𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐎, SPAM ¹

* . 22 ━ ⁱˡʸ ᵇᵘᵗ ˢᵗᵒᵖ ᵗᵉˡˡⁱⁿᵍ ᵐᵉ ᵗᵒ ᵘᵖᵈᵃᵗᵉ.

okay, here's the thing. i love you all. like, love love you all. but seriously stop telling me to update on a story, it drives me crazy. i'm very busy with uni and am experiencing a lot of writers' block at the moment, amplified by the covid lockdown. and i love writing all my fics, but sometimes i don't have as much inspiration on some as i do on others. for example, in the background i'm writing chapters for run wild, static electricity, into the night, daughters of the dragon, etc, but it's really hard to be updating seven or more stories at the same time, weekly. i'm mostly able to stick to a loose updating schedule, but doing that many stories at the same time is just too much.

trust me, i'm writing them, it's just impossible for me to write over seven chapters per week for individual stories, on top of uni, work, and my personal life. but that's not what i'm discussing here.

i really can't stand those "update!" comments. i know they mean well, but personally they make me feel like shit. i know most other authors feel the same. at first, they're kind of endearing. and then after writing stories on this platform for a while, they become real annoying real quick. i know most of the people commenting that have good intentions, they likely don't understand how it can come across as demeaning or rude. so i'm going to lay it out why most authors hate it here:

writing is hard. it takes a long time, a lot of work, editing and effort. we authors try to get chapters up as soon as possible, but it's really hard sometimes. uploading a chapter and seeing people only comment "update" feels like people don't appreciate us as human beings, if that makes sense ??? it makes me feel like my readers see me as some kind of robot who just churns out chapter after chapter. especially if the person has not commented anything else or voted up until this point. that really pisses me off. i 100% understand when you're so invested in a fic that you just want to read more!! but commenting that just comes across as insanely rude.

there are a range of different types of "update" comments. the ones that are like "update" or "update soon" just come across as super rude to me. like ?? why are you demanding that of me ??? i understand it's because they're invested, but seriously do people not understand how rude that comes off as? it really makes me feel unvalued. adding a "please" makes it better, but not by much.

look, i can't speak for other authors about this — most will probably be annoyed if simply the word "update" is mentioned, fair enough — but for me, i don't mind so much if the person hasn't been a ghostreader on my story, and is more polite about it. a "i love this story so much, when will it be updated next?" or something along those lines is okay to me ?? that might sound selfish or ego-pleasing to you, with the "i love this story" but i just think ???? if you're going to comment "update" you're clearly invested enough in the story that you must appreciate it ?? so tell me and it won't come across as rude ?? it at least makes me feel valued as a person and a writer. "update" is just so demeaning to me. it makes me feel like people expect me to churn out material 24/7 and nothing else.

to non-writers this rant might come across as bitchy, but when you spend 2-6 hours writing a chapter and posting it and then you get comments immediately after (or even weeks after, it's still annoying) just telling you to update, and nothing else, it makes you feel really shitty.

idk, but i get a lot of comments like this and it starts to really bug me. if you genuinely want to know — don't just demand ffs — then just ask and be kind about it. we have personal lives too, we do this for free and it's not always our top priority, no matter how much we love it. i can't spend all my time writing, i would if i could, but comments like that make me feel really undervalued. sorry if this sounds really rude, it just makes me feel like total shit every time i get a comment like this. especially when they've been a total ghostreader up until that point.

anyway, i love you all! i appreciate my readers sm and you guys make me so happy all the time! just remember to respect the authors on this app — they work really hard to bring your stories !!

<3 <3