What should be avoided when creating a fictional story?

[Anonymous]

For me it's a hobby, but I find it interesting to know what other people think, so what do you think is uninteresting in a story?

[purplepoppy]

Settings the story in a time or place you're not well acquainted with. I'll guarantee a lot of your readers will be and they'll spot your mistakes.

Asking people to suspend reality too many times. You can get away with it to a certain extent in fantasy or scifi but keep it plausible.

Diversity. People tend to associate with people like them. Having a group of vastly different people all happily getting on doesn't work.

Good grammar in dialect. People don't talk like they're in an English exam.

[Asker]

So it would be better not to create diversity. My protagonist is black. So is it better not to create white characters?

[purplepoppy]

You can have diversity in a story but it shouldn't be for diversity sake. Ask yourself why a character has to be black, Chinese, white etc and what it adds to the story

[Simslover92]

Mary Sues and Gary Stus. Characters lacking personality or flaws.