helpful story-notes warnings

[flummery]

While I think some story notes are absurd -- like the ones where the author feels it necessary to explain what she had for breakfast that Tuesday when she was 8 and her teacher gave her a gold star for spelling and that influenced her to write and that's what brought her to this, her very firstest ever "fic", of all the "fics" she's planning to write, with the help of her 11 betas, all listed carefully by cutesily spelled name along with a sentence explaining why this is her bestest friend in the world *smooch huggilies!!!* -- sometimes they are a true blessing.

Take, for instance, this simple little note (names changed because this isn't about the fandom, it's about the concept):

Pairing and Notes: Joe/John or Mike...you pick. Feedback is a blessing.

I just boggled. "John" and "Mike" are two vastly different characters -- they differ physically and emotionally, they differ in speech pattern and mannerism, they differ in their approaches to and relationships with "Joe".

But somehow, this author has managed to write a story where either one of them could be the person she's writing about.

Yeah. Right.

Thank you for your note, O author, I do appreciate it. You've saved me minutes of my life I might have lost forever to your masterpiece.