Introducing the SS&E Itinerary · 10:14am Jul 4th, 2013
So, I feel like I have been doing a whole lot of blowing steam around and not actually producing anything lately. What better a way to address this than to... blow some more steam?
There comes a point in any writers's/producer's/artist's "career" when they sort of stop achieving stuff and instead immerse themselves slovenly in the copious amounts of feedback that they've gotten. I think this works for basement children who write fanfiction as well, for I do believe I have become such a glutton. I feel it in my belly. I feel it in my brain bone. I smell it in the air. Much that was once smexy is now lost, for none now live who remember it.
Seriously, though, in 2012, I had a sense of direction and structure and purpose. Most that was because of this one particular train wreck that I was constantly taking photographs of. Y'all remember that, right? It was that a thing called Background Pony. I wrote that; I've been told I've written other things.
But this year, I've been... less spectacular. Don't get me wrong, I've had lots of fun. Downing oneshots like TIE fighters is a real thrill, but I can't help but feel as though I am destined for greater things, greater fics, better stories. And yet, with each passing week that rolls by, and with all the "plans" I make for future stories, I allow myself to get sidetracked. I think up new and newer fics, and I soon find myself juggling too much crap than I can actually flush down the mouth of satan.
So, to amend that, I've hereby decided to make a list of stories. These aren't just fics that I want to work on, but fics that I'm committed to tackling, in some way or another, by year's end. I know it's gonna be hard; I know it's gonna suck. But I'm going to put my mind to these and these alone. If I think up a new story idea, no matter how brilliant, it's going on the backburner until this list is accounted for.
And that list is:
Boom, baby. Placed somewhere in the lemur's cave where I have no choice but to look at it every morning that I wake up for yet another day of trying not to sob my eyes out.
What does this mean? Well, in case y'all haven't realize it by now, but that whole "commission" nonsense I toyed around with months ago is a total bust. I am totally, totally not cut out for that sort of stuff, and I feel pathetically pretentious for ever announcing in blog-vomit that I could have been. I'm also sorry to a particular marsupial whose prompt I've perpetually fumbled on, even if it was pure "practice."
This hopefully means that--in addition to giving my psyche more of a structured plan--I'll know when and where I can write those smexical blogs that only a few of you are actually jazzed to read. I know I have a few of them prepared somewhere.
Hopefully this means I'll get on track with stuff, cuz I can only imagine how bored you guys are of being bored. I'm not sure if it'll make this whole blog worth your while, but here are some stupidtactular previews of the first three stories that I'm working on:
In the Darkness Where I Seek You
My dear Vinyl,
It's cold here as night falls over the village, colder than the middle of the desert. I had not expected that. I've spent five years wandering Equestria, and still I am beset by the unexpected. I did not expect to hear violin music when I entered this township. I did not expect to attend a stranger's funeral.
I did not expect to be lying here in this alleyway, with the offensive smell of a tavern's garbage wafting around the nearby corner, with my sleeping mat rolled across this water-stained cobblestone like a homeless cretin's dirtless grave. I've slept in worse places before, Vinyl, and in worst conditions. And yet, I suppose the fact that I am close to Masada—that I am close to reaching my journey's end—is what makes this moment feel so bitterly ironic to me right now. There are so many bountiful discoveries within my grasp; I had hoped to be in better sorts.
Alas, I can't complain. I was born unto streets grimier and lonelier than this. I told you stories about it before, dear Vinyl, but I still feel as though I haven't told you enough. I suppose it's that I never wanted to share it, to be perfectly honest. There was no reason for you to know the smell that I smelled, the bitter stench of poverty, the foul atmosphere through which a filly is baptized into a world of despair and desperation
My mother may have nourished my talents. The Canterlot School for Musical Artists may have given me a home. The opera house may have given me a platform above the filth and wastes of yesteryear.
It was you and only you who saved me. I am here now, I am alive now, and I am smiling now—reunited as I am with the grit and grime of all that is nightmarishly familiar—and still it does not shatter me; it does not dissolve the felicitous winds that hold me aloft.
I did not start living until I met you. I know I have said it before; I have written to you about it on several occasions. Celestia help me, but I cannot stop. It is something that I need more than breathing. It is a happy thought, a rapturous thought, more constant and righteous than my own heartbeat, and even that is dedicated to you.
I hear crickets beyond the falling veil of night. Even in the middle of the Skeletal Plains, even in the crook of a relatively destitute alleyway, they have found as much an excuse to sing as I have, though I carry that wholesome tune silently—and jubilantly—onto the shadowed stage of slumber.
I know that you will be out there somewhere, listening.
