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I've been on hiatus from these boards for a year and a half or so. I got burned out on the L&C stories, I think. I was following a few in-progress stories here that either fizzled out and weren't being updated or seemed to be never-ending. I think a lot of the stories ran together in my head, too. I ended up spending my fan fiction time reading Harry Potter stories.

One of the good (and bad) things about Harry Potter is there are so many authors that there is a never-ending stream of new stories. One of the downsides of reading over on fanfiction.net is that there is a huge variation in the quality of the stories that I just don't see here. Over there, there are some really great stories, but they're hard to find. Too many of the posted stories are awful. I've read some that have really good plots but have so many grammar and diction problems that they're nearly unreadable, but I'm hooked enough on the storyline that I want to see how it ends, so I slog through. Other stories have weird grammar problems or odd word choice that make me think that they're written by non-native speakers. While I have no problem in general with people writing in a non-native language, it's really difficult to read a story where I have to struggle to figure out what they're trying to say. There is also rampant mis-use of commas, complete disregard for proper sentence structure, apparent hatred of spell-check, and near-constant mixup of words, to the point that I always have to stop and figure out whether they really meant what they typed (especially with "weary" / "wary" and "definitely" / "defiantly" ).

Altogether, I have read so much Harry Potter lately that I've burned out and need to branch out to other genres again, and I've read so much drivel (with the occasional diamond in the rough) that I wanted to come back here where people don't abuse the English language so horribly. One of the things I like about the boards here is that people are willing to correct other people's grammar and ask for clarifications on confusing passages, and the writers, in turn, seem willing to take constructive criticism seriously.

(Sorry about the rant. I try to hold in my negativity, but sometimes it just needs an outlet. :-/ )

So, basically, I'm back here after spending lots of time over at fanfiction.net.

I don't comment on every story that I read. The reasons vary. Sometimes it's because I'm reading on my phone, and it's hard to type very much on a phone keyboard. Sometimes I'll go back to a story later on the computer and comment, though. Sometimes I like a story, but I can't think of anything to say other than, "Nice story!" I guess even that is worthwhile, but I feel compelled to say something about what I liked about a story, and if I can't think of something specific, or if any way I word things just sounds stupid to me, I tend to erase my comment and not post it.

Other times I just don't like a story, but I can't think of a nice way to say so. Lately, I've been reading completed stories that I've missed while I was gone, and I'm not sure whether there's much point in giving constructive criticism on a story that's been finished for months and is probably already archived. I think I'm more likely to give criticism or grammar/punctuation-type comments on an in-progress story because I know that the writer is currently working on it. Also, I'm not sure how much an author wants to hear, "I just don't like your writing style in this story," which has been the case for two or three that I've read this week.

Angst vs. Fluff
Sometimes I'm in the mood for a really angsty story. I do better if they're fairly short-to-medium length, though. I've found that my mood goes wonky and it's easier to be depressed if I'm in the middle of a long story where nothing goes right for the characters. I don't tend to like stories where the characters get no reprieve. In some stories, as soon as the characters have dealt with one problem, or even while they're still dealing with it, more problems rain down on them and they can't keep their head above water. It just gets to be too much and stresses me out. I also get frustrated, as others have mentioned in this thread, when the entire plot would be solved if Lois and Clark would just sit down and talk for 5 minutes but they go for chapter after chapter getting deeper into trouble/relationship problems.

I generally like fluffy stories, but sometimes I'm not in the mood for them, and then they just seem cheesy. I think they just feel cheesy when I'm feeling particularly cynical.