Fanfic Authors Anonymous

Fanfic Authors (Not So) Anonymous: Sometimes the reviewers are stranger than the fiction

[phoenixyfriend]

Like I know it's something I've been struggling with but just SAYING it like that...

Anyway

Please don't be this person

[fanficauthorsanonymous]

............it’s nice that you’re acknowledging that it’s impolite, but you still did it.

[fanficauthorsanonymous]

Wikipedia, actually. That and other FFnet users who were already identifying as something other than cis or straight. I refused to touch Tumblr until after I finished this story (or possibly just before I finished it), but I suppose that if you really wanted an answer to this question, you wouldn't have been on Anon.

[fanficauthorsanonymous]

Ahahahahahaha FUCK no

[youngjustice-from-last-nigh-blog]

fanfic author: oh so you like this fic?

fanfic author: it would be a shame if

fanfic author: i never

fanfic author: updated it

[honey-stick]

fanfic reader: oh so you have no comments and think no one likes this fic?

fanfic reader: it would be a shame if 

fanfic reader: i never

fanfic reader: commented despite liking it

[fanficauthorsanonymous]

*beckons anon closer*

I don’t care.

[Also that fic was written literally years ago. Why are you here.]

[fanficauthorsanonymous]

[And below, a close-up of the fic they were commenting on and just how long ago it was updated.]

Buddy, I posted that chapter five years ago, and I still stand by the idea that original characters in fanfiction are a good thing. Even bad OCs are a valuable learning exercise for newbie writers, which I was at the time, and in many cases, OCs can greatly enhance a fanfic. I’ve read a lot of good fics where OCs played moderate or even major roles.

I’m a published author now and I still believe this.

...I’m not sure what else to tell you.

[fanficauthorsanonymous]

*insert several long sighs here*

Passive-aggressiveness helps absolutely no one. It won’t make me want to write more, just irritate me. You don’t get more fic AND you make someone’s day worse. Come on, y’all.

I have no idea how to even explain how annoying “joking threats” to update are. Suffice to say, “very” should cover it.

[phoenixyfriend]

hi, may i ask if you know what happened to tozettewrites? either she changed her url or she deleted her blog because i can't find anything at tozettewrites and i was wondering where to find her now on tumblr, if you don't mind saying, please?

You are… the fifth or sixth anon I’ve gotten on this subject, and Toz disappeared over six months ago. I’m kind of exhausted.

Long story short: Toz didn’t like her fans, because a large number of them (especially those from Hit The Ground running) acted entitled or were queerphobic in reviews. Ultimately, she chose to wipe the related accounts.

For reasons I’m not going to get into here, Toz was understandably upset with me soon after and blocked me on the site I used to speak to her at the time.

I haven’t spoken to Toz in six months, and I’m still going to tell you exactly what she wanted me to say back when she still considered me a friend:

She doesn’t want to be found. Stop looking for her. She left for a reason.

And, from me personally, stop asking me about her. It’s getting old.

She left seven or eight months ago, guys. Come on.

[fanficauthorsanonymous]

Reblogging this to here to hopefully reach more Toz fans. I'm really tired, guys, and from what others have told me, I'm apparently the ONLY person still getting these anons.

[fanficauthorsanonymous]

Please just... do your best not to be this person.

[fanficauthorsanonymous]

This review would be irritating in and of itself, but the problem here is that I currently heavily associate the fic in question with a situation and group of people that have had a very negative impact on my mental health and I’m not exactly in the mood to revisit... that entire mess.

The reviewer has no way of knowing the latter part, but come on. Begging for updates is almost universally regarded as crass.

[fanficauthorsanonymous]

Those endless "plz update" comments are, without exaggeration, one of the reasons why writers whose works you may wish to access delete their accounts. It takes time, energy and effort to write. Unfortunately, it seems that writers are people, rather than mechanical generators​ of content for reader consumption.

[fanficauthorsanonymous]

I... have no idea what’s going on here. Is anon okay?

[fanficauthorsanonymous]

Did you seriously just review to ask about a different story of mine.

[fanficauthorsanonymous]

This person is upset that people who are not white can also be described as having lovely skin. That says a lot of very unflattering things about them.

Where to even start. Alright. Okay. I have four things to say and since this person is a guest reviewer I’m going to say them here.

Point one: The POV character thought the character had a nice complexion.

I am allowed to write that about non-white people. Non-white people can in fact be beautiful FOR the things that make them non-white. Because those things can also be beautiful. Non-white people, too, can have lovely skin. This is not a topic about which I am available for debate.

Point two: I think referring to non-white people like animals you can skin for their hide to turn into every day objects is… not good.

Do I need to elaborate on this? I don’t think I do.

Referring to non-white people like animals you can skin for their hide is scary and bad and I’m done with this point now.

Point three: Nobody said anything about horrible white skin and the reviewer made that up for some reason. The POV character has actually expressed that she’s awkwardly attracted to a white woman within like… the first chapter. The white woman also has nice skin in the text, a circumstance that this reader elected not to comment on.

This is a strange insight into the mind of somebody who believes a South Asian character can’t be allowed to be pretty without some hypothetical white character becoming ugly. I don’t know why this is a thing. You are not made uglier because of somebody else’s beauty. Calm down. (Although, please note, you can absolutely be made uglier by being a melodramatic racist mess.)

Point four: do white racists even hear themselves? Do they ever shut up?

Christ almighty, let me write my Harry Potter fanfic in peace.

[blackkatmagic]

why the fuck do some people complain that it’s been ‘3 whole days’ since I updated a fic. Why. In what universe is that reasonable. Even TV shows make you wait a week. Oh my god. Why.

[fanficauthorsanonymous]

hope you come back to this story (although i kind of doubt you will since its already been about 3 years but people want you to continue the story)

IDK if this was meant to be passive-aggressive or something, but it honestly feels so much more polite than most of the requests to continue. It’s nice to have someone acknowledge that yeah, you lost interest. Oh well, moving on.