Not much to say, really. I'm not much of an author, but I do enjoy reading fanfiction.

I've decided recently that if I read a story, I should be giving honest feedback to the authors. It's only fair.

In case anybody cares, here are some basic facts about me:

I am a female.

I live in the northern midwest region. It is cold here, with exception of Early June through Early August. As such, I stay indoors and read fanfiction.

I am a college student. My majors are: Education, Chemistry, and Japanese.

I have studied and had instruction in Japanese language and culture for 9 years. They offered it as a foreign language in my school district, starting in 7th grade. I just want to give you forwarning that I do use it when reading anime based fanfiction, or any fanfiction that drags the characters into Japan for some reason. So don't attack me if I object to your application of a culture/language. I DO know what I'm talking about. And if I'm not sure, I seek out my Japanese professor's opinion.

I'm not some little kid trying to be snotty, or some stuck up jerk trying to make people feel bad. If you think my review was too critical, I apologize. I'm not out to flame someone because I don't like a pairing, think someone is OOC, didn't think a scene was realistic, blah blah blah. You didn't force me to read it.

I don't like leaving messages that say "I liked it" or "This sucks" and nothing else. If I do or don't like something, I will tell you why. I want you to improve/keep being awesome. I do not flame. I do not rant. I'm not going to pick apart your entire story...unless you want me to. I do like to do literary analysis.

The basics to my reviews:

I respect the use of Google Translate or something of the sort for individual words. I don't know WHY some people like to throw in random Japanese when English works just fine, but they do. I do object to full sentences in Japanese using these online translators. If you aren't familiar with the language, please don't string Japanese vocabulary together (especially using English grammar) and call it a day. Just put the sentence in italics, as: this is said in Japanese. Then I don't have to scroll to your footnotes to understand your garbled Japanglish. The same goes for Latin, or any other language. It's silly and probably doesn't give the impact you were going for.

Grammar is basic. If English isn't your first language, that's fine. I do check profiles for stuff like that. And I don't care about the occasionaly typo. Nobody's perfect. But if you've got run-on sentences, comma splices, or subject confusion all over the place, I will call you on your grammar. Or at least tell you to get a beta.

I'm okay with most pairings. Heck, my favorite stories and manga has gender switching and relationship changes partway through the story. I admit to reading yaoi. But put some thought into the character, please. I'm not going to type in all caps, but you shouldn't be able to swap out one character for another with no change in the relationship dynamic. It's called "emotional baggage." Don't leave it at the door.

No block text, please. If I can get through your story to the end, you must have written something amazing. I will still ask that you reformat it to include proper paragraphs.

Other than that, I have no major pet peeves.