Sue, I enjoyed hearing about your fandom experiences, which were much like mine in the HP fandom (except that our BNA's - at least in my ship - weren't so catty, thankfully, and were actually quite kind and encouraging once one worked up the courage to get to know them). But I'd gone from a fandom where I was a decent-sized fish in a teeny tiny pond to HP, where I was...plankton, basically. With my first story there, I wrote my little heart out and had eight reviews at the end of the fourth chapter. That's pretty hard to do in a fandom that size. It was incredibly humbling, but I kept writing, and kept writing, 20-something chapters worth, and the story eventually did catch on and develop a following. With the next story, it was easier, and the one after that, easier still. It just sometimes takes a while.

Nancy,

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Yes, anonymous readers need to post.
I do see what you and Capes are getting at here, but the word "need" concerns me a little. There have always been anonymous readers of fan fiction and there always will be. If someone wants to read my stories and doesn't feel comfortable commenting, that's perfectly fine with me. I don't think the fact that I choose to write and post fan fiction should confer an obligation on someone else, especially if it's an obligation that for whatever reason makes them uncomfortable. There must have been a reason you lurked for nearly a decade. It might have been lack of time or shyness or a slow internet connection - I don't know you well enough to know - but the fact that you've now overcome whatever it was doesn't necessarily put everyone else in the same boat. Yes, it is lovely when someone de-lurks and lets me know he or she is following something I've written. Gives me a little thrill every single time. But I don't want someone making him or herself uncomfortable over it.

And I'm going to shut up now and go back to writing, which has kind of fallen to the wayside these last few days.

Best,

Caroline