Regarding Letters From a Friend · 1:04am Oct 24th, 2014
So, if you've been reading Letters From a Friend at the End of the World, and have reached the ending of the first "book", you may have noticed a general air of unhappiness in the comments. I fully accept this as being my fault first and foremost. I wanted to make sure I met my self-imposed deadline and so I rushed to finish the chapter in time, and as a result it suffered greatly. It wasn't just a bad chapter, it was a bad ending, and I'm sorry for that. You guys have been following this thing for months, or maybe even close to two years, if you've been reading since the beginning, and you deserve better than what I gave you. Now then, what does this have to do with this blogpost? Well, everything really.
See, I had promised in the comments of the final chapter that I'd have the first chapter of the sequel out the following weekend, which, obviously, did not happen. This is for many reasons. First and foremost is that it was not done, and I didn't want to release a rushed chapter again, especially since the first chapter of a book is arguably second in importance only to the final chapter, and since I already screwed up the latter, I didn't want to screw up the former. To that end, I had originally decided on making a blogpost saying I was going to delay the chapter for another week... then that fell through. My main issue is that seeing all the complaints I received told me a lot of things. It told me that I'd been getting by on often haphazard writing and sloppy craftsmanship that was only held together by a semi-coherent story. It told me that all those flaws I knew that my writing contained were indeed still there, and that I had only been hiding them from myself so I didn't have to confront them. I was all about maintaining status quo, and I was pretty good at it. But the ending showed me that status quo wasn't good enough.
For a few days I was pretty upset, mostly at myself since I had caused all this. I couldn't bring myself to write anything, and it's only recently (with the release of silly fic about Trixie and the Dazzlings) that I was able to start writing again. I'm realizing now as I write this that it sounds very "poor me", but I hope you can understand that