In reading the endnotes in Jade and Sarea’s latest addition, I am inspired to vent just a little. Whether or not anyone else will agree with my sentiments or not is beside the point, but I’m fairly certain that many of the other fanfiction author’s empathize with my sentiments.

I, and most probably every other member here, am positively addicted to fanfiction. I wait in quivering anticipation for the updates of my favorite stories, but I have never been nasty to someone because of a lack of updates. This is the most preposterous thing I have heard since becoming a member of the fanfiction community. I have squee-ed, bounced up and down, and many things of the like when I’ve been presented with a new chapter, but never would it cross my mind to be nasty to someone for updating a fic. It annoys me when people refuse to get betas or refuse to correct blatantly incorrect grammar and I will call them on it in a review, but I at least attempt to approach that constructively (I said attempt, not that it is always successful.). I am not the Queen of All Things Grammar Related and I embrace that. This essay is most probably chock full of incorrect grammar usage.

What I would suggest to those that insist on leaving vile reviews is that they write a fic. At that point, they would understand what we go through as authors. It is quite possible that at that point people would begin to think before they type and, possibly, realize the importance of reviews to an author.

The painstaking process of making every word live up to the standards of the vision we have for the fic, submission to a beta, accepting and rejecting changes, submission, and, finally, waiting for the blessed reviews of our work. Yes, we write for ourselves; however, we also write for others. We write in hopes that someone will appreciate the blood, sweat and tears that go into each chapter of each fic.

All of us wish we could make a living out of the Harry Potter Universe, but we have real lives consisting of families, educations, personal lives, and writer’s block that plague us like—well—the plague. Random plot bunnies cross our paths and prevent us from writing our regular, novel-length fics. I would suggest to anyone that cannot accept this as gospel that they stop reading fics in general. It isn’t as if we are highly-influential writers, but badgering us is only slightly worse that writing a personal letter to J.K. Rowling and telling her to forget about feeding her children to write the next installment of the series we all know and love.

Authors appreciate every review they get as long as that review is constructive and/or pleasant. For those of the reading public that believe we as authors should put off our everyday lives to write another chapter of their favorite fanfic I would suggest getting a life of their own. We understand how wonderful it is to have great fanfic to read, but, seriously, find a hobby to fill the time between updates.