in need of some advice

[trisana_mcgraw]

So, I got a review for Romantic Notions (that monster fic that first got me into Raoul/Buri), but it wasn't exactly positive:

From 'shame' (anonymous review, natch, and I can't figure out if it's the person's username or if s/he is trying to make me feel bad)

i think this is very much like the story takrimon wrote...shouldn't you have mentioned

Comments

[onetrickponies]

If this reviewer is trying to drag you into the realm of plagiarism, I think it'd be pertinent to remember that both fics are "missing scene" fics that were written based off an alluded to event in the original published work. Everyone with a brain who read Squire knows that Raoul and Buri Got It On during the night of Joren's ordeal after (and laregely because) they attended Raoul's aunt's Midwinter party. It'd be like accusing fics of Joren's ordeal of being too similar because Joren dies at the end. :P It's what fanfic writers do: fill in the gaps. That scene was just a particularly tasty one for ficcing. People are bound to end up writing about the same things.

If it were an original, newly contrived premise for a fic that was being copied, that's a different story. *grumbles*

The fact that the reviewer can't even be bothered to spell the other author's name correctly and use proper capitalization knocks them halfway down to the bottom on my taking-people-seriously scale. Shows little respect for the situation, no matter how dire. (Yes I'm a snob. If people are going to point fingers, they better make sure they don't have a blob of ketchup on their shirt first for me to point back and laugh at.)

I think your best bet is to ignore them.

[onetrickponies]

ETA: especially because they reviewed anonymously. Coward. *scoffs* And a few years after the fact.

[sylvia_rachel]

Yeah, actually, on second thought, I think I agree with ^

If they were really serious, and not just trying to stir up bad feeling, they'd PM you or e-mail you and ask a question, rather than making a public accusation on slender evidence. And if they can't bother to spell the alleged victim's name correctly, well, they don't deserve a response.

'Course, I'm the fanfic reader who hits the "back" button if there's more than one grammar or punctuation error in the first paragraph of a new story and never goes back.