saiyansecret

OK, I found the thread I was looking for. Just earlier tonight I was very depressed, seeing the large number of hits my 5 day-old story got compared to its lack of reviews, & to be honest I just wanted to delete my whole AFF account & leave. I'm still doubting my desire to post anything else, which I would have to type directly here for nothing. I get more support, guidance & encouragement on my personal fanfic blog where not nearly that many people read my stuff, who are not at all obliged to encourage me but still do. I also see fics that have been here for ages (excellent ones) boasting thousands of hits and (maybe) 1 or 2 reviews. WTH?
Yes, I can definitely see the bitterness & frustration of those who leave the (asked-for) reviews & then get chewed out &/or reported for their honest concrit & no longer wish to deal with that. Authors who behave like that instead of honestly considering what the reviewer said & using that advice to improve their writing are immature, unprofessional, & ruin it for those of us who would be thrilled with some honest reviews, pointing out both the positive & negative points of our writing. If the author doesn't want honest opinions, why do they publish their work to begin with instead of just keeping it to themselves? A writer who writes to have their ego stroked is doing so for a very poor reason & misses the point entirely. I don't agree with what the person who directed me here said about the cause being my older, less popular fandom, because those who read it in the first place are part of that fandom. So, cutting to the chase, I can clearly see both POVs. Isn't there some system that could be put into place where the author must indicate & take responsability for whether or not they want honest feedback so that both authors and readers can share the stories, advice & opinions that are an important part of the art of any type of writing? Just being 18 y.o. or + does not mean 'adult' in my eyes. The 'Adult' part of 'Adult FanFiction' should not only signify graphic sex & violence, but the maturity that must accompany it. To quote one of the heros of my own fandom, humility means sacrificing one's pride to keep one's dignity. If something is worth doing, is it not worth doing well? Unfortunately, on our archived stories we have no way of letting readers see the difference. No one is telepathic, & as the poll shows, I have a hard time believing that writers don't care that they don't get reviews. A writer who can't take criticism has no place in a public writing site, what else can be said? I must say that I'm finding my experience here very disappointing, and am beginning to doubt that I'll stick around.

I can understand that, but kind of like, "It takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch," what you're essentially doing by no longer reviewing, is punishing those of us who would like to know if there are problems, or merely if you just like the story in general, or a particalar item in said story, and so, that isn't really fair. I know I'd given up updating my story here for a while, because practically no one out of the 1,000+ hits in the past year could bother to put up ANYTHING to let me know what they thought of my story. I mean, for all I know, those 1,000+ people are/were reading the first chapter and thinking, "Boy, this writer SUCKS, and this story SUCKS, I'm not reading any further!" So, why should I then waste my time updating, or even continuing to write this story any further? Yes, writing for yourself is all well and good, and if you can do that on a permanent basis, great, I'm thrilled for you, but honestly, I do like to know what people think! I guess that's an insecurity of mine. At any rate, after a year of not updating, someone FINALLY left me a review, and they wanted more, and I thought, "Wow, OK, SOMEONE actually likes it, so OK, I'll put up another chapter." So I did, and have I heard anything after getting another hundred or so hits since the update? Nope. Yet, there are other authors who have the same amount of chapters or less, and have three times the hits I do, AND have ten or more times the amount of reviews I do. So, that, once again has me thinking, "Well, I guess I was right the first time, and not many people are liking my story. Good thing I haven't wasted any more time on it, and I've moved on to writing my original stories that I hope to have published one day." Of course, if no one seems to like my fanfiction, it does leave me wondering if I'll ever have anyone interested enough to want to publish my novels, in spite of the fact that I've been published already, twice in a literary journal. I'm just the type of person that depends on feedback, both positive and negative, and if I receive nothing, that leaves me assuming the negative, and that my writing sucks, so why bother? Not all of us are strong enough to stand by our writing, and write no matter what people think. I wish I could, but that's just not me.

Of course there always has to be a bottom and a top... but I think it's kinda kinky to switch it once in a while. Even if you have an extremely effeminate man with a much more masculine man for a pairing (like an obvious uke/seme role), it's interesting to put the stronger dude on the bottom occasionally. I don't think there should be clear 'roles', unless you're just writing a PWP or a short story. Take chapter 9 in my story, 'at least he's hot.' Even though Rufus (from final fantasy seven) is the obvious uke in this story, I give the poor guy an opportunity to screw Reno for once. It just freshens things up. Seriously... how many times can someone take it up the ass before they just say *ENOUGH!*
Ha ha... so yeah. Ukes should get some ass too.
lauren