Thank you to all of the people who have put my stories on their favourite list, and to those who put me on their favourite authors list. It means more to me than you think. Bless you all.

On constructive criticism:

The wisest thing I have ever heard on this topic is that criticizing a story is as difficult as writing one. It's not (normally) as time-consuming, but constructive criticism is challenging. It's also an easy excuse many people use when they post a review criticizing (poorly) a story and get called out on it. People are going to react to criticism in different ways, and I would say there is no rule book when it comes to writing it. Try to be helpful, that's really the most important part of it.

On reviews:

Reviews are an important part of a fanfiction author's diet.

They are, really, an important part of fanfiction as a whole. And while authors love to get them, readers have trouble giving them. Reviewing every story you read is impossible, sometimes it is better to just leave if you don't like the story or can't find anything to say, but even a short 'loved this ty' can be meaningful to someone. Review wisely, I suppose.

On characters:

They're difficult.

Original characters in most fanfictions are regarded with extra scrutiny because readers aren't used to them and, really, aren't here to read them. Convincing your audience to like this new character is its own battle, one you can never fully win because there is going to be at least one person who considers them a Mary Sue just for existing. That being said, Mary Sues do exist. Varying definitions as to what a Mary Sue is are floating around all over the internet, but my personal favourite one is that a Mary Sue is a character that has the story glorify them at every possible opportunity, usually with little to no effort on the character's part. Use your own judgement when writing OCs, and try to give your character a few obstacles to overcome.

Then there are the characters that are already existing within the universe. Having to mimic them is even harder than writing a new character, I think, because everyone has different ideas as to how this character would react in this situation and so on and so forth. OOC-ness is rampant, practically expected, at this point. Expanding on that...

On character-bashing and character-glorification:

Usually done hand-in-hand. Author wants A to love B and have C get in the way, despite the fact that in canon A and C are good friends and B is a background character. Bashing strips characters of any good traits and skills while glorification strips a character of any negative traits, adds a few positive ones to fill in the gaps left behind, and then gives the character some power that justifies putting the spotlight on them.

Not every bashing story is a bad story, but I'd argue that if you need to go so far as to tear down other characters to make yours look good by comparison, you haven't picked a good hero of the story. Try to find a way to make them a decent and likable character without revamping their personality along with everyone else's.

Characters being out of character is something I want to try and avoid, but I still might slip. Or parody. I make no promises here.

Most of the stories here are from several years ago, are short, have poor grammar, and will remain unfinished. They were ideas that I never planned out and, as a result, will never complete. Feel free to browse them or ignore them. I am trying harder with my new story, The Forgone Trial, and I have enjoyed writing ahead and plotting my ideas before I post chapters. Fortunately, I will be able to complete the story instead of leaving it in fanfiction purgatory.