• Member Since 7th Feb, 2012
  • offline last seen 5 hours ago

Seven Fates


That girl that writes things you may or may not read. TG stuff, probably. Avatar of my batpony Evening Script by baladeAdvent.

More Blog Posts237

  • 5 weeks
    Something Neat I Found

    So, like any normal author who writes fanfiction about a pony named Anon, I often browse the oc:filly anon tag on Derpibooru. Well, today while taking a look in there, I found something that really, really made me smile. Sure, these aren't my bug, Anonymous Flicker, but it's great to finally see some changeling queen Anon arts out there. I still positively squeed when I saw them.

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    8 comments · 444 views
  • 18 weeks
    Events to come and User Input

    So now that Make Your Mark has reached its apparent conclusion, I have a vague outline for the path that Vlogs of an Ancient Insect may take. That said, I'm looking at concluding things at Roots of All Evil - Part 2 before going into an epilogue. Before I go too far with things, I thought I'd shake some things up with some community input on canon events.

    Chime in after the break.

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    8 comments · 236 views
  • 19 weeks
    Our Queen of Mischief and Magic

    Little surprise for you all tonight!
    Your—hopefully—favourite changeling queen, Anonymous Flicker has now been given form in the style of Tell Your Tale.

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    14 comments · 186 views
  • 19 weeks
    Going Forward

    As it stands, there are two chapters currently completed, with one of them ready to go on Monday. After that is posted on Monday, I will be putting Diaries on a release and potential work hiatus until the new year. More thought needs to be put into the story's central final arc. Presently, we are in a cooldown from the Storm King's Invasion/Manehattan arcs, in what I tentatively think of as

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    4 comments · 315 views
  • 21 weeks
    Thoughts so far? / What you'd like to see?

    Dunno how many will see this or respond, but to those who do, I've got a few questions for you all, mostly to see where your heads are at. I've generally been enjoying writing this story and it's technical sequel, and I've got the overarching plot of the story planned, but I've been curious where reader thoughts are at regarding the story so far. I'd love to know what you like or dislike about

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    1 comments · 145 views
Jan
13th
2014

I just don't get it. · 4:35pm Jan 13th, 2014

This is probably going to come off as whiny, emo, self-entitled or some stupid shit like that. I'm just trying to wrap myself around all of this nonsense and deal with a great amount of frustration.

Come February 28th, we'll be celebrating the one year anniversary of the launch of the Alchemist's Heart. This is easily my favorite among all of the stories that I've written, and a lot of pride and planning went into this story. There's just one big problem, or at least it is in my eyes. The Alchemist's Heart has gotten nowhere near the reception its predecessor has. It's kind of disheartening, in fact, that in just three days, From the Mouths of Fillies has surpassed TAH in views.

I have no doubt that if I waited for FtMoF to fall off the featured box and used a null chapter to 'update' it, I'd see it right there in one of the three slots reserved for popular fics that have updated. Why is this such an issue to me? The Alchemist's Heart was a story that, at launch, reached the number one slot on the featured box. Since then, for WHATEVER reason, it has never appeared once in the Featured Updates. This is where I don't get it. The story had heat, it had ratings, and it is not for want of comments. At the time, the first update came, it should have had enough heat and views to garner a slot in updates.

Why, then, has the story been so fucked over in terms of views?

I won't lie; I consider The Alchemist's Heart to be my pride and joy. I love writing this story, and I know that many users love reading it. Even though its predecessor, When a Pony Calls, started out as a 'for fun' project before devolving into a serious-fic, I took writing TAH seriously from the beginning. I dare say that at the present time, TAH qualifies as my magnum opus. Yet for how much I care and effort I put into writing this, Button Mash getting pegged in a school bathroom, and Prince Blueblood being turned into a mare to be raped and mind controlled by Rarity garnered more attention than this. The fact that a Spike fic that I only ever intended to write as a one-shot completely overshadows this vexes me to no end.

All of it comes back to that one 'little' thing. The Featured Updates slots. It should be showing up there each time it's updated given it's history, but it doesn't. It pisses me off that my proudest work is less appreciated than 'Spike is actually a girl: the short story'.

