#this got so long oof sjdhfdjsk

[oliviaischillin1204]

Looks like not that many people liked my latest work. I'll try do better next time, maybe I should take some time off to try improve.

~ Anne Onymous

hey, i'm sorry it's taken me so long to get to this Anne. i was gonna write a long drawn out answer, then i worried it was coming off too preachy, and i just wanted to sit on it a while.

firstly, i wanna apologize for how i uploaded ur latest work. the fact that i uploaded all 4 parts at once definitely impacted they way ppl read them, due to the overall length of all the posts one after the other (i could've put them under a read more, i know, but honestly i don't even want to put submissions under read mores bc if anything ever happens to this blog, i don't want someone else's stories to be lost forever behind a broken link). so again, i'm sorry that i posted them all at once, bc spacing them out would've given them a better chance imo.

secondly, please don't take notes as a sign of who liked or disliked ur work. i still get messages from people saying that they don't have accounts but lurk my blog (or at least, i got these messages a few months to a year ago, when i had written more recently than nowadays). additionally, the number of notes you get does not correlate to the joy any single reader might get from your work; numbers can't quantify that.

thirdly, you don't have to try to do better for anyone other than yourself. seriously, the pressure to please people has led to me writing things that i didn't even feel that engaged with before, only bc i knew that it was something a lot of people would like. i don't regret any of my works, but i can acknowledge that i often did things bc i knew it's what people 'wanted'. this assumption doesn't leave room for the fact that what people WANT is earnest, unique takes on ideas that the author is excited about, not pandering. i do believe there is a difference when an author is phoning something in vs. when they're writing an idea that might be weird or unpopular, but is theirs.

so fourthly, if you want to "take some time off", again ofc u can. but you never have to do it with the intention of making urself better for other people. also, taking time off to improve implies that anything you make in the meantime- before you've "improved"- isn't worthy or exceptional, and i just think that's categorically untrue. i would be NOWHERE without all the middle of the road pieces i've written through my 3.5 years on here- each one helped me get a little bit better, a little bit faster, a little more clear on my authorial voice. and i'm GRATEFUL that i kept going, and kept posting them, even when i felt embarrassed or frustrated that they weren't meeting my standards. so pls don't feel like u have to stop submitting anything u write until you've "improved"

fifthly, this community is a lot smaller than it used to be- people get busy, get older, get different interests. it really makes me happy to know that there are people like you, writing away bc it makes u happy, and allowing ME to share that happiness as much as i can. i'm very grateful for your works, Anne, and i for one know i would be very sad to not see you around. take all the time you need, and my inbox is always open for you <3