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I have a bad habit of using unnecessary acronyms. It means an dialect constructed artificially (wasn't created by a natural process) based on English homophones (2 = to and too, u = you, etc). Basically it's an overly complicated way of saying leetspeek (bad spelling intended).

http://www.critters.org/whathow.ht

That is a really good resource for tips on how to say things in reviews so that there is a good chance that the writer will actually listen.

Boy, am I ever glad I responded to him. He was being extremely oversensitive, but he admitted it, apologized, and explained where he was coming from. I understand, and we both feel much better now.

Of course, this was someone who was acting relatively rationally, which is not so common online. I'm really sorry I posted all this, but I had to get it out, and your responses do help me to know what to do next time something like this comes up. I'm sure it will come up again with someone less rational, and I'll remember your comments and advice about reviews.

Aye, the sofa is still available. You'll be having a heap of blankets instead of a duvet though, cos Trojie's having that.

11.34 at the station is fine. We'll be hovering and waiting (ie Trojie and Ansela will be, while I chainsmoke outside, probably) at the station.

Laburnum, I shall make sure to bring my copy of Unseen University Challenge. :)

What I did was respond explaining stuff. I have decided that, whatever he says now, I will drop it. (Neither of us has time for this; I just won't review again.) Well, he just answered, and I'm afraid to look and see if he sent me another long message. Still, if he did, I will drop it...

Serves me right for not rereading the thread before I commented. -sigh-

--anamia

Er... As I understood, I didn't get permission yet, since Neshomeh was waiting for other PG's opinions. However, I should be close.

Since now is a page that everyone can read easily (and it's funny) I think that we can say "Mission Accomplished!"
However, someone cut a trope into half

I know exactly how you feel. I'm wrangling with the same thing myself, actually. Add to that that I've stopped trusting the good reviews I get on the pit, since I've gotten glowing reviews for stories that I think now are PPC worthy. -wince- There's a reason -- apart from my general lazy nature and persistent writer's block -- that I haven't posted anything there in months.

Mainly, I just keep writing. I know it's not a too terribly helpful answer, but it's the only way I've found to get through it. Currently (well, for way over a year now) I'm working on a Harry Potter next generation 'fic, and I too think that my characters are perhaps not quite as canonical as they could be. (It's been a long time since I was eleven, and never have I been the youngest son of a celebrity, so I'm having a hard time imagining how the boys think.) I have a list a couple miles long of things to change once I finish the first draft. But I have to finish it first. I subscribe very firmly to the theory that you can't edit what isn't there, and so I have a first draft first rule. Only when that's finished can I go back in and see if, one, it's worth keeping at all, and two, how to make it better.

I guess this is a kind of a long winded way of saying that we're in the same boat, and I would recommend just writing it as well as you can the first time around, and then going back later. Rereading your own stuff, at least for me, is always fun, and while there are always many cringe-worthy moments, there are often some, "I wrote that? Wow..." moments as well.

Hope this helps. Even if it doesn't, know that you are in no way alone.

--anamia

...that you are even trying to write an OC for FFVII when there's already such a large cast of characters? Could you accomplish the same goals by using established ones?

Besides that it sounds like you're just having the same insecurity all writers do.

Almost, though.

Being bilingual myself, I know how hard it is to write in my non-native language. All the kudos in the world to you for going for it! My email's thirteenskater@gmail.com, if you're interested, though I would ask you to send me a note via the wiki when you have missions up, since I'm awful about checking my email.

Congratulations on getting permission and may you spork much badfic in the future!

--anamia

(Isn't that a neat phrase? I picked it up recently from... Trojie, I think. Never heard it before. Better than "drama queen", certainly. Now on to my opinion...)

I say just drop the matter. Like Neshomeh says, some of the things you wrote could come off as challenging or superior, though this author would have to be either pretty short-tempered or young not to be able to handle that. There's no way to know - maybe he's a drama llama and maybe he was just having a bad day. In either case, it's just not important enough to trouble yourself with.

If you really want to send something, a simple response saying "I see. I will stop reviewing now." is probably the only vaguely safe thing. If he can't take criticism, that's not your problem - leaving reviews is a favour you were doing. So just stop. Remember, you'll never please everyone. I've been in exactly the same situation several times, and the only thing to do is walk away.

Also, take care not to be a dramam llama yourself. It's just a review. I wouldn't worry. :)

And it's still a long list. Heh. Nonetheless, cheers to all of you; it's good to see that page gets some brisk attention.

There are days when, sitting down and trying to write something, I wonder if what I am writing is goodfic or badfic. Even though there was careful planning, avoidance of the most obvious symptoms of Suedom, I always get the feeling I'm still doing something wrong.

I feel this way with an FF7 fanfic I am still in the middle of writing, because the main character feels like a Sue to me, no matter what I do. Mainly because I feel like I'm trampling on canon when I write her. I try to stay clever and keep her from falling into the Sue trap that gets PPC agents into arms, but there is always that one lingering doubt.

"Am I doing something wrong?"

Anyone ever felt like that? Felt like no matter how hard you try to make sure things go as smoothly as possible, but get that sinking feeling something inevitably will go wrong? D= I get glowing reviews, but generally nothing too constructive beyond 'you have a few typos here and there'. I try never asking for reviews or concrit - I prefer just letting them come on their own, as they will. If I get flamed, I get flamed; I'll just write better in the future. If I get praise, then yay I'm doing something right, but I want to improve. And...yeah. D=

Depressing questions I know, but I'm currently in 'not amused' mode right now, concerning the future of my fanfics and general writings.

