So I'm Writing. Again

Now that's an odd way to start off the first entry to a blog, isn't it? "'Writing again'? You haven't written anything!"

And, well, fair enough. I haven't written anything, at least not for a good ten- or twelve-plus years. I certainly used to write -- quite a bit in fact. In my final year of high school I lost out on the top mark for the creative writing class to my best friend at the time and only because I wrote a single piece I wanted and he wrote one that the teacher wanted to read. I lost to pandering, but kept my pride, meaning the loss only stung a little. (We'll go with that.) My second year university, though, I got into a creative writing class that was based on story submissions and was one of only two or three non-English majors selected out of two classes of around twenty to thirty individuals total. That was a delightful accomplishment. Alas, that is also the time that my muse crashed and burned in a most devastating and gruesome fashion.

Suffice it to say, she has been an exceedingly long time recovering.

Now ponies are not my first fandom. That would be the furries, starting in the halcyon days of the late 90s. When internet writing communities consisted of mailing lists and sites like this where users could upload and edit directly were but a distant dream. The now defunct Transformation Story Archive is where things all started for me and where my talents were nursed and matured. My works from those times still exists in two places.

The vast majority from that time was done for the shared story universe of Metamor Keep. My works can be found here. For those unfamiliar with the shared universe concept, think what we do here, only without fear of corporate license and where you're all on the same level as the creator. Looking back at the story lengths from then, I see not a lot has changed. Verbosity is not one of my strong suits. For those curious, Metamor was a medieval-style keep where the majority of the author's characters wound up becoming some kind of animal-human hybrids. There are other types, but the furs wound up dominating. My character there, Rickkter, was written as someone on the good guy's side who could have been a villain just as easily. I wanted to inject some friction into what was, at the time, an all-too happy community. It was a delight to break the conventions and mess around in the world. What I did was well received, too, which I'm glad for. By virtue of the small nature of the community at the time I could actually drive events in that universe. I have no illusions of doing anything like that here. FIMfiction is far too large a pond and I am far too small a fish.

A trio of my other works can be found on sofurry.com, including the last full story that I have any pride in, Song of Dead Suns. This is a philosophy piece that centers on the question, in a galaxy of multiple civilizations -- some old, some young, some alive, some dead -- what parts of a civilization have true value? It is the objective (their science) or the subjective (their art)? The former because anyone can use it, or the latter because it was unique to them? It was a story I wrote in 2002 and retooled in 2013 for a writing contest that site was having at the time. It did alright.

My time in between has been largely as copy editor and minor co-author for friends. I beta read, make suggestions, and add a few hundred or maybe a thousand words or so to their stories now and again. But, really, I can't call that true writing and the satisfaction that it brings is paltry at best. I know that I only assisted and there was pride in helping make things better, but there was certainly frustration from being incapable of taking the lead and being the one in control of the creation. I wanted to have my own ideas as the center with others assisting and refining to make it better. Having lived with that for years was quite discouraging I can tell you, were it not for the smallest spark that refused to completely die.

But now I find myself... here. There are currently five people on this site I know of who have read my works in the past (hello, you know who you are) and it's good to see that they're also still active in some fashion after all this time. But here things are... new. The same, in a great many ways, but still... different. A new start.

For this, there are two people I must thank. The first is my significant other Stitchwolf for... somehow getting involved in MLP almost four years ago and finding this place. The second is Wargame Brony for not only writing the truly daft and delightful Bon Bon Dies at the End but for allowing me to participate in alongside and thus revive my dormant muse and passion for creation.

Much more shall be said on that subject in later blog posts when I get around to publishing the pieces I have been working on that more directly relate to that sub-universe. And, oh my, are there pieces...

So, yes, FIMfiction here I am! We'll see what kind of fruits this relationship bears. So far things are looking well, with my first piece being well received (a fact I am quite pleased by). The ponies are friendly for the most part, I've found, and that's nice, too.

The one thing I will tell you about the way I write is that it is different than many here; I don't like incomplete. Unless there is very good reason for it, I will never put up part of a story and stop. Before saying more, I do want to distinguish between stories like Bon Bon Dies at the End and others kinds. The former is written in installments, and any installment I work on will be a complete story in and of itself -- beginning, middle, definitive conclusion. It's possible the over-arching narrative of the whole structure may remain incomplete (though I hope not), but any installment will be complete before anyone sees it. No beginning, middle, WTF is my conclusion?!

I may end up working months on a piece (and already have) in order to get it into shape and but will only post (maybe in increments, over a number of days depending on length) once it has been completed to my satisfaction. Unless it's a massive, sprawling work like BBDatE, when it starts going up, it will keep going up until it's all there. There is little more I hate than an unfinished story -- especially when it is one that intrigues me and draws me in, making me crave more -- and I promise that I shall do my best not inflict such frustration upon my readers.

I have said in comments elsewhere on this site that I currently write for two and have an audience of one. I want to change that.

And on that note... let us begin.