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ok so I’m going to rant abt something rn and barely anyone follows me so fell free to ignore but I don’t think ppl understand what it feels like as a writer to read negative comments. I understand if ppl want to give constructive criticism but.... just don’t... pls just don’t
I spent hours and hours and hours writing something that I’m then putting on the internet for FREE. I don’t have anyone beta’ing my work for me, I don’t have anyone who can even read my writing for me afterwards, I’m trying my very best and if I want criticism I would ask for it
I try my very best to find all the typos and mistakes in my work but I’m a full time university student, writing fanfic is a hobby of mine and I have so much stuff to do outside of writing. I’m currently trying to write my own book, I am deeply involved in politics and activism-
I am struggling with my mental illness on a daily basis please understand that writers are people as well. I don’t like to fixate on the negative comments I really try not to but it’s very hard for me. there are comments that someone wrote in March that I still think abt when I-
am about to post and I think that if the commenter knew how it affected me they wouldn’t have written that. I no longer write for that ship or fandom bc I’m scared to get negative comments again, it ruined it for me and I just couldn’t get back into the flow of writing for that-
ship. I got too stuck in my head abt how I needed to avoid certain things, how I needed to make sure what I wrote didn’t come off that way and then I just stopped writing. a lot of that is my fault for taking things too personally yes but it still hurts a lot
no one wants to say they write for external validation but we would also be lying to say that comments and kudos and ratios w hits don’t affect us as writers. sometimes I get comments that make me cry with happiness and I treasure that so much and that does motivate me a lot
over the quarantine I wrote some fun fics that I’m not too proud of but also idk they’re just fun and lighthearted. I wrote some of them in maybe an hour or two so very quick at least for me and they managed to get more hits, kudos and comments all of my other fics and I won’t-
lie that hurt me a little bit. I’m happy that people enjoyed them and I understand why they become as popular as they did but idk.... sometimes I wish that my more serious work would also get the same amount of support
it’s tempting to think ‘oh I’ll just write more of what was popular and that will get more support’ but at the end of the day I really don’t write for validation (even if I do sometimes post for it) and I won’t compromise my integrity as a writer for that even if I’m tempted
I think it’s clear when writers do something only bc it will be popular and not bc they genuinely want to write and I’m not hating on ppl who do but I don’t want to be like that so as a result I’ve been taking a step back from writing and posting for a little while just to sort-
of re-centre myself and I’ve been working on some original writing too which I hope will one day be shared as well even tho I’ll probably not be linked to this account haha.... it’s been fun and stressful and idk
in conclusion pls leave a comment on fics that u enjoyed even if it’s just short I promise that it will probably mean a lot to a fic writer and if u didn’t enjoy then pls just leave there’s no need to spread negativity unless there’s something major that needs to be tagged or-
there is something very major like racism or homophobia or transphobia in the writing. it’s easy to just leave something alone especially if it’s angsty and u r not happy with the ending or some part of it bc it’s angst. at least for me I will tag it explicitly so pls do not hate
me for writing angst bc I enjoy it a lot and it’s very cathartic for me to write. anyways I’m rambling again but feel free to ignore this I just really needed to vent it out
oh also to add I do have 2 ao3 accounts that I keep separate. I created the one linked to this account bc I’m a very anxious person and I didn’t want my irl friends to know I still wrote bts fic bc they make fun of me for it so this thread doesn’t really make sense when u look at
my account but I’m talking abt the other one so! sorry for any confusion!
