Sisyphus Triumphs (Kinda long and self indulgent) · 7:54pm Oct 4th, 2014
So a little over two years ago, I was in the full-on throes of brony madness. My wife and I watched the show constantly, and I could never get enough pony. The characters ran through my mind all the time, and I needed something to do with them. It was in this time that I had this strong mental image of the girls on a door, sliding down a snowy mountain, and then looking disgruntled as they stood on it while traveling down a river.
This was how A Door Jam was born, though I didn't use any of the scenes I'd originally thought of. The 'door down the mountain' thing did end up as a chapter of Cheerilee's Thousand, though.
I'd never written anything really, but I loved these characters, and I wanted more. The idea of them with this door for some reason just kept coming back to me. So I spent a quite a few hours writing it up, and you know what? By the end, I was really liking it. I was proud of my little story, and even more proud when I uploaded it here and it made quite a little splash for someone that no one had ever heard of.
Obviously, I was a savant, and the masses needed more. A Door Jam was EQD bound.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the community hub. My story got rejected. It was a really interesting wake up call to get that response saying, "Uh, nice little story, but you could learn a lot about story-telling, not to mention grammar." I mean, they didn't say it like that, but that was the thrust of it.
One strike for me, and I'm afraid I'll have to admit that I was pissed off. I mean, just look at the response my story had received! It was great. Nuts to those guys! I'd spiff up my story and resubmit. No way were they going to defeat me! It became my number one goal to have that story on EQD.
Strike two, and I started sweating. Maybe I wasn't quite the savant I thought I was. Plus, I'd released Out of Fashion to almost no response. Yikes. So I really started boning up at that point. I started reading grammar textbooks and asking for help. I backburnered A Door Jam so that I could work on my skills.
Fast forward about a year, and I'd had something like three stories on EQD. I was really getting this writing thing, and I thought it might be about time to accomplish my number one goal. I went back to the drawing board and completely re-wrote A Door Jam, taking it from six thousand words to ten thousand, adding description, eliminating telling, revamping dialogue. It got a massive tune-up, and I loved the hell out of it.
And no third strike! It wasn't accepted, but it was sent back without a strike with a note to fix five things and it would be ship-shape. I was over the moon! I corrected those errors and resubmitted.
Third strike. The reviewer basically hated the story and pointed out several errors no one else had caught. Now my story was done and I'd never achieve my number one goal.
I was super mad. I can't even express how angry I was about this. I was pissed off at that review, but I was even more angry at myself. I'd wasted two strikes when I was very inexperienced, and I hadn't caught these typos before I'd sent it back for the all-important third chance. I'd failed, and I had a large portion of that to deal with. Not all of it. I still feel like I was screwed somewhat in that exchange, but there's no denying that it was my job to make sure the story was square before I sent it in, and I didn't do that.
So I swallowed it, vowing to use that angry and sadness as a tool for motivation and learning. It was still a pretty good story, even if EQD didn't accept it, and I'd learned a lot writing it. I closed the book on it and wrote about Trixie and Discord.
Then, one fine day, everything changed.
EQD decided to get rid of the strikes. Stories could be resubmitted until they passes, and all permanently rejected stories were given new life. I could still achieve my dream, and I got back to work.
Strike four.
This was actually a good thing. I got a response back full of "Hey, here are a bunch of typos, oh, and you might want to think about these particular problems. They are systemic in your writing." This was great for me. I got to view the story in a whole new light, and thus, all of my stories. This is why I like working with a multitude of different editors. I learn a little something new from each one. This time, it was about my overuse of participle phrases and my tendency to shift needlessly into multiple character perspectives to the detriment of the story.
So I got to work again, and that's what I've been doing for the past few weeks. Going over A Door Jam over and over and over.
I sent it back in yesterday. Today, it was accepted.
I can't properly express how delighted I am. I mean, you can probably see by the length of this post what it means to me, but I thought I'd never have a chance at getting my story up there, and somehow it happened, and it happened because I worked incredibly hard at it. I happened because I had a lot of help from a lot of really great people, and if you are reading this, chances are you were part of that learning process in some way. I've had a tremendous amount of support from all of you, and I'd like to personally thank everything who has taken the time to help me learn or to give me feedback. It's the most valuable thing we have on this site.
EQD is not the place it once was. My stories there rarely get thousands of views the way they once did. A Door Jam probably won't really benefit all that much from being there. But, to me, it means the world. It means that I fought and fought and fought, and at the end, I actually won. At the end of the day, the boulder reached the top of the mountain, and I can finally rest if I so choose.
I'm not sure where this leaves me as an author here. I have no plans for quitting, but I don't really have that many goals left. I've always been a goal-oriented person, and it's hard for me to just write for the joy of it. I really do like it, but I'm generally doing it because I want to achieve something. Maybe it's time to really re-evaluate that stance and learn to just create for the fun of creation. Is that a new goal? Probably.
Grats! You earned that feature full stop
Let's celebrate with cake!
