I'm having some difficulties with an ongoing fic of mine that gained more audiences than I expected it to.
1. Some readers left comments that was basically their headcanon about the characters.
"Oh, but they are xxx" "They are not like that", etc
2. Some begged me not to make the characters do this or that. One of these comments was longer than the chapter itself.
"Please don't make A do xxx", etc.
3. Some told me they hate the top character and they don't deserve the bottom, and made effort to let me know each time I update.
4. Some told me they hate me because I tend to end each chapter with cliffhanger. I'm not a native English speaker and the word 'hate' is such a strong word in my native language, it makes me sad each time someone put it in the comment.
I already added the tag 'Dark A" to imply that my portrayal of the top character is not the sweet kind. There are a lot of fics in the same fandom which portrayed the bottom character as doomed and miserable. I also added a note at the latest chapter that I'm just writing fic that I want to read, and while I appreciate the interest, I don't appreciate such comments. I still get them. "Please do not make Dark A that Dark!"
I don't get what I've done wrong...
At this point, I'm considering on deleting the fic or just discontinuing it.
Oh anon *hugs* You didn't do anything wrong at all!!! 💗
You wrote a story you were interested in. You tagged it to indicate what you were writing. You even added an author's note to make it clear. You did everything right.
The problem here is that people are reading your fic when they don't actually want to. I don't know why anyone would spend time reading something they don't like because that's a waste of time and energy.
I suspect that someone out there is encouraging people to leave these comments on your work in order to harass you into stopping. That's often the root cause when there are multiple people leaving these kinds of comments.
I recommend changing the settings on your work so that only logged-in users can comment on your work. You can do this in the privacy settings of the fic itself. You can also disallow all comments if it feels safer for you.
You can also go to your work and look at the comments. Every comment from a logged-in user will have a Block button on it.
Once you block a user, they will no longer be able to comment or kudos on your fics. In my opinion, these particular readers have probably lost the privilege to comment on your fics.
If you change your mind later, you can unblock them from your Preferences page.
There are people out there who don't like dark fic. That's okay. They don't have to read it. What's not okay is trying to make you stop writing it.
I totally understand if you decide you want to delete or orphan or just abandon the fic, anon. You were writing this because you enjoyed the story. You didn't write it to hear people tell you they hate it.
If you decide to keep going, please do block those individuals at the very least. You don't need to hear from them anymore. 💗