I am currently in awe of writers who can write a short story, who can take an idea and distill it to its sum parts.

I don't understand it, I don't get the why of it, how they choose to pick a certain point in time and are able to end it in a timely manner.

I am working on my own story, and despair of anyone wanting to stick through the enormity of it. I just can't comprehend a neat and tidy short story. That's got to be so much self control and foresight and self-editing.

My hat is off to you.

Ha! I looked at the start of my Rolling Calf fic again and I have no idea how it got so long or how to fix it.

And then I looked at the "drabble" (I'm a traditionalist, drabbles are only 100 words) I wrote during it, and it's so much more pleasing to me. I'd rather write short than long, but it's not like I'm going to publish the short story, because I get so disappointed with low word counts when I'm reading.

I know everyone does not like RPF, but the Third Monday challenge revealed today and I can't say enough good things about what I got. Jon Stewart/Anthony Weiner [link] My own story(About Keith and Rachel, natch) [link]

Is there a way, on AO3, to leave a note for a writer that's not a public comment? I keep hitting "If you're interlacing your metacarpals, something has gone horribly wrong. I think you mean phalanges." "No, violin fingerings are done with the left hand." kinds of technical knowledge things that I feel bad putting out there in front of everyone.

No, Debetesse, although if you can track down the writer on LJ/DW you might be able to send them an email or PM.

I poked around for all of three minutes, and, geez, you're right, there doesn't seem to be a way to convey a private message to an author short of "pssst, this is my email, I'd like to discuss your fic with you" or even "loved your fic! But there's a few discrepancies that if you're willing to talk about, here's my email for the entire website to see!".

Because, even though I suck at giving feedback to fics, if there's some typos or whatnot that seriously bugs, I don't feel that's something I need to point out in general comments for all to see.

Maybe the site can fix that in the future with enough feedback? I don't know the landscape of fic archive sites well. But I know the discontent is there in LJ and several of my favourite authors have left for AO3 or Dreamwidth.

Fanfiction.net. It's the only way to be sure.

The last resort. Oh dear.

ita has crossed over to the dark side. Her moral compass has been compromised. Can our hero truly make this choice?!

"Fanfiction.net isn't my father! Nooooooooo!!!!!"

Shhhhhooot. At FFN I get actual reviews that point out ... well, actually I've gotten only positive comments, but when a writer whose work I enjoy takes the time to throw down a couple detailed paragraphs about what I am doing well in my stories, that's better than "this is really funny!" or "I like this a lot" which is pretty much all I get at AO3. It may not be exactly constructive criticism, but when that kind of comment hits some aspect that I put effort into, it means something. And when there is complete silence about an aspect that I thought important - then I tend to assume it needs more work.

I have several stories on AO3, ones that have several dozen comments on fanfic.com, and of all of those there has been one comment. It's kind of like sending things out into the void there. Well, there have been a couple of what seem to be the equivalent of a Like. And yes, I have left actual comments.