As a writer, I am going to give my reading search routine to other writers

DireBadger

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Okay, let me ask people what I am going to state for myself.

It's 3 o'clock on your day off's afternoon (hypothetically). You are a little bored, don't feel like watching ANOTHER crappy series on Netflix or Amazon, and sex is not on the menu for the moment, and you want to take a break from writing. So you decide to pick up a new book right here on Scribble Hub.

What, assuming you have had a decent day and don't feel like sticking an ice pick in your coworker's brain pans, do you usually automatically put in your series finder genre listing?

I will usually put in action/adventure, and depending on my mood, I will add comedy, mecha, litrpg, or mystery... sometimes, as positive tags, you can get interesting results. For negative tags, I take out the four gay porn tags, including the ones in Japanese, and usually exclude gender bender because... well... people here like to use those tags to justify some stuff that gives me nightmares if I subject my imagination to it. Not complaining, just explaining my reasoning.

I am usually fine with including the rated tags after that, because they are usually just hints that the books can go, rather than guaranteed.

If I want to be pickier, I start negative tagging stuff I don't want to see, and that takes a bit, but usually, my preferred genre listing keeps certain tags minimal.

Anyone want to explain their tagging?
 

Juia_Darkcrest

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Setting at top for 'And' instead of default 'Or'

- Girls love, boys love
+Harem, smut

Content set for and as well

Sexual content.

Other times I will use different settings, but I enjoy reading smut as it helps improve my own writing as well...also lets me gauge when there is too much smut for my own works, finding a happy medium.
 

blackcrowcrowd

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Usually I just go to the trending page and scour for something interesting, I only use the tags on the series finder is when I want to read something specific, or to search stories that's already completed since they won't show up on latest updates anymore.
 

DireBadger

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Usually I just go to the trending page and scour for something interesting, I only use the tags on the series finder is when I want to read something specific, or to search stories that's already completed since they won't show up on latest updates anymore.
does that cause problems with finding hidden gems? or do they not really matter to you?
 

blackcrowcrowd

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does that cause problems with finding hidden gems? or do they not really matter to you?
I guess it does cause some problems. But like, I have a lot of things I do besides reading (I love to draw a lot, play games a lot, and I'm still on uni so I need to study a lot too) so I don't really want to try and find the one hidden gem among the thousands of stories, I'll just go and read the ones on trending since they're probably at least not bad.
 

BigBadBoi

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does that cause problems with finding hidden gems? or do they not really matter to you?
The problem with looking for hidden gems is that most of the time they get buried even if you find one. I've read many stories that had great potential getting dropped either due to writer's block or the writer losing motivation due to low viewers.
 

Placeholder

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> just explaining my reasoning.

Every tag A blocks is just a mismatch between reader A's and writer B's interests. I might block NTR, yaoi/BL, and fanfic, but other folks love and write that stuff.
 

Author_Riceball

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Saine

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I usually look through my read later list from stuff I've seen on trending passively but saved for later. I eat through stories so fast I often don't read stuff that has less than like 100k words unless it's completed. If I'm not feeling anything there, or if I'm feeling something in particular, I just search by one relevant tag and look through the long list of stories that search method produces. Sometimes I sort by wordcount, sometimes I sort by viewcount, depending on how badly I want a long thing to binge, vs. something popular.

Diamonds in the rough are hard for me. So many of them get dropped. It feels disappointing to find something you really like only for it to end abruptly or be abandoned. For better or worse, popular stories are lasting stories.
 

Macha

{$user.user_title}
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I block litrpg because if I want to read litrpg I will just go to RR. And fanfiction for the same reason but it's FFN/Ao3 instead of RR.
 

Sylver

Writer/Lover of Monster Girl Smut Content <3
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Setting at top for 'And' instead of default 'Or'

- Girls love, boys love
+Harem, smut

Content set for and as well

Sexual content.

Other times I will use different settings, but I enjoy reading smut as it helps improve my own writing as well...also lets me gauge when there is too much smut for my own works, finding a happy medium.
... would you mind giving my novel a read? Maybe it can help you pick up a few things for your writing? :blob_hide:

Sorry, I had to ask :blob_joy:

Okay, let me ask people what I am going to state for myself.

It's 3 o'clock on your day off's afternoon (hypothetically). You are a little bored, don't feel like watching ANOTHER crappy series on Netflix or Amazon, and sex is not on the menu for the moment, and you want to take a break from writing. So you decide to pick up a new book right here on Scribble Hub.

What, assuming you have had a decent day and don't feel like sticking an ice pick in your coworker's brain pans, do you usually automatically put in your series finder genre listing?

I will usually put in action/adventure, and depending on my mood, I will add comedy, mecha, litrpg, or mystery... sometimes, as positive tags, you can get interesting results. For negative tags, I take out the four gay porn tags, including the ones in Japanese, and usually exclude gender bender because... well... people here like to use those tags to justify some stuff that gives me nightmares if I subject my imagination to it. Not complaining, just explaining my reasoning.

I am usually fine with including the rated tags after that, because they are usually just hints that the books can go, rather than guaranteed.

If I want to be pickier, I start negative tagging stuff I don't want to see, and that takes a bit, but usually, my preferred genre listing keeps certain tags minimal.

Anyone want to explain their tagging?
I love fantasy, romance, mystery and when I'm feeling needy, smut :blob_uwu:

I don't know about negative tags :blob_hmm: um, yaoi maybe? Nothing against it, just not my liking.
 

CharlesEBrown

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Jul 23, 2024
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I generally go manual. I either wade through the "trending" stuff until I find an interesting title, and then look at it for tags I have no interest in (generally "Sports," - though if it also lists "comedy" I might go for it - "Smut" or any words I don't know the meaning of, mostly a lot of the "carry-overs" from NU).
 
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