Hey, quick PSA for young or otherwise inexperienced fic writers:
"*****smut marked with asterisks so you can skip!*****""
Don't. Don't do this.
You let readers know what your fic contains through proper tagging and rating. Content warning notes at the top of the chatter are also great. You can even summarize key "this is the plot relevant stuff you missed of you're skipping this chapter" notes at the bottom too! This is a much smoother reading experience.
This is HELL on screen readers which is a disability access issue. Screen readers will read out every single asterisk you put, which I have seen done as entire page breaks. It's an awful reading experience. Please just don't.
Readers do not need their hands held through the reading experience. If they're enjoying the fic but don't care for smut, they can just skim until it gets interesting again. If they REALLY don't like smut, you warned them. There's a back button. You don't have to do a special song and dance isolating out the specific parts you think might be "icky". (If you think those bits are icky and don't like writing them, consider just don't! Fanfic is a hobby we do for fun and you don't have to write anything you don't find enjoyable. There's plenty of readers for gen fic and smut free ship fic).
If someone reads something they don't like then gets mad at you, block em. They need to be responsible for their own choices. It's not your job to please everyone. Your job as a fic writer of his to tell an entertaining and engaging story. (The reverse is true for a reader that demands smut or says it would "improve" the fic but that's not the story you're trying to tell. Block button is your friend!)
This is also super common in scene breaks.
Please, please don't try to span the entire page with whatever symbol you're using for your scene breaks. It takes an eternity for screen years to get through, and typically has me noping out of even the most interesting stores.
Instead, use just three (or fewer) make. Three is standard, and does the job without making your story unreadable.
In general: please, think of the screen readers.
as a person whose only good trait is their eyes, this has eluded me until i was tasked to test websites with a screen reader.
It is hell
It is absolute hell
From navigation to listening to the voices
It's just awful
Since then I've tried to write with screen readers in mind because the number of websites that think about accessibility is SO SO SMALL
If you don't believe me, use NVDA which is a free accessibility tool. Otherwise you have to spend thousands of dollars for a slightly better one. Then try to navigate a website.
So yeah, listen to the above posts