Sincerely,
-Your Octavia
Twistclops
The four-eyed pony stood in place and blinked. “Oh?”
“Yeah...” Apple Bloom smiled sweetly. “It’s nice of you to be all helpful and stuff, but we’re fixin’ to get our cutie marks from this, and... uhm... gul-durn it...”
“You’d suck up the cutie karma with your tattooed butt!” Scootaloo grunted.
“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle nodded. “What she said!” She instantly blushed. “Though... maybe a little less gross-gross.”
“Meh,” Scootaloo meh’d.
“Oh... well...” Twist smiled nervously as she dug a hoof through the pliable edges of the dirt road. “That maketh a whole lot of thenthe...”
“Really?” Apple Bloom blurted with a raised eyebrow.
“Good enough for me!” Scootaloo’s wings instantly started blurring, and soon she and the wagon soared over the hill like a scarlet missile. “Gold ain’t gonna dig itself!”
“See ya later, Twist!” Apple Bloom waved dramatically from the madly speeding vehicle. “Don’t worry! We’ll hang out another time! Isn’t that right, Sweetie Belle?!”
“I have bugs in my teeth!”
The sound of their voices dwindled in the distance. Twist coughed as the dust following their exit settled. She waved into the sloping horizon and spoke to everypony and nopony all at once. “Well... well, we can thertainly rethchedule! Okay?” She stood with a smile locked in the center of her face. “Guyth?” Interminable silence lurched by like a funeral dirge on a river of molasses. “Thuper!”
The filly turned around, finding the schoolyard utterly vacant. A tumbleweed may or may not have been possessed with the ambivalent need of rolling by.
“Anypony elthe wanna hang out?” Her voice echoed into the far reaches of buzzard-space, unanswered. “We could do thome thweet baking!” Her grinning teeth reflected the open void. “Maybe even roll thome thinnamon thwirlth?!”
A few crickets, woken from their daytime slumber, spontaneously began chirping several hours early. She finally took it as a clue.
“Well, alright! I guetth I’ll be trotting on home!” Twist waddled about. “Alone!” She twitched and twitched until her ears drooped on their lonesome. “...again..”
She walked the space of about ten meters until she actually came upon movement. Gasping, she slapped her grin back on in time to greet two coltish figures.
“Thnipth! Thnailth!” She waved ardently as the two stallions-to-be trotted by. “Wanna go toth a batheball?!”
“Go jump off a cliff, Twist,” Snips yawned.
“Yeahhh...” Snails belched. “Crawl back into your mother’s womb and pull a Silvia Plot! Heheh!”
Twist looked after them, her grin unceasing. “...tho is that a ‘yeth?’”
Scale
Wincing from the heat and moisture, Daring repeatedly shook her mane and tail hairs, desperate to get as much of the salt and sand out as possible. Her vision was starting to adjust, and the blue sky wasn't quite so punishing. As she fidgeted with the soaking wet cuffs of her shirt, she glanced up at the sky. The seagulls were gone and the sun was directly overhead. She couldn't tell what time of the day it was, only that it was hot. Her thoughts quietly mulled in between the endless crashing of ocean waves.
About two minutes into her trek, she dared to look to her right, gazing out across the ocean. A quivering blue horizon undulated softly before her, revealing no continents, no islands, no boats, not even a single mirage to tickle the adventurer's imagination. The waves glittered as if to show off the vast stretch of aquatic desolation lying before her.
Thus, it was with a gasp that Daring beheld a singular object moving amidst the waves. She pivoted towards the ocean, squinting. Then, with a desperate breath, she galloped straight into the rolling surf. She waded towards the object, wincing as the cold waves lapped up to her forelimbs' upper joints yet again. Nevertheless, she persisted, scaling the tide until the object was within reach. Without hesitation, Daring clasped the lid of the thing between her teeth. With a splash, she spun around and kicked at the waves until she was walking onto dry shore again.
Squatting on her haunches, Daring happily plucked the pith helmet out from her toothed grip and examined the article closely. She turned it over and gave it a shake, draining the hat of both sand and seawater. With a grimacing expression, she reached a hoof in and dragged out a clump of vomit-green seaweed. It took several flicks of her forelimb to toss the clingy mass away. Once rid of it, she sighed and planted the pit helmet atop her gray head. The hat was just as soaked as she was, but at least it gave her tan brow some shade from the punishing sun.
Reunited with her headpiece, Daring Do turned directly towards the grass beyond the beach and marched forward. Her muscles ached, so she kept her trot slow and steady, scaling the blazing hot sands with more or less grace. Once her hooves made contact with the springy vegetation, her whole body relaxed. She exhaled with relief, then fumbled through the tall swaying reeds in search of shade.
