On one hand, I understand and accept responsibility for some amount of confusion. I like to write long stories. The story in question is a longfic sequel to longfic with many OCs, idiosyncratic terms, headcanons, and sometimes hiatus between chapters. Right away, cosmic horror workplace drama with psych-thriller elements is not going to be the most accessible thing in the world. And I'm autistic! I have to be realistic and understand that most of my work asks more of readers than a one-shot where only canon characters are named, written in extremely straightforward language.

But going back to review something you missed, or pointing out specific things that confused you, are also both options for a reader. If you opened a volume of any long, stylistic book series to a random middle chapter and then proclaimed, "I don't understand anything that's going on," who would expect otherwise?

Fanfiction is free, and I'm not paid to do recaps of what information to remember before any given chapter. It's not a TV show and I don't benefit from anyone binging it or not. I'm not going to create a glossary or a wiki for my work. If someone won't review prior chapters, they won't read those either.

Something that bothers me is when an author starts replying asking me to comment on their other works.

While I am genuinely delighted someone likes to hear from me. Also that's not our relationship.

Mostly i prioritize Fics with the fewest comments, and i try to comment on every chapter.

When i comment I am not asking you read/comment on my works nor am I asking you to to have a conversation with me. It's freely given.

That extra bit about landowner laws? The author probably researched for hours

a character motivation that keeps coming up but differently?

Cute songs, quick quips, a dog that might be the author inserting their pet.

Got a comment today that I tried to make a teachable moment for the commenter, though I'll most likely be deleting their comment later on today.

I would have hoped this kind of thing would go without saying, but telling someone you don't like the ship for the fic and have no intention of reading that fic because of the ship is going to be really rude no matter what silly/fun extenuating circumstances you think you have for saying so.

If you like the title, then just comment on finding the title fun/silly/original/whatever. If you want to be silly about it being the author's 69th fic, then 'story number 69, nice ;)'. The author doesn't need to know you don't like the ship or the fandom. The author doesn't need to know you didn't actually read the fic.

Some of you may be wondering why I haven’t updated any of my fics in a month. Maybe you don’t care. Frankly I might be right there with you.

I am taking a hiatus. I’m not sure how long it’s going to last, not sure if I’ll come back (I absolutely will. I have plans to post some gift fics soon but tbh that’s it)

Recently I got a comment that told me that my having typos in my writing made them want to die. When I suggested that maybe they shouldn’t read my work any longer, they told me that I made them want to kill themself.

That was really fucking heavy.

As a fanfic writer, I write because I share stories that I would be excited to read. I share them because maybe there’s someone else out there who wants to see a similar concept and they’ll enjoy it. Even if it’s just one other person.

Frankly the longer I write the more happy I am with my writing. I’m not doing it for hits or kudos, sure I love to read the comments and bookmarks and know what others think but I’m doing this for me.

Im still writing. Hell some of my fics are nearly completed. I’m just not posting them anymore. Not for now at least.

I write for myself. So that’s what I’m doing. I do it for free and for my own enjoyment. The fact that someone told me that my typos made them want to die and kill themself is too much. The fact that they tried to place that burden on me, someone who is doing all of this without a beta and for free in my spare time after working 8-9 hours day, is insane.

All I wanted to do was write fanfic and now I’m being told I’m making people want to die.

So the hiatus might go on for a while. It might end soon, I haven’t decided. I just know that comment kinda broke something in me.

Thanks for reading my works, for supporting me, for commenting and leaving kudos, I appreciate it all and hopefully I can come back soon without feeling so incredibly self conscious about everything I write.

y'all, i really am. i get that my writing isn't the best or the most exciting. i have a lot of grammar errors and angst is abundant in every one of my fics. but i put appropriate warnings, i'm kind to those who reach out in appropriate ways and ask questions, i always thank people for their interactions. but i just. i popped off this morning after a terrible night of tossing and turning because of this comment a guest left on my fic for the tlou fandom after not writing for years:

i was contemplating what to say for hours because it affected me that much. but ended up with the following: