madlori:

I have loooooong resisted writing about this because I feared it would sound like the ultimate douchebaggery to complain about something having anything to do with getting reviews, and people reacting with emotion to something I wrote.

But you know what? I’m done. I’m going to complain about it.

Do you have. ANY IDEA. How many times I have been told to fuck off, told “I hate you,” told a wide variety of hostile-sounding things because of “Alone on the Water?”

Tonight’s quote, the one that really sent me over the edge: 

I hate you. I hate myself. I hate the internet. I am weak, I am empty, and all that I know is that I. Hate. You. I am finding it hard to breathe, and I can’t see.

Thank you, Spawn of Satan. Stratch that, you are something worse than Satan.***off.

Yeah, okay.

Before you dogpile me, I am 100% aware that this person is saying this because the story affected them. In the weird world of Tumblr opposite-speak hyperbole, this is a GOOD review. But reading those words with my own two eyes still doesn’t feel great.

When you post about how Chris Evan’s latest photoshoot is ruining your life and you hate him, when you really mean the opposite, Chris cannot hear you saying that. I CAN FUCKING HEAR YOU. I see and read every single review on this story, and all the other stories. I hear it every time someone tells me to fuck off and die, that they want to kill me, that they hate me SO MUCH because they’re crying SO HARD.

Great. I’m glad the story worked for you. Can you not fling those words at me? Maybe? If it were once in awhile, whatever. But it’s every. damn. day.

I hate saying this because I should be happy that people are still reviewing with such frequency a story I wrote eight years ago. And I am. It’s gratifying to know the story still finds new readers.

I can think that and still not be thrilled to be told to fuck off on the reg.

I legit know people who have quit writing entirely or at least left entire fandoms, based on this kind of review. It isn’t cute. It isn’t good. Words have power and it is never ok to treat writers like this unless you have their explicit permission that they are pleased to be met with this kind of sarcastic or hyperbolic review.