I am Lightning's shadow. But Lightning has no shadow...

... so am I even real?

I do not crank out stories like a fan-fiction machine. I do not write quickly, I do not write well under pressure. The more feedback I get on stories - namely constructive feedback - then the more worth-while that story feels. I usually enjoy getting ideas from readers, but I do not enjoy Kawaii!Fangirls. I get fed up with intolerant people real fast, but I know how to deal with any if they come lurking and trying to criticize me for having an opinion that's different from theirs. I'm not an excellent writer, I know. I'm not going to pretend I am. I have a lot to learn, and I will in time. Don't give me grief, but do give me constructive criticism; I will appreciate that so much more than straight-up flaming.

If you can't take the lightning of a thunderstorm, then get out of the goddamn pool.

Now then, switching gears.

I don't see myself as a mean person. If you comment at all, I'm happy. However, I'm a socially awkward person; I sometimes miss cues that others would pick up on, and sometimes say things that are actually very rude or inappropriate without even realizing it. My mind also works on a black-and-white level, sadly. I often see the world, and the people in it, as being either one way or another. This is why I can get defensive over my work and my personal views; past experience has taught me that if people go starting flame wars with you, then they're probably Kawaii!Fangirls or Trolls and need to be dealt with brutally. Too, I am someone who does not dance around my own opinion. If you're being stupid, or if you say something stupid, and I feel the burning need to call you on it, I will call you on it. I may speak harshly, I may sound matter-of-fact and condescending, but I don't mean to come off as such. I just want people to know that I'm being serious when I say what I say, and they need to take it seriously.

I float between fandoms. Currently, I am centered on Team Fortress 2. I used to be a Xiaolin Showdown whore, but no longer.

I started writing stories when I joined the Xiaolin Showdown fandom around 2006, and because of that I have quite a few memories tied to the fandom that are more than unsavory. I was an obnoxiously huge Mary-Sue writer, and I'm not about to deny that. We all must start somewhere. I realized how bad I was when a talented and respected writer dropped a bombshell on my head after I noticed how similar our basic story ideas were (an idea I still stand by). I was hurt and defensive at first, but then I grew nervously curious about it and followed the link she gave me to the Mary-Sue test. I took it willingly. Whether I took the test properly or not, my character scored ~152. I was three different kinds of horrified, considering that ~52 was the 'Kill it dead.' threshold. I believe the term "quitting cold turkey" was appropriate.

• M-S writers don't even realize what they're doing half the time, I suspect. As in, they're flexing their newfound storytelling abilities by writing (what could be called) Sandbox Stories; stories written by beginners that take advantage of the freedom and power a writer has by, literally, making anything they want happen. Crack!Fics written without knowing they're Crack!Fics, I suppose. I say all of this because I, like several other writers I know, fanfic or original, kind of hate Mary-Sues. I typically avoid reading fanfiction (that's not been posted on TF2chan) because I'm afraid of what I'll find. Reading Sandbox Stories won't hurt my tiny writer's heart as much as it will beg me to comment on it and unload, the same way I was unloaded on when I was a M-S writer. This tends to be the event that separated the 'good ones' from the 'bad ones'. The ones that honestly want to improve, and the ones that already think they're the best and/or just want everyone to love them unconditionally. The former makes me happier than anything, because then I can give a good, thorough critique, and that writer walks away a bit better. The latter just flat-out ruins my day, even though I can handle them.
• I understand how writing can make those new to it more than a little drunk with power, and there's nothing wrong with that per se. Art is art, after all, and everyone's entitled to have fun with it. But you can't go shoving everything out there. We don't all wanna read about how such-and-such just suddenly popped up in your room and then you totally had syrupy-sweet Barbie-doll sex because you two just met and already you WUUV each other. You might care about it, and that's great because you should write stories that you wanna read. But with the general public, that's not what we wanna see. If you're going to post stories for the public to read, then understand that there are some things, previous story included, that the fandom as a whole cannot stomach. What we want are balanced stories with plots, conflicts, and characters with flaws as well as strengths. We want them to have to work to solve their problems. We want to relate to them. But we don't want the whole story to revolve around them. We also want characters that stay in character. Only experienced writers can get away with original characters, and even then.

So there's that.