~Keily, confused and a little disraught D=

While in the course of chatting in the PPC IRC room, it became apparent that the list of tropes on the PPC's TVTropes page was ridiculously long--longer than the Firefly page--so several of us (8-10, depending) took it upon ourselves to trim it. So, no need to panic if you wander over there and find a bunch of stuff gone. {= )

Basically, we went down the list and voted for each trope on the basis of relevancy to the PPC as a whole, removing tropes with only one example or with example(s) that don't really apply to us. Voting was decided by majority.

We would also like to note that editing so that 75% of the list items mention your agents is discouraged. The PPC is a community, even if we don't all feel like editing on TVTropes.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled mayhem.

~Neshomeh

I'd say if he's going off about you not being a good person than he's probably just butthurt. I'd say ignore him.

Thanks.

The way things are worded might have come off as challenging, though. Phrasing as questions things that aren't actually inquiries is essentially saying "I question you! Defend yourself against my probing!" and so that's what people do.

Similarly, starting off sentences with things like "Okay, to begin with" basically translates to "Brace yourself," putting the reader on the defensive before they read what you really have to say. So, that could be contributing to his negative reaction.

However, he's still way out of line to insult you like he did. You never actually implied that his writing or intelligence was sub-par, and really you raise some interesting points about naming conventions and fairy tales. That's the sort of thing I enjoy thinking about when it comes to fantasy worlds... but that's me. I have an inquiring mind like that.

~Neshomeh

Besides, As well as being a Harmonian (the semi-rabid kind) I'm also Xillow on the side.

In some ways, the two camps are alike. Both went into shipping wars with the equivalent of bowler hats, hobnail boots and self-loaded shillelaghs.. and we still (in my mind) seem to keep that sort of mental regalia around. We don't care what anyone thinks anymore and if someone wants to complain, Mr. Blackhorn here would be happy to answer anything... up to and including where the askee's teeth went to.

-Gandalf the B (mentally plucking the Rocky Road to Dublin tune on a tenor banjo)

I guess I was more nitpicky than I thought, but I now count one more as positive rather than mixed.

chapter 1
Nice! Poor guy, but great writing.
(Positive)

chapter 2
Oh, no, not an amnesiac. *headdesk* Ughhhhh!
Okay, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you've researched it and can make it plausible, but still...
And haven't you ever noticed that the great majority of characters in this galaxy don't have English names... probably because there is no English because there is no Earth?
(negative, possibly nitpicky)

chapter 4
Okay, this is REALLY interesting. And it explains a lot about the movies.
I can't see Darth Vader thinking "crap", though. "Shit", maybe. Maybe.
(Mixed, nitpicky)

chapter 5
I assume this isn't complete, because there's still the stormtrooper to deal with, right?
(totally neutral)

chapter 6
This is going to get confusing with all the doubles, but I can't wait to see what happens next!
(Positive, includes some hint of confusion)

chapter 7
Chains of clones... wow...
I think I know where Johnny Doe comes from now.
I pretty much love this story, now, all because of LTWTL. Awesome! And the WTF was perfectly placed.
(Positive, I'm not sure if me saying something positive about one word is nitpicky...)

chapter 9
Okay, to begin with, Leia doesn't really need a lie detector test, though she probably doesn't know this. She has some Force powers, so she has to be a good enough lie detector herself. But also, if someone's good enough to look completely genuine to a politician, chances are great that he's good enough to fool the lie detector, too. So... well, if I were her, I'd watch what I said around him.
I KNEW [SPOILER]! Yay!
R2 is AWESOME. I always loved him, and it's great to understand his thoughts. I wish nobody had ever come up with the idea of writing it "Artoo," though. Ridiculous. Especially when it's in narration, not dialogue. And I seem to be the only person in the world who feels this way. Ugh.
(mixed, nitpicky about the fandom)

chapter 10
I got confused about the time jump. That might be my fault, though; I'm distracted by a very bad internet connection.
So he's a natural pilot. We should have known. :D If Leia *really* likes him it could be because of genetic attraction - people are often attracted to close relatives they didn't grow up with. It's true.
(Positive except a bit of confusion)

chapter 13
“Lamented sadly”? A bit redundant? The whole point of using a word like “lamented” is to avoid an adverb.
I don't like those descriptions of Yoda as a "troll". I mean, it's weird because we don't know what a troll is (there are so many opinions), and where do they get the word from? Are their fairy tales like ours? Wouldn't they have different ideas of strange-looking creatures?
So is this the real Yoda or not... I can't remember!
So that's why stormtroopers can't shoot straight.
(negative, and he went crazy)

I don't doubt you, but seeing what you wrote might help me understand how another person might interpret it.

That said, if this is on ff.net, it sounds like this guy didn't read the posting guidelines. I'm pretty sure it explicitly says "not all reviews have to be purely good." 'Cause they don't. If he's not okay with that, he shouldn't be posting. There's certainly no call for anyone going around saying that people who give concrit are bad people; and I'm sorry, but if a reader is honestly confused about something even after trying to figure it out (which I assume you, as an astute reader, did), then it's the author's job to figure out what the problem is and fix it, not judge their reading comprehension. That's just insulting.

In closing, "just for fun" is not an excuse for carelessness. If your sloppy writing makes it hard for the reader to stay engaged, it's no longer fun for them. If you don't care about the readers, then write for the drawer.

~Neshomeh, who can't stand people whining about the concrit they should consider themselves lucky to get--it's not easy to find people who will do it!

Because the more I think about it, the more I think he remembers a lot of things wrong and might feel better if he realized the truth. But I still don't want to extend an argument... ugh...