The blog post where Hoopy admits that he has a problem · 1:27pm Mar 14th, 2014
And that problem is, I can't estimate worth a damn.
Case in point: My original guess for the length of Why am I Pinkie Pie was about 20-30k words. My original guess for School of Hard Knocks was about 50k words. Project Sunflower I knew was going to be a long one. So I guessed about 100k words.
Why am I mentioning this? Well, because I'm not only bad at estimating the length of my stories, but also when chapters will be ready to publish. Project Sunflower: Harmony Chapter 2 has run into an issue that will require some re-working, so I'm going to have to delay the release for a while longer. I can't just publish chapter 1, because it's not "pony" enough for approval (you'll see what I mean when I publish).
So, I'm sorry to say that I won't be publishing the new Sunflower story today. Instead, I'm giving you all new Side Projects and School of Hard Knocks chapters. For Lyra's story, the next two chapters are done, and I'll be releasing them on Saturday and Sunday. The remaining School of Hard Knocks chapters are done as well, I'm just giving my editors one last chance to comb over them. I should be releasing the rest of those over the next few days, as well.
I promise you, my editing team and I are working hard on getting Project Sunflower: Harmony ready to publish. All of us want to make sure that the story is as polished and fun as possible. I'll keep you all posted on when it's going to finally arrive.
As always, thanks for reading!
~Hoopy
Darnit! I was looking forward to Sunflower. (I still am. I'll just go read Lyra instead.)
I was going to do a whole "disappointed parent" routine here, but you did give me another chapter of Side Projects and I don't want to be a dick when you're clearly trying really hard to basically entertain me for free, so instead I'll just say "take as long as you need, I can wait".
You're forgiven.
Besides, better for a story to take a little longer to come out and be more polished than rushing it out.
If you can't get it passed by the mods, then you can't get passed by the mods. I understand my friend.
Estimating how big a story will be can be very tricky. Take as long as you need to make the sufficiently pony section work.
Hoopy, you're good person and good writer. Have all time you need, it's not a problem!
If it takes a little longer to come out but be even better, then so be it.
Good thing we are patient right?
"Not pony enough?"
To be honest, I didn't mind the build-up done by the original Sunflower before it got to the subject material. I don't think a story has to dive into it right away. If that's not the problem, never mind. :P
100K words is only about 300 pages in print. Not that long. I wouldn't worry about it too much, your own writing style is just more developed and directed towards longer, more in-depth works. I probably wouldn't have enjoyed Sunflower if it was only 100K long, because half of all that development (among other things) would be gone. Your style is your strength, and if that means I wait a few weeks or even months, well whatever. Then it does.
Not pony enough, huh? Interesting.
1925152
I think the point is that new story submissions have to get past the moderators and the story won't meet the submission criteria until chapter 2 is available to be examined.
I was gonna read your Hard Knocks today... but I think I need to wait until they are all published, or my mind will go nuts
Seriously stories like that leave me distracted all day when I see no conclusion or a big cliffhanger, and I need to write some stuff of my own, lol.
1925538 It's dreamy enough though.
1925621 Yes, I'm not confused about that or anything. But it seems that after "Project: Sunflower," its sequel wouldn't need that kind of early chapter vetting. As absurdities go, it would be like suspecting that a movie called "Star Trek" wouldn't have space in it because the opening scene is about Kirk drinking tea with another human in San Francisco.
1926629
True. He's probably just playing it safe.
I have to admit I really like your "Project Sunflower" story and have been loving the shorts, I look forward to this sequel.
I have been wondering certain things since your original story ended which with any luck your sequel will provide answers for like
-how does Erin explain the whole alicorn thing to Marigold,
-does Marigold know now that she is going to school, was it covered by Miss Cheerilee as part of "Current events" or "Major turning points in Equestrian History"
-How widespread knowledge of Erin is, given that the gate guard on the pony side knew her and there is a stain glass window of the whole thing
-Perhaps Marigold learned of it from the CMC, who's elder sisters perhaps let something slip
-Perhaps this would lead to the 'Foal Free Press" knocking on Erin's door
-Erin's first meeting with Zecora perhaps she has a package to deliver to her
-Erin's first Nightmare night, would she wear a costume or would she think of that of a costume on top of a costume, and would 'Human' costumes be in high fashion
1926786 I just hope he doesn't feel like he has to compromise his original intentions with however he wanted early chapters to be just to release it sooner. I enjoyed the slow burn of the first one, so I can be patient for this one.