CloverReef

Comments like that piss me off. Honestly when someone says that to me, and they have, I spend the next 2 days bitching about it to my friends and taking their review apart. If they're going to come to me in a disrespectful way, I'm under no obligation to reward their dickishness by stroking their egos and letting them feel like they’ve helped me. I try to politely tell them to Fuck off, because even if I’m pissed, I’d prefer not to be a dick too. 
If I get critiques that are respectful and specific, however, I'll usually think about them and, when possible, compare it to other feedback. If two or more people are touching on the same issues, I start to make fixing it a priority. 
Someone nicely told me to change my style when I was like 14. I took all their suggestions and ended up with a way too poetic, long winded mess. The kinda book I can't even read. So I don't listen to that kinda advice anymore. 

Comments like that piss me off. Honestly when someone says that to me, and they have, I spend the next 2 days bitching about it to my friends and taking their review apart. If they're going to come to me in a disrespectful way, I'm under no obligation to reward their dickishness by stroking their egos and letting them feel like they’ve helped me. I try to politely tell them to Fuck off, because even if I’m pissed, I’d prefer not to be a dick too. 
If I get critiques that are respectful and specific, however, I'll usually think about them and, when possible, compare it to other feedback. If two or more people are touching on the same issues, I start to make fixing it a priority. 
Someone nicely told me to change my style when I was like 14. I took all their suggestions and ended up with a way too poetic, long winded mess. The kinda book I can't even read. So I don't listen to that kinda advice anymore. 

I do agree that once you start writing to someone else’s style, it’s not your work anymore, really. And it feels awful to be told how to write your own work.
I am going to make a confession here. When I was brand new to publishing my work, as opposed to not so new which is where I am now, I let an editor talk me into major changes to a novel. It was her style, not mine at all, but she assured me it would work, and my book would sell, even if I felt like I no longer quite recognized one of my main characters. She was enthusiastic, and I know she meant well, but… I wasn’t really happy with the changes although the novel went out with them.
Long story short, that publisher went under, and I’m now working with a new publisher to get the books back out there. The first thing I did was strip all those edits from the second novel. Every. Last. One. I’m enormously happier, and I finally am beginning to feel some enthusiasm for continuing the series, since I have my character back. Oh, and I scrapped the contractions in narrative. Not my style at all unless I'm writing first person POV (which I only do when seriously tipsy… :D)
My response to the reviewer would be along the line of thanking them for the review, and suggesting perhaps they try their hand at writing a story in their style, since the world needs more writers. Or something pleasant to start with, anyway. I prefer to try being nice first, but that’s me, and my definition of nice varies depending on the situation.  

“oopsie”
Yeah, I think these characters might have grounds to sue us for emotional distress…

Stupidest reason I have ever had for killing off a character, was because my beta at the time thought the character was irritating. It was the main character… And I killed him like chapter 2. lol, story took a maaaaajor shift in another direction right there, and not for the better. I don’t recommend it. 

Stupidest reason I have ever had for killing off a character, was because my beta at the time thought the character was irritating. It was the main character… And I killed him like chapter 2. lol, story took a maaaaajor shift in another direction right there, and not for the better. I don’t recommend it. 

Stupidest reason I have ever had for killing off a character, was because my beta at the time thought the character was irritating. It was the main character… And I killed him like chapter 2. lol, story took a maaaaajor shift in another direction right there, and not for the better. I don’t recommend it. 

I think about 80/20 is where I put it.
Under the definition of all action, even foreplay as sex.
 

I now follow the author dedicated to fighting her on Twitter, so I can follow the insanity without adding to her follower count. So I can be amused/baffled/angry daily. 

Wow. I just woke up so wut r werds, but wow. Very first thing that came to mind was “fuck you, now I’m gonna write a romance with cocky in the title” too. There’s like a million books titled “Alone” and somehow the suspense reading community doesn’t implode. I remember looking for a series called Raised by Wolves, and finding a million other books, but I was able to purchase the right one by looking at the authors name. If your title is distinct, sure, but then trademark the whole thing. You shouldn’t be able to trademark a single word that exists in the dictionary. It’s just greedy and mean. And I kinda wanna debate point 4. 

