leave it up and just revamp it some. It is your story and you should keep it as is mostly except for your intro on it (the controversial part you wrote in the teaser). Your words are your words and how it ends and flows is up to you.

Sephrena

ps: I had nothing to do with this event other than to stop the comments on the original post. I have privately encouraged the author to keep it whole (minus the intro) or revamp it how she sees fit. I did not want her to delete the story. She did that on her own. The story, minus the author intro, was fine how it was. The intro by the author was the controversy.

This was your story. And it was yours to finish as you see fit. You should not let negative reviews hurt your creativity or stop you from writing.

So she was sent to prison for homicide and you got bad reviews. Everybody has their preferences, attitudes, and opinions. I'm afraid that some of us have the bad manners to not be very tactful with how they convey a negative opinion.

Please keep in mind that every review is valuable in that you can still improve your writing, you should not feel that your readers are engaging in a personal attack on you.

If you think that your ending was too harsh, would you want to do an epilogue that resolves things the way you think your readers would like? I would ask you to not delete your final part of the story as it is the natural conclusion to the story in real life.

So it was more whine than roses. Life's like that and sometimes stories should be too. The hints of the path you would take were there in the first three parts but some readers chose to ignore those hints in favor of the path they desired.

They focused on Charlie being a girl and ignored the manipulative Tate and Jenkins and the slippery slope Charlie was on because THEY like being on that slope more than they cared about Charlie returning to a normal life.

Many writing experts speak to a contract established between the writer and her readers.

Under that contract the writer agrees to abide by certain standards set by the writing community. In return the reader agrees to invest their time and energy in the process of converting the author's words into her own mental images.

Over the years my position on the contract regarding BC writers and readers has evolved. BC has a rather interesting approach to its community standards. For example, so many writers have started stories and never finished them that this is now considered not offensive. Authors have the right here to simply walk away from a story and the characters within the story . . . at any juncture.

Also, BC writers aren't at all compelled to have a beginning, a middle, and an end to their story. Many, many BC stories simply float along making progress only in the sense that a TV sitcom makes progress . . . simply bouncing along from story arc to story arc in no particular directions.

The duty you owe to your readers on BC seems to be this, "Write something that you would enjoy reading."

If you follow that rule you never need to apologize.

Delete your story ending or not, that's your decision. But don't quit writing . . . as long as it is pleasurable for you.

Those who impose their standards on your behavior are selfish and inconsiderate. Just like every other human activity "selfish" and "inconsiderate" fall on a bell curve. It's been my observation that the T community gets more than its normal share of those traits. Maybe that's why people think we're narcissistic.

Jill

Why are you deleting anything you wrote? This is your story. You wrote it because you wanted to write it. You ended it the way you wanted it to end.

IT'S YOUR STORY!

If others want to write a different story, this forum is wide open to them. They can create their story, and end it the way they want to do it.

Don't apoligize. This story is written correctly. If a few readers are disappointed, too bad.
Stick to your guns, girl. This is your life, your story ... not theirs. Be proud of who you are, and what you've accomplished.

But of coarse I didn't get to read chapter four, having just went back to read the first three only to find #4 missing?:( Closure of a story comes in all forms and sometimes not at all. As a writer you have the right to end it as you wish. It is impossible to make every body happy, but I think providing any kind of closure to a story is better than none at all. It may not be what the reader wants or expects, but so what, it is what it is. I will say having just read the first three Chapters that I liked it, so please repost it as is or change it if you must. (Hugs) Taarpa

I may not like the ending, but that does not mean that you need to give an apology.

—

Stanman May Your Light Forever Shine

Please don't let the negative views expressed by others affect you. This is your story, written for you. We are all blessed to be able to read the stories authors here choose to share with us.

Have I enjoyed every story or the choices the authors have made? Nope.

But instead of kicking and screaming like a little child, I hit the back button. It's not my story, so it's not my right to tell the author how to write it.

I apologize for the negative sentiments you received for choosing to go down the path you went, and please don't let that stop you from writing.

... really what you intended, put it back up. Your intro teaser made it seem as if the only reason you posted it was to hurt everyone who loved the story. As long as you were really intending to go there in the end, why pull it? I agree with Sephy. The negative comments and reactions were more from the way you presented it than from the story content.

As I said when I commented earlier today, it's your right as the author to choose the dark path, if that's what you want to do. It just bothered me that you made it look like you chose to hurt your lead character because you wanted to punish people for pushing you into doing another part of a story you really just wanted to leave behind.

Randa

Just fix it the way you think it should be. I constantly reread stories, and just because you think you spoiled the ending the first time is no reason to not present it the way it should be! Wow, that was convoluted. I guess I just think you should finish it your way. Let the readers see the ending you wanted in the first place. Don't leave it unfinished, please!

Wren