Well, that's it right there, isn't it? Either someone has recommended it to you, or it was written by someone on your flist who's probably been yammering about the canon and/or the pairing for a while, or you went looking for it. But as you say, in all of those cases you at least knew what you were getting into. If you already dig the ship, you'll dig the story to a certain extent; if you don't dig the ship, you won't dig the story no matter what the writer does; if you're indifferent to the ship, you're probably indifferent to the characters in the ship, and therefore will be indifferent to the story as a whole.
no subject
Well, that's it right there, isn't it? Either someone has recommended it to you, or it was written by someone on your flist who's probably been yammering about the canon and/or the pairing for a while, or you went looking for it. But as you say, in all of those cases you at least knew what you were getting into. If you already dig the ship, you'll dig the story to a certain extent; if you don't dig the ship, you won't dig the story no matter what the writer does; if you're indifferent to the ship, you're probably indifferent to the characters in the ship, and therefore will be indifferent to the story as a whole.