Progress, Ponies, Feedback Issues, stuff like that

So, still no new content from me.
O_o

Sigh.
I suck, I realize this, but I'm still trying to fight my way through this.
Trying a couple of new things, including dropping a medication that seems to disagree with me. After a couple-three weeks off of it, I do feel somewhat clearer, and seem to have more energy, which are both good things. Now, so long as I don't have any severe physical reactions in its absence, I should be good.

I've managed to string together a couple of writing days here, and I've made some progress on something. Not one of the bigger, more important projects, just an odd idea that occurred to me. I hope to finish that up by this coming weekend, and with that gathered momentum, transition seamlessly into the in-progress chapter of Dawn's story. I already have the first bit of that written, and I like it, so now I just need to push through until reaches that critical point where a chapter starts pulling me along for the ride instead of me struggling to get it up the hill.

In other, unrelated news... I'm feeling depressed.
Over on FIMfiction.net, I've been following several stories. It's a very large, active site, and there's some seriously good stuff going on there.
One of the stories, written by a new author, shows some promise, but there ARE some significant issues with it.
Annnnd... I tried to help.
I posted reviews, I was encouraging and positive, but I also tried to offer constructive advice.
At first this seemed to be well-received, so I kept up with it, sending some LONG and in-depth critiques on the story as it advanced.
Because I LIKE this story. It has rough edges, but the writer is capable, and like I said, we seemed to have a good dialogue going... only it turned out to not really be the case.
This person suffers from a thing I've seen before, where they're happy to hear what you think about their stuff, but any (and I mean ANY) negative comment, no matter how carefully made or how couched in encouragement and praise, is viewed as meaningless/worthless at best, and an outright attack at worst.
My latest batch of comments, where I offer some advice on pacing and tone, caused this person to basically snap, accuse me of 'pressuring' them to conform to my idea of what the story should be, and paint the whole thing as my attempt to somehow blackmail them with the threat of dropping the story from my reading list.
They then posted a blog entry proudly proclaiming that they would never 'bow to outside pressure', that they'd stay true to their vision for the story, etc, etc.

0_0
Blah.
Feh!

I mean, okay, all right, that is totally their call (as I only made clear in our conversations, over and over again), but it's also incredibly pig-headed of them.
I get advice and comments and wish-lists from readers too, about my stories, and I absolutely feel free to ignore it when it seems to go against what I have in mind to do with the thing.
But to resolutely declare that the reader's opinions mean NOTHING, is ridiculous.
If you care absolutely nothing for the viewpoints and reactions and wishes of the readers, then why are you even posting the fic to a site? If it's only a form of creative masturbation, then isn't that better accomplished in private?

I read every comment and review I get, and though I've disregarded plenty of laundry-lists of wishes for what happens next, I've also found some incredibly insightful and helpful analysis and suggestions in there, and more than a few of them have ended up in later chapters.
Readers are creative, intelligent people, and ignoring their advice on a product you're making for THEM is more than foolish and short-sighted, it's just plain stupid.

More than that, though, is the feeling I'm left with, here, that I wasted so much time and energy trying to help a person who proceeded to flip out for no good reason.
As much as I love getting in-depth with comments on stories, I can see why so many people don't leave reviews at all, or else just content themselves with 'I like this', or 'great work', and call it a day.

Blarg.
And yes, reading the Pony stories on FIMfiction HAS left me feeling tempted to write a Pony tale myself; I even plotted out a whole big thing with an original character and her overarching story.
But, no, not going to write it, at least not anytime soon.
I am tragically, criminally far behind on the things I'm already committed to doing, and I'm not going to leave them to gather dust for any longer than I can help.
IF, at some point late in the year, I've made huge progress on Buffy and Dawn and Harmony stories, then maybe, MAYBE there could be a Pony story.

Though I've no idea if anyone on TTH or my Patreon has any interest in such a thing.
Probably not many of them do.

::Sadness::

Season Five of MLP:FIM is actually off to a really good start, much better than last year.

.................
.................

I can't think of a smooth way to end this post.
So I'll just go with this---

More later.
AJK