CloverReef

Just to throw in some thoughts. A human antagonist will almost always believe they are doing the right thing. However, they don’t need to be sympathetic for it. There are many examples in history of people that were downright vile doing what they thought was a good thing. Beliefs of superiority due to race, gender, sexuality, religion, etc. have led to many atrocities that were supposed to be for the right reason. While some of these people are universally hated, some are heroes or villains depending on who you ask. Winston Churchill for example. Often seen as a hero by the media, but I’m sure the Irish and Indians have much different views on him. Or Sir John A. MacDonald. One of the leading figures in the formation of Canada as a nation and the first Prime Minister. However an alcoholic and involved pretty firmly in the Residential Schools.
If not human though, minds work in different ways. A few examples have been brought up such as Jaws, or the Raptors in Jurassic Park. These though are primal creatures acting on instinct. Slasher villains such as Jason Vorhees or Michael Myers are often supposed to be embodiment of evil but they are really mostly instinctual and primal. Characters like Pinhead from Hellraiser though have objectives and goals though they are clearly not of the moral variety.
My current story my villain is a demon. He has plots and schemes that involve the destruction of many lives in one way or another, and he’s not sympathetic to the pain he causes as that stands in his way. However, he just just go off destroying things for the shits and giggles of it. It’s less evil, and more amoral from common society’s standpoint. 

“I’ll take deranged psychopathic schizophrenic serial killers for a thousand, Alex.”
As always, it depends on the story being told.  Also, with how I write my stories, death is a part of life, as I was reminded of earlier this year.  I also generally opt for simple means, gunshot, electrocution, etc, not overly complicated in the method.

I love horror fantasy fusions. But yeah, I absolutely believe you can be super attached to your characters and empathize with them yet still be more than happy to slaughter the fuck out of them. Doesn’t mean you’re less attached than someone who wouldn’t hurt their characters, I think it just means that you made a difficult decision, or like the more emotionally driven writers like me, let the story sweep you away and did what it demanded. 
 

I love horror fantasy fusions. But yeah, I absolutely believe you can be super attached to your characters and empathize with them yet still be more than happy to slaughter the fuck out of them. Doesn’t mean you’re less attached than someone who wouldn’t hurt their characters, I think it just means that you made a difficult decision, or like the more emotionally driven writers like me, let the story sweep you away and did what it demanded. 
 

I love horror fantasy fusions. But yeah, I absolutely believe you can be super attached to your characters and empathize with them yet still be more than happy to slaughter the fuck out of them. Doesn’t mean you’re less attached than someone who wouldn’t hurt their characters, I think it just means that you made a difficult decision, or like the more emotionally driven writers like me, let the story sweep you away and did what it demanded. 
 

I often get attached to my characters, and while sometimes might have trouble letting go I still can because it can make the story better. Granted my current story is an Urban Fantasy with stripes of horror, so there’s a decent amount of gruesome death. And I often have it on page to be read. 

Editing/betaing is a topic I could discuss for hours. I won’t, though, because I don’t want to hijack the thread. I’m happy you enjoy it. Like ridiculously happy. My favourite people to beta for are the ones who are eager to learn whether or not they take my suggestions.
Giving feedback is an art form too, and helpful critiques are not always appropriate. I very rarely give critiques, even sugar coated ones, to people who didn’t ask for it. Like when I review random chapters on AFF, I usually bite my tongue and only put the positive things. Sometimes the best way you can help a struggling writer getting little-to-no attention is to give their ego a boost, and theeeen you can worry about helping them with their issues (if you want to take that on). Let them feel some love and positivity. Let them feel like writing is worth the deafening silences and that someone out there is listening. That will help their passion grow, and when people are passionate about something, they evolve. Some very well-meaning critical feedback can be crushing to someone whose confidence is already shaken and can do more damage than good. I’ve had arguments about this with other betas, but I’m the Queen Beta, so listen to me, not them. 
But if you’re reviewing someone like @Desiderius Price who has explicitly stated they welcome critical feedback, the gloves very nicely come off. I think it’s still important to not be a dick about it. 
 

Still be nice about it    I get so little feedback that I’m not sure if my writing’s really any good or not.  What @CL Mustafic did ages ago, helped, in a review, she offered to read over and provide criticisms to my stories (until she got too busy to do it) – so that’s another way you can give help if you like the story enough, but the grammar/flow/etc is getting in the way.

