A good story for me is something that offers a lesson to be learned. It doesn't really need to be life-changing but I can tell that the story is good when it affected the way I think or act or behave. That's what an author should think of before writing something. They must ask themselves first if at the end, their readers will gain something and didn't waste their time.
Unfortunately these type of stories are hard to find. When I read like, 50 novels, only 10 exceeds my expectation. :(

Honestly, if you want to get a lot of subscriptions in a short amount of time just write pwp about a famous pairing (I'd recommend EXO here). You can practically do NOTHING wrong, people are going to subscribe anyway.

Votes? I'd recommend storylines that typically attract many people (maybe browse the featured section a bit, you'll probably get an idea of what people especially like). I'm not saying you'll get that many upvotes guaranteed, but this might be a general indicator. Also, popular characters.

What is a good story? Neither pwp nor simply catering to as many people as possible with your storyline. My ideal of a good story is still something unique, something the author writes because he wants to write this story - I have already accepted this being a utopia in many cases though.

if talking about "what attracts the reader to a story" the best answer is the characters. Most of people, including me, only read stories with the characters for a certain groups. then if the characters are my favourite ones, i will start comparing the theme of the story first. if it caught my attention, i will then checking on the wiriting style lol. I'm quite picky, so yeah.

what attracts me is the plot, but i search stories in this site by character tags. a great story would be an interesting plot, background, and writing style. characters shouldn't matter to how good a story is. if you get what i mean..

Then I love certain styles of writing, and the plot takes a main role too but I wouldnt know what I am getting into with just first chapter, so the description and forward should attract me. If you play the cards right, then u bagged a reader. Then the plot and characterization hooks me up.

Most of sub no depends on the pairings you pick to write. Like I, myself read mostly Kaisoo, so is some of my aff friends.

Everyone has their own opinion on what is a good story. It's hard to decide whether a particular story is good or not because there are always that one person who would say "This isn't a good story" or "It's just okay" something like that. As for me, I look for the characterization and the overall idea. The idea and plot, though it might sound cliche, if the author could tackle it well, it can be an interesting story to read. See, we can't avoid cliches nowadays. They are everywhere. But then, even when we complain about it, we still found ourselves reading those cliches x)

And yeah, I agree with the more popular the group is, the more views/subscriptions your story will get thing. But it doesn't mean that you have to write about EXO or BTS or BigBang. You can write about other groups as well. The most important thing is that you write for yourself. You write for your fun and pleasure. It's called fanfiction for a reason. Don't make the little views and subscriptions you get stop you from writing about your favourite groups. Lolol sorry for the sudden advice xD

I think a real problem is that most fanfics about the smaller groups won't even be found by most people because they are not looking for those tags. I've had the situation when I was reading a fanfic for one group that starred the caracters from another one and that basically got me to like the other group but I would never have looked them up otherwise. So I would think what shows how good a story is is the view subscriber ratio, because it reflects the likes among the people who read it. Of course a fanfic for EXO or SHINee will get more subscribers as one for say ASTRO or BoysRepublic.

All right, here we go *cracks knuckles*

Right, so. What draws my eye at first is a mix of the summary and the writing. If I spot more than one typo in the summary, I'm out. The summary is *so important* because it's the first your potential readers see, and if there is a mistake in that, it, to me, speaks of that author's laziness (because they haven't read over their summary and checked for such simple mistakes; summaries are usually between a sentence to five; if they can't spellcheck that, then...) and their writing in general. If there's something wrong at first sight with the summary, what won't be wrong with the rest of the fic? So. The summary is important. Not necessarily something spectacular, just... well-written and intriguing enough to make the reader interested in clicking it.

My stories' summaries are usually a single line from the fic that I think is funny/intriguing/tells a little about the plot, et cetera. It doesn't necessarily say much about what you can expect (tags usually do, though (*cough* angst and or *cough*)) from the fic, to be honest, pfft, but I like those one-liners, though some may find those boring. I'll live with that. Rather one-liners than paragraph after paragraph of what this fic is about; it can quickly become too much, and there's no point in spoiling the entire fic right from start.

Right, so, with a good summary, it's on to the Forewords. If it's too colourful and a mess of font size 12 to 45, a couple of points will have already been taken away before I've even read anything - add a character list and introduction, and chances are I'm out, too. Experience tells me that such fics/authors just aren't worth my time.

