Okay so it's been a week, and I have thought about what happened for quite a while. So, here's my final thoughts on the matter.
For a reminder, someone came into the comments of one of my stories on FFN asking me to PM her to talk about writing a story with her. I didnt know anything about the two fandoms she wanted to write for, so I told her so and declined. She pushed me, I declined again, and then she threatened to hurt herself if I didn't write a story with her. I reported her, she apparently reported me, I blocked her, and then she sent someone else to talk to me.
With that out of the way, here's my final thoughts.
1. Going into the comments of someone's story and asking them to PM you instead of PMing them yourself is kind of cowardly, so for now on if that happens, I'm not gonna PM you. I only did it in the first place because I didn't want to leave her hanging.
2. If someone tells you "no" then take it as it is. Trying to push the person isn't going to make them want to do your request any more than they did before.
3. If anyone. Ever. Tries to blackmail you, then report and block them immediately. That is NOT behavior I will tolerate, it's illegal, and not blocking them immediately is partly where I went wrong, because she tried to convince me that she had done nothing wrong and then threatened to report me.
4. Seriously? You're gonna send someone to talk to me because you've realized that I actually did block you? Not only will I tell them everything you did, and send them the link to the proof, but I will convince THEM to report you, too.
5. I've reached out to a few other authors in the same fandom and talked to them. They have had similar experiences with her, but apparently I'm the only one to get the "I'll hurt myself if you dont write with me" threat. Either way, they've promised to help me spread the word about her.
Other authors on this site, on FFN, and AO3, please be careful. It surprised the hell out of me that this actually happened, first of all, but also that I actually got blackmailed on a site for fanfiction. Mostly because, seriously? This is something that brings me joy and I do it for fun. I do it for fandoms that I actually know, so being surprised that I won't write for a fandom I do NOT know, as in I've never seen a single episode of it, is kind of ridiculous? Also threatening to hurt yourself over fanfiction? Are you serious? I heard from another author that you sent your mother after her because she said no, so I can only assume you're a kid. An immature kid, at that. Also, blackmail is illegal.
With all that said, if you think blackmail is a good way to get an author to write with/for you, then think again. Not only is it VERY ILLEGAL, but very immature, so my only advice to you is to stop.
And for all my authors out there, please be careful. I really don't want this happening to other authors.
Lastly, I looked up Blackmail Laws. If you are convicted for Blackmail in the United States of America, you can face some pretty hefty fines, and also jail time. Obviously I just reported this girl to the FFN website, not to the police, but if it's something more serious than writing fanfiction, then I recommend going to the police.
