A narcistic moment... well, afternoon

[wiseheart]

Since I'm too sick to actually write (brain doesn't work properly, plus the injured hand is a bother, too) I decided to re-read one fo my old stories, "Out of Legends". It's a SGA/Andromeda crossover that I finished 4 years ago. It has relatively many revirews - 113, so far - and most of them are fairly positive.

There were, of course, a few obnoxious idiots who had their own ideas where the story ought to go and who ought to feature in it and gave me lots of grief about it, both here and on the spacebattles.com board. Unfortunately, some weren't anonymous, so i couldn't remove them. Ah, well.

So, having re-read the story for the first time in 4 years, I'm still supremely content with both the plot and the way it's written, and all the self-important idiots who wanted to have a different story just should sit down on their asses and write one for themselves. So there.

Comments

[sbs-01.livejournal.com]

Well said.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'm sick and tired of all that lecturing and condescending. I'm old enough and experienced enough to know what I want to write, and if they don't agree with my line, well, toob ad. I don't agree with 99% of the mediocre crap that fills most of my fandoms, either, but I don't haunt other people's review boards to make myself important.

And really, bitching about why I use Show A in a crossover isntead of Show B, just because the "critic" happens to like Show A is ridiculous. It comes right after the "Caracter X would never do that" insanity; or poiting out that I've shifted tenses in teh stroy, *after* I've stated expressly in the A/N that there will be tense shifts, and they happen for a reason.

The world is full of idiots.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Go you! Sounds very sensible to ignore those sorts of comments and it is very good that you still like your story. It is very bizarre some of the things people think are appropriate to complain about in comments.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it is really disheartening to see how very few people are actually interested in what I write. It makes me wonder if what I do is really good or if I'm lying to myself. But then I re-read some of the old stuff, and while I don't like everything quite as much as I like "Out of Legends", I always come to the conclusion that my stories aren' bad, no matter what some snotty-nosed, self-important male on spacebattles.com says. Or some teenaged fanpoodle on FF.Net.

But it's still hard to see how much gushing praise other authors earn all the time (and a small percentage even rightfully), while my stuff gets mostly neglected. On a good day, because on a bad day it gets flamed, too. *sighs*

And even those few who seem to like my storied miss the point most of the time. Aside from you and artemis10002000, I have yet to meet the reader who'd really appreciate all the world-building and background work and subtle hints for the bigger picture in any of my dozen or so fandoms. And that is really discouraging after a while.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

*nods*

It seems to me that writing anything in fandom has the sort of filtering out way of readers: slash vs het vs gen; porn vs not porn; long vs short; etc... And it seems that writing anything outside the expected stories that everyone is writing in any fandom seems to lead to far fewer readers. I think people get the most praise for writing the same stories over and over - I don't really understand it.

Sometimes I wish that those were the stories that I wanted to write, or wonder whether polishing and posting things is worthwhile - but try to persuade myself it is and enjoy the few comments I do get.

*hugs* I'm glad that you can still like your stories and hope you don't get too discouraged.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You are sooo right about most people writing and reading the same boring cliché again and again and again. I find it increasingly difficult to find something really interesting to read, even in the Sherlock fandom,w here I'm fairly new. If one is very lucky, one stumbles over a handful of really good, intelligent writers, puts them on the Alert list and has something to read from time to time.

I had some secret hopes that the current popularity of Sherlock would mean a steady readership for "The Adventures of a Consulting Time Lord", but, well, I was obviously mistaken. Even the few who followed during the first weeks have dropped off the face of Earth in the meantime. sammydragoncat is the only one who still regularly comments over at Dreamwidth, may Gott bless her faithful soul - and you are the regular on FF.Net. There are some guest reviewers from time to time, but very few and far between. It's hard not to lose inspiration that way.

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an interesting crossover. I don't know SGA - would I still "get it"?