Anon says / Fanfiction

Because for some odd reason blogger is not communicating well and refused to allow the reviews of AHA and FFN together, I had to put the other review responses here.

Reviews for Liberties Taken
Lily Draco chapter 3 . Jan 14 A wonderful story. I look forward to more. cheshireSorrows: Thank you! Looking forward to hear what you think of future chapters :)
DramioneAddiction chapter 3 . Jan 4 La! It was lovely! Update soon! cheshireSorrows: Thanks! And about that update soon...uhm...I'm sorry! *hides*
4leafclover0120 chapter 3 . Jan 4 Yay! cheshireSorrows: Yay, a review!
KimberlyTee chapter 3 . Jan 3 I love this continuation so thoroughly! Our couple sparkles off the page, their essentials in tact, painting a beautiful picture of a love that is rooted in friendship. Elizabeth for all her denial is in love, but what is an Elizabeth without a penchant for over analysis. I can't wait to read the next chapter cheshireSorrows: Thank you, I'm enjoying writing it! Fortunately Lizzy isn't without her over thinking - otherwise we'd be in for a somewhat boring tale. Her close relationship with Darcy will make the telling of this story both fun and difficult at the same time, and I hope you'll enjoy where I plan to take the story next :)
Karen chapter 3 . Jan 3 Lovely update, the banter between our couple is charming. Glad to see you back with a new chapter. cheshireSorrows: Thanks, I used to be terrified of writing interactions between Darcy and Lizzy, but now it's my favorite part about writing P&P. Getting their dialogue is so important especially for showing their personalities. Extremely sorry for the late update (which is still on it's way...)
c-monstre chapter 3 . Jan 3 Oh I just love this story! cheshireSorrows: Thank you, I love getting reviews!
tremu chapter 3 . Jan 3 Noted you added some stuff in the beginning, which is great. I like the little paragraph about Mrs. Graves and her marriage. She definitely seems to be the most amiable one of the sisters. Looking forward to the rest of it! cheshireSorrows: After reading your notes I thought I should add something else...I was going to send it just once more back to you for a quick read through, but I didn't want you flashing commas everywhere (I kid, I wouldn't be here without you xD)
Julianabr chapter 3 . Jan 3 Thanks for the new chapter! I like this Lizzy and Darcy very much. It is clear Lizzy 'doth protest too much' but that may be from having her hand forced as much as for being clueless. I do like to remember that this began with his proposal and kiss, both of which she accepted. I wonder at the comments of people who /knew/ they would be together; how much is the ton wanting to show their intelligence in 'knowing all along' and how much is truth? At this point, you have me craving some private conversation between the two of them. Will some of his self-protective dry humor fall away to reveal some of what he feels? Will hers? A very enjoyable story, and I anxiously await the next installment! :) cheshireSorrows: Oh Lizzy, Lizzy, Lizzy...But where would the story be without a bit of her resistance?  The world is full of gossips, even in the regency period, I think it could be a mixture of both - some actually knowing and some just saying they did. But really, who knows? Of course, I think they'll be more fun alone especially since they last time they were they got engaged ;)
excuse.my.muse chapter 3 . Jan 3 wonderful! can't wait for the next chapter! I love the banter between Darcy and Elizabeth cheshireSorrows: Thanks!
Ansujali chapter 3 . Jan 3 "...Explosive territory of a ballroom..." LOL! As always, their banter is to die for! Hysterical! cheshireSorrows: I live to write them honestly xD
Amy chapter 3 . Jan 3 I am confused. Why is there talk that Elizabeth was considered on the shelf or more mature than common by the time she is married? Jane and Caroline are older than her but Elizabeth is on the shelf while Caroline is still single with no prospects at the time? After all, in the higher circles it is common that a girl is out with 17/18 and married in the next few years. Mrs. Bennet may crow about Lydia being married with 16 but that only shows her own lower upbringing as it was a patched up thing and showed the vulgarity of her and her daughter. How old is Elizabeth and is everyone bored with their own lifes so that they have to poke their noses into her and Darcys life? cheshireSorrows: Shhh...it's okay...don't think about it too much... I've been intentionally vague about everyone's age mainly because ageing up Elizabeth and Jane would mean ageing up her sisters, and that can open up or close up the plot I have in my head so to avoid that I've just left it to the readers imagination. Though I suppose if you absolutely require such information here it is: Elizabeth is twenty-three and Jane is twenty-four. The reason they're referred to as "spinsters" or are in danger of spinsterhood is because, as you said, "in the higher circles it is common that a girl is out with 17/18 and married in the next few years" and Jane and Elizabeth have chosen to marry only for love and are already in their twentys. Caroline, for character development reasons, is not married either though I never said anything about her not being courted or pursued by anyone.  And. Of course everyone is bored with their lives. Everyone talks about everyone, we know this from our present so why should we expect anything less from our past? Darcy, is a very important catch, as is established and his engagement with Elizabeth was through a "compromise" and happened quite close to the time that Jane and Bingley were engaged - that's fodder for gossip.  How much attention the society actually pay the lives of others is debatable, however.

