Hello again! It's Good Omens Throwback Thursday, something I started posting intermittently a few years back, after realizing how incredibly many good fics were already the stuff of history (and to shamelessly promote some of my own older works). Lately a posse of wonderful writers have picked up the idea, with the twist of reflecting on their own writing process: check out @curiouspupsicle, @quitequaintrelle, @rogue-bard, @ineffabildaddy, @carry-the-sky (and more!). Meanwhile, I've been occupied with the question: how do you respond to critique of elements in your fic that feels thoughtful and, on consideration, legitimate?
I've actually already featured Ethical Considerations, my first AU, posted in 2020. Over the years, it's continued to receive a steady trickle of kudos and comments, and some of those comments addressed issues with two specific beats in the story that I would handle differently now.
-- Was it either realistic or satisfying for this human version of Crowley, all too prone to self-medicate instead of coping with his emotions, to escape any legal consequences whatever for drink driving? I had to admit, a flippant message and not an incentive for the kind of growth the character practically cried out for.
-- Did this Salvation-Army-raised, semi-closeted Aziraphale ever get proper acknowledgement of a traumatic boundary violation -- one to which other characters, Crowley included, reacted by exhorting him to move on when he was clearly dissociating and sexually shutting down? Um, no. Instead, in the wake of Crowley's acting out, he rebooted their sexual connection after a little cursory make-up dialogue, without anyone ever giving much space to his trauma reaction. Romantic, but hardly wholesome. I squirmed a little bit as I thunk it over.
The thing is that AO3 is the kind of platform where you can fix that. No one suggested that the story be rewritten -- only that a couple of the existing elements of the narrative could have been addressed more thoughtfully. I had wanted to get my pair to a happy ending with all dispatch, but in the rearview, their reconciliation scene read like the unearned flip of a switch. And in the wake of Season 3 (or whatever that was), a narrative that shortchanged Aziraphale's courage and trauma, while letting Crowley completely off the hook for wallowing drunkenly in his feels, just landed wrong.
So, first in 2024 and again since s3 aired, I reworked sections of the dialogue in the final chapter, when the major incident of the story is done and dusted and Aziraphale and Crowley are actually obliged to communicate. [I downloaded the earlier versions as PDFs, so no iteration of the story is lost, and referenced the changes I made in an addition to the chapter notes.] It felt especially important to indicate clearly that Crowley's bestie -- a literal crisis counselor -- respected what Aziraphale had been through, and had words with Crowley about how he handled it. The point of the fic's breakup scene (essentially the s1 bandstand scene), as with every moment of conflict in the first two TV seasons, is that on some level they are both right and both have legitimate feelings, and I did my best to rework the chapter in a way that honors that.
There's a fair amount of discourse about unsolicited criticism on fic, and most of the time I am firmly in the corner of "if you didn't like it, step quietly back from the keyboard with your hands in plain sight." We write for free, we write for love, we are all at different places in our creative growth, and we are not here to be nitpicked or scolded because someone doesn't like that kind of story or we used the word "ecstatic" three times in a scene or the AI police are out in force. And we are telling our story, not the one that someone else thinks we should write. But if two or three readers experience a particular element of a story as dissonant in a specific way -- insensitive to an issue that touches them, or emotionally unrealistic -- and address that reaction respectfully? I think it's appropriate to consider their points. And if a few tweaks yield what feels like a better story, it's a win all round.
You can read the story here if you're new to it, or check in on Chapter 15 if you just want to see the changes and notes.
Ethical Considerations - rated E, ~37,000 words
Aziraphale Fell isn’t exactly in the closet, but he’s not made it much further out than the hat-stand. The hairdresser at the spa where he’s just taken a job is far too flamboyant for his liking – doubtless, that’s why he can’t get the man out of his mind. His boss is a grouchy, nonbinary terror, who has an inexplicable soft spot for a priggish conservative MP from Oxfordshire. His best friend can’t stop predicting he’s fated to couple up soon. And the rent is due.
Tagging in the replies as usual; drop a note if you want on or off the list.
I write mainly Good Omens, along with occasional ventures into Sherlock Holmes (BBC and ACD), Doctor Who, and my first love, Star Trek. Find my fic here on AO3.
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