I like reading your stories. I especially look forward to Project Guardian and To Make a Wish.

It can be frustrating to receive negative comments and I think it happens to us all. I know I was about to call it quits when someone commented that I got off on abusive situations; it cut to the quick.

I think most writers tend to be redundant anyway. I have yet to produce anything original, just pieced together bits of random jargon from here and there. But I think that if you are getting any feedback, whether good or bad, take that as a positive that someone spent the time to write you something back.

I hope you continue writing, because that is really the only way to improve. My current funk at not producing anything I think was caused by a 5 year layoff of writing (most things posted recently were manuscripts that were sitting around and I typed up). So write for the enjoyment writing brings you.

Dear Sarah,

some idiot has written some comment and upset you, but please, Sarah dont take it to mean that everyone else feels that way. Many of us read your stories and love them. If you leave us we will all be sad and much poorer without you giving so generously the fruits of your imagination and creativity.

I dont read bad comments so I dont know who did it, but I do beg you not to give up. You have no idea how some of your situations have meant so much to me, and many another, as we strive to find our way through this wierd life.

Please Sarah, dont give up. What is one idiot against so many appreciative readers?

Bless you, and may your muse thrive and entertain us for many more years, and thanks for all that you have written already.

Please stay. If you dont, I will CRY until there is such a flood old Noah will wonder what is going on, besides which I have a hole in ma wellies and I'll get wet feet and then pseudomonia and then I will probably die and it will be all your fault ! So be a Good Girl and stay! Please?

Love,

Briar

I happen to enjoy your stories and will miss you when you're gone :(

'For the pure enjoyment that you have always given me.I really despair that these
"self appointed", so called critics are driving good authors like yourself away.
To these morons I say if you don't like the story,don't read it and write your own,
but this is something they can't do so they pick on people like yourself.We need
writers of your calibre on the BCTS site,to tell your story in your own way and if
someone doesn't like it,so what.The problem is theirs,not yours. Tell them to go back
to where they come from,we need you Sara,we don't need them.So please,reconsider.

...and look at your stories in another light. Instead of viewing the proverbial glass as half empty, view it as half full!

Comments may have been decreasing, but have reads / kudos / buttons?

Even if they have been decreasing, you've almost certainly got a loyal bunch of followers who hang on your every word and can't wait for the next chapter of your latest story. Instead of thinking "Only 5 people bothered to comment on my latest chapter", think "5 people who read my latest chapter were so engaged with it they spent several minutes composing a comment and posting it to the site." With an ever-increasing number of stories posted to this site, it's easy to get hooked on lots of stories - and if someone's been away for a while they may decline to post any comments on anything while they catch up.

An even more pertinent question: why do you write? Are you writing to bask in praise and adulation by devoted fans who'd bow down and proclaim "We're not worthy!" if they saw you in reality?! Even if (worst case scenario) you only got a dozen regular readers, well that's a dozen people in your fan club. A dozen people who like what you're writing and avidly read what you write.

As for the occasional insult, remember that whoever's doing it feels they're protected by the anonymity of the internet - they might be in a bad mood, they might have started reading a story that's not their preferred style, they may have technical complaints... but you could probably bet that if they met you in person, they wouldn't be anywhere near as vindictive (if at all).

Your characters in YHIAW frequently took situations they interpreted as negative, internalised them, took them personally, and blew the threat out of all proportion before being reminded by others around them that they were making a fuss over (virtually) nothing. Rise above them - don't take complaints or insults personally (and definitely don't flame them back!), just ignore them and carry on regardless. To give up because of a few negative comments allows them to win. Don't!

Hello Sara,

Many people have written to you, trying to encourage you to continue writing. I, for one, have enjoyed reading your Project Guardian series. And, I thought there was plenty of room for all sorts of delightful stories.

Then, we recieved this 'boo hoo! Feel sorry for me!' letter.

I ask who do you think you are?

No, you won't get hearty congratulations, pats on the back, or gobs of money for your literary efforts. This site, like so many others, offers thousands of stories, with new ones popping up every day. Few of us can keep up with them all. Few of us reach out to pat others on the back for doing what they do routinely and regularly. None of my students rush up to me after class, congratulating me on another superb lecture. It's not in the cards.

So, mother says, "Grow up!" Appreciate what you do have. Enjoy the compliments you get. Remember that very few people are complimented for doing their jobs, for cooking dinner, for feeding the cat, buying groceries or doing any of the thousands of mundane tasks that are a part of everyone's life.

You are a writer. Write! Don't do it expecting the world to fall at your feet, fawning after you, and lauding your least breath.

Write because you are a writer. Writing is a passion with you. Writing is fun. Writing is a way to make the imaginary real and the unimaginable come to life.

But don't write to get the plaudits of an audience, even one as open, kind-hearted and warm as the one here at BC/TS. You will be disappointed, sooner or later.

Your choices are simple. Either you can give up what you love, or you can cut off your nose to spite your face.

Choose wisely.

Sara; Just because ONE Single person said so - Don't stop writting for US as you will be seriously missed in this world if you DO! Please giving your almost dailly dose of those tells of yours!!

I recently posted encouraging more people to read and comment on your work.

Sometimes I can't read everything you post as I only have so much time and the quantity of stuff worth reading here at BC is almost overwhelming at times.

If any of us have hurt your feelings be free to tell us off in your classy British way.

-- snicker --

I like the youthful feel to your tales.

Fiction they maybe, fantasy as in the case of To Make a Wish with Sara the lovely young vampire slayer but your stories always entertain me.

Plus the best words a writer can ever follow are "write for yourself".

This, BC, is writing for fun, to learn and to share .

If someone is upsetting you then perhaps they are not upholding the level of community expected here. There is nothing wrong with criticism. It helps us to grow. But it is wrong to be mean about it. There are ways to say something seemed wrong to you or didn't work for you that help a writer rather than "You stink, I hate you" which NEVER helps.

I hope I never come off that way in my comments here.

I am no expert on literature but I know what I like.

I most always like your work.. And often I love it.

John in Wauwatosa