Xenobia

I still have a couple of pretty juicy flames on an old story and I never bothered deleting them. I found one of them to even be mildly constructive and I feel that everyone has a right to their opinion. I also rather expected to offend a person or two with said fanfic, because it was a crack pairing that didn't follow canon very well. It was written for fun and a couple of people took it too seriously *shrugs*. Now, if someone were to spam pointless words under the review I would probably delete it. I'm willing to take some negative blows if they make a point. People that bitch about a pairing aren't constructive to me...they're only complaining about their preferences and thus lending nothing to the improvement of the writing overall. I don't care if you only like Sephiroth to do the fucking. I care about what you think concerning how it was written. If you only want to read about characters taking on roles YOU prefer, then limit yourself to fictions that portray them that way. I read a fiction about one of my least favorite FF7 characters once and I had to give the author glowing praise because it was written so well. I hate Hojo with a burning passion but that has no bearing whatsoever on the quality of the fiction itself.

While praise is certainly a boost to the ego, I publish stories to get feedback because it helps me become a better writer. When people leave comments and tell me what they did or didn't like about a story it helps me perfect my work and avoid mistakes. Other than that, who doesn't like compliments? When I work hard at something and get some recognition for it, my day gets brighter. Constructive criticism? Love it. I've had people compliment a story while also pointing out errors I missed when proofreading, and I'm always thankful for it. I have one beta reader for my originals and zero for fanfiction, so I don't always catch grammar errors and weird phrases. I just wish people on AFF.net were more vocal. I've gotten a lot of views but few comments lately. Maybe I'm imagining it but it seems to me that five years ago there was a lot more activity as far as reviews went. Sure, half of them weren't helpful ("Love it, write more!") but some of them really did help me clean up my style and write better stories.

I've had no problems there so far, but I remember leaving because of censorship. It's been so long I can hardly recall everything. I put fanfictiion up there because I get feedback. Granted, it's usually "I like this, keep going" feedback but since my preferred sites are now composed of people that never review, I take it to mean I'm doing well. *hint* if you read a story you like, say something. It will be appreciated and the author will most likely improve.

I've got a short fanfic I wrote a while back that was meant to just be a one-shot, but I ended up having to break it down into two chapters because its length. The second chapter was composed almost entirely of a sex scene that just kept going and going, but I didn't get any complaints. I guess it depends on how many different things the couple tries in the sex scenes and what sort of story it's supposed to be.

It would have to be really, really bad for one word to make me stop reading a story and generally if the word is horrible enough, the story is too. I'll take "penis" any day over "blue-veined custard-chucker", for example. Of course, used in the right context even the latter could have its place...it all depends on the situation, characters involved and purpose of the scene, in my opinion. As for writing erotic fiction, I've simply stopped giving myself headaches trying to please everyone with euphemisms, nouns, adjective and verbs. It's just not possible to write a detailed sex scene without including some word that someone isn't going to like and I've come to the conclusion that if someone is going to start feeling faint because they see the words: "cum", "dick", "pussy", "tits", "vagina", "penis" or any other commonly used words applied to body parts or fluids, they're probably reading the wrong kind of story.

I don't get myself worked up about it, but feedback is part of the growing process for me and it helps me figure out what needs improving and what I'm doing right. Fanfiction is primarily a tool for me to exercise my imagination and writing skills so that I can create better original fiction. The pre-existing world and characters cut some time and effort and allow me to focus on my plot creation and overall writing abilities, and when someone reviews and tells me what they like about it or what they don't like it's always helpful to me. Reviews I find most helpful are the ones that center on character portrayal (am I doing a good job at making these characters realistic and true to themselves?), plot development (Is the story itself interesting?) and writing style (is it easy enough to follow and have I avoided making too many grammar/spelling errors?). All of these things help me do a better job making my original worlds and characters come to life. Criticism about word usage I generally take with a grain of salt, because when you write erotica of any sort there is ALWAYS going to be some adjective for a body part you use that somebody doesn't like. I've learned there's just no getting around that and I've stopped making myself go cross-eyed trying to find ways to describe sex scenes without using a word that will make someone flip out. I share my fanfiction on four different sites, mainly because of different audiences but also because some sites just don't seem to have readers that like to leave reviews and AFF.net seems to be one of them. When I want to check in and see what people think about something I'm working on, I swing by one of the other sites I post on because the reader base tends to be more willing to speak up and give feedback. I'm honestly not that fond of FF.net but I do get some helpful responses to my work there, so I still post there. I'd say if you're getting high scores and high views but no comments, it just means the people enjoying your work either don't have the time to post a comment, aren't adept at reviewing (I personally suck at reviewing but I try anyhow) or simply don't feel like taking a moment to leave a comment. If you have a full page of negative reviews, that's when its time to question the quality of your work. Sorry for the mini novel. I got caught up in the subject and babbled before I even realized I was doing it.

Speaking for myself only, Vivi is basically a child and there's absolutely nothing sexy to me about children having sex, consensual or otherwise, regardless of their anatomy, race or species. Even if he were full grown, scarecrow sex isn't my thing. He's freaking adorable but in the way I think my kitten is cute. There are some places I just won't go. I understand and respect that others see things differently, though.

I can see him bottoming if he's still in control of the situation. That is to say, short of rape he's not the kind of character that would be submissive unless HE directly chooses to. I just can't see anyone intimidating him into it or manipulating him. Ukeroth can be very, very appealing if done well but if he's going to turn into a "typical" uke, please do readers a favor and put an ooc warning in there somewhere. Seph's not as versatile as some other characters. His personality was pretty clearly outlined through the original game, movie and following games. Some characters just don't fit the "timid bitch" role and he's one of them, imho.