Recently, in a Harry Potter-related Facebook group that had brought me a lot of happiness until now, there was a discussion about leaving negative reviews. The amount of apathetic, holier-than-thou comments on this thread was astounding.

Let me explain something. Fanfiction is purely hobby-writing. Anyone who writes does not get paid, is usually not a professional writer, and has been inspired to write by something they love. Anyone who reads on here is not paying for it. If you don’t have encouragement or *CONSTRUCTIVE* criticism, you need to just close the story and go on by. There is something for everyone here. Think before you destroy someone’s creativity. Just because you might not think something is good, doesn’t mean it’s not. Art, in all its many forms, is completely and utterly subjective, and your opinion is purely that – an opinion.

Someone actually had the audacity to equate those who would be hurt by flames to "snowflakes." While it is true that once you release something on the web, it is inevitably going to get some kind of hate from someone somewhere, that does not mean that it is right. I’d like to think that the kind of fandom-obsessed weirdos (and I say that with complete fondness as I am one) that read fanfic are kinder than that, but I’ve been proven wrong.

I was very close to continuing my most recent SS/HG fic, but instead, I think it’s best if I just step away for a very long while.

If you only take one thing from all this…. Please, just be kind. Stop thinking your opinion is the only one, because it’s not. Please be kind to others. Thanks to all who have been kind to me over the last 18 years of my fanfic writing.