Here's a pretty cut and dry question; How do you guys feel about starting another story, even though you're nowhere near finished with the old one?
Everyone does it, especially if you need to take a break from the main thing you're working on by writing something different. Let me say, though, from the standpoint of the cold, harsh reality of an audience: an unfinished story isn't a story. On top of that, the world of fanfiction, and Touhou fanfiction is by far no exception, is
choked with the first halves of things that will never be finished. Finishing a fic is the single biggest thing you can do to make it worth reading. So, I mean, take breaks, do other things, but it's up to your self-control; some people have no problem juggling a bunch of stories, others will get lured away from the first and never return. (ETA: Looking back at this I'm sorta confused and I think I drifted from the original topic. It's not like I think you're considering leaving the story unfinished. But I think there's value in trying not to let a partial fic go untouched any longer than it needs to. Good writing definitely takes time, and again everyone's gotta take breaks. But all else being equal, finishing what you've started is a good priority to have.)
DeathShot Catharsis, taking criticism is a vitally important skill, but it is definitely one you can practice. Hardly anybody starts out finding it fun, you know? The best advice I know is to try and deal with your feelings separately from it. When you first read the criticism and you get upset, leave it for a while and go handle that feeling. Distract yourself, cheer yourself up, or sulk, cry, punch a pillow, rant to someone you can trust; don't suppress it, don't dwell on it, get it out of your system. Then go back and look at the crit again when you're feeling better.
I know you've taken a lot of crap about your OCs already, but I hope you can take a step back and understand that realistically. Some of the things you talk about really, truly are often lead-ins to bad writing; that doesn't mean your writing is bad, but it does mean people honestly have good reason to be suspicious. You can say that you're different, that you've put a lot of work into making sure you avoid those pitfalls, but nobody else can know that until they see the results. So most of the people here aren't trying to shut down your project, they are trying to make very, very certain that you can do it right. There's always going to be pessimism and I'm sure it gets really old, but remind yourself that you have
nothing to worry about as long as the proof will be in the pudding.
...Especially since you've said yourself that the reason behind the creation of your OCs is essentially that you want to fix a major characteristic of Touhou that you don't like. But you must realize that most of your audience here are fans who
do like that characteristic, often quite a bit. You're going to have a hard time convincing anyone your fix is a good thing until you have something to show for it.
Honestly, I completely relate to not wanting to do yuri, I can sympathize with not liking it in a fandom where it's omnipresent, but that response seems odd to me too. Is there a reason why every girl needs to be in a relationship in the first place? I don't get you sometimes, fandom.
