so, as I'm going through my old posts, I'm reminded that this reader that goes by jane left me a ... hm. blunt review. I'll say blunt. It kind of hurt to read. kind of critical of a few directional elements in my story. at first, I thought, 'oh that's helpful!' and even wrote a really thorough response?
and then the more i thought about it, the more i realized that it was really just a reader expressing what they didn't like ?
I saved the review in my writing app so I can look back on it now and suffer all over again.
At the beginning of this particular story, I clearly line out my expectations of how relationships will probably go, and I did not plan on anything monogamous. I knew there would be some OOC, I knew there would be some MM / MF / MFM / FMMMM reverse-harem possibilities with the more chapters I wrote. but then that review. ugh.
Complaints of OOC so that I could set up an MM relationship:
I dunno, the longer I write characters, the more they evolve in my head. And OOC? hah. I write what I want to read, and if I'm running OOC then so be it. But I had reasons for the OOC and it was all because of magic. but i digress.
"hiei is definitely not the type of character to engage in same sex relationships"
mmhm ok I guess you haven't read the thousands of other fics that set him up in very steamy MM relationships with everyone on his team xD
I could go on, but while I'm still feeling the sting from this like fuckin essay of a critical review, it's also kind of funny ??
also look, I fully headcanon that kurama would rock sparkly lip gloss and anyone that thinks otherwise can go find something else to read
but then. BUT THEN. it gets better.
After my next chapter post, they posted another review that left ash in my mouth. They said that they'd seen how their words affected the scenes I included in the next chapter, and how I'd clearly used their suggestions to improve the character interaction?!
lady, that chapter was nearly complete before you'd ever said a damned thing. and then, and THEN they went on to describe potential future scenes I could write, and I just ... I just couldn't. I had so much planned for future chapters, and to have that creativity claimed in a review as something they had done, something they had suggested, was like. . . I didn't want to write anymore and have that credit yoinked.
it was dumb of them. it was dumb of me for getting so worked up about it. and then it was super SUPER dumb that I kept the review in my fuckin writing app so I could angst over the audacity and shout into the void about it. I have the thing littered with personal angry response comments
the reader was very set on a purely hiei/kagome storyline and i guess they didn't get the memo that author writes what author wants to read ?