Whelp... Yup... We're all boned.
Until then, marsupials. Here's what you all really clicked on this blog for:
-SS&E
Well atleast EoP is actually ON the list
No need to blow a bunch of steam right now Skirts. Give it a few more days and I'm sure that everyone will blow everything on Steam, that Summer sale is just evil.
The Petra arc is the actual last thing on the schedule.
Also... Why is Tink the butch one?
For what it's worth, that fumbled practice commission idea slobber fic was pretty good.
SIDE NOTE: Your handwriting is fabulous.
Can't relate to that Twist one at all nope nope nope ow my heart.
. . .
YES!! Hell yeah! I shouldn't be this pumped for it, but hell yeah! I'm gonna read the shit out of that and thoroughly enjoy scrubbing my brain with pumice and industrial cleaner afterwards.
But seriously, as genuinely happy as I am to see that on the list, how is a sequel evenpossible? Lyradied!. . . or did she?Also, IMAPINHANWKAT sequel (god that is a silly abbreviation). Sweet.
I'm looking forwards to devouring any and all of the juicy fics that you puke out over the next year.
P.S.
As for having too many story ideas, you could try writing down all the ideas for the story on a piece of paper and stick that paper in a box somewhere? Do that for each idea, then once you have your current detritus cleaned out, you could open the box, be shocked by the festering smell, and come to them again fresh? :shrug:
There's not a single thing on that list I'm not intrigued by (yes, even the Twist one). I'm particularly excited about the Octavia one, as well as the "I Met a Pony in Hell" sequel. Your decision to write, apparently, a Bon^6 sequel is simultaneously hilarious, disquieting, and bewildering.
And I can't help but notice that the Petra Arc is at the very end.
But all that aside, I hope this helps you. And not just for our selfish sake, as readers. Your ennui (or maybe it's not as bad as all that) has almost been tangible in your blogs and so forth. Happy author is best author.
P.S. - You have the handwriting of a serial killer.
...Did I just...I could swear I saw...
Yes. I cannot wait for this.
Well, a lot of them look pretty awesome, albeit only from how I can interpret their titles.
Carry on with your righteous procrastination from the one fic you know we all like.
And also:
Just noticed that down the side. The lemniscate was a nice touch.
Tinkerbell's not a princess! What blasphemy is this?
I can't wait so see the petra arc go into production. that will be epic.
Skirts you lucky *******, you have dr.pepper. you lucky son of a golden chicken.ibrony.com/file/pic/user/888.jpg also that's one Itinerary.
I know the feels of having too many ideas and not enough time. I've completed one fic for every... ogeez... maybe twenty-five ideas and fifteen started fics since I started writing.
And I'm still generating ideas...
Ow.
Still no Twific.
Why would you never write a Twific that's not a oneshot.
Your Twilight is so good...
'I Carried a Pony Through Purgatory'? Most excellent.
Sometimes willpower alone is enough to break these patterns, other times one needs to take a leaf from Sparkle's book and make an itinerary.
...Let's hope this serves as the intended boot up the ass, and will not outright depress you like I know such a thing could do to me.
Getting derailed by my own slew of amazing ideas has always been the (second) biggest obstacle to getting things done. There are just so many and they are just so good.
Those previews look great! I'm really looking forward to your stuff. But of course, Innavedr's completion is what I'm looking forward to the most. <3
I'm looking forward to Bonbonbonbonbonbonbonbonbonbonbonbon. And all the other stories, of course, but they aren't as fun to write out.
I saw austreoh on the side and by putting that there I take it you mean the whole series and if so,by look at the Imploding Colon page,are you positive you can finish that in a year?
Dude.... Those three stories...
I can't wait to read them.
~Skeeter The Lurker
img.photobucket.com/albums/v426/RoboRed/petraplot_zpsaf7e5a14.png
Well, at least it's on the list.
"Funeral of Derpy Hooves", eh?
I disapprove of that princess picture. MY EYES! MY EYES!!!!
I'm particularly looking forward to #12, considering I know nothing about it, but that title is intriguing even if it appears to be a way's away. So start knocking down those above it, will you? I can wait.
If you want, I could do what I do with RedSquirrel and every now and then, whenever I see you on Steam, bother you and remind you keep to that list.
endofponies.com/PETRAISCOMING.gif
My feels right now.
I'm excited to see you're coming up with a game plan though. Hopefully that'll help your stream of consciousness, and get you back on track =)
But that last one... it steals the thunder for me
1187384
I'm just relieved it was given any thunder at all.