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Anon says / A happy assembly

A round-up of review responses because despite using Mozilla Fox, my laptop runs as if it's using Internet Explorer.

All these review responses are for Liberties Taken, chapter 3

A Happy Assembly

Mischa: Posted 03 January 2015 - 09:35 AM

 

A cheeky Darcy is a delightful thing to witness. And Elizabeth brings the best out of him.
First Mrs Graves (I like her), then the entire audience, everyone has already realized the obvious, that ODC has been courting forever and the recent engagement is just a formality of something that has long been expected.
I love this relationship of bantering and lovingly teasing one another frequently.
M.

 

 

C.Sorrows:

I think Darcy has been woefully deprived of any opportunity to be cheeky, something I hope to rectify as the story progresses, with Lizzy's help of course!

I'm glad no one minds the teasing dialogue. Their friendly relationship makes it too easy to ignore the opportunities that present themselves.

Anita: Posted 03 January 2015 - 01:26 PM

 

I just read your story and I love your Darcy and Elizabeth ! I look forward to getting to know them better as their relationship evolves

Anne S.

C. Sorrows: 

Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

taryn: Posted 03 January 2015 - 04:02 PM

Love this story and the introduction of bingley's other sister. She really opened Elizabeth's eyes to some things she can't admit to herself

Can't wait for more

Taryn

C. Sorrows: 

Thank you, I was kind of worried about how people would take her. I suppose she's kind of the "flash forward" version of Lizzy whose confident and happily married. 

wendywho: Posted 03 January 2015 - 06:02 PM

The Emma-esque idea is genius and your writing of their reparte is spot- on. I love Jane's verve- she isn't such a timid thing. This is truly delightful.

 

 C. Sorrows:

I'm glad you like it. When I first started writing P&P I was so intimidated by writing scenes with D and E, I'm glad that I've improved so much :) I've always wanted to write a different Jane so expect a slightly different one in future chapters.

acampbell: Posted 03 January 2015 - 09:50 PM

I am enjoying the fun light hearted story. Looking forward to more.

 

C. Sorrows:

Thanks, hopefully I can get into gear and actually get to writing *hides*

Kaibear: Posted 04 January 2015 - 03:13 AM

Like everyone else I am enjoying the great dialogue. Thank you and I am looking forward to more!

C. Sorrows:

Yay! You have no idea how big of a deal it is to be complimented on dialogue, I think it's definitely one of the Make-or-Break ways of knowing whether the characters behave as they should :)

 

Geri: Posted 04 January 2015 - 03:29 AM

Just started your story it has been quite a change. Loving the banter
geri

C. Sorrows:

And there will be more changes to come :)

Avanell: Posted 04 January 2015 - 05:15 AM

Excellent update! So much fun with our couple...I do hope they begin to enjoy their engagement more  

C. Sorrows:

 

I've been struggling to keep the other chapters to par, thankfully my beta has sufficiently kicked me in the rear. Unfortunately it may be a temporary determent to our happy couples. SPOILER ALERT.

 

marsha: Posted 04 January 2015 - 12:03 PM

Love this! Perhaps our cheekiest Eluzabeth yet! So funny, clever and teasing. How could Darcy be pleased with anyone else?

