Fic Talk > General Discussion
Just a general pop in thread
RokofAges75:
Thankfully, I don't think it was the first or last comment on that chapter. But yes, very annoying! And normally I would be happy to discuss my site layout, but not in that context LOL.
Ah, so Roman and Gerri's secret relationship was more of a plot device than an important part of the plot. I guess the readers can't see inside your head to know that that was your reasoning, but it's funny what seemingly small things they fixate on. But sometimes those little plot devices end up being bigger parts of the story. In A Heart That Isn't Mine, I had to have Nick separated from Lauren at the beginning of the story to make the situation I put him in more believable, so I came up with the back story that she'd had a stillborn baby between Odin and Saoirse, and the grief was what tore them apart. (This was 2018, before Saoirse was born and before Lauren miscarried the baby girl.) The stillbirth was only a plot device, but once I committed to that back story, it became a part of the plot that affected Nick throughout the story. If I were writing it now, I would probably just have Lauren leave him over the rape allegations instead and skip the dead baby subplot because that made an already dark story even more depressing, but I didn't think of that then. Anyway, I guess my point is that you should go with whatever feels most realistic, even if that means turning something that was intended to be a small part of the story into a bigger part. But if it seems more realistic for Shiv's reaction to not be a big deal, stick with that! You know the characters better than I do, and you can always explain your reasoning in an author's note if you want to justify it to your readers.
mare:
Thanks for the advice. I decided to keep Shiv's reaction the same but made a bit more dialogue around it and added a Gerri and Roman flashback and then I added Kendall into the mix and made him have a more negative reaction, blaming Gerri for everything that happened by using Roman's bodyguard instead of leaving him there. I feel much better about the chapter now. We'll see what people think. Since it's such a built up in my mind chapter now, I most likely will not get any feedback one way or the other. Because isn't that the way? LOL
RokofAges75:
LOL Yup, that seems to be how it goes, unfortunately. I'm glad you're feeling good about the chapter and hope it does get a good reaction!
RokofAges75:
When you posted your stories on AO3, did you post all of them or just certain ones? I've posted just about everything I've written post-Broken/BMS. None of the stuff I wrote before Broken is worth posting because it's so immature and poorly-written compared to the stuff I wrote as an adult. When I started posting that stuff, I had just finished rereading most of it for a series of retrospective blogs I did leading up to my site's anniversary in 2020, so I took that opportunity to fix all the typos I'd found and flagged while doing that. It took a long time, but it was worth it to me, and I did most of that during the pandemic when I had plenty of time. But I never got around to posting Broken and BMS. I told myself that would be a summer project one of these years, but I keep going back and forth on whether I want to or not.
Being the oldest stories I would even consider posting on AO3, they would need the most editing - and I'm talking purely fixing typos and grammar errors, not editing any of the actual content. They're also incredibly long, which makes the thought of editing, posting, and backdating that many chapters overwhelming. And while both stories will always have a special place in my heart, they are definitely a product of the time they were written and the age I was when I wrote them, and there are some parts that are pure cringe. I'm not sure they would even find an audience on AO3.
That being said, even though those two stories aren't representative of my best writing anymore, I still think of them as my magnum opus. I doubt I'll ever be as obsessed with one of my own stories as I was with those two. Broken used to be (and may still be?) the story I'm best known for, so it seems a shame not to have it attached to my pen name on the most popular fanfic archive. And BMS would be the longest BSB fic posted there, which, I admit, I would take pride in. I will probably never write another novel that long. So there's a part of me that does want to post them, even though I'm dreading the amount of work and cringing it would involve LOL. Anyway, that's one thing on my mind when it comes to fanfic.
mare:
I didn't post all of my stuff on there. Only the ones that I felt were worth the time. After posting them, there were some chapters of stories that posted with no problem but then there were a lot of chapters of stories that posted with weird symbols where I guess the coding was different from AC to AO3. Every single comma, apostrophe and quotation mark was messed up. I fixed a lot, and it took me forever and honestly, it wasn't worth it. After posting all the stuff I did on AO3, barely anyone read them. If I go back and look at my stats, the number of hits or kudos or comments are so small it was hardly worth all the effort. So, my thinking, and this is probably true for you too, the people who still read BSB fiction have most likely already read our most popular stories. I have had a few random people suddenly give me kudos for my older stuff but that by far is a rarity. Some most likely only clicked on them only to realize it was me since my AO3 penname is different than Mare. I wouldn't waste my time and energy moving your stuff over there unless you know there are newbies who are maybe reading what you're posting now who might have never crossed paths with either of those stories. Maybe you can ask in an author's note at the end of the next chapter you post, or you can always include a link to those stories on your actual site.
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