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[mare]

I honestly can't really remember any specific thing anyone said that I would consider bad, bad. There have been those kinds of reviews where you can tell the person was reading with the sole intent of finding fault with it. I've had a couple of those and there was one person who reviewed my story to ask me to read hers which was kind of annoying but other than that, I think I've been pretty lucky overall. Like I said, when people are unhappy with the plot twists or some of my characters I tend to take that as a compliment because they didn't see it coming and I wasn't predictable. lol

[emilo]

I don't think I've ever really had someone say something bad per se about one of my stories here on AC. The only thing I've experienced with a BSB fanfic that's kind of thrown me is someone interpreting a scene differently than I had intended.  Now, on the Grey's Anatomy fic I wrote on fanfiction.net a few years ago, I had rave reviews all the way through, until the end, and someone told me how great the story was until the end, then "Let's just pretend this one never happened."  LOL

[Sakabelle]

LOL If nothing else, it just shows they were passionate about what they were reading!

I kind of take that as a compliment, when people get really angry with my characters or the way a plot twists. Now, saying you suck is not a nice thing! LOL

Oh yeah definitely! I've had a lot more people displeased or surprised with what characters did in stories. They can be annoyed with my characters all they want (because my own characters annoy me too at times!) just leave me out of it! lol

[RokofAges75]

My very first fanfic wasn't slash but it was a Frick and Frack still. The reason was because I was so sick and tired to find stories that only had as main plot a love story and where the attention wa on the female character. I don't want to read about the girl being tortured/beated/hurt/sick/dying, I want to read about the guys dealing with these things. lol The only het I started to write (and then erased it because it sucked) was about Brian meeting this girl that then ended up threatening him to hurt the other guys if he didn't stay with her. 

That's a very good explanation for why people love reading and writing slash.  Thanks for that!  I have never been able to get into slash, only because I am such a stickler for reality, even in AU, that I just can't suspend my disbelief enough to buy any of the Boys being in a relationship with each other.  If even one of them were gay in real life, I think I would have an easier time believing it.  That said, I know it's fiction, so who cares?  And when you put it like that, reading about Nick being in a relationship with Brian sounds a lot more interesting than Nick being in a relationship with some random Mary Sue girl.

[RokofAges75]

I was away from home all weekend and am finally able to answer some questions, so prepare for several posts in a row from me while I play catch up!

Along this line of thought, what made you decide to write in the genre you did when you wrote your very first fanfic and have you managed to branch out or do you still stick to the same style you started with?

My very first fanfic was a romance - a cliche, Brian-falls-in-love-with-his-childhood-best-friend romance!  That said, it was also chock full of drama, including some medical drama.  I never finished that first version of that story, but my first finished fanfic was also a medical drama romance.  As picky as I am about romance, I have always been a sucker for a good, tragic love story.  You make two people fall in love and then put one or both of them into a life-or-death situation, and I'm hooked!  The threat of death just makes the power of love that much stronger.  I've always loved that combination, and I think that's why so many of my stories fall under that medical drama romance category.  I have certainly branched out and written in other genres - suspense/mystery, horror/supernatural, action/adventure, comedy, even some sci-fi - but I am best known for my medical drama romance and will always keep coming back to that genre.

[RokofAges75]

What is your one biggest pet peeve when it comes to fan fiction?

My biggest pet peeve is the abuse of the English language that I see in too many stories!  I'm talking about stories written by authors who are NATIVE English-speakers, not authors for whom English is a second or third language, because, honestly, those authors have a pass on making errors in English, and yet, they are not the worst abusers!  As a teacher, it just makes me cringe to see teenagers and adults fail to use the writing conventions they should have been taught in school, basic things like writing in complete sentences, using punctuation appropriately, and choosing the correct homophones.  That irks me more than anything else!

[RokofAges75]

And to blatantly steal the twitter hashtag from earlier lol

What is one thing you have learned from fan fiction?

Like Steph said, I've learned so much about how to write fiction - everything from developing characters to structuring a plot to writing in different genres and formats.  I never learned much about creative writing in school; we wrote lots of essays and reports, but hardly ever stories.  Pretty much everything I've learned about writing stories has been self-taught by reading other people's stories and trying things out in my own.  Through feedback from other people and just re-reading and reflecting on my own stories, I've figured out what works and doesn't work, and that has helped me to grow as a writer.

Something else that I've learned is self-confidence and pride in myself as a writer.  Before I got into writing fanfic, I never had a real hobby or talent that I was known for.  I played the piano and clarinet and sang in the school choir, but I was never amazing at any of those things.  I did dance and tumbling as a kid, but again, I was not particularly gifted at either.  I'm not athletic or artistic.  I was always good at school, but learning isn't really a hobby, and being smart isn't really a talent.  Writing fanfic is the first hobby I've had that I've been passionate about and stuck with for a long time - over thirteen years now!  It's still mostly a private hobby that few people in my real life know about, but it's a source of pride for me.  It's been a big boost to my confidence to get positive feedback and win awards for my writing, even if it's just for BSB fanfic.  It's just nice to feel like I'm good at something that takes actual talent!

