I think my readers are starting to notice....
That I'm kind of losing it over my fanfic, "So Let It Be Said, So Let It Be Done." I've hit the point where I don't know where I'm going with my fanfic, or the characters, so it's no surprise to me that the negative criticism has started to roll in. I give my readers full credit for this, because to be perfectly honest, I'm not feeling this story anymore right now. I'm thinking about taking it down and taking it back to formula. I don't seem to do very well with Yugioh fanfiction for some reason. I'm always getting something about the characters wrong.
To be perfectly honest, I can't write Yuugi very well. This latest reader response has, once again, let me know I just cannot get a feel for his character. This happened with my last defunct Yugioh fic, "Between the Shadows of the Soul." With writing fanfiction for Naruto, it was much easier: Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke all have their dark moments. Naruto with his never-give-up-never-surrender attitude has curled into an emo ball in the corner from time to time despairing over what he should do or where he should go. Sakura has her moments of doubt and cries over her own percieved helplessness and uselessness. Sasuke... holy shit the boy WALLOWS in hatred and darkness like he married the damn things. Yuugi doesn't do those things canonically. Sadly I just cannot write him that way. I don't get it.
It also seems no matter how much I study the culture, I can never represent Japanese customs correctly in my fanfiction. It's easier to write in conjunction with Naruto's world. Naruto is completely fictional and the mangaka reinvented what he thought a ninja should be, so in doing that, he gave fic writers a lot of lee way imagination-wise. Unfortunately Yugioh does not offer this same fantasy distinction. :(
That said, the fic is going to be on hold indeterminately. I'm concerned because this seems to be happening a lot with my fan fiction these days. I'm seriously considering scrapping all fan fiction projects and going back to writing my original stories.