Introductions

Hi there. Let me start right off the point and say this blog with be long-ish. The aim of this is to introduce who exactly I am, what I'm doing here and some future plans.

And let me first get out of the way and say thanks to the followers I have right now. Not only that, but the reception I've gotten so far for my stories has been positive in my eyes, which honestly makes me feel good. I thought my first story might have crashed and burned, leaving a mark.

Ok, so I am Derpator. I've used the nickname Predator for years now, but I thought I'd swap it around for once. Pred = Derp backwards. I'm not revealing anything personal about me (since I'm not an idiot), but I'll share the most vague details saying I'm 19 and English. I'm turning 20 next month (which I'm thinking of writing a story for) and I attend University. More on that a bit later.

My brony origin story. If you read the brief description on my page, you'd have seen it says I became one in February 2011. That's correct, although I can't remember the exact date. I had surgery performed on my spine at the end of Summer of 2010 (everything's fine now), and I didn't use the internet for weeks. Mostly due to my recovery, but I also lost interest. When school had resumed later, I found myself revisiting a forum I went inactive on for a while. I won't share what the forum is, but I've been a member there for almost six years. It must have been a good 8 weeks or so that I didn't go on there, but when I did go on again, ponies were everywhere. Like any sane person at the time, I was just "The hell is this?". At some point, I was shared the pilot episodes, which I then sat and watched. After just the two episodes, it gained my interest. I didn't hold really high hopes for it, but I didn't scoff at it either. I gave it a chance, since many people were telling me that it can easily be seen as girly. I watched 'The Ticket Master' and 'Applebuck Season' right afterwards, and I got hooked. Right then and there. For the rest of that day, I just spent the day watched episode after episode. I should also note this is when all of the episodes were up on Youtube, so it was really easily. I couldn't stop watching. I only got around to 'Winter Wrap Up' at the end of that day, but I was quick to resume watching whenever I could. It was great. Loved it all, and soon became the signature name of brony in February. The rest is really just history.

To this day, 'Party of One' still remains my all time favourite episode. Part of this is because Pinkie is my favourite pony, and the other part is because it's so awesome. Yes, I did just say Pinkie is my favourite. It's hard for me to put into words about why I like Pinkie so much, but I want to elaborate some other thoughts on Pinkamena. I like her design, and the personality that many writers have given her. When I browse and see a story using Pinkamena, I'm rather tempted to see how the writer made her. While it's true that the most obvious thing to go for is the Cupcakes route (more about this in a bit) and a murderer, sometimes I see her done very well done. In fact, I plan to use Pinkamena somewhere down the line. Unknown how far though.

On the fiction side of things, I never really read fanfiction that much. In the previous years, I read Cupcakes when it came out. Call me sadistic or sick if you like, but I liked it. I don't want to go into details, considering Cupcakes is infamous at this point. It's also used a lot in any other things that it's probably old too. I also read the likes of Rainbow Factory and My Little Dashie too. When I did read fanfiction, I was on fanfction.net rather than here. There, I found some... interesting stories.

And now, a mid-blog fanfic story analysis:

There was this one story where the mane six are having a slumber party. Lights go out, cliché as they do, and the group separates at points for several reasons (getting food etc.) and get picked off one by one. At the end of it all, it turns out Twilight and Pinkie have both been responsible, though their reasons are different. Pinkie is because... she wants to? I don't really know. Twilight's is because she apparently can't stand her friends anymore. I don't really get it, and I didn't know what the hell I was reading at the time.

I only first visited this site just under two months ago, soon after I began writing fanfics. Yeah, I haven't even been writing for two months. For the duration then, I just stalked read many stories, getting more into it, while also writing my own. Finally after a while and deciding I wanted to keep writing, I joined here. Even though I haven't been writing for very long, I am no newcomer when it comes to the English language. I won't deny I'm still a rookie, and I still have things to improve on, mostly my range of vocabulary, but I am certainly no 13 year old writing his first fanfic. I don't have any proof-readers or editors, and I'm fine with that. I write my stories, go through them again and again, making sure they're how I want. Reading my own work word to word, looking for any grammar mistakes. Of course I'll still make mistakes here and there, since no one is perfect. I don't have a lot of experience, but practice makes perfect.

I don't really have any preference for stories I read. I'm open to many things, but I usually don't read crossovers or adventures. Don't get me wrong, they're still good, but they just aren't my thing. I tend to prefer the more random, slice of life and shipping stories. I won't say it's my OTP, but the ship that I like the most is TwiPie. I won't go into details why, but it's just my favourite.

If you've been stalking my page for whatever reason, you'll have seen that a) I haven't favourited any stories, b) I've been online pretty much all day and c) I aren't following anyone. I haven't favourited any stories yet because I want to be here for a while longer before rushing to favourite everything. There are definitely stories out there that will already make my list, and I still need to like them too, but I'd rather not get 500 favourites within a single day. I'm also online a lot because of my position in University. I had my final exam a few days ago, so now I have squat until the start of the next year. That leaves about four months of nothing. I already plan to try and get a job, but I'm a bit of a shut-in at times, so my PC is usually always on. This is why I've been online for quite a lot of time. A life? What's that? I also haven't started following anyone similar to the reason for the favourites. I'd rather wait a bit before setting it off.

Now some news and stuff regarding my stories:

If you've been reading New Toys in Town, I hope you've been enjoying it so far. I never thought it'd reach the current word count it has now, and there's still four more chapters left. I hope to release two of them today, but I can't make any promises. It still remains my first main fic, so I'm still a bit edgy about it. I'm sort of at a point now where I just want it to end. I haven't enjoyed writing the word length of it, and it feels hard for me to drag it on. Not only that, but some of the nice comments I've gotten have really made me think. It's made me seriously think actually. I know that not everyone would be satisfied with what I've planned for the ending, and I certainly wouldn't edit it just for that either. I just hope it can be a nice finish though, otherwise the journey wouldn't have had a nice payoff.

Treadmill Twilight. What can I say? I just got the idea and started writing. I didn't spend a huge amount of time on it, considering its length. I certainly didn't expect the positive results it has so far. I'm actually thinking of making a sequel, just because I had so much fun writing it. The shortness of it was actually the sort of story I kind of wanted all along. I feel more comfortable writing a shorter one-shot rather than long stories. Don't get me wrong, I still admire those who have put tons of effort into longer fics, but I just don't feel I'm able to keep up when I write them. It's probably the reason I'd rather write shorter stories like this one. I still have some longer stories planned for the future rather than one-shots, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I think that's about it. If you've read all of this, then thanks. I know a lot of people won't have seen this, considering I'm not popular at all, but I felt I should have made a proper introduction rather than staying in the shadows. Apologies for the length of this blog too, but I wanted to get my things across. Don't get the feeling I'm ignoring anyone. I take the comments I've received so far and interactions with other members seriously. I just want to wait a while before acting.

That's all, and I hope you continue to enjoy my fics.