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/10/02/1412258168718_wps_1_Pepperoni_Pizza_Cake.jpg
2506558 Holy hell, dude! Do they have those things in England? That's... that's beautiful!
2506535 Thanks! I know it shouldn't be a big deal, but I really, really wanted that feature, and I just can't believe I finally got it.
2506558 The really good news in all of this is that I can finally get back to new stories. I hate editing.
2506565 I believe it may have coincided with the release of premade pizza dough.
2506567 It is a big deal. You've fought tooth and nail against a system that revolves around luck, the personal biases of its users and a lot of fearsome competition and have come out on top. It's certainly worth celebrating
Go team! I know that "How dare you reject this fine example of perfect literature" feeling well, having had Concept Art - Captured in Stone given the three strike treatment quite some time ago, but I've persevered and been blessed in return, even to the point that today I got the "It's good and needs some work in these spots, please fix and resubmit" letter on one of my submissions. Until somebody builds a fifty foot statue of me out of marble in our local town park, that'll have to do.
(Admit it. There's a lot of Sisyphus in us, but a whole lot more Narcissus.)
Congrats! I have to admit that I favourited this story so long ago and have read so many others since then that I'd forgotten what it was about, but the good news is that that meant I got to re-read it and enjoy it all over again with the edits you've made since.
As a further finish line for Sisyphus, I put it up on Goodreads, here. I'll write a detailed review later. :)
2506596 Oh, hey. I've never seen that site. I have to look at putting more stuff there.
And thanks! It's still pretty much the same story, just with much better, well, everything. The original was kind of telly. I'm glad the new version worked for you. There are still parts that I'm iffy about, but it's because I'm trying to expand my writing ability. There are places where I REALLY want to use more participle phrases in, but I admittedly over-use them. It's a crutch I need to get rid of, but it's hard.
2506589 It just takes a while for my emotional switch to disengage and allow my rational brain to take control again. I know damn well that my stuff isn't super great, but my heart struggles with that idea still. Every time I get a rejection, I go through a little period of rage. I've just learned to step away from the computer at those times so that I don't send a moronic email/make dumb edits to my story until rational brain is back.
Those rejections have really been the best thing, though. That anger is more effective than anything else at making me buckle down and actually learn something about writing.
Welp.
Time to read that gem.
~Skeeter The Lurker
2506642 Lemme know what you think! It's always useful to hear the opinions of the readers here that I know have read a billion stories. Making a story stand out to those readers is a special thing indeed.
Well, I don't really know what to say other than congratulations. You have certainly earned this.
2506753 Thanks! There's no real need to say anything else. I feel kind of bad writing up that whole masturabatory blog post, but it just means a lot to me with this story. It's not my best one, or my funniest, or the most insightful, but it's my favorite because it was my first.
2506614 Amen. The Traveling Tutor and the Librarian went through a full rewrite of the first chapter and about 6 full passes through it before EqD was happy.
Congrats! I will always fondly remember A Door Jam as the story that taught me that I'd been mispronouncing "wyvern" all my life.
2507212 It's been a long, long journey for that story. And congrats to you! Your new story was on EQD faster than any that I've seen, I think.
I'm overjoyed to see that happen. I've been cheering for it since I first read it.
Congratulations!
Also, you totally already have a goal: one thousand chapters for Cheerilee's Thousand. (Yes, I know you've never actually committed to that. That's why I'm telling you now.) Good thing you have guest authors!
2507384 You know, i came very close today to asking if you would go over it, but my EQD pre-reader got to it much more quickly than I'd expected. He said it would be a few days, but then he jumped right on it. Luckily for me, it was largely up to par this time around.
2507544 I'm glad A Door Jam is off my plate now. I've been wanting to return to Cheerilee's Thousand, but I've had all these other fics to write lately. About 5,000 more words and I'll be done with the rough of my new story, then I can get back to torturing Cheerilee.
Congratulations! I'm so happy for you. Now I can finally read it.
What next? We should totes collab.
2507868 I'm torn between excitement for the new story and anticipation for Cheerilee's misery.
I just did the math and if you continue Cheerilee's Thousand for a thousand chapters, keeping the same average length of each chapter, it will still only be the second longest story on the site (at 1,440,239 words, it comes in after Diaries of a Madman). That's assuming the MLP Time Loops collection somehow doesn't update significantly in that time, and not counting the Austreoh saga as one story (I haven't read very far into it, but my understanding is that it's essentially a continuous story with arbitrary breaks for convenience).
For comparison, the entire Harry Potter series is reasonably close to one million words and took about seventeen years to write. We have some loquacious motherfuckers on this site!
2507906 Maaaaaybe. But I need to finish this new story first. I'm just about done with it.
2507966 You say that now, but I think the guy who is writing The Chase is some kind of unstoppable writing monster. It just keeps getting longer and longer and longer...
I think it will be the longest story in the fandom within a few months, though I gave up on it long ago.
It finally happened! YAY!
Congrats man. You worked so hard for this.
2510841 I know I always say I work hard on my stories, but in this instance, it's particularly true. I spent literally months on this story. it's a great relief to have it finished, and for it to be seen on EQD. Whatever else happens, I can take that with me to the end of my brony days.