Also this is fucking beautiful. A thousand honors to thy work.
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Thanks! ^_^
That story made me realize all of the things I love about the genre, and is still my favorite work of literature bar none. I'm not an artist, but I am a programmer, so I felt it was the best way I could show my appreciation of the story :3
I was going to think of something clever to say, but then
dis gon be guuud
I like how there's an infinity symbol at the bottom of Austraeoh.
This pleases me to no end.
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O_o
When did I steal your keyboard and type that message to myself? Damn, meth is one hell of a drug.
Now if only we could see that Last Tears story that I recall you mentioning.
Oh well, at any rate I'm most interested by #12.
Numbers 1,2,4,7,11 (and eventually 13) will probably be the ones I look at the moment they release.
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Austraeoh is forever on the itinerary, since it is an update a day. I think that's why the symbol for infinity is with it. Gonna take years to finish.
The diet-is-not-as-sweet-therefore-better rule usually applies, but not with Dr. Pepper. Diet Dr. Pepper is just watered down and sold.
1187057
Tink is the butch one because she's a faery. Faery's are manly.
Oh man, I'm excited for all of them... (well except appledash)
and dat belle...
YEAH! Dis gun be gud.
Also...is that Austraeoh? Is it official that SS+E is also IC? Whoa. Also, it's number one. Austraeoh will be finished this year?
google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=mind+blown&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=npBC-_86gMWilM&tbnid=KHXtRGfqVI33VM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zawarudo.com%2F&ei=ttHWUaWCOsW64APTooDQCw&bvm=bv.48705608,d.dmg&psig=AFQjCNHAUNREIsp0JIln5V4pCSCV0yJJqw&ust=1373119285419848
1189485
Ohhhhh-ho-ho-ho, nope.
Notice the infinity sign beneath the title. Listing it as number one likely means it will be a continuing priority. But finishing it? There are twelve projected installments to the series, presumably with 200 chapters per installment, as per the usual. Historically, he's taken about five months per installment, so...we're looking at the entire series being done by maybe 2017.
BOOBIES!
Yay! These fics are gonna be SO AWESOME!
I love you and your amazing writing skills.
1190118With that much time, he had better bring it back to it's roots. It seems like it's basically just "DASH IS BADASS NOW WATCH HER KICK SHELL IN THE FACE." She's traveled, like one and a half miles east between Eljunbyro and Innavedr. In Austraeoh she flew about 600.
1207499
I'm not sure I agree. I mean, yes, she hasn't covered as much ground as she did in Austraeoh, and I'm looking forward to the next leg of her journey as much as anyone. But at the same time, it's a different sort of story now. And that's fine. The whole lone-wolf vibe of Austraeoh was fun, but it could never have been sustained over twelve volumes. The story has become more character-driven than it was, and with that shift in focus, Dash is developing more than she did in Austraeoh. The entire point of the current arc is Dash's deepening connection to her new friends, a step that is fundamental, I suspect, in the general thrust of her character development over the course of the series.
It's probably best not to be too attached to any one leg or era along the way (for example, pining for the days of Austraeoh). Likely, the story will continue to evolve right up to its eventual conclusion, even after she resumes her eastward journey. And it is a journey, after all - for us as much as Dash. And journeys are always moving forward.
1207519Well...I agree with that. I will say that the "new" theme of the series is cool, but it's a different kind of cool from the original take. I, for one, prefer the adventure, mystery, and intrigue of the old days to the new ones which, as you said, are more focused on character development and Dash's friendships with others. I'm not saying that the new chapters are bad - they're still amazing - I just prefer the old ones. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. And yes, the series will continue to evolve for both us and Dash as we continue eastward. We can only wonder what the next theme will be that Imploding/SS&E decides to write.
That sounded whiny, so negate it.
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Oh, I love the adventure and mystery, too. I was certainly glad that the mystery's started to make a comeback in recent chapters (I don't know where you are at the moment, so I won't say too much). And it'll definitely be cool when she starts travelling again, and we get to see some new locales. I do hope at least some of her new friends tag along. I think it'd be interesting to see some east-flying with a whole party of characters...like, on a zeppelin or something. I don't want Dash to be lonely anymore.
1207700Huh...that could work. I'd be interested to see how the story would develop in that way.
Or he could just kill off everyone like he did before.
1189485 I thought that was confirmed a looooong time ago...
Also it's his deal whether he wants to return to roots or not.
1214462I don't think it was ever really confirmed. And I guess it is his choice...but I can still dream.
1187057
because she is a tinker, and tinkers are strong