Bad Horse 2012: A self-indulgent self-review · 11:44pm Dec 29th, 2012
I'm stealing bookplayer's Year in Review questions. This is mostly for my own benefit.
Fic total:
29 stories and about 90,000 words, depending how you count.
Overall impressions:
It's much more fun to write when you can immediately find out how many people read your story and how many of them liked it, read their comments, and even get to know some of them. If you guys hadn't read, liked, and commented, I wouldn't still be here.
It's also much more informative. For the first few months I broke my stories up into short chapters and watched the view count on each chapter to find out where people stopped reading. (Half of readers stop somewhere on the first page, no matter how short or long it is. 90% or more of those who go on to the second page will finish the story. The critical area appears to be the first 500 words. Grammar doesn't matter.)
And I scan the other stories on the site, and see how popular they are, and learn what readers like. Writers have never known this stuff before. Nobody knows how many or what kind of stories editors reject, or how many people read each of the different stories published in a magazine. We have sales figures for books, but they're so distorted by the different amount of marketing power put behind each book as to be meaningless (unless you know the marketing budgets as well!)
I've told this to other writers, but most scoff. I went from being afraid my family would see my fanfic, to telling them how to find it, to asking them to read it, to no avail. People outside fandom won't touch it, with few exceptions.
TL;DR: Fanfic is my secret weapon in my competition with the other writers of the world. Not because I keep it secret, but because they won't listen.
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I didn't mean to write fanfic at all. I still don't. I meant to write television scripts. Somehow one pony story became two, became three, and so on. I was surprised that I could write 70,000 words of final draft in half a year of weekends when I was trying not to write.
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
My Little Pony. Shipping. A bit of Lunestia. (Don't ask. It's bad.)
What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
The stories that make me happiest are the ones that make me saddest. Is that twisted? I guess favorite story goes to The Detective and the Magician. But favorite moment goes to this exchange from A Carrot for Miss Fluttershy:
DERPY HOOVES hurries on-stage, followed by a COLT and a FILLY.
FILLY AND COLT
Derpy derpy derpy!Big Mac gives the colt and filly one look and they hurry off.
SCOOTALOO
Were they teasing you because you're a pegasus?DERPY
Naw.
(her ears flick down)
They always do that.
(to Big MacIntosh)
Why're you sitting in the street?SWEETIE BELLE
He's mad because Farmer Seed won't sell him a carrot for
Fluttershy because she's a pegasus!Scootaloo pushes with her helmet against Big Mac's side, trying and failing to budge him.
SWEETIE BELLE (CONT'D)
It's so romantic!DERPY
You're just gonna sit there?BIG MACINTOSH
A pony can sit.DERPY
Because Hay Seed won't sell carrots to pegasus ponies?BIG MACINTOSH
Eeyup.DERPY
(beat)
Will that help?BIG MACINTOSH
Nope.After a long pause, Derpy sits down beside Big MacIntosh.
I still like that story, though no one else did. Literally. It has zero likes. Equestria Daily Pre-Reader #12 said (paraphrased), "We give stories three strikes before rejecting them completely. But this one is so bad, I'm giving you all three strikes right now." (BTW, no nasty emails to pre-readers, please. He said it much more politely than that. Also, #12 approved Fluttershy's Night Out.)
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
I tried writing comedy. I thought I'd hate it and be awful at it. It was fun!
Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:
Severus Spike. Wow, a lot of people disliked it. Apparently there's an unwritten rule against rewriting scenes from one fandom with characters from another. I can only imagine what they'd think of Borges' "Pierre Menard". I found exploring the parallels and differences interesting. Plus, I Rule 43'd Spike something awful ("The more innocent something is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt it").
Most fun story to write:
The Saga of Dark Demon King Ravenblood Nightblade, Interior Design Alicorn
Also the fastest, at 15-20 hours per chapter.
Story with the single sexiest moment:
If I tried writing a sexy scene, it would probably come out like this.