[RokofAges75]

After seeing what some idiot said to Cinzia in a review, here is another question for you.

What is the worst thing someone has said to you in a review about one of your stories?

I can't remember ever getting a truly "bad" review.  I've never been flamed, as far as I can remember.  I have definitely gotten reviews from readers who were upset with the direction the story was going or didn't like one of the characters, but I can't complain about those because they were honest, for one, and they were from people who were still enjoying the story enough to continue reading and giving feedback.  Like a lot of you have said, those reviews show that people are passionate about what they're reading!

I have also gotten nitpicky reviews, like Julilly mentioned, that point out inaccuracies instead of commenting on the story itself, and those can be annoying, but they can also be helpful if they're right.  When I was writing Broken, there was a girl who would email me regularly with feedback, and she was a med student, so she liked to give suggestions and correct my mistakes.  At the time, it annoyed me because I was doing the absolute best I could to be realistic, and it was disheartening to be told otherwise, but I realize now that 1) she probably just wanted to show off what she'd learned and thought she was being helpful, and 2) she was right about most things, so it WAS helpful, whether I wanted to take her advice or not.  I think being critiqued that way by someone who knew what they were talking about made me more of a stickler about doing research so that there wouldn't be any inaccuracies for people to point out.  Not that my writing is factually perfect now, because I'm sure it's not, but I did not get nitpicky reviews like that for Curtain Call because I made sure not to write anything without looking it up first LOL.

I guess that shows the difference between constructive criticism and flames.  At least you can learn from the concrit!

[RokofAges75]

One of my biggest fanfic pet peeves is when people get  one or two reviews and whine they will not update until they don't get a certain amount of feedback. Holding updates from readers is kind of douchey....I stopped reading  someones story because of that.

I mean we all want reviews, yes, but there's always that person who goes overboard.

I agree with this too!  Like you said, Tracy, we all want reviews, but to punish the people who are actually giving them by withholding updates in an effort to get more reviews is just douchey.

[RokofAges75]

Agree with both of you, especially for the grammar part.

One of mine, always regarding review, is when someone leave a review only to attack me because I write slash. It didn't happen here but in the italian archive. If you don't like it, don't read it and, especially, don't come and tell me that I should write stories more "appropriate". 

That is really awful!  If they don't like what you're writing, they should just not read it.  Simple as that.  Like Steph said, we're all not going to like the same things, and that's exactly what makes archive sites like AC so great - all the variety!

[RokofAges75]

I know we all say we write for ourselves, but...

Have you ever written a story just to get more readers?

Have you ever continued/finished a story just to please your readers?

[usako]

I know we all say we write for ourselves, but...

Have you ever written a story just to get more readers?

No, or I wouldn't be writing slash.  I mean, I might have the thought but it died pretty much quickly because I'm not able to write something that I don't feel or that I don't like.

Have you ever continued/finished a story just to please your readers?

Yes, especially if they aksed me to continue it. At least you know that someone is gonna read it. 

[mare]

Have you ever written a story just to get more readers?
No, I can say I have never done that. I do have hopes that sometimes people who have never read my stuff might decide to click on it one day and give it a try but in the end I always tend to write mainly for myself and the readers I currently have because I know they will usually click and read most of what I write. I call them my faithful five (or so) lol

I think we all have more of a diversity of people reading our stuff than we think. I know I am surprised by the amount of people who say "Oh I've read that story!" knowing I had no idea until they mention it. Once again it all comes down to who actually takes the time to review. One thing I have noticed, and I'm not sure if it happens to anyone else, but sometimes the people that say that to me are the same people who DO tend to leave regular reviews for others. That baffles me. It's almost like they are embarrassed to admit it or something lol and the majority of people who say that are authors which once again goes back to that peeve of people who don't take the time to let others know they have read!

Have you ever continued/finished a story just to please your readers?
One of the goals I set for myself when I started writing fanfic was to never leave my readers hanging forever so with that in mind, I knew no matter how hard it would be, I would complete every story I started to post. Now, I can say the readers are the ones that helped me get through that. I think I'd still be working on Scars if it hadn't been for the push I got from my regular readers on that one.

[Alexsgirl_ritz]

I know we all say we write for ourselves, but...

Have you ever written a story just to get more readers?

Have you ever continued/finished a story just to please your readers?

Not really. I write because I want to write but you're secretly hoping that it would attract more readers, so you're putting into consideration what would most of the readers want when you're writing.

Not to please my readers, but I am making them my inspiration to continue writing and finish it because they appreciates my work.


Regarding the worst review I've ever received, I've been lucky because telling me that The Other side of NC is boring is the worst I've received so far. And that's not really bad at all... lol

[mare]

Have you ever deleted a review you disapproved of?