god im so sorry people were being so shitty about your fic. you didn't deserve that. i hope you're doing a bit better now <3
Hey, anon, thank you so much. I got your follow up to this, and I understood what you meant!
I’m feeling a lot better and had a really good session with my therapist about all this. Basically, the sheer number of people who helped me get out of that dark place was really overwhelming in a positive way. I want to thank everyone who backed me up either in comments or in messages.
I’ve come a long way as a person. If people had said those things about my writing when I was a kid, I would have stopped writing. Period. I would have been decimated. I hit a bad spot, but I’m an adult now. I know my writing is good. I have unwavering faith in that. My writing was actually good for a kid, too, when I was a kid!
I’ve talked to some of the people involved, and everyone seems to really have understood how bad it hurt me, and that’s all I can ask short of everyone who reads this to consider why “cringe-reading” or “cringe” in general is actually really harmful to starting artists. Because I continued writing after that fic. I’m made some really damn good stuff because I kept writing. I’ve been published before and received accolades for my work. But kids who have the misfortune of seeing their stuff shredded in this increasingly common internet hostility toward “bad content” don’t have the formative years I have.
Anyway sorry for this becoming a TLDR about why cringe-culture is REALLY bad and should be kicked from all corners of the internet. I’m really thankful for you reaching out, and I’m so thankful for everyone who supported me through that.
<3
