Going through your AO3 and there are dozens and dozens of glowing comments on your work in fact I'm struggling to find a negative one. One or two negatives by probably some kind of troll, as much as they can sting, merit neither thought nor action. Except, perhaps deleting their remarks, and continuing forward with your work. You've 'hurt' no-one, you're not going to; add more tags if there's a topic some might have a squick over and you think there are more bases that could be covered. It's not you at fault. AO3 is here for this. it's just unfortunate that you're in a vulnerable position and some whiny asshole has chosen to do their internet yapping at you. Don't give them so much credibility or sympathy. And just look at all the heaps and heaps of nice things people say and think about your work; there's your proof of concept
Thank you so much for your encouragement, support, and kind words, anon. ππ
It's been such a strange situation overall. If it had been a typically "troll-ish" comment, I would have deleted it and moved on. But there's an issue of... well, a disconnect between my intentions/literary technique as the writer and this reader's interpretation/understanding. There's any number of things that could be standing in the way (English fluency, age, familiarity with literary tropes, etc.) that would make their assumptions perfectly valid and absolutely legitimize them calling me out for seemingly being a bigoted creep. I just still haven't figured out how to explain it to them and apologize for the effect it had without being overly defensive/sensitive, without assuming they're uneducated, without sounding like an insincere, pretentious prick, etc.
As I understand it, there's also the very real possibility that I'm needlessly blowing everything about this situation outrageously far out of proportion, and/or that I take my writing way too seriously (like... to the point of utter absurdity). It certainly wouldn't be the first time... π€¦
But thank you again for your vote of confidence. It's always comforting to know there are people in your corner πππ