Now, I'm NOT quitting on TAH, in spite of how unrecognized it is compared to its prequel. I might take a bit of time to get my head around things, but I will never quit on this story. I have things planned. Even if I nix the idea of a sequel, I'm seeing this story through to the end.



Sorry for subjecting you all to this angry, self-serving rant.
~Seven.

Report Seven Fates · 439 views · Story: The Alchemist's Heart ·
Comments ( 17 )

Meh. Just how it is.
Don't fret too much over it. It should dissipate sooner or later.

The featured box is a tricky algorithm from what I understand. There is also the aspect of the longer a story is in the featured box the harder it is to get back into it without a huge amount of views. I haven't read TAH yet but I absolutely loved WaPC. However that ending for was was like :pinkiesad2::pinkiecrazy: I've been planning on getting into it soon though.

If you want to give your story a greater chance of getting in you could do a double chapter update or two chapters on the same day. That would give it a double view boost probably.

Sequels are weird like that. A lot of people loved McPoodle's Perfect Little Village of Ponyville, but it's sequels (Masquerade and Accelerando) are nearly unheard of.

Just making a sequel in general seems to guarantee that it will receive less views/likes/what-have-yous than the original story. :unsuresweetie:

Personally, I think it's because Alchemist's Heart became an epic. I don't mean that in he modern vernacular as a synonym of awesome, (although it is) but rather in the original meanin of an extended, multi-arch story.

It generates less heat because people (or maybe it's just me) want to take the time to wait and read it when there's time to properly relax and appreciate it.

Short little gimmicks like "From the mouths of Fillies" get more heat because they have short chapters which are quickly read and it takes little attention to appreciate them. (On a side note, I personally hated that one and think it has no place in he feature box... Ah well...)

My story NEVER EVER hits the bottom 3 of the feature box either. Old stories will always hit the bottom if they were featured. They did an algorithm change that utterly altered things making it far harder for a story that spent a few days in the top 7 to get back into the bottom 3.

Double Updates are BAD for heat. Don't try that suggestion unless you put at least 24 hours between the two chapters.

Actually the biggest thing for the bottom three that means nothing for the top seven is the number of downvotes. At the ratio of 433 to 27 you literally do not have much of a shot. 412 5 fics hit it (83/1 fics like your love is blind would float higher on the heat than TAH)... Beyond that it is quite complicated. Actually if you sort on heat after an update you will see just how badly your fic is faring in that.

I know mine doesn't break the top 50 on their formula and sometimes doesn't hit the top 200. Just because your fic has 400 ups doesnt mean it will even come close. If after the update your fic is not hitting the top 20 then do not ever worry about hitting the bottom three again. It will not happen. If you are hitting the top 20 then you need to work on timing when your update occurs -- but somehow I doubt you are hitting top 20 in heat.

As for views etc, that is because it is a sequel. NO sequel gets the large number of view and out people. You are playing to the audience who loved When a Pony Calls. In this case that was not exactly fair as Alchemist Heart stands on its own, but that is what you have.

I know it's one of my favorites.
When ever it updates, I squee like a purple horse! :twilightblush:

Yeah, Kinds of Love was similar. Despite getting probably a good thousand views quickly after an update, it never cracked the feature box or even the popular story list after the initial chapter. I find that only stories that haven't updated in a long while get back on the feature box. Well, aside from the few ridiculously popular stories.

For it not getting as much attention as the others, short one shots tend to have a lot more impulse readers than a continuing story, particularly when they have an outlandish setup.

The sad truth of it is that you're dealing with a sequel, so you're pooling from a smaller audience, you don't have the kind of up/down ratio that the new algorithm seems to prize, and your story has 3 tags that tend to scare away a lot of readers (Dark, Tragedy, and the ever dreaded Human)

I believe that it is because WaPC was relatively unique when it came out, as you don't often see people get turned into ponies and stuck on Earth (or at least, you didn't see it before 5s/4.) Meanwhile, TAH is more or less a regular HiE.