The talk at the Bingleys' ball seems to dispel any thoughts that simply Darcy's duty was engaged in bringing he and Elizabeth to marriage. 

C. Sorrows:

I've tried really hard to get Lizzy to be as Lizzy as possible for the moment as I'm not sure how people will take the deficiencies I plan for her to display...but a Lizzy is not Lizzy without her wit! 

I think in this tale one of Lizzy's faults is being somewhat dense xD

dreeem: Posted 04 January 2015 - 03:40 PM

This is very interesting. Very AU. Yet Darcy is already smitten when "proposing" and she is blind to it. I wonder whether Lydia's situation is canon and Darcy's involvement.

When can we expect the next post?

C. Sorrows:

Yes I suppose it would be quite different. I wanted to throw our lovey characters in the proverbial deep end and see what would happen fortunately for everyone the results thus far haven't been disastrous. 

For the moment what I will say is that Lydia's role is not particularly pivotal in D and E's story, though it does play a part in their recent past (a few months before the story takes place).

Sadly I've been useless since college started and the two chapters I had done were disappointing so I'm starting the updates I had from scratch so...hopefully before the end of this month there will be at least one update.

lucy6526: Posted 13 January 2015 - 05:37 AM

Love this sweet funny Elizabeth!

C. Sorrows:

Thank you!

 

Emlyn: Posted 14 January 2015 - 06:47 PM

Love the relationship between the two.  It's amazing that everyone else can see what they (and especially Elizabeth) are blind to.  Very enjoyable story so far.

C. Sorrows: 

I have this thing about love, real love, that the people involved don't realize how in love they actually are though it's clear for everyone else. Darcy, perhaps knows to some degree, but Lizzy...well, she'll catch up ;)

 

Darcylove: Posted 29 January 2015 - 06:51 AM

This is fun and I enjoy that they really are friends, but I wonder how it is that Elizabeth will come to realize her attraction and love for him and how he will express his to her. Look forward to more. Please!
Darcylove 

 

C. Sorrows: 

Thank you, I'm really enjoying writing about the two together in this scenario. As for when Elizabeth will realize her attraction, well, telling you would be giving everything away :) 

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Author says: When I have to raise the white flag

In the ten years now that I've been writing fanfiction, I've written and deleted more stories then I can even remember. Posted on the site however...If you were to ask how many, what names, which fandoms, I could probably tell you because deleting a story/taking it down for whatever reason can be pretty embarrassing.

It's kind of like stringing people along - baiting them with this wonderful idea, and then telling them, "Hey, joke's on you, I'm not actually going to write this anymore!"

And I hate it when that happens.

I've been reading fanfic as long as I've been writing it so I've been lured into incomplete stories before. Years have gone by and nothing.

The worst is not knowing when a story hasn't been updated in a while, and you reach the last of the story so far and you hope that in a week/month/year it'll continue...and then you check the last update and your heart falters - TWO YEARS AGO. SERIOUSLY.

I think that's why I prefer to delete rather then leaving them there to linger...

If there was an option between incomplete and complete, perhaps labeled "hiatus" or "abandoned", it would be a different story. But considering my reasons for not continuing stories in the first place, there's a chance I wouldn't even use those...

Real life problems aside, I'm a very sensitive person.

Sure I can take criticism from others, but when it comes to my own? Hoo boy, there's no competition there.

I've always been pretty self conscious about my stories, they're an extension of myself: my self-conscious, behavior, thought process. Unfortunately as most of my stories are driven by the plotbunnies, it's usually a jumbled mess.

In the past that's why I rarely ever finished a story, in fact, Sibling Intervention was my first one, and even then I wasn't completely satisfied.

The reasons for that was simply because upon rereading, my head hurt.

There was pacing problems, characters that should have had bigger roles were sidelined, scenes lingered unnecessarily, there was all this build up and no pay off and I had words upon words. If I had written that for NaNo I would've finished with weeks to spare because that's how bloated I thought it was and it still wasn't going anywhere.

The reason for Permission Granted getting the fanfiction erase button was just as simple.

Despite the story only being two(three) chapters in, I felt lost.

It was likely because as the readers hoped, I continued a story that I hadn't thought further than the first chapter for.