Most "Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story:
Twilight Sparkle and the Quest for Anatomical Accuracy.
Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
Detective & Magician, because I disliked Trixie. Burning Man Brony, because the structure forced me to portray all the Mane 6 positively, even the ones I don't like. (Not telling.)
Story I learned the most from:
Fallout: Equestria taught me you can write stories that are both interesting and exciting.
How to Do a Sonic Rainboom gave me a revelation about relating plot and character.
Being a developmental editor for A Canterlot Carol was an education in the connection between plot and theme.
Mortality Report taught me that I need to align the surface associations between what is present, what is happening, and what the characters are feeling, with the deep thematic causal relations between these things (which I failed to do, confusing hundreds of readers).
The Snowpony has the style I wish I could write with.
I don't yet know what I learned from So Be It. It disturbed me a lot. Hopefully I'll learn something from it yet.
I learned more than I'd thought there was left to learn about grammar from the EqD pre-readers. They also made some painful but true observations on various stories.
Hardest story to write:
The ones that died on the operating-room table (The Real Reason, Moving On, Second-Best Pony), and the ones I rewrote repeatedly and almost gave up on (Mortality Report, Burning Man Brony, Twenty Minutes). Detective & Magician wasn't as intensely painful in any one place, but it took an absurd amount of time. I still can't believe it's only 14,000 words. It felt like writing a novel.
Biggest disappointment:
Trying and trying and revising again and again and still not getting a fresh, poetic style, which some inconsiderately talented people seem to produce as effortlessly as sows piss.
Equestria Daily refusing to read Friends, With Occasional Magic ("Avoid people from the fandom"), Burning Man Brony ("No brony-in-Equestria"), or Twenty Minutes ("No featuring of Fallout: Equestria stories"). (The pre-reader was willing to read "Twenty Minutes", but Seth said no.) Fimfiction not allowing me to publish "A Carrot for Miss Fluttershy" ("No scripts"). Not being able to get "Friends, With Occasional Magic" moved to my Bad Horse account.
Biggest surprise:
Mortality Report and Twenty Minutes. People hated the first, second, and third versions of each of those.
Most Unintentionally Telling Story:
The Saga of Dark Demon King Ravenblood Nightblade, Interior Design Alicorn was, unintentionally, an allegory.
Fanfic Resolutions:
1. Stop writing fan-fiction.
2. Write more fan-fiction.
Gee, your resolutions are going to be quite difficult to keep...
This is neat. I think more authors should do this. It gives us more insight into who the author is as a person... and an author.
For whatever reason, I found it quite shocking that you had written The Saga of Dark Demon King Knightblade. I don't know why, it just seems to me like it was something you wouldn't write.
I didn't know EqD refused to read those stories. Shameful.
- Church
I really loved "Twenty minutes".
Very interesting, especially your comments under overall impressions. It somewhat mirrors my impressions as a reader – I've read a lot in my life, and I've never had this kind of access to authors.
660885 I don't know about that, he's guaranteed a 50% success rate, that's better than what a lot of people get with new years resolutions.
Your resolutions confuse me.
The Detective and the Magician was my favorite of your stories as well, although the whole self-hating thing didn't excite me that much.
Huh, Twenty Minutes is probably my favorite of your stories.
Have you tried getting someone to do an animation or audio recording of A Carrot for Miss Fluttershy? EqD might post a link to that.
660903 You know, you're right.
I should start putting contradictions in my resolutions as well. Won't make me feel like I've failed. Hm.
I'm always saddened to hear when EQd fails to live up to the ideals it presents, but wise enough to know it happens.
Here's hoping for more beautiful, ugly, sad, funny, insightful, fluffy works from you in the coming years. When and If you ever truly stop writing on here a truly inimitable voice will have been lost. Here's hoping it is a long time coming if never.
Funny, I have the same resolutions.
