About the recent rise of criticism on fanfic stories
In my experience, a lot of fanfic readers these days are very critical of fanfic stories, especially on twt where people are making entire posts to mock fanfics and fanfic writers.
As a writer, you may try to ignore the critiscm, but in truth, being criticized for anything you do is not fun. For this reason, you can easily end up becoming too critical of your own work as well, and changing your writing to suit what readers want.
As fanfic writers, we honestly cannot hear this enough, so I'll say it again;
Fanfic-writing is a fun little hobby and so you're free to choose what stories to write and in what way.
There is a difference between constructive criticism and a reader just nitpicking/being mean/complaining.
3. There are no rules on how you should or shouldn't write your fanfic. Readers may yap about your work, but their opinion is just that- an opinion, not fact. It's not set in stone.
4. You are the artist. Nobody can tell an artist how to artfully express themselves.
5. You're allowed to write any kind of way you're comfortable with, as long as you're telling the story you want to tell, NOT the story your readers want to read.
6. Fanfic writing is about the writer. It's literally you playing with your dolls, but in form of writing. Outsiders can't come join you then tell you how to play with your dolls.
7. Remember that as a writer, you want people to read and enjoy your stories; but you're not responsible for their experience when they do read. DO NOT apologize to a reader that tells you they didn't enjoy your work, especially if they're complaining a second time on a different story. Instead, politely remind them that they're free to leave.
When you write for a small fandom and have few readers, losing some readers may be scary; but trust me when I say that your stories will always find their true, loving, loyal and appreciative crowd.
Readers that constantly complain are not real fans of your writing. They're just entitled bullies who enjoy being mean and getting writers riled up; idiots that want everything in life to go their way.
3 quality readers that support and show you kindness are worth more than thousands, half of whom are just ungrateful serial complainers that bring you down.