Sure Liberties Taken was satisfying to a degree, but as one of the reviewers said, it had a comfortable amount of potential to be left on its own. Though I felt the same, I ignored it. Why?

Well for one thing, the reviews for the story was amazing. Liberties Taken has, since today, hit 51 reviews. I've never had that many for a single one-shot. And, though Permission Granted was only two chapters in, it had hit the same amount fairly quickly.

And as a writer, feedback is my drug. I need that ish.

If you're a writer of any kind you know you want someone to talk to you about your work, it's the best feeling - it means someone has read it, spent time on it and thought about it enough to voice an opinion over it. The only way to get it though was with a good story so that's how my stories become my dealers.

What I needed though, was a redo if I wanted this story to be satisfying not only to read, but to write as well.

I didn't want to be using half baked ideas and suffering the same problems as Sibling Intervention.

After sitting with it for awhile whilst NaNo is happening (which I'm not sure I'll continue considering the problems I can already foresee), I had an idea of what I wanted to do with Liberties Taken. Unfortunately it required a bit of a face lift which simple editing just would not fix.

Plus, because of the encouragement I received with Sibling Intervention I wanted to try my hand at publishing, maybe with SI and maybe with LT. Who knows...?

Regardless, this face lift didn't need competition within my own stories.

Just yesterday, after posting a one-shot I had written out of the blue, a reviewer praised the story before asking about Permission Granted.

Sigh. Anyway.

My random bouts of OCD aside, a part of me was embarrassed for caving to the review craving.

I didn't even know what the point of Permission Granted was when I reread it.

Though, Lady Ruthless was kind enough to say,

"It seems more like an Emma fanfic than P&P"

And, though I truly love Emma, writing Emma and not Elizabeth was not my intention.

I felt just as embarrassed by it as I was by Sibling Intervention when it was over. I had no desire to keep on writing Permission Granted, but I did want to let the plotbunny have its glory day, the idea had merit and I owed the people who liked it enough to want more and give them more.

Hopefully I won't disappoint, though I'm afraid I already have.

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Review spotlight

"I really love the way you write, it's very Oscar Wilde, dry and witty."

- Guest, chapter 2 of Permission Granted

 

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Anatomy of a popular one-shot

Yes I'm aware I'm tooting my own horn. 

No. I don't care.

Anatomy of a popular one-shot

I've written many one-shots. Not exceeding a hundred yet mind you, but I've had my fair share of them - thirty plus if you count the stories from my inactive account, and ten to fifteen on my current. 

For those of you who don't know what a one-shot is: It's basically a short story, the shortest short story ever. It can really only count as a one-shot if it's a single chapter so word count is relative. 

Some people find it easy. Others not so much.

I write one-shots as experiments and mainly to scratch the writing bug that pops up. I don't have the best track record with long running stories, so one-shots and collections of one-shots are my safest bet which would explain the number of them that I have.

I'm no expert at it, but I've come to recognize a few things once the story has been posted. An example being the two one-shots that spurned the creation of this post.

Before I give away any misleading secrets, it's important to note a few things: 

A story's popularity depends on a number of factors, these include, but are not limited to:

• The fandom you're writing for
• The pairing or main characters involved
• The genre you categorize it under
• The rating of the story

As you may have noticed, the actual writing isn't mentioned because those are internal factors and what makes a story attractive to potential readers is the bare minimum they see which in fanfiction is limited to a 455character summary, a title, and the above already mentioned. 

Note: Readers will notice any spelling and grammatical errors in your summary and it could be held against you. A good first impression is important.

Now, as I said, I recently posted two one-shots three days apart (they're practically twins), here they are, their first picture outside of my brain -

Despite the fact that the stories were three days apart they had nothing else in common: Not their fandom, not their rating, not their word count, nothing. 

But what's interesting is that I felt exactly the same when I wrote both. I was suffering from writer's block about another story and I wrote those two to make them better. They were written practically the same day but released seperately because I felt like it (no joke, I didn't think either of them were particularly good so I was reluctant to release them onto the internet).

As you can see from the reviews though, the stories garnered different responses. 

