As some know and others may not, I have a story on FanFiction called "Tip Of The Spear'. It's an AU Naruto and Sakura story where I basically said to my self 'to hell with canon' and told their story in the way I wanted to. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea and that's okay, I have over 400 follows and almost as many favorites so I'm happy.
What I'm writing about is this, my last update was at the end of July and I have maybe 7000 words in the can for the next chapter but all progress is stopped. At first, it was because of a writer's block, it happens, especially since the further from canon the more effort it takes to keep an AU story going. As I was trying to overcome the block I had a couple of incidents with my health. At 58 year of age with high blood pressure and a wrecked back one's body sometimes decides to do strange things. All of that is something I can deal with and usually I can start writing after a few weeks of thought.
However, in the middle of all that I get a PM from a fellow author, I won't mention their name as that would serve no purpose but the PM was to inform me that they would not be reading my story anymore because she only reads NaruSaku and I was springing a second girl into the mix. That, right there, the springing the second girl accusation, is what has killed my drive to continue. First off, I'm not springing a second girl, I've been dropping hints and actually had Sakura discuss the girl with Naruto as well as mentioning her exchanging letters with the girl (Temari) as to why Naruto would make a good husband. Long story short, Temari has been offered as a political sacrifice to Konoha to bring the two villages closer through marriage.
As I said, I've been dropping hints for nearly half a year in my chapters about Naruto taking a second wife as long as it was for the right reasons, mutual respect and love for a couple. My 'friend' also complained that they didn't want to read a story where Sakura is a lesbian as well and I was going to turn Naruto into a baby factory. Well, once again, I had mentioned or dropped hints early on that Sakura and Naruto had a female friend where they grew up and not only did Naruto date the other girl, just as Sakura dated other guys for a short time, Sakura and their friend had experimented with each other and shared the bed with Naruto.
Now, it's not that this person was planning to stop reading my story because of their reasons, that's their right and as I said, this story isn't for everyone. What irritated and still irritates me is this, I have either mentioned or dropped huge hints as to what I was planning on doing in my story and I have a target of 10K+/- words per chapter as I have many storylines going on, not just the one centering on Naruto and Sakura and their relationship and marriage. I put a lot of effort, sometimes it may not seem like it, but I try to work out each action or conversation before I'm happy but......it was obvious to me that this person only reads the parts that center on their idea of NaruSaku and had been either ignoring or not paying close attention to what I had written.
That is what hurts me as a writer, look I'm not that good and I admit and understand that but there seems to be quite a few folks that do read what I post. However, after reading that PM I'm left to wonder just how many people are actually reading the whole chapter and how many are skipping to either the lemons or the fight scenes. This morning I tried to get further into the new chapter but the fire isn't there anymore and I find that I have one or two ideas that look like they'd be more fun to pursue. I've actually considered going back to the start and revamping all 30 chapters from the start and see if I can't do a better job but, we all know that no story ever survives that operation.
Look, I'm not looking for hugs and sympathy, I just need an outlet to get this off of my chest and hopefully I can get back on track. It would be a disservice to those that do like what I write and I've already taken one story down because it was so awful and have another marked as incomplete. I just wish that people would think about what they message about and actually read all of the story before telling the author I won't read this anymore because blah blah bla. Anyway, thanks for letting me rant for a bit, I'm going to go back and sit in my corner for a while, maybe even do some writing.