#from jane

and then the more i thought about it, the more i realized that it was really just a reader expressing what they didn't like ?

I saved the review in my writing app so I can look back on it now and suffer all over again.

At the beginning of this particular story, I clearly line out my expectations of how relationships will probably go, and I did not plan on anything monogamous. I knew there would be some OOC, I knew there would be some MM / MF / MFM / FMMMM reverse-harem possibilities with the more chapters I wrote. but then that review. ugh.

Complaints of OOC so that I could set up an MM relationship:

I dunno, the longer I write characters, the more they evolve in my head. And OOC? hah. I write what I want to read, and if I'm running OOC then so be it. But I had reasons for the OOC and it was all because of magic. but i digress.

"hiei is definitely not the type of character to engage in same sex relationships"

mmhm ok I guess you haven't read the thousands of other fics that set him up in very steamy MM relationships with everyone on his team xD

I could go on, but while I'm still feeling the sting from this like fuckin essay of a critical review, it's also kind of funny ??

also look, I fully headcanon that kurama would rock sparkly lip gloss and anyone that thinks otherwise can go find something else to read

but then. BUT THEN. it gets better.

After my next chapter post, they posted another review that left ash in my mouth. They said that they'd seen how their words affected the scenes I included in the next chapter, and how I'd clearly used their suggestions to improve the character interaction?!

lady, that chapter was nearly complete before you'd ever said a damned thing. and then, and THEN they went on to describe potential future scenes I could write, and I just ... I just couldn't. I had so much planned for future chapters, and to have that creativity claimed in a review as something they had done, something they had suggested, was like. . . I didn't want to write anymore and have that credit yoinked.

it was dumb of them. it was dumb of me for getting so worked up about it. and then it was super SUPER dumb that I kept the review in my fuckin writing app so I could angst over the audacity and shout into the void about it. I have the thing littered with personal angry response comments

I feel a little hands-tied when I get a really long review from an anonymous reviewer. I don't like dropping all my comments/replies into the next chapter because there's no guarantee that the next post will be anytime soon and it feels a bit rude to the readers to constantly eat up paragraphs for responses. please please log in if you want a reply to reviews.

I had some ??? moments reading this new review because I only added a new scene for Kagome to the last chapter after thinking about Kagome frequently just walking off-stage to give h/s a few minutes alone for whatever dialogue I had in mind, while all the rest of the scenes talked about in the review had been in planning and were mostly written since mid-January. I must have misunderstood the review, but it kind of felt like it said all those yay-details were inspired by the concrit. that felt a little yikes. Maybe I'm just being over-critical of user analysis and extra-defensive of my story-baby.

I should probably be clearer about what parts are inspired by reader feedback so this frowny moment could have been avoided. (I literally choked on my coffee thinking that the kiss scene at the end of that chapter which I've been shaping and thinking about for weeks might have ended up as a suggestion in that earlier review and it could have also fallen under the umbrella of 'came from user suggestion'. I'm going overboard here and it's stressing me out. I will stop.)

please understand I cannot change anything major about my storyline to fit reviews, to include relationships and the relationship struggles that are already in the works. No spoilers here, but this isn't a Hiei/Kag-only fic. The story has been in planning for long enough that all I can/will do is drop in additional details to help the existing ideas and flow make sense. Most of the chapter I posted on Saturday along with 90% of the content in the next six chapters have been completed for over a month, pending the additions of minor connecting elements and final cleanups.

anyways, it's been bugging me all day. lol. end rant. writing is currently on hold while commission work still in progress.

the idea behind a trilogy of stories here is that book 1 was mostly shippo going on an adventure with a bit of Kagome sprinkled in. book 2 is a kind of split adventure between the two of them (unfortunately I dragged on the shippo stuff much longer than I should have, it def needs some trim-down) and lastly, book 3 will be mostly Kagome going on another (mostly new) adventure to solve some trouble(s) that has been hinted at and set up with tidbits sprinkled through book 2. Nothing is set in stone yet!

All of your words are taken to heart :) Thank you Jane for taking the time to let me know how you're feeling about it! I can't promise everyone will love my decisions on where the book ends up going, but I'm not abandoning any delicious threads just because it's heading off under a fresh title ;)

i hooked up with eric both nights this weekend.