I am so pissed.
Oh, it's not that school started. Honestly, the first day back went pretty well, and I was glad to see my friends again after two weeks. No, I'm pissed at other, anonymous people.
As some of you know, I posted a story called Take Me to Church on here and Archive of Our Own. Yesterday, I updated it after four weeks, and I was really proud of myself because, in my opinion, it was a good chapter.
But this morning I find that two people out of three have commented negative comments on AO3, one of them saying 'It doesn't seem like your character to act this way." Hello?! Is it you who is the author or me? It wasn't even constructive, but they did say they were okay with the chapter in the end, so I didn't reply as harshly.
That's not the worst, though. Another person commented on my story without any positive feedback whatsoever. They literally said that, and I quote, "I didn't really like this chapter..." I got so annoyed, I wrote them a whole paragraph explaining why my character was acting impartial (for reference, she's supposed to be Annabeth Chase reincarnated, of course she's going to be impartial) and how, if they didn't like my story, they would be very welcome to go find another fanfiction that they did like.
Now, I'm a big fan of constructive feedback. The key word is constructive. All this last comment did was literally diss my chapter and say what they think my character should have done, making no mention whatsoever about Annabeth Chase herself. If this person is reading this, then I would like to remind you that you are not the author of my story and you do not get to choose how my character reacts.
As for the person who wrote the first comment, it's still pretty annoying to find that someone thinks they know my character better than me, but this person has been commenting quite positive comments on each of my chapters since I started, so I was firm with her but tried not to be rude. However, the last person had never commented at all apart from that one comment. And plus, that person wrote it in Spanish, so I had to go and translate it into ChatGPT, and write my rather curt answer in ChatGPT so that I could reply to her on AO3 in Spanish!
Why don't I just comment back in English? Because, one, my story is already in English. This person has at least tried to translate the chapter into Spanish, and so has made some effort into reading my story. Two, I find it rude not to comment back to someone in the language they chose to comment with. If someone had written me a comment in Russian, I would have translated it and my reply and sent back my reply in Russian. It's just basic manners, honestly.
But that people have the gall to think that they know my character that I created honestly pisses me off. Constructive feedback is welcome, but if you're a commenter who gets angry when the plot doesn't go the way you wanted it to go, may I just remind you that you are not the author and so do not get a choice in the matter unless the author lets you choose? I understand that you can be frustrated, but that doesn't mean you have to go and outright comment on your disapproval of the story, knowing that the author will see it.
If you are frustrated, then have a good reason why! The reason that I heard, that my character shouldn't have acted like that, is not a good one. No one knows how people react in the face of the unknown and danger, and that was exactly what my chapter was about. So you cannot pretend to know a character better than the author, especially as often authors don't even believe they know the character completely!
So please. Be respectful to fanfiction authors. And self-published authors. We take time out of our day to entertain you. The least you can do is write a constructive paragraph, or say that you like it. But don't be a hater.
Signing out,
Alex <3
ns 15.158.61.8da2
