On what's been going on and some other notes · 6:36am March 11th
Just gonna get straight to it.
1. What I was going to announce in my last blog post was that I self published a novel. I was nervous to link to it like I originally planned for personal reasons, but yeah. That's what I've been up to. I'm writing original works and wanting to get them published one day.
2. As a result, there's a good chance I'm done with pony fanfiction. I've written like 30 pony fanfics, some of them novel length, and I thought it was time to move on around the time I wrote It Doesn't Have to End Here. I don't feel bad about it because well, it was a hell of a run.
3. I still regret what happened with Kiss of the Dark. On some level I'm still not over it, the caving in with the endings, switching to what I originally wanted, and the ultra harsh backlash I got from it. I don't know if I will get over it, to be honest. It screwed me up to the point where I believe it actually changed who I was afterwards. Maybe one day I'll get over it. I hope so.
But it was over a decade ago that it happened, and it still bothers me to this day. I don't know what lesson to be gained from it. Some might say "just write the story you wanted to write" but we all know what happened there when I did it with KOTD. I guess, on some level you have to put some distance from the reaction your story gets to your mental wellbeing? That's a lesson I still haven't fully learned and I'm just hoping it eventually heals, the wounds that are still there from it. Maybe. I hate to admit it, but that backlash is the thing that lingers the most from my time writing fanfics here. It didn't help that it happened in 2013, where the pony fandom drama shattered a lot of things I believed in the world, mostly because I went into it extremely naive about the state of things. Those were lessons I had to learn sooner or later. Just wish it didn't happen that way. Especially when I'm fully not over it.
I don't know. I honestly didn't expect to go into this post detailing how I'm not over KOTD to this day. It's probably why I didn't write a third part where Dusk Trail grows up. I had to move on from this. Whatever conclusions you want to make from this, I don't know what they are. Just know that yeah, I'm still writing, just moved on from fanfiction to more original works. Hopefully one day, you'll find one of my stories at a bookstore.
I'm sorry to hear that you had such a painful experience with KOTD. I do believe it's a good story at the end of the day so you should be proud of that fact. I'm sorry to see you leave the world of pony fic, but I wish you good luck in all your new endeavours.
Also please don't be one of those people who deletes all their fanfiction once they become published.
Holy wow, congrats on the original fiction! That's such a big step and congrats on taking it. n_n
I will admit I'll miss seeing your fics on here but I can understand and respect your decision to step away from things, especially after such a bad experience.
Congrats again!