Unfiltered Story #28234

(I used to write fanfic regularly. First for fun. Then to practice the craft. And then to have something I could just rip off for fun without worrying about hiring an editor.)

Reviewer: I’d like this a lot more if you dropped the original characters and just used the real characters.

Me: Do you find them boring or annoying somehow other than being OCs?

Reviewer: I haven’t really paid attention them at all. I mostly just skip those parts.

Me: Well this isn’t really a useful review then.

Reviewer: What do you mean? You could just drop the OCs and focus on the two series you’re crossing over.

Me: That’s counter to the purposes of the fic. Did you read the author’s notes?

Reviewer: I never read author’s notes.

Me: The only reason I started this fic was to try out various situations and character development paths on the two OCs which I might use in a later novel. Your review doesn’t comment on any of my pacing or descriptions. It just a says you want me to drop the characters without being able to state a solid reason why you don’t like them.

Reviewer: That’s stupid. Just write the real characters and forget your stupid publishing ideas. Who’s going to buy a bad fan fiction?

(I actually have a small but growing fan base for another series that started the same way. But I decided not to mention that.)