fan-meta: picking up stories for review

 So, I've enjoyed my time at the helm of the  Crack_van for Mag7 fandom, and thought I'd write some related meta.  BMP, one of the authors I recommended, asked me how I chose stories for recommendations.  My answer was somewhat off the cuff and boiled down to 'after I get past the 90% of stories that are dreck, I look for things I'd pay for in a bookstore.'  I'd like to expand on that answer here.

There have been a metric ton of posts on story writing and story mechanics from the writer's point of view.  What to think about, what to look for, what to do and not to do.  I haven't come across as many from the reader's point of view, although I'm sure they exist.  But that's what I'm going to be looking at here.  When I look through stories with an eye towards recommendation, I look at visual presentations, story mechanics, story flow, factual realism, characterization, and lastly, OOMPH-factor.  All of these things are important, necessary to even get on my consideration list, and worth discussing.
 
  

( Visual Presentation, or Making Sure the Look Doesn't put the Reader off their Feed )

This is longer than I thought it would be, so I'm going to make this into a series, going through each of the factors I use to decide if a story is worth a recommendation.  Next part: Story Mechanics.

-bs