker for me, but there's a line somewhere.

I utterly despise incompetence as a plot device. Characters can be incompetent, make mistakes, be careless... but when they are forced to be so at a particular time solely for the sake of moving the plot, it's glaringly ugly.

I don't hate the idea of manipulative Dumbledore/Sarutobi/whoever. In fact, I see a lot of potential in that kind of premise. The problem is I rarely come across an implementation of the idea that isn't stupid, childish, and shallow. Please, please, please, make it interesting.

Naruto-specific dislikes:

Stupid nicknames - Ruto-chan/kun, Kaka-sensei, Kashi-sensei, Sasu-chan/kun, Saku-chan, Nata-chan etc. In the right context some of these work, but some people abuse them ridiculously. Sometimes Naru is ok especially if he's like four or five, and anyone who calls Sasuke Sasu-chan had better be trying to get a rise out him. These nicknames, in addition to mostly sounding stupid, are diminutive, mocking, and usually condescending. Referring to a boy as -chan usually means that you think of them as a child, and denotes a lack of respect. In the case of say Fukusaku referring to Jiraiya as Jiraiya-chan, that works for lots of reasons, but that's a rare exception. The toad elders do see Jiraiya as a child. Kaka-sensei? Really? And my current least favorite, anything like Kashi-kun or Kashi-sensei. It keeps putting the 'Kashi Go Lean' commercials in my head. Some Japanese names can be shortened, but you can't just indiscriminately hack away half a name and hope for the best. Shikamaru to Shika-kun works, but not Maru-kun. I know I'm making a bigger deal out of this than it probably deserves, but when it annoys me, it really annoys me.

(Edit: I've been told that Naruto refers to Kakashi as Kaka-sensei on occasion in the anime. I've never seen it in the manga, but I don't read the original japanese so I can't definitively say that it's not there. I'm just going to assume that it's just one of the many ways the anime has defiled the series.)

Excessive Japanese - Some is good. Sensei, Mendokuse, Jutsu names. Entire sentences or even just throwing in words that aren't really significant is just annoying. "Chikusho" or "Arigato" I can understand when I see them, but does that add anything to the story that you can't get from "shit" or "thank you"?

Any story that has the dreaded mob chasing down a five year old Naruto. It's just stupid for so many reasons, and there's nothing in canon to suggest anything like that would even be possible. Unless you make Sarutobi a complete moron or despicably evil. I honestly don't care how good the story might eventually get. I see the mob, I stop reading. And the whole Naruto meets Kyuubi at six because he's beaten half to death who helps him get super strong plot doesn't really interest me. And neither does the last minute save by an out of towner who just can't believe all the people are beating up on a helpless child, so tears Sarutobi a new one and takes Naruto out of the village to train, which Sarutobi for some reason allows if he'll come back for the Genin exam?!?!?

As of 6/3/2014, I now have a forum. It doesn't have much of anything in it yet but... soon. Soon!

/forum/The-Cheat-Sheet/154308/

Future story ideas:

These are ideas that I think are interesting and may take up in the future. If you like any of them and want to use them as a 'challenge' go ahead. I'd be interested to read them if you do, so pm me a link if you decide to give it a shot. Or if you have interesting ideas about them that you think might kickstart my muse that'd be fun too.

The Dark Lord's Equal [Tentative title]

Riddle's diary senses something familiar in Harry Potter, and adjusts its plans accordingly.

The Art of Deduction [Tentative title]

A Harry Potter X BBC's Sherlock crossover. Because Mycroft Holmes is the British Government.

Practice Makes Perfect

A Harry Potter story. Plot to be revealed with the release of the first chapter.

Hindsight

Another Harry Potter story. Coming (hopefully) soon.

Current stories:

Practice Makes Perfect Chapter 1 Progress - 5% (10/15/18)

Konoha's Maelstrom Chapter 8 Progress - 3% (8/17/15)

Mito

Throwing Out the Script Chapter 4 progress - 3% (8/17/15)

(What was previously considered the beginning of chapter 4 has now been posted as an interlude)

If I specify how many words I've written for the chapter, that's not a direct connection to the percent progress. The percent value is how much plotwise of the chapter I think I'm going to cover that's actually been dealt with. I've had chapters where 20% of the plot accounts for more than half the word count. *cough*Konoha'sMaelstromChapter3*cough*