Hey, aside from scaring the crap out of me with the addition of the Tragedy tag (which you seem to be using in the non-scary sense), and doing some worldbuilding that isn't "nice" (but is quite believable and enjoyable, in its own way), I've had zero things to whine about in the comments. Sequels almost always seem to get less attention around here, but I'm loving the version of Equestria you've made. I hope you do make another installment one day. :twilightsmile:

There seems to be some amount of delay between a story updating and it hitting the bottom 3 boxes. I'm not sure why but if I check the front page right after updating then my story isn't there, but if I wait a few minutes/half an hour it tends to pop up. I've seen TAH in those boxes so you ARE hitting it.

The other aspect is that the bottom boxes seem to be based on the story's overall rating. If the other stories are more popular than yours then you won't hit it, and if a more popular one updates while you're there, then you'll get booted. (My own story was once booted from the bottom three within half an hour by FO:E Heroes - the other two stories had been there before me and were still there after FO:E joined them.) So some of it is dumb luck.

Because the feature box is only for crappy self-insert, wish-fulfillment and Gary Stu stories with no real content.

And clop, with some scat and diapers.

It's sad to see these craps on the feature box when other worthy ( by far ) stories are left in the shadow, but it's the reality nowadays.

Don't worry too much about it, Seven.
I have enjoyed all your stories.
And most importantly, I still love you. <no homo> :trixieshiftright:

Huh, I can understand your frustration Seven, though I didn't think if was much of a problem for alchemist. The story including it's previous installment always seemed like a sort of nitch story that many simply don't understand or appreciate. That fact made it feel even better when I could read a new update and say "People are crazy for not liking this story! It is well written, well thought out and always has a laugh for those that appreciate it's humor."
One could say that I feel a glowing, hipster sort of joy when I read alchemist... Just keep in mind Seven that while you might not get the vast audience or attention you desire with The Alchemist's Heart you do have a number of loyal and loving fans that can appreciate your Opus as it is without pandering or bribery.

Well, to be bluntly honest, I read "When a Pony Calls" because it was supposed to be a comedy where a human becomes Lyra.

And I loved it for that.

But when it turned into... What it became near the end, my interest slowly went down.

And it died enough that when I learned of the sequel, all I did was add it to 'read later' and never touch it, and my attention span isn't really giving me much to do with the over 100,000 words it is now.

What I'm trying to say is that, that is the way things go with sequels, and well, tone changes like yours went through, it puts people off. Nothing personal.:unsuresweetie:

Maybe because When a pony calls is a finished product while The Alchemist Heart is still going? I wouldn't be surprised if people avoided something simply because it was incomplete. They could be thinking: "Oh it has a sequel? I'll put it on my read later and wait for it to finish."
Or not, I dunno dude.
Another thing is the ol cliche "Human goes/turns pony" always grabs people. "Pony goes to college"...is a bad example because Vinyl and Octavia college days thingie is one of our highest rated.
LOOK.
Your story is good, believe in yourself.
I just found your story like the other day, so here's to one more fan.

I'll be honest, I probably wouldn't have followed The Alchemist's Heart without having already been following When A Pony Calls. It mostly would've been due to the fact that the stories have two very different surroundings/storylines and that I probably wouldn't have had the time to read it. I'm still way behind on stories I need to read, and it's very difficult for me to start stories with tons of chapters/stay dedicated.

As for the different storyline, I tend to check every Human in Equestria under the sun, so When A Pony Calls was very appealing to me while TAH wouldn't have been so easily... Silver Script's living the life of a pony, not a human. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the story and think it's even better than When A Pony Calls in execution, but it's kinda dragged me out of my comfort zone when reading fics. It also tended to become more complicated and scenery building and it's full of OCs whereas the original was more based around the show than this is.

So basically, I think this story's just harder in general to reach an audience for. It's executed well but When A Pony Calls blends in better with other popular fics. I bet if you wrote a story/sequel revolving around ponyville and focused more on show characters, the story would generate several more views than this. That's just a theory from my perspective, though, as a reader.

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