Hey all my readers

[velvet_mace]

I love you all, you are so wonderful and patient with me and my slooow updating. You've put up with my errors and lack of brit picking. And you've left me such wonderful comments, I just can't explain how happy as a writer you've made me feel

Comments

[ocotillo_dawn]

Those of us who post on line give a lot of power to readers to give us feedback. This is a great thing, IMO. I've found it very powerful to learn, e.g., that a character I was trying to portray as sympathetic was coming off as whiny to many. And of course, the wonders of the collective intelligence pointing out errors I hadn't even known to look for.

But it's worth pointing out to readers sometimes that we cannot write about their beloved themes...simply because they aren't ours. To have a reader tell me (ETA: especially as if it were fact, not preference) that so-and-so is too much of a slut, or that my world should have more action-packed excitement, or that I should develop the politics more, or that there is too much sex (or not enough), or yes, that there is something disturbing about the kink aspects (or lack thereof)... *sigh*.

Might as well be another author, right? I began seriously writing m/m in part as a reaction to those aspects of others' fiction that I wanted to change. Have to say, I wouldn't dream of telling them to conform to my desires... :)

Good post. It applies to aspects much broader than 'kink-shaming'.

[ocotillo_dawn]

Sorry-- a simple add on:

In a way, this is about what the reader expects from an author/book. Do they expect to dive into the world of the author, or do they expect the author to create the world that they want? Should be the former, and of course, they are absolutely entitled to decide it isn't a world that suits them.

[velvet_mace]

Yeah, ultimately it comes down to the fact that I'm going to write the story I want to write. The details can be tweaked, especially if execution is the problem, but I'm not going to change something that is integeral.

In part my writing is a response to a lot of fic writing which is fairly black and white: bad guys are bad for no good reason, good guys are always right. So I put a lot of ambiguity and moral relativism in my writing. Some people just aren't into that, but really, that's not going to change.