661048 Thanks. Hey, wait a minute. You sound like you might be able to write. I think you owe me a story about somepony trying to live up to the ideals they present.
661048 660924 660885 660900 The EqD pre-reader was willing to read "Twenty Minutes". Seth said no. I'll argue some things with the pre-readers, but I shouldn't publicly criticize people for how they do a job that I'm not willing to do.
661338 *blink blink* Wait, what? nononono I like to inspire and to aid in editing but I don't write. Not the way you do anyways. I can manage passable and at times appealing emotional pieces that verge on stream of consciousness moreso than coherence but that's the limit.
Thank you for the compliment nevertheless
Heh, I wrote about 90k words of pony this year too, if you count unpublished stuff.
It's funny that you say writing The Detective and the Magician felt like writing a novel, because it sat on my Read Later list for half a year after a glance at the lengthy chapter listing and a misreading of the wordcount convinced me it was a novel(la). When I looked at it again and saw how short it was I felt a bit silly for not reading it sooner. The effort you put in certainly shows through.
I have to admit that I laughed out loud at that pre-reader comment. It must have been pretty damn discouraging to hear that about your story, though, so well done for not letting it get to you.
Thank you for posting blogs like this. I've been lurking about your old entries for a while, and you've got some really interesting reads. I'll admit I mainly started following you for these blogs, but I'll make time to read a few of your other stories.
The Island of Misfit Toys is a lonely place to be, it sucks when no one can appreciate the work you put into something. I have to say though I like your stories they have a bittersweet that's how life is taste to them, you may not see it but the stories you write have an impact on peoples lives, never stop writing.
Thanks for the kind words on my style, though I continue to be befuddled by your continuing compliment that I make what I do look easy. If I try and take this from my perspective I am tempted to extend the "sow piss" metaphor into some rather graphic territory about UTI and symptomatic burning sensations when urinating, but taste prohibits.
663037 Yes, I infer from what you've said that you do a lot of revision. GoH and Aquillo, though, write stuff in first draft that I can't do in days of revision. We should unite against them.
"Like sows piss" is how Mozart described how he wrote music. He often didn't revise, and was reputed to write first-and-final drafts while carrying on a conversation. This is why Beethoven is better than Mozart.
662542 I have to admit that I laughed out loud at that pre-reader comment. It must have been pretty damn discouraging to hear that about your story, though, so well done for not letting it get to you.
He said it much more politely than that. I think it was too big a mismatch for him between the pacing of a script and of a story. A script flies; a typical show episode has 2000-2500 words of dialogue. And the story's central conflict is a little far-fetched. Or at least, it probably happens too quickly.
The Detective and the Magician is one of my faves too, I had a complete works of Holmes on my desk for about a year (I tend to read in short bursts) and it fits well with the Great Detective's classic style.
My opinion on "Opens" is very close to the same, however far too many good fics hit a certain spot and just stop, cold (Dawnscroll, I'm looking at you!) A fantastic opening sentence or two (which I'm bad at) with a grabber first paragraph and snappy first chapter (which I'm really bad at) get you to click that little "follow" icon and ....nothing for months. My little December light-shipping project has been averaging about a chapter every 1.5 days (whew) and I plan on being done in a couple of days. Hm. I'm missing something. Oh, yeah. A point.
1) Get their attention. [opening line]
2) Keep their attention [opening chapter]
3) Don't let them wander away (chains work, although rope will do in a pinch) [frequent updates]
4) Repeat, so they will come back [new stories]
5) Attach the mind-control device
6) Take over the world.
7) Laugh Maniacally.
-Georg 24 weeks, 13 stories and about 170k words (my 'good' density is much lower than BH and his gang, more like stationary weak tea compared to Dep. U238 at trans-sonic speeds.)
661338
Seth, sadly, does tie our hands in a few ways.
That said, some of my colleagues would probably be gleefully posting horse porn all over the blog if Seth let them, soo...