I'm with Anne. I don't know how I feel about your description of Creativity. I read fic because I want to see happy endings for characters who will never and can never have it on the show (especially if they've been uselessly killed off for no reason *coughAdamcough*). So I don't mind seeing the same happy, shippy fic over and over again in different variations. And I don't think those are "bad." If they're well-written and don't reuse the same lines/deus ex machinas/basic ship concepts (I doubt you read much Mylar, but there are these lines of dialogue that I feel like I see all the time, even when another line would work just as well, which starts to get old), I usually think they're pretty good.
Worse than grammar mistakes, what immediately turns me off a fic is when people seem to have an aversion for using character names, or are unable to find a way around it. I cannot stand the replacement descriptors. "The taller man" (when they're sitting across the table from each other) "the darker man" (when it's dark and you can't really see anyway) "the doctor" (in situations when Mo's professor is totally irrelevant to the action going on) "the killer" (when Sylar isn't doing anything bad). Just use the names, or say "him", or say "the other man" or find some way to avoid these sometimes offensive and usually irrelevant descriptors.
It's another to have light text on a white background, or to italicize every other word THIS! THIS! I wish LJ didn't even offer such layouts. And half the time they're really really narrow and your eyes are constantly moving from side to side. Which is why I just view everything in my own journal style. I can't read fic on 95% of layouts.
no subject
Worse than grammar mistakes, what immediately turns me off a fic is when people seem to have an aversion for using character names, or are unable to find a way around it. I cannot stand the replacement descriptors. "The taller man" (when they're sitting across the table from each other) "the darker man" (when it's dark and you can't really see anyway) "the doctor" (in situations when Mo's professor is totally irrelevant to the action going on) "the killer" (when Sylar isn't doing anything bad). Just use the names, or say "him", or say "the other man" or find some way to avoid these sometimes offensive and usually irrelevant descriptors.
It's another to have light text on a white background, or to italicize every other word
THIS! THIS! I wish LJ didn't even offer such layouts. And half the time they're really really narrow and your eyes are constantly moving from side to side. Which is why I just view everything in my own journal style. I can't read fic on 95% of layouts.