So. If everything looks more or less normal with black on white, I'm on to the first chapter. The first paragraphs are essential. I care a lot about grammar and writing in general, and if those are lacking in a fic and I can see this from the first look, I'm out. If the layout is messed up, say, two or more characters speak in the same paragraph, all the time, the paragraphs aren't split up accordingly, the author writing comments in parentheses or some in the middle of the fic, chances are I'll click that cross in the upper right corner. And, good lord, if you write "Two weeks later..." before a scene or something along those lines, I'll slap you. It's *so easy* to include this in narrative, so do it.

If those things are all right, I'll read on. I'll give it a chapter or two to really catch my interest and get a feel for what kind of fic this is, the writing, the characters, the plot, etc. If the characters seem too two-dimensional, stupid, or... It's difficult to explain, but sometimes I come across fics where the characters just irk me so much that I can't go on. Gosh, it bothers me that I can't think of any examples right now, pft. They need to be realistic. The fic needs to be realistic (even fantasy, though this allows more freedom, of course; I love fantasy).

Now that we're at that, if I sense an author is lazy and won't do their research, I tend to back out, too. Say, an example I can think of is when authors don't know how much time it takes for an arm to heal, or how much an injury might hinder your character; such things. That requires research. And it bothers me when authors take no pride in their work and just... ruin it by not reading up on certain things. (Again, of course, fantasy (and science fiction and what have we) is a special case. My point still stands, unless there's talk of healing through magic or enhanced abilities, in this particular case.)

Right, uh. So. To make it short: What's most important for a fic to be good, for me, and thus attract my attention and keep it, is writing, characterisation, and a good plot. A good plot doesn't take thirteen twists and months of plotting - just... a simple plot works, too. No plot is fine, too. But I also want something, uh, realistic, at the lack of a better word - if it isn't crack (though I still have my limits, even with crack). And cliches are all fine - so long as you write it well. I'm agreeing with Jimbooty here.

I... should probably stop. A novel wasn't necessarily what you wanted, but it's what you got, because there's nothing that can get me started like this than discussing what a good fic is/what attracts me and keeps my attention XD I could think of several more pet peeves (like titles; experience, sadly, makes me shy away from titles like... "EXO Love Story" or like that. I'm failing with these examples again, but I hope you get the gist?) when it comes to good writing/good fic, because I'm a horrible person like that, but I can see through fingers and be lenient, in some cases.

I apologise for this novel. I hope I remembered the most important points, for me :') And I swear I'm a nice person, though this may make me seem... not so nice OTL

Characterization is quite important. The most cliche storyline that has good characterization and character development can be fun to read. Likewise, the most exciting and well thought out plot can be mundane if the characters are unrealistic, etc. It's a character's actions and their personality that drives the plot forward, so... in my perspective, that's an important aspect.

Unless they're drabbles, then of course some of those won't have to apply to the story XD

For me, a plot is a plot, it's the way you write it out that matters. Whether it's the cliche bad boy fanfic or a supernatural guy looking for his mate kind of fic, I think having a nice writing style can overcome the plot. Now, when I say a nice writing style, I mean ALL aspects of writing. From knowing your correct povs, to character development, to creating good dialogues, giving your readers a scenery rather than just characters speaking to each other.

That's quite interesting. I've also thought about the idol groups thing - the more popular the group you write about, the bigger the audience, which was why I thought it be interesting to ask the question - to see how much it weighs compared to the rest ^^

I think they're all connected. I enjoy characters and writing style the most. But I also believe that characters are better developed if your writing style is more developed. The plot actually means less to me because .. well, I read a lot of drabbles and needless to say, there isn't a ground-breaking plot filled with twists in a drabble. I like it when it just ... seems realistic and nice. Yeah. ;; (please don't bend reality, there is nothing worse when people totally forget what relationships work like, you don't go from strangers to lovers with a look) On AFF though I believe pairing and group have a lot to say. The more popular pairing and group you write - the bigger is your audience and the higher chance you get votes/subs etc.

I guess the writing style. I like reading a story that can make me feel something and tug on my heartstrings.

From my own opinion: pairing, title, description, POV and of course the first chapter. If one story passes all of these then I will subscribe :)