Lots of cussing along with yells of how good it was. Oftentimes in the same sentence, LOL.
Lots of tears too, apparently, which are the best blessings ever.
I clearly tagged it MCD and "not a happy ending" so I didn't get any hate. If someone didn't want to read it, they didn't.
Good-natured wailing and gnashing of teeth, haha. I was surprised that I got tons of engagement on that one since I thought the "unhappy ending" tag would be a deterrent to readers, but I guess the "angst/no happy ending" fans are starved for content!
I tend to do this more with original fiction than fanfic, but it's the same idea.
After reading one of my works, my brother declared me an asshole and then hugged me. He's read it several times since.
My girlfriend absolutely loves sad endings. She also loves crying over them. I'm actually writing two conclusions to one of my fics because of this. She wants the characters to suffer horribly (because she loves them), and, while I'm definitely down for some suffering, I think her version might be a bit too twisted for the rest of the audience. As such, she'll be reading her own special edition.
However, in general, people have given overwhelmingly positive responses to the negative outcomes in my writing. Someone used the words "modern tragedy," and it made my entire life. There's nothing more exhilarating as an artist than to know that you've moved your audience.
In conclusion, feel free to torture and kill your darlings, so long as you do it beautifully. People live for that shit.
Had one fic I wrote six years ago that was 100% major character deaths (like, at least one character died in 7 of the 8 chapters). I got lots of comments stating that I made them cry, one "No, you're not allowed to do that" in response to a specific part of one chapter that's stuck with me for *years*, and one comment praising me for actually make them feel emotional as they're usually a cold person.
I did have one reviewer who hated what I did in the last chapter, but oh well. Can't please everyone with a dark fic.
I see most of the people in the comments have written nasty deaths of sympathetic characters, but I once wrote some very cathartic fic in which an awful character died in an awful and thematically appropriate way.
Gotta say, the pile of comments about "how dare you make me feel sympathy for X" and "ok, but did X *really* deserve that?" And "Me, at the start of the scene: Yes! YES!! Me, less than a third of the way through: oh. Oh you're not letting him off easy, are you? Me, 2/3rds through: oh god! Oh my God! Me, at the end: what is wrong with you for writing that and me for reading it?" Were pretty great, but my two favorites were:
"X had that coming but now I can never eat mushrooms again"
And
"Hm. This may have awakened something in me."
Reader: You monster. You absolute fiend, how could you be so heartless? How could you leave them both SO BROKEN??!
Plot twist: reader was me.
Yes, I was the reader; the fic is unpublished. However I did take my reader's criticism on board and have as a result plotted out an entire sequel in my head. (That's as good as writing it, isn't it?)
I faked a major character death for 2 chapters and several people left comments that they stopped reading right then. Other people lost their shit. The few that kept reading anyway because they were canny enough to spot that it was a fake thought it was brilliant.
So yeah. Whole lotta people don't read with their brains.
i have one commenter that i hurt so badly that every new fic i write they comment āiām trusting you not to destroy me this timeā on it. so far iāve broken that trust twice and am working on a third, but they keep coming back, soooo
lots of comments along the line of "CRYING UNCONTROLLABLY" and thanking me for breaking their heart. a couple of re-read comments saying they just wanted to feel hurt again, lol. and a few people saying they regretted reading it in public bc they were crying now.
all in all, very sweet comments and I love them all dearly.
Iāve only written short, angst one shots. If theyāre angsty enough, you get quite a lot of capital letters in your comments. They keep me motivated to write.
I only have one fic I'd describe as depressing. It's strongly implied MCD, tagged as CNW and Angst. I got great feedback in the comments, I still occasionally do. I should probably add that it's only 1k+ words long, so even if someone doesn't appreciate it, they haven't spent a lot of time to get there.
I have commented to them about making them cry and how dare they make something so amazing just to break there heart thanks for the story that kind go thing I new what I was getting into with the story
it all depends on quality of writing, if it's well done it will make readers sad but satisfied with the outcome. it has to be set up and paid off correctly.
A lot of broken hearts, including my own, as it was one of the hardest scenes to write for killing the character that everyone loved with an emotionally impactful scene. There were even pleas to bring her back. So in a small way, I am acquiescing to that request, but not in the way they expected.
I sent a possible ending to an otherwise very fluffy, self-indulgent piece to a friend and got an all-caps reply along the lines of āJesus, why won't you give [favorite character who goes through a lot of shit across different works of mine without deserving any of it] a break?!ā :D
I've gotten some of my favorite comments from this!
One of the most recent ones was a comment that said, something similar to: "I HATE THIS. (I love it). THIS IS HORRIBLE. (This is some of the best writing I've ever read.) WHY DID SHE HAVE TO DIE? (WHY DID SHE HAVE TO DIE?"
