A Decade of a Deadfic · 5:49pm Oct 26th, 2023
A decade ago, today, Regent last updated. Needless to say, this is not an anniversary I was looking forward to. Part of me didn’t want to even acknowledge it, but it’s been years since I did one of those “deadfic updates” authors do and a decade’s as good of a reason to as any, so I figured why not.
As a reader, I was always baffled and a little angry why authors didn’t do these more often. There’s plenty of deadfics I’d like to have an update on. But now, looking back from the other side of the table, I know why authors don’t. Actually, I’ve known for a while. Back before Expectations fully died, the author would do monthly writing updates for it. And given it died, you can probably imagine how well those went. There were only so many “I wanted to write this month, but only got a few hundred words in” before I knew the futility of the whole thing and understood why other deadfics don’t do it. It’s pretty discouraging. And that’s from a reader. I can’t imagine how the author felt.
Writing updates are only exciting when authors can puff out their chest and boast of doing 5k in an afternoon. And a deadfic wouldn’t be dead if an author were writing it at that pace. So that creates a catch-22. You only want to do writing updates if you’re writing a lot, but if you’re writing a lot, there’s no reason to do an update since the story will be getting posted.
But enough babbling, back to the point of this. Regent is still dead, if that’s not obvious. There’s several reason why—other fics I want to write taking my attention, IRL things eating time (nothing drama posting worthy, just regular things like work, spending time with family, and entertainment like vidya and Youtube), etc.—but by far the largest reason is scope creep.
This was supposed to be just 100k long when I first started it. Now, it’s bloated and spread over the years. There’s a dozen subplots, there’s dozens of OCs, there’s attempts to rope the whole M6 into those subplots. It’s tracking more like 300k. And as it bloats, I find myself digging an ever deeper hole. There’s whole sections I haven’t even started and somewhat dread starting because of the need to develop characters enough for the audience to like them and care about what happens.
I know, I know. I can just trim the fat. Cut the story back to its core and get the 100k thing out. But I don’t want to do that. I write fics because I’d love to read them. Ascend was the Twilicorn fic I’d always wanted to read, simply because it was able to get to the “everyone finds out” part of the story so few others could. Regent has turned into the adventure fic I’d want to read. It has politics, geopolitics, warships, Equestrian lore—everything I love in an adventure.
I can’t throw that all away just to get a complete tag on the thing. A truncated plot that’s a shell of what it could be is something I’d never want to read, so how could I possibly write it? That might very well doom Regent to forever being a deadfic. The scale and ambition might just be too much for me to finish it. But at least it’ll always be something I want to read. And I know that because I’m constantly getting sucked into it and rereading scenes I’ve written.
Onward to the “writing update.” As it stands right now, Regent has 164,491 words. That may sound like a lot, but they’re mostly spread out throughout the plot. There’s only about three completed new chapters. Because of where the story has gone, to finish it, I’m going to have to rewrite the already published chapters. They just don’t align anymore with the rest of the story.
I really hate admitting that, since nothing says deadfic like an author constantly rewriting what was already written like a sisyphean tragedy, but I’ve had to accept it. It won’t be the story it could be if it isn’t rewritten. So you can really deduct 50k from that earlier word count. There’s at least 200k more story that still needs to be written.
If Regent does finish, I’ll either repost the existing chapters with the new content, or outright delete them and post new chapters. I’ll cross that bridge if I ever come to it, but either way, I’ll make sure to save a backup that can be read for posterity. No sense in permanently deleting anything.
I won’t sugar coat things like some of these deadfic blog posts do. I haven’t worked steadily on Regent in at least nine months. Other fics have grabbed my writing attention and will probably continue to in the months and years to come. Regent will not be finishing anytime soon, if it ever does.
But I won’t ever put the cancelled tag on it, and I’ll definitely never do the “I give up, here’s an outline of what I was planning to do” blog post. I hate those with a passion and always make a point of skipping them when deadfic authors finally throw in the towel. All they do is serve to amplify what was already a disappoint.
I hope one day I can share that adventure fic I’ve always wanted to read with you, but until then at least know that I’m not dead. I’m still here. I still love pone. I still love writing and reading pone. And I still open my deadfic every few weeks to edit it and maybe add a few lines here and there. And, occasionally, it’s a little more than a few. That’s all more than can be said for most deadfics on this site.
Scary that people like me remember it enough to post a reply in a message like this. There was another fic -- the lost decade or something that just started updating after exactly a decade of hiatus. (It was a decade lost)
Something you could do, something I've done with a fic of mine, is leave the original up and post the remade one as a seperate story, with the appropriate verbage, of course.
There is many on this site now it's fine
You have my full and complete sympathy. (I've got like four stories in mid-pause and three non-pony stories in development.)
I definitely appreciate the honesty and the willingness to keep it realistic. Here's to you and finishing your vision someday, I'll be here to read it when you do.^^
A decade is a funny thing. I remember reading Ascend, liking it a lot and being exited about the sequel until it just kind of (temporarily) died.
And now, I have literally zero recollection of anything that was in the fic outside of the general theme. All I remember is probably from Expectations or the other fic with the same premise where Twilight's mark got orange tones along with wings.
Now that it's apparently not dead anymore, I need to re-read the whole thing. Damn I feel old.
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/597/522/363.png
Here's one I post places on occasion. Usually when I see an author writing a comment elsewhere and I remember that they write something I miss
It's easy! You just do what every bad horror movie does:
Script: And suddenly, the monster killed them all! THE END!!
I was so surprised to see this in my feed! Happily so. Appreciate the honesty, glad you're still here.