Editing/betaing is a topic I could discuss for hours. I won’t, though, because I don’t want to hijack the thread. I’m happy you enjoy it. Like ridiculously happy. My favourite people to beta for are the ones who are eager to learn whether or not they take my suggestions.
Giving feedback is an art form too, and helpful critiques are not always appropriate. I very rarely give critiques, even sugar coated ones, to people who didn’t ask for it. Like when I review random chapters on AFF, I usually bite my tongue and only put the positive things. Sometimes the best way you can help a struggling writer getting little-to-no attention is to give their ego a boost, and theeeen you can worry about helping them with their issues (if you want to take that on). Let them feel some love and positivity. Let them feel like writing is worth the deafening silences and that someone out there is listening. That will help their passion grow, and when people are passionate about something, they evolve. Some very well-meaning critical feedback can be crushing to someone whose confidence is already shaken and can do more damage than good. I’ve had arguments about this with other betas, but I’m the Queen Beta, so listen to me, not them. 
But if you’re reviewing someone like @Desiderius Price who has explicitly stated they welcome critical feedback, the gloves very nicely come off. I think it’s still important to not be a dick about it. 
 

I think “biopsy” needs some tags here:  [BDSM] [Torture] [Violence] [Gore] [MCD/MiCD] & [Nec]  (where that second to the last one depends on the ego of the doctor)
Without the internet, I likely wouldn’t be an author as I wouldn’t have discovered fanfic nor would I desired  to continue a particular story, and so forth, leading to today where I’ve got (some) confidence because I’ve posted and gotten feedback.  Some criticism is definitely *good*, obviously, don’t bludgeon the writer to death with it.  If you find a story you otherwise like (premise, setting, etc) and something gets in the way, the author would certainly like to know why.  Perhaps it’s fixable (spelling, grammar, some details/construct) or not (ie, premise), but the author can sort that out.  Editing, I’ve found, is double edged, you can do a bit to improve, or overdo it and ruin the underlying story; even a rotten editor can certainly get you to butcher an otherwise good story if you’re not careful.   I’ve started to relax a bit on the amount of proofreading/editing I’ll do for posting on AFF, figuring that I’d do it more seriously if I publish – the Repair Guy was an experiment there, doing one pass and trying to keep myself to one pass of reading it over, and overall, I’m happy with how the story turned out.  Now Jefferey, which I started to “revise/edit” as a means to get myself back into it so I could continue the story, ended up adding 11 new episodes to the story (so far) that weren’t there in the original draft.

With the introduction of the internet, the availability of feedback for new writers and the promise of anonymity creates a lot more opportunities for someone that might not otherwise develop the skill. However, in itself it becomes a vacuum with the blind leading the blind.
Betas isn’t a bad idea. I worry about giving critical feedback (for one, what do I know), and worry about how some people will take it. Criticism is very helpful to me, even if it presses out the ego juices.
The editing process is so important, too – indispensable. I enjoy the editing process more than the writing sometimes, because after the story dump is finished, I have some boundaries to work within (I think that is what attracts me to writing fanfiction, too). I can improve, expand, and tighten a story to have a better impact rather than free-fall into it.
I hope the results of your biopsy are ok, for whatever reason you needed one!

Biopsy doesn’t sound fun, kinda like they biopsied the patient and left a toe in change.

My writing has absolutely evolved. A few things factor into it. I very much credit my years in fanfiction as a powerful foundation. Though my writing sucked back then, it was an excellent training ground for character development and crafting interesting stories using elements everyone involved was already familiar with. Also formal education played a part. I'm a high school drop out but I went out of my way to teach myself as well as seek out others who could teach me: take classes, read writing books, write essays and long discussions with my english professor mother. 
Plus there's the natural improvement that happens just online from writing a lot and communicating with other writers that I 100% believe has the biggest impact out of all the things I just mentioned. 

I wasn’t that delusional in the beginning, still not.  I know writing/english/literature weren’t my best subjects in school, typicallythe worst.  It took an anonymous pen name before I had the courage to even post that first one.

