atlinmerrick:

Fuck That Right In
the Ear

I’ve been talking with a few fandom
people lately about comments they’ve received on their fic. One writer felt so
badly about the feedback they were ready to delete their AO3 account.

Because of fucking comments.
“I love this but here’s how you’ve failed me…” comments.

“I love this but there wasn’t
enough sex,” comments.

“I love this but here’s how
the plot went all wrong,” comments.

“I love this except you didn’t write me the perfect thing I
wanted and you were meant to know, so I’m going to shit in your kitchen,”
comments.

How god damn dare.

How dare anyone come into your home and stink the place up with their
cruelties.

No one has the right to say one
peeping word to you about things you love if what they say makes you sad,
ashamed, or hopeless.

No one ever ever ever has the right to take away your joy
with their pissy “honesty.”

The world sucks. There’s cancer in
it, guns, depression, difficult choices to make about money, religion, family,
jobs.

Fan fiction is many things and one
of those things is an oasis from pain. A place to create your own happiness,
find community. No one has the right to damage that for you.

No one.

No one.

One of the writers I’ve been
talking with said they wanted to stop writing after some of the negative
comments they got. This writer never asked for critique. Very few fan fic
writers do. Even when they do we
don’t “help” them when our critique hurts them. At no time is our
goal ever, ever to cause someone to
question their joy.

If you think critiquing means
telling someone what “they did wrong,” you are wrong. You are wrong. You.
When we praise what a writer does well not only do they improve just as much, they write more. If we
really want to “help a writer get better” that’s how we do it.

That’s it. That’s the secret.

If you’re one of the writers who
get or got crappy comments know this:

Any critique that makes you want to
stop writing is shit critique.

So fuck
that noise. Fuck it right in the fucking ear.

Delete negative
comments. Delete them. You wouldn’t leave a stranger’s shit on your kitchen
floor, well your AO3 or Tumblr is your online home. Keep it as tidy as you want it to be. Delete any words that
give you an empty-in-the-belly feel about your writing because those words are wrong. Unfollow anyone who’s “just
being honest.”

If someone
else’s words stop yours, those words are wrong. Ignore them. Delete them. Laugh
at them. When commenters say cruel things, they want their words to stop you
from doing what you’re doing. Don’t.

Keep
writing.

Keep.
Writing.

Do it for us, because we want your
words, we want your joy, we—and the world—sorely needs that joy.

More encouragement here…and less sweary!