#reader preferences

Hey so , I like writing fanfiction and now that I'm in a better place mentally and I can actually engage with the fandoms I love.... I wanna start writing again.

But I want my readers to feel represented.

Every time I see a set of guidelines for fanfiction requests (outside of the Grishaverse) for the most part if the author is a woman she'll always put "no male x character" ,and I always feel bad when I see that because what if a guy reader really likes that author or that fandom? The fandom doesn't even have to have a predominantly fem audience, it just seems to be the default.

Which is why I want to ask

AND ONLY GAY MEN ANSWER

Do y'all care if a woman writes male reader inserts , or do you only feel comfortable with it being other guys?

I'm being completely genuine, I'm not looking for someone to give me the greenlight to write what I want and yada yada like no, most of my inspiration comes from wanting to give representation. But that intention is null and void if it makes people uncomfortable.

And before people ask no , I'm not straight I'm a queer woman.

Omniromantic and somewhere on the asexuality spectrum to be specific, but to save myself the hassle of having to give a thesis on my identity in public I'll just say bisexual.

But regardless I'm still a cis woman. And yeah...the fetishization that happens with gay couples gives them more than enough of a reason for them to be uncomfortable with cis women writing for them.

But idk because I always feel bad when I'm reading an xreader fic that's supposed to be "gender neutral" but it's still someone with long wavy hair , or dainty hands , or they start talking about curves (which men have just in a different way). Or even if the fic isn't explicitly gender neutral and it's just a fic/head cannon and everything's going along fine and then it it's like "you lipstick" or "your dress" and I'm like , welp target audience noted.

And DUH men can have those descriptors but I also know gay guys personally who are like "nah I'm gay as hell but I'm a GUY. " They want to read about fixing each other's ties and characters who are described with stubble , or beards or muscles(and yes I know muscles aren't gender specific that's a different rant tho).

Also if it wasn't clear I'm not talking about writing smut , writing smut in general is too tedious for me. I just mean ships in general.

Idk I'm kind of rambling but , do y'all care? Do you want more representation? Or do you want it but only from someone within the community?

When writing a long, more serialized story on ao3, how do you prefer for things to be broken up?

Each distinct arc is its own fic? It’s all one fic all the time that keeps being built onto? Certain more similar arcs are grouped into fics but after a big change it’s a new one? Or maybe each similar arc is a fic in a series, with the entire story also being part of a bigger one? Or something else entirely because seeing things in 2 series could be discouraging or less likely to be picked up.

What are your thoughts on mcd with the characters having A) no options, or B) options but none work.

Sports are something I don’t do much of, and hardly ever watch, but I sure love reading about them. Some of the best writing in the newspaper is in the sports section. A lot of it is wittier than the comics and Saturday’s Viewpoint letters are the reading highlight of my week. Maybe Charles Goldman’s pretty blonde won’t read, but this pretty-old blonde can and does.

MRS. LOUISE HAUTER

La Canada

(Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA, March 20, 1982)

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http://thebooksmugglers.com/2014/01/sff-in-conversation-women-write-sff-andrea-k-hosts-keeper-bookshelf.html

I need to save this somewhere...

My favorites on this list are Diane Duane (if she reads this, hi!), Patricia C. Wrede, Patricia McKillip, Tanith Lee, Diana Wynne Jones, Robin McKinley, Meredith Ann Pierce, Tamora Pierce, Sherwood Smith, Caroline Stevermer, and Jane Yolen.

There's a lot of women children's/YA authors that weren't listed, either, but that just proves how many there actually are. Among my personal favorites whose websites I have bookmarked, women outnumber men by 3 to 1.

For readers of fanfiction (or other things), and particularly for those of you reading Unshaken (because this will directly affect you :D):

Do you like long chapters? Or are more, shorter chapters better?

For example, the masquerade chapter was about 12K, IIRC. Was that too long? Or do you like getting a big chunk of story all at once?