The first, my shot in the dark - first Fairy Tail one-shot was me writing away my obsession with a pairing that isn't particularly popular. I thought it was the better of the two so that's why I posted it first. I didn't expect a miracle, if anything I'm surprised I got any reviews at all. 

The second was posted under the excitement that my Fairy Tail one-shot survived without a flame or troll in sight, and I hoped I'd get the same response. 

If you're on the Facebook Group Fanfiction Writers Unite you'd know how it was received: I got eight reviews within two hours of posting, and the numbers kept going...

I still think it's a joke, and I honestly laugh about it because it's so unbelievable. 

Looking back, the stories are pretty different. 

Fandom and pairing:

Fairy Tail, though popular as a fandom, didn't have a big community of Laxana shippers.

Pride and Prejudice on the other hand, is quite active, and its  DarcyxLizzy/Dizzy ship definitely takes up the entire harbor.

The up would go to the Pride and Prejudice story.

Plot wise: 

The Fairy Tail one-shot was my version of a Laxana trope: the pairing being drinking buddies. 

The Pride and Prejudice one-shot was a complete out of the box: the pairing in the same economic situation (a trope that is rarely ever explored though I've yet to figure out why). 

It would be a toss up, but since the trope was more uncommon in one then the other, the up would go to the Pride and Prejudice story

Rating:
The Fairy Tail one-shot was rated T for safety (Cana's a big drinker, plus the trope was drinking buddies so there was that).
The Pride and Prejudice one-shot was rated K because it was still regency, no one swore and no one did anything mildly inappropriate (for our time period besides a kiss)
Both ratings show up without having to fiddle with the filters, but the more G rated it could be the better chances the story has of being read (safety first). The up would go to Pride and Prejudice story.

Word count:
The Fairy Tail one-shot was 3k
The Pride and Prejudice one-shot was 1k
One-shots are usually read because they're always complete and because generally, they're short so the up went to the Pride and Prejudice story.

Genre:

Both were categorized under romance, with Fairy Tail having the added Friendship thrown in because the actual romance was more implied. 

In that, there are no differences. In fact, having another genre can attract more readers, so the up might have gone to Fairy Tail if I wasn't so unsure of how obvious my preference for Laxana as more than a friendship pair.

Summary: 

I've changed the summary twice for the Pride and Prejudice story while the Fairy Tail one has remained the same. For the most part, both stories seem relatively simple in the trope they present - 

The Fairy Tail one-shot was clearly going to be about drinking (Cana and alcohol always go hand in hand) and I had it easier putting into words what exactly it was about while the Pride and Prejudice one-shot was a little more vague, but implies the pair are in the same situation, though it was difficult to word it in a way I was happy with (I'm still not by the way, but what can you do). 

Content: 

I liked the story more in Fairy Tail because it had a clear beginning, middle and end. I got to play around a bit with headcanons. It also read more like a one-shot despite it being 3k in length. I struggled with the tenses though, and people did notice, but overall, the response was the best I could've hoped for.

The story for Pride and Prejudice was a bit more muddled, the only thing really clear about it was the fact that it was happening in the moment - the beginning and end weren't particularly clear, but that seemed to have an appeal to people as they reviewed to say they wish there was more to read.

The thing I was most worried about was how completely out-of-character I thought everyone was, but the readers disagreed.

Also when I reread it a few hours after I posted just to make sure the readers and I were reading the same thing, I found a multitude of errors and missing words, none of which was present in the Fairy Tail story. No one seemed to mind.

So here's what I got from the responses of the two one-shots:

Write what the plotbunnies tell you to. You don't have to put it in a box and organise it. Get what you want to say out and then rework it to make sure it meshes. You'll miss the story if you're too worried about how it'll look.

Content is king. Don't worry too much about the spelling and grammar as you write (though don't post it if you haven't corrected the mistakes), the plotbunnies don't have time for proper English. Let them do what they do and then clean up the mess.

Be bold. Like this font. People want to read something new, just because it's been tried and tested doesn't mean it'll be popular. 

Also, just because a fandom or it's pairing isn't in demand, doesn't mean you shouldn't write that story your plotbunnies have been nagging you about. You could be the start of that ship's popularity. I know, because I've been one too ;-)

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