Un-dead! · 11:30pm Mar 9th, 2014
It's been so long! I'm so sorry!
I... haven't been writing all that much, to be honest. No excuses, only regret.
I have been writing a little, though!
Changing Changeling Sympathy: "I'm the real one!": 10,039 (75%)
As the first story for Changing Changeling Sympathy*, I really, really want to make it a very strong opening to the series, and... ohhhhh, it is emotionally painful to write. Whenever I do try writing, I have to stop pretty often to calm myself down. This story, I think, really exemplifies why I love (and hate) writing in first-person and present-tense. I would also love to give you all a preview as usual, but... all I'll say is this: Expect your opinion and view on various characters and events to change a few times... without any PoV switching.
In other news, I've completely rethought how I want to approach My Little Changeling. Even though, eventually, the SoL episodes will out-number the adventure episodes, it's the latter I wish to focus on (mostly because I suck at SoL), and even the SoL-ish stories I hope to turn more into world building exercises (such as "Call of the Cutie", since Changelings, you know... don't get Cutie Marks), So MLC:LiL has officially been changed from SoL to Adventure, and highly anticipated episodes (namely the "season two" opening and closing) can be expected to be written sooner than they otherwise would have been.
*I kept going back and forth, trying to decide on "Changing Sympathy" or "Changeling Sympathy", and finally reached the obvious, if slightly confusing, compromise... just be glad it isn't "Changing Sympathy Changeling Sympathy".
Whenever I see 'SoL' I think 'Shit outta Luck.'
Man after my own heart.
That's the best way though. It yields the most awe-worthy results.
That's already a turn off for me. Look, I know we write differently. And maybe you disagree with me. But in my humble opinion, stories should be short and sweet. Does that mean don't make it long? No. Does that constrain your word count? Absolutely not. It just means keeping the fluff down. (lol fluff. down. Get it?) What I mean to say is, keep to the meat of the story. The way I see it, if a part doesn't necessarily need to be in the story, then it shouldn't be. That's when I start cutting chunks out.
You can go on long philosophical rants, and maybe some people will appreciate that, but the vast majority will lose interest if it doesn't progress the plot.
It's also my opinion that people around here don't like long chapters, no matter what they'll tell you. They say they want moar, but they don't mean more words, they mean more story. I try to keep all my chapters 5k and under. Maybe just... cut yours up into bite size chunks, eh?
With how many authors have been announcing they're done lately, this was surprisingly reassuring. I still mess with that blasted encrypted sentence from forever ago.
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I know it's going to be hard to believe this, but I do take careful consideration into whether each word I write is important or not. Even in something like "Love Mine", I feel as if each, at the least, paragraph is important to the story as a whole in some way, with only a little fluff where I occasionally insert some irrelevant worldbuilding. As a better example, perhaps, the reason the first two chapters of "For Mother" are only just above a quarter of the length of the last two is because those were only recounting episodes in the show, except I knew I didn't have to actually "recount" the episodes, only cast them in a different light with Scootaling's thoughts, only occasionally giving a little hint about when Scootaloo is thinking certain things where it might be confusing about how swiftly the story is moving along; only when the story splits from canon (and I start needing to describe more) is when the word count jumps accordingly.
EDIT: Also, I don't know if you were around when this happened, but "Love Mine" also once was labeled "Romance". This would have easily added 30k words (at least, and I think you know how good I am at estimating word count) in between Alternate arriving at Apploosa and (finally) leaving with Trixie. A very big cut chunk...
Glad you're still around
... to be clear, you are not a zombie, right?
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Hmmmmmmm......
*Googles "brain"
Nope!
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Is that so? I guess I must be following all the determined authors, because I've haven't seen any blogs about them quitting...
1912342 Well I'm glad you do take careful consideration to what you write. I certainly didn't mean that you didn't, merely that you could write the same stuff in a shorter length. And you know, the romance thread might've been kinda nice (but not at that word length cost).
I suppose we're at opposite ends of the spectrum, so we'll just have to agree to disagree.
It's just so damned annoying, because I enjoy your writing. But like with Love Mine, the chapters just kept getting longer and longer til the point where I had to psych myself into reading a chapter. And then when I finally felt up to the challenge, I found myself skimming it half-heartedly like some of the
assholeslovely people that read my hard work, and that made me feel bad about myself, AND I didn't enjoy the chapter to boot!Again, it's just my opinion. I'm just letting you know how I feel as a writer AND a reader. You've got your style, I understand that. And I respect that you stand behind that.
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Yikies! Well, as one of the few who constantly comment on my stuff, I wish I could help you. Maybe, instead of looking at what I call a chapter... as a chapter, you could look at the sections within each chapter as "your" kind of chapter? If you want, I could even tell you how many sections there are beforehand so you can mentally prepare or make some kind of schedule or... whatever?
Un-DEAD
Kill it! Put it back in the ground! Damn un-dead beings! Destroy them!!
...
1913533 Nice to know you'd go so far for one of your readers. Well... I dunno... I guess?
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