If anyone needs me, I'll be outside for the season.

[rsadelle]

My reaction to this, continued somewhat more relevantly here, is a resounding fuck you. I think this is a healthy response. I write what I want about who I want because I want to. I'm not looking for approval or worship or friendship. If you don't like what I read, what I write, or who I write about, fuck you. If you don't like it, you don't have to read it. You don't even have to read about it. And, digressing into reality for a moment, you most certainly do not have to bring it up over an otherwise pleasant meal for the sole purpose of ridiculing me.

My reaction to this is a bit more troubling. The Snape/Draco story I mentioned is actually the second piece of a trilogy. The first and third stories were astonishingly easy to write. The second, however, was more difficult. Even now that it's written, I keep thinking it's bad, and I can't figure out if that's because it actually is bad, or if it's because so many people told me it was a bad idea that I can't imagine it being anything but bad. I can't simply say, "fuck you," and go on. I've been influenced by what other people have to say about my choice of pairing, and that's an unpleasant thing to know about myself.

Comments

[misswhiplash63.livejournal.com]

This is none of my buisness of course, but good for you! I saw the post the first time and I can't stand people trying to lay down the law about fanfic like that.

I'm sure it isn't bad at all either ..

Well...

[arkane156.livejournal.com]

If disliking a character who's acted like nothing but a reprehensible prick since his introduction and disliking fic that, without believable explanation, turns said character into some dashing romantic figure entitles me to go fuck myself, then so be it. I have to say I'm surprised that you, of all people, are getting upset because somebody doesn't like the same stuff you like. Vali's expressed her disdain for Fight Club on numerous occasions - should I tell her to go to hell because that's my favorite movie?

FWIW, I didn't even know you were writing H/D when I posted in that thread. Maybe you're the one author who can sell me on it. It wouldn't surprise me, given that you got me to read mpreg without tossing my cookies. But I stand by my opinion that the majority of H/D fic out there is ludicrously unbelievable.

[viedma.livejournal.com]

Decaf coffee is delicious and tasty-- you should take a sip every now and then.

Re: Well...

[rsadelle]

There's a difference between saying you don't like something and telling someone they shouldn't write it because no matter what they do it's going to be bad.

There's also a difference between my reaction to someone telling me they don't like something I've written or something someone else has written, my reaction to someone telling me I shouldn't write something because it's trite and it's going to suck, and my reaction to someone telling me I shouldn't write something because it's trite and it's going to suck after I've already been involved in a series of otherwise pleasant conversations in which nearly everyone I know tells me, explicitly or implicitly, that my slash is an embarrassment and/or joke to them.

[rsadelle]

Thanks.

Re: Well...

[arkane156.livejournal.com]

If these people were telling you that your slash embarrassment to them, then telling them to fuck off is certainly understandable. But do you think it's possible that maybe the unpleasantness at dinner might have put you in a frame of mind to read things into people's posts that weren't necessarily there? I'm not seeing where Vali or I or anybody else said that your story in particular was destined to suck rocks, and shouldn't be written. She said that the "Harry and Draco as allies and lovers" theme has been done a zillion times, and it has. But so has practically everything in slash. It just seems like you're taking it all a lot more personally than it was intended.

[that_mireille]

Hey. I don't like Draco. I dislike 99.99% of all H/D out there. (The three stories you posted on hpslash recently were well-written, but just not my cup of tea.) But you know what? I get enough shit from people for writing fanfic. And from the people who are OK with that, I get enough for writing slash. And from *that* subset, for writing Harry Potter slash. (And let's not even get into the fact that I write some of the red-headed-stepchild pairings of HP fandom...the ones hardly anyone else wants.)

My point? You like it? You feel that it reflects a possible version of the characters (possibly given some changes to their universe, such as your recent series)? Then write it. I may critique the *way* you write it, and I think that's fair. But *what* you write? That's up to you...

[rsadelle]

I may critique the *way* you write it, and I think that's fair. But *what* you write? That's up to you...

That's precisely my point. I will write what I want, and I try very hard not to let other people's ideas about what I'm writing influence me. However, sometimes I do get influenced by other people's dislikes of characters of pairings, and it bothers me that I can be influenced that way.

As for the way I write, if you ever feel so inclined to critique that, please do so. I don't want to pressure you into writing feedback, but I want you to know that I'm not one of those authors who will take anything other than abject praise as a personal insult.

Re:

[that_mireille]

The fact that I agreed with you was rather less clear in my comment than it was in my head, frankly... But yeah.

[rsadelle]

It was a little vague, yes.

And since I forgot earlier, thanks for your comment about the trilogy.