Any sexual content involving a real person under the age of 18 is completely out. That’s just not negotiable in any way, shape, or form. That includes flashbacks to explicit matter in the real person’s past, whether fictional or not.
Now the slippery slope… what about the other characters? As far as AFF’s official position, if the underage character is clearly fictional, there is no legal prohibition and therefore no concrete reason for us to object, other than perhaps good taste (although that is my personal distaste for the entire genre of celebrity fiction showing, I fear). 
Because we are dealing with real persons, I am very conservative, and would strongly recommend you not place any real person in the position of committing fictional pedophilia. I’m quite sure most celebrities are uncomfortable enough with most of the fan fiction about them, explicit or otherwise, but crossing that line might be a bit too far for their legal and public relations people. If you’re writing about real persons of your acquaintance, I’d hazard a guess you might be ending friendships and/or relationships. There is the additional consideration of not knowing who might see the story. If it’s sent to a minor, or a family member of the real person...ouch. And it has happened to one of our authors with a RPF they thought was deleted.
So, the short answer? If the underage character is not real, it’s not prohibited, but we moderators do read those with a fine tooth comb (and a large whiskey at hand) and we will err on the side of caution.

Taking a break doesn’t need to mean not writing. It can simply mean switching styles and trying something new. As said. There’s a reason many authors employ pen names when they wish to do something different. My preferred tactic is to basically keep some dribs and drabbles. Nonsense pieces that aren’t meant to be serious, or even read by anyone. It’s a great way to stretch your imagination.
Stopping also simply means ending a story and actually starting a new one with new characters, new themes. Identify tropes you commonly use in your works and then challenge yourself to not use those tropes.

And it’s out!
Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Sight-Witchs-Apprentice-Book-ebook/dp/B07DH6TFMF
NineStar Press: https://ninestarpress.com/product/ghosts-sight/  (Download offers both ePub and mobi formats)
 

Man I wiiiish I could plan ahead like this! But then I know what’s going to happen and I lose interest, like ridiculously quick. My deaths are usually thought out 1-3 chapters ahead. Every now and then when it feels right, it’ll just happen in the moment. This sounds like I’m killing off characters left and right, lol, but I’m really not. I don’t kill off characters all that often. Maybe it’s weird, but I kinda wish I killed them off more often, but those perfect moments don’t happen nearly enough. 

Man I wiiiish I could plan ahead like this! But then I know what’s going to happen and I lose interest, like ridiculously quick. My deaths are usually thought out 1-3 chapters ahead. Every now and then when it feels right, it’ll just happen in the moment. This sounds like I’m killing off characters left and right, lol, but I’m really not. I don’t kill off characters all that often. Maybe it’s weird, but I kinda wish I killed them off more often, but those perfect moments don’t happen nearly enough. 

Man I wiiiish I could plan ahead like this! But then I know what’s going to happen and I lose interest, like ridiculously quick. My deaths are usually thought out 1-3 chapters ahead. Every now and then when it feels right, it’ll just happen in the moment. This sounds like I’m killing off characters left and right, lol, but I’m really not. I don’t kill off characters all that often. Maybe it’s weird, but I kinda wish I killed them off more often, but those perfect moments don’t happen nearly enough. 

Most character deaths in my stories are planned well in advance – sometimes when I’m first conceiving of the character. Thus, even if I become attached to the character, it’s okay when they die, because the way they die is part of who they are. I couldn’t change my mind and save the character from death without changing who the character is. 
Of course, this only applies to characters that I myself created. I don’t think I’ve ever killed a canon character in a fanfic (although I’ve killed off OCs in fanfics). 

Was there someone in particular you were looking to find?
I’ve been moderating here for the past 7 years. I’ve seen people come and go, largely based on how their real life has changed. Maybe they’ve graduated from college or university, and don’t have as much free time for writing fan fiction. Some people have moved on to being published. Some have returned after a break.
AFF, like any other Internet site, is in a constant state of evolution and that reflects the way our membership is always evolving. There’s still a good many original members around, but we’ve also gotten some amazing new members who are well worth discovering.

