OotS

I think this is the story I'm going to push for the most.

Back in my days as an Avatar the Last Airbender, Eragon, Jak & Daxter, and Death Note writer (not some of my proudest days, but hey, it was a creative outlet as a young teenager with heavy depression issues), I would always start on massive multi-chapter stories with really long, arcing plotlines, but I would always just stop after two or so chapters because I would lose all motivation because the only things any of the shallow prepubescent children (my only audience) would say in reviews is 'nice chapter. update soon' and literally nothing else. I'd get a watch or two, a follower or two, and nothing else. Nobody appreciated all the time and energy that I poured my heart into. At first, I was excited; like, 'OMG people like what I'm doing!' and my lifelong dream is to create something that other people will enjoy, so it was really cool... at least for a while. But then... I stopped enjoying it. It felt like a chore: pump out more chapters of new stories to see if anybody would say anything more than just a sentence. I started expanding what I was doing: songfics, mass OC insertions (that would have gotten off the ground if all the people contributing weren't offering Mary Sues with overly tragic pasts: literally only about 2 or 3 of two dozen were worth anything), alternate universes, oneshots, I even tried my hand at a 'lemon' (what you'd call on this site a clopfic) (but not anything graphic, focusing more on the emotional aspect), but still, absolutely nothing. Nothing changed. I had almost given up on thinking that there were dedicated readers of fanfic. I continued to read, of course. I read so much. Two dozen authors publishing daily- mostly ATLA- and I was in heaven. They were all amazing authors and I was almost glad that writing took a backseat to reading.

But then, something interesting happened...

In late June 2012, 3 of my younger sisters were watching what I thought was 'some stupid incarnation of Hasbro's retarded, girly, low-quality franchise about magical ponieth that were tho thparkly and fabulouth!'. Of course, I'd grown used to watching 16 years of terrible children's television (Dora, some stupid claymation clown thing, Sesame Street after Elmo started talking about death, Blue's Clues after Steve left (I love and tolerate but still bucking hate Joe), that Yo Gabba garbage, Wow Wow Wubbzy (which despite Tara Strong's involvement was still brain-deadening), and all the Disney programming from the past ten years) and I was bored, so I thought I might as well try it out. I remember it was the Zap Apple Jam episode. I found myself amused. The writing was better than I'd expected. Definitely above the bar for children's programming. But then, I saw the credits roll: Lauren Faust, Tara Strong, That Girl From Hey Ocean, Nate 'Near' River... and in the next week I watched every single episode (enjoying everything). I immediately looked for MLP fanfiction (and started actually reading the MLP stories that the authors I followed published) and eventually found this site. My first stories published actually received genuine constructive criticism. I was so happy that people were telling me that I was doing things wrong!

And so, to all the people who have left comments pointing out mistakes, or discussing things about the plot, or taking the time to be clever with your praise, thank you! I swear to you that I will get on Chapter 3 ASAP and, if everything goes well (and my oldest younger sister doesn't blare her annoying Black Veil Brides, Pierce the Veil, Falling in Reverse, and My Chemical Romance all day, or I have quiet free time at my dad's in Indianapolis this weekend (he's the source of the eventual intelligent gay opposition, the really tough questions; he's also really super christian (not that that's a bad thing, it just provides him more backing for the anti-gay stuff))), then hopefully it'll be done by this Sunday.

I'm going to do my other stories too, but they'll have slightly less priority: when I have writer's block on OotS, I'll do them, but only then.

But, until then, there's a webcomic called the Order of the Stick (see what I did there hue hue hue). http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots.html Read it. It's a parody of Dungeons & Dragons, and it's very well done. And funny AF. If you're even remotely interested, you're gonna have a good time.