Just an observation - Other Authors

I am constantly surprised by my regular reviewers (and, by association, probably most of my regular readers, too). They're incredibly conscientious and thoughtful individuals, many of them very skilled writers in their own rights. Among them? (Listed in alpha order to keep it fair.)

Cerebrate - check out "Shades of Red"
Kisdota - The Freak Gamer - whose stuff I haven't read, but he somehow consistently manages to post his reviews within a few hours of my posting new chapters...I don't know how he does it, honestly...maybe caffeine?
Lady Cheshire - check out "Pressure Cooker" and (my favorite) "Distance and Spaces"
leaflett - check out "Caffeine"
moyabomb - check out "All He Sees Is Red"
zero-damage - check out "The Shortest Distance From A to B"

Anyway, all of these folks have stood by the story for a long time and several thousands of words. I thank God that they're still with me, because without them I probably wouldn't get any reviews for this gargantuan story at all. (It's sad but true.)

I feel a little bad sometimes that Chie - who is my narrator, for all intents and purposes - leads the reader in a direction that is erroneous...or at least tangential to what is really going on. She knows what's going on in her own head (most of the time, anyway), but she can only guess what's going on in every else's. Sometimes, she'll guess what someone is thinking, and I want to tell the reader: "She's wrong! Remember, she's not a great listener! Pay attention to their words, not what she's thinking!" The next chapter - 33, "Juxtaposition" - makes that a little more clear to readers, I hope.

On another note.... It's often difficult to keep the chapters on a steady pace. I had thought that 32 was going to turn out pretty well, since I had finished it early and felt pretty good about the whole thing. But then I re-read it (because the hits and reviews have been slow), and I realized that there's something missing from it. So for 33, I went back to the old standby technique of mine of having a couple of different people address the same topic from different perspectives. We'll see if that makes a difference.

I don't know why I'm so obsessed with hits and reviews. I'll write and finish this story for myself, first (screw everybody else!)...but it's always nice to know that I'm entertaining other folks, as well. I just wish I knew who was reading and not giving feedback, and why. Do they just not write reviews (one person did say that)? Do they think the story isn't worth reviewing? Do they not have an account to leave a review? It's a fanfic writer's conundrum.

Oh, well. Back to the typing.