I think confidence helps too. I think at the start a lot of writers think their writing is awesome enough to push on people, yet won't read it themselves and get super insecure about critical feedback so they won't go to betas. Getting over that phase was a bit of a milestone for me. Like getting to a point where I can take reasonable critiques and enjoy reading my own writing and edit the hell out of it and still think the shit I'm spinning is gold. 
Edit: I'm in a hotel recovering from a biopsy so if I Fuck up my grammar or spelling y'all just gotta deal. <3

Have you ever tried translating something into a language you know, just to see what Google will do to it? It’s hilarious!
But to be serious ever so briefly, certain languages use syntax that Google and most other AI linguistics programs can’t readily mimic. Japanese, for example, rarely uses pronouns, or even subjects. It’s implied in the context of the rest of the sentence. Google mangles those translations horribly. Same thing with French, when some adjective precede the noun being modified, and others come after the noun. Google tends to substitute an entirely wrong noun and/or adjective because it’s not ready for post-noun adjectives.
AI linguistics has a long way to go yet, but for translating a simple phrase in Latin into English, it’s good enough. 

What Clover said!
But really, fan fiction is a terrific way to hone writing skills. The world building and basic character development is done, and you just get to put your own slant on things. Sharing that online brings valuable feedback and yes, the chance to talk to other writers. 

There was a profound difference between fanfic #1 and fanfic #2, and I think the writing’s gotten generally better since then (even if there’s been a detour or two through terrible ideas).

As long as it's clear the story is in English, so readers don't get scared off, I think chapter titles are the one place you can go absolutely crazy without detracting from the story. Esperanto, klingon, complete gibberish. Might make the writer pause and wtf about it but it won't rip them out of scenes or mess with the pacing. Might even pique curiosity and make some party more attention for hidden meanings. 

As long as it's clear the story is in English, so readers don't get scared off, I think chapter titles are the one place you can go absolutely crazy without detracting from the story. Esperanto, klingon, complete gibberish. Might make the writer pause and wtf about it but it won't rip them out of scenes or mess with the pacing. Might even pique curiosity and make some party more attention for hidden meanings. 

Definitely! If the author wants to show off, or wants to indulge in a fantasy language they created, or they’re just obsessed with languages and enjoy playing with them, all the more power to them. I respect that kinda passion and creativity. I probably won’t enjoy that part of their stories, but I grudgingly accept that not everyone and everything needs to cater to me. 

I admire that: that you’re putting so much effort into what you feel you need to improve. I could tell a story about how I discovered and grew to love 3rd limited POV, but I won’t because I don’t wanna annoy the mods. Yes. I have a story. I’m that much of a writing nerd. 
I’m not so sure my personal rules for languages would apply to fandoms like Star Trek or anything Tolkien, just because of what you mentioned. In fandoms where there are complex languages, the fans have already developed their love for something that you’d need to ease them into if it were an original. I don’t read or write high fantasy or deep sci fi, but I’m not sure my rules would apply there either. Obviously, since it worked for Tolkien, some original writers are able to do things other writers would balk at, and do them successfully. Though, in my not-so-humble opinion, plenty do them unsuccessfully too. 
You know your audience, and you should absolutely give them what they love. 

Absolutely. Showing over telling is my preference with most things too, but I usually write in a character’s perspectives. (Limited 3rd or even 1st) so I try to write true to their experiences, if that makes any sense. If you’re sitting there listening to someone speaking a language you don’t understand, it’s unlikely you’ll catch every word they’re saying. It’ll sound like a string of vaguely familiar or completely unfamiliar syllables. It’ll usually get written out in my story, (hopefully) as an active descriptive sentence, rather than dialogue. Unless the perspective character would understand it, in which case, I’ll write it out in English in italics. 
Honestly, I’m not sure what I’d do in omniscient 3rd. I haven’t written in that POV in like 10 years lol. Rules might be a bit different I imagine. 

Ohhh yes. I love endearments in other languages. Dragon Age Inquisition; what was it Iron Bull calls the MC? Kadan? I love that. If timed right, it can be sooo powerful. If timed wrong, it can be super cheesy lol. 

As long as it's clear the story is in English, so readers don't get scared off, I think chapter titles are the one place you can go absolutely crazy without detracting from the story. Esperanto, klingon, complete gibberish. Might make the writer pause and wtf about it but it won't rip them out of scenes or mess with the pacing. Might even pique curiosity and make some party more attention for hidden meanings.