Hello

for example, i’m not someone who’s particularly good at coming up with complex, elaborate plots or incredibly unique ideas.  it’s just not how i choose to write.  and it would be easy for me to look at someone with an elaborate, super unique plot & decide that because i don’t write like that, i’m not a good writer.  after all, unique plots are good, and my writing lacks those, so my writing must not be good, right?  well, no, actually.  i just have different strengths, like taking a simple premise & digging super deep into its emotional depths.  that’s what i do well & it isn’t any better or worse than people who do elaborate world building or come up with really creative and unexpected plots.

your writing is never going to be all things to all people.  it just isn’t.  inevitably, you’ll have to make creative choices that favor certain aspects of writing over others.  there is truly no getting around that & it’s honestly a good thing, because it means you’ve developed your own style.  but you’ll always encounter other creators who posses strengths that you don’t.  it doesn’t mean one is better than the other or that your writing isn’t good enough. 

peony @ p_e_0_n_y responds: "It's what I call the 'perfect victim complex'

People love the IDEA of helping victims, but they don't actually want to deal with real victims. Because a fake victim can be a tool for whatever idea or point of view you want to push, where a real person cannot.

A Schrodinger's Victim, who can hypothetically exist when needed to win arguments, but remains conveniently absent, silent, unobtrusive, and most importantly never counters the speaker's thoughts, opinions or ideas.

A real victim can counter your predetermined beliefs. A real victim could make you face their humanity and complexity, and disagree with your opinions about how to help them

A phantom victim cannot. A hypothetical victim cannot. They can be whatever you want them to be.

It's why people ramble on about helping 'starving kids in 3rd world countries', but won't do a damn thing for the poor kids in the neighborhood.

It's why people want to ban sex work to save sex workers but never listen to actual sex workers.

It's why a Columbine survivor's story was misattributed to a dead girl, because the dead girl can have a whole mythos and moral crusade made up about her and never counter it, like the living girl can.

It's why people would rather defend fictional characters and the hypothetical victims who maybe, potentially, *might* be hurt by fiction, and not actual victims of abuse and grooming who tell them they're {their} methodology and conclusions are wrong.

The folks angry that this is to 'justify pedophilic ships' while ignoring actual survivors who say not to equate fanfiction ship wars to their very real abuse are some {of} the exact type of clowns I'm talking about here.