so i was in the bus today and had the thought of why certain character traits and behaviors make me drop a story completely and other stories i bedruginly finish even though the characters exhibit the same traits as the dropped story. thats when it hit me. in the dropped story the author plays fast and loose with the character's personality, to paraphrase a review i read on NU ''the main characters doesn't have any agency of their own, he just gets ''feelings'' from time to time on what to do or what to think in certain situations'' and i completely agree with this, it almost you can see the authors hands clumsily trying to push the plot and characters in a certain direction and it is done so ''in your face'' that it almost feels insulting. one chapter a character gets beheaded for behaving a certain way, the next one another character is being befriended despite exhibiting the same behavior! i mean comeon. to bring up a specific example out of the top of my head, there is this one xuanhuan/xianxia or whatever it is called, that is about a hedonist young master who has bedded or at the very least been in a relationship with half the girls in the city, now there is this specific girl that is practically throwing herself all over him and he rejects her because ''it is not yet the right time'' (or something like that) and you can just feel the author deliberately prostponing the start of the relationship so he can get as much drama out of this as possible. he is basically backpedaling on the whole initial setting and the MC from before (backstory) and the one now don't feel like the same character, its like from chapter 0 to chapter 1 the mc went from a playboy to a celibate monk.

now the stories i do finish even though the same behavior is exhibited in both stories in this one, the character has always been that way, the celibate monk has been a celibate monk since before the story and remains that way if nothing would have happened. i don't mean the character's personality is set in stone i mean, they HAVE a personality, i know what they are like, how they will behave in certain situations and basically the author sticks to his own damn script! and then maybe gradually throughout the story we can see changes in personality subtle at first but more noticeable towards the end. a steady stream like progression from point A to B to C. instead of the character being A then C the next moment then F then A next, according to the situation!

just had this moment of epiphany and wanted to share my thoughts.

I agree, most of what puts me off a story is when there is an abrupt shift between a characters personality. For example, in a story I just read there was this woman who's point of view we're in and she's basically regretting a choice she made in the past and in her mind she's determined to stay loyal to another character. 5 chapters later, this is all forgotten when that character who she is determined to remain loyal to (character A) has a spat with another character (character B) and Character A is probably one of the most morally good characters in this novel and she ditches him!?!? like seriously!?! but not until after she mentions that she would have stayed with him but still leaves, what happened to her determination to stay loyal? what happened to all that character building? This is what usually throws me off a novel, when an author throws in some tension and seemingly trying to make it fit into her character but what happens is something that appears to be rushed or makes NO SENSE in regards to the previous chapters with her POV.

This would have made sense if we saw her being persuaded into leaving him, but in a gradual manner. This however would have created a fickle character but it still would have made sense. People like this do exist so it would have been fine if she was persuaded to leave but to do it in a manner that completely destroys all her character building? That just sucks. And trying to shoe horn in the explanation ten or so chapters AFTER this happens is a pretty bad move because it would seem like you completely forgot to build it up and when you try to show in an explanation through a flashback or something like that when there were previously NO FLASHBACKS makes the story look like patch work.

Another thing that doesn't make sense is when one event completely changes a characters personality. The only exception being a completely traumatic event like death of loved ones and so on. However, if say a random person dies and your MC was an innocent person before that than you'd have to drag out the effects of what happened, but in a manner that doesn't bash the reader in the head with. Subtle changes and clues that indicate a change in character is a lot better than an abrupt 180.

In conclusion, it would be better to plan out how you want your character to evolve and map out how circumstances can change that character than just trying to rush it. IF you want your readers to be engaged and invested in your characters, it would be better if you gradually built them up.