Should you stick around in a forum where someone doesn't like your writing? You should recognize -- when you can get past the uncomfortable awkwardness -- that by inducing strong feelings in this reader (well, strong enough to write about them) you have been successful as a writer.
Well, it's not as if anyone's objections would stop me writing. :) Whether or not I write (anything, fanfic or original stuff) is really irrespective of others' opinions. And only wholesale hatred would stop me posting something I felt like sharing, because if everyone hated my stuff, heck, I'd keep it to myself. Why waste the time? :) I post in the hope someone will be entertained, as I've been entertained by others' stories, not out of a particularly deep need for kissies (not that I mind them!). I think the thing that's making me reflective here most is something I've puzzled before: you really cannot know what "the world" or "the readership" thinks of your stuff. This is part and parcel of a philosophy of mine (I've just realized!) that one never knows others as well as one thinks one does. We do so much self deceit and so much presenting of what we wish to present to others that when the truth (good or bad) gets spilt it can often be shockingly at odds with what has been perceived as truth. Not that I imagined my stuff universally loved, I hasten to add. *g* I think it's more that I figure my stuff's so damn' bland, how could anyone work up the level of hatred I seem to've seen there? I'm puzzled about that, so it kinda nags me, as though there's something else underlying it. Hard to imagine since I'm a stranger to her and not really involved in the fandom. Hm...you type long enough, you hit on what's bothering you. That's it. I'm puzzled by the vitriol, not the dislike of the story. And the nature of the internet and the reading of strangers' opinions and stories is that it's not so easy to approach a person and say "Expound, por favor." And I'm with you, Jane and Grac, on the whole "no one forced her." :) That's generally my response when someone goes on and on about how they hated a story (usually not one of mine, thankfully, but it's bound to happen eventually *g*).
Yeah...
Well, it's not as if anyone's objections would stop me writing. :) Whether or not I write (anything, fanfic or original stuff) is really irrespective of others' opinions. And only wholesale hatred would stop me posting something I felt like sharing, because if everyone hated my stuff, heck, I'd keep it to myself. Why waste the time? :) I post in the hope someone will be entertained, as I've been entertained by others' stories, not out of a particularly deep need for kissies (not that I mind them!). I think the thing that's making me reflective here most is something I've puzzled before: you really cannot know what "the world" or "the readership" thinks of your stuff. This is part and parcel of a philosophy of mine (I've just realized!) that one never knows others as well as one thinks one does. We do so much self deceit and so much presenting of what we wish to present to others that when the truth (good or bad) gets spilt it can often be shockingly at odds with what has been perceived as truth.
Not that I imagined my stuff universally loved, I hasten to add. *g* I think it's more that I figure my stuff's so damn' bland, how could anyone work up the level of hatred I seem to've seen there? I'm puzzled about that, so it kinda nags me, as though there's something else underlying it. Hard to imagine since I'm a stranger to her and not really involved in the fandom.
Hm...you type long enough, you hit on what's bothering you. That's it. I'm puzzled by the vitriol, not the dislike of the story. And the nature of the internet and the reading of strangers' opinions and stories is that it's not so easy to approach a person and say "Expound, por favor."
And I'm with you, Jane and Grac, on the whole "no one forced her." :) That's generally my response when someone goes on and on about how they hated a story (usually not one of mine, thankfully, but it's bound to happen eventually *g*).