Elegant solutions are totally a good way to go. I think it takes a certain kinda writer with a sense for that kinda thing to keep them meaningful and interesting, and I envy that. My mains are very rarely the elegant solutions type though, so the proverbial blunt-weapon-to-the-head solutions tend to happen. My favourite type of book is the fast paced, thriller, so I tend to lean in that direction in my writing. When at all possible. For some reason when I try to get too poignant and meaningful, my readers get confused lol.

Why do I feel like this might be dragged out into court?   “Objection!  Just because my client may have been discussing slow cooking vs flame broiling their murder victims has no relevance to this case!”  (While also ignoring the BBQ pictures in the evidence pile.)
I’ve done it both ways, and it comes down to the circumstances.  An illness can easily be drawn out, however, the quick can be a blink-blink-unexpected sort of thing, really jarring to a character (especially the one getting unexpectedly murdered).
 
I drift to elegant, appropriate, it’s still a situational dependent thing.  As I also tend to strive for realism, this restricts how the deed can be carried out, also tends to make me focus on simple/available ways.  i.e.  rage+fight on the platform to the train becomes a push in front of an incoming train.

Elegant solutions are totally a good way to go. I think it takes a certain kinda writer with a sense for that kinda thing to keep them meaningful and interesting, and I envy that. My mains are very rarely the elegant solutions type though, so the proverbial blunt-weapon-to-the-head solutions tend to happen. My favourite type of book is the fast paced, thriller, so I tend to lean in that direction in my writing. When at all possible. For some reason when I try to get too poignant and meaningful, my readers get confused lol.

I hadn't noticed.  Lol.
I think it all depends on the writer.  An 'elegant solution' written by the blunt force writer won't really work that well, even well written, because of the style.  Which I'm probably repeating…
I think, too, it depends a lot on what sort of feeling You, as writer, want to convey.  A quick death can be intense, fast, and portray a "blink and you miss it" situation.  A slow one can also be intense, but be meant to show a devastating death that's meant to linger in the minds of the reader.
Maybe I shouldn't answer when tired...

With rare exceptions, all my characters do have names even if they’re just “the cashier” in the story, and I do get attached to my characters, especially the leads, so on that rare occasion one must die, I have to remind myself it’s for the greater good of the stories/universe.   A lead’s death generally has a point to be made, a reason it’s being done.
In my original universe, death is permanent, the character cannot generally appear in another story after said date.  (Dreams/nightmares/etc in the living are the exception to that).  Of course, characters that are presumed to be dead … ie, missing, or mistaken postmortem identification … different matter entirely, because that can be fun, like my 2015 halloween story can attest to.
Most gruesome/grizzly death written by me (for any character, lead or minor) has to be the woodchipper.  Most gore, I’m thinking my 2017 halloween story.
Now this has me thinking about my unfinished Harry Potter story… that had a bunch of deaths, but at least that Weasley herd was getting thinned a bit.

Well it is a good way to get rid of a boring character lol, provided you don't care if the reader cares about the death. And provided the death serves a purpose. Might jarr your reader out of the story if it comes in the middle of a kittens and rainbows WAFF fest. I can't say I've done this to boring characters though. I try not to feature the boring ones. 
I don't know about shock value. If you write horror or thriller I think a little dose of shock is necessary. Sometimes the intent is to just outright shock or horrify them. Gratuitous violence can be fun. Campy B horror anyone? Other times it just cheapens things so it depends on what I'm writing or reading. 

I grow very attached to my characters, in the sense that, even when I get detached from a story and decide to drop it, the characters haunt me for months, sometimes years to come. As we speak, Blackbird is fucking taunting me. But even though I’m so attached to them, oddly enough, I don’t have any problem killing them off. If I got it planned right, like it comes at a pivotal moment and accomplishes something important, I get excited about it. High emotions, high tensions, those are some of the easiest scenes for me to write. When I killed off a main char in Blackbird, that scene took me an hour when most of the scenes in that damn story took me weeks, sometimes months. 
How I kill them off varies. I like to make it dramatic and bloody, but I tend to favour what’s best for the pace of the story. I’ll only really do an off-screen death if it needs to be a mystery to the reader… or if the character and their death isn’t all that important.