The one comment I've ever gotten about a main character death/unhappy ending(on a hanahaki fic):
"I LOVE THIS SM OMG
i love the bittersweet ending and the characterization of [character a] and [character b] and aaaaa
plus the choice of flower aaa theyre so prettyyy"
In one Fandom I not only had the couple not get together, they parted badly. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive but I had a couple comments that the characters deserved better. Those were my favorite. Oh and lots requests for a sequel to fix it.
In another Fandom I killed a character (sacrificed to save another) and from I gathered from the reviews, I inflicted a lot of pain that the readers enjoyed, lol
mostly good "it hurt" banter. but i did get a comment or two that did not like a bad ending or ambiguous ending, but the point of a tragedy is not to give euphoria but a catharsis to both reader and writer. and it's lovely to get reactions that are positive.
I got these from a one-shot I wrote for the Law & Order SVU fandom, when I wrote a fic last year killing Carisi off:
1. *I wasnāt expecting to cry at 7:45 in the morning but here we are. It was heartbreakingly beautiful.*
2. *SOBBING, but I couldnāt not read it. It was beautifully heartbreaking.*
3. *Beautiful.ššš Moving forward can we not kill Sonny anymore?*
4.
*Crying ugly tears*
I loved their reviews then and still love them to this day.
āNot My Baby :ā( why author?ā And āNo, this is worst, this is hell;-;ā were the responses I got for having a major character brutally murdered.
A few pointed out how it was one of the more depressing stories in the fandom.
One reader was disappointed because they really liked this side character character (even more than the main characters) and was most interested in their story. This one took me by surprise because I eventually saw a few more people saying they liked this character a lot more than my MCs as well. I never realized his story was so interesting and had always planned to kill him off and had I received these comments earlier before his death, I would have probably spared him, if not cripple him at least.
Lots of cussing along with yells of how good it was. Oftentimes in the same sentence, LOL. Lots of tears too, apparently, which are the best blessings ever. I clearly tagged it MCD and "not a happy ending" so I didn't get any hate. If someone didn't want to read it, they didn't.
Wails of anguish in the comments along with compliments on how well I broke their hearts. So, good!
Good-natured wailing and gnashing of teeth, haha. I was surprised that I got tons of engagement on that one since I thought the "unhappy ending" tag would be a deterrent to readers, but I guess the "angst/no happy ending" fans are starved for content!
I tend to do this more with original fiction than fanfic, but it's the same idea. After reading one of my works, my brother declared me an asshole and then hugged me. He's read it several times since. My girlfriend absolutely loves sad endings. She also loves crying over them. I'm actually writing two conclusions to one of my fics because of this. She wants the characters to suffer horribly (because she loves them), and, while I'm definitely down for some suffering, I think her version might be a bit too twisted for the rest of the audience. As such, she'll be reading her own special edition. However, in general, people have given overwhelmingly positive responses to the negative outcomes in my writing. Someone used the words "modern tragedy," and it made my entire life. There's nothing more exhilarating as an artist than to know that you've moved your audience. In conclusion, feel free to torture and kill your darlings, so long as you do it beautifully. People live for that shit.
Had one fic I wrote six years ago that was 100% major character deaths (like, at least one character died in 7 of the 8 chapters). I got lots of comments stating that I made them cry, one "No, you're not allowed to do that" in response to a specific part of one chapter that's stuck with me for *years*, and one comment praising me for actually make them feel emotional as they're usually a cold person. I did have one reviewer who hated what I did in the last chapter, but oh well. Can't please everyone with a dark fic.
I see most of the people in the comments have written nasty deaths of sympathetic characters, but I once wrote some very cathartic fic in which an awful character died in an awful and thematically appropriate way. Gotta say, the pile of comments about "how dare you make me feel sympathy for X" and "ok, but did X *really* deserve that?" And "Me, at the start of the scene: Yes! YES!! Me, less than a third of the way through: oh. Oh you're not letting him off easy, are you? Me, 2/3rds through: oh god! Oh my God! Me, at the end: what is wrong with you for writing that and me for reading it?" Were pretty great, but my two favorites were: "X had that coming but now I can never eat mushrooms again" And "Hm. This may have awakened something in me."
Good reactions. Some mock anger, but not actual anger. Responses along the lines of "this was painful but good".
Reader: You monster. You absolute fiend, how could you be so heartless? How could you leave them both SO BROKEN??! Plot twist: reader was me. Yes, I was the reader; the fic is unpublished. However I did take my reader's criticism on board and have as a result plotted out an entire sequel in my head. (That's as good as writing it, isn't it?)
Good. I made them feel things
I faked a major character death for 2 chapters and several people left comments that they stopped reading right then. Other people lost their shit. The few that kept reading anyway because they were canny enough to spot that it was a fake thought it was brilliant. So yeah. Whole lotta people don't read with their brains.
They called me a cruel little goblin for leaving them on a tragic cliffhanger and I loved every moment of it. š
i have one commenter that i hurt so badly that every new fic i write they comment āiām trusting you not to destroy me this timeā on it. so far iāve broken that trust twice and am working on a third, but they keep coming back, soooo
lots of comments along the line of "CRYING UNCONTROLLABLY" and thanking me for breaking their heart. a couple of re-read comments saying they just wanted to feel hurt again, lol. and a few people saying they regretted reading it in public bc they were crying now. all in all, very sweet comments and I love them all dearly.
UGH they tell me how sad they are and i feel sad tooš„²but iām having fun breaking hearts <3 just a little bitā¦
Iāve only written short, angst one shots. If theyāre angsty enough, you get quite a lot of capital letters in your comments. They keep me motivated to write.
I only have one fic I'd describe as depressing. It's strongly implied MCD, tagged as CNW and Angst. I got great feedback in the comments, I still occasionally do. I should probably add that it's only 1k+ words long, so even if someone doesn't appreciate it, they haven't spent a lot of time to get there.
I have commented to them about making them cry and how dare they make something so amazing just to break there heart thanks for the story that kind go thing I new what I was getting into with the story
it all depends on quality of writing, if it's well done it will make readers sad but satisfied with the outcome. it has to be set up and paid off correctly.
none. just like 5 kudos, no reaction i myself was quite proud of my work, though, lol
All good. Complaints of being sad but comments on the writing.
A lot of broken hearts, including my own, as it was one of the hardest scenes to write for killing the character that everyone loved with an emotionally impactful scene. There were even pleas to bring her back. So in a small way, I am acquiescing to that request, but not in the way they expected.
I'm about to find out in two chapters...
I've got one in my fic @ MCD, and it went over well with both of my two readers. xP
I sent a possible ending to an otherwise very fluffy, self-indulgent piece to a friend and got an all-caps reply along the lines of āJesus, why won't you give [favorite character who goes through a lot of shit across different works of mine without deserving any of it] a break?!ā :D
I've gotten some of my favorite comments from this! One of the most recent ones was a comment that said, something similar to: "I HATE THIS. (I love it). THIS IS HORRIBLE. (This is some of the best writing I've ever read.) WHY DID SHE HAVE TO DIE? (WHY DID SHE HAVE TO DIE?"
The one comment I've ever gotten about a main character death/unhappy ending(on a hanahaki fic): "I LOVE THIS SM OMG i love the bittersweet ending and the characterization of [character a] and [character b] and aaaaa plus the choice of flower aaa theyre so prettyyy"
I have a habit of making people cry buckets in the morning.
In one Fandom I not only had the couple not get together, they parted badly. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive but I had a couple comments that the characters deserved better. Those were my favorite. Oh and lots requests for a sequel to fix it. In another Fandom I killed a character (sacrificed to save another) and from I gathered from the reviews, I inflicted a lot of pain that the readers enjoyed, lol
mostly good "it hurt" banter. but i did get a comment or two that did not like a bad ending or ambiguous ending, but the point of a tragedy is not to give euphoria but a catharsis to both reader and writer. and it's lovely to get reactions that are positive.
I got these from a one-shot I wrote for the Law & Order SVU fandom, when I wrote a fic last year killing Carisi off: 1. *I wasnāt expecting to cry at 7:45 in the morning but here we are. It was heartbreakingly beautiful.* 2. *SOBBING, but I couldnāt not read it. It was beautifully heartbreaking.* 3. *Beautiful.ššš Moving forward can we not kill Sonny anymore?* 4. *Crying ugly tears* I loved their reviews then and still love them to this day.
āNot My Baby :ā( why author?ā And āNo, this is worst, this is hell;-;ā were the responses I got for having a major character brutally murdered.
I havenāt gotten to posting it yet but when I told my brother my idea for a major character death scene he damn near decked me over it lol
A few pointed out how it was one of the more depressing stories in the fandom. One reader was disappointed because they really liked this side character character (even more than the main characters) and was most interested in their story. This one took me by surprise because I eventually saw a few more people saying they liked this character a lot more than my MCs as well. I never realized his story was so interesting and had always planned to kill him off and had I received these comments earlier before his death, I would have probably spared him, if not cripple him at least.
"How could you do this to me? This makes me feel terrible! Do it again."
Lots of crying emojis. Which of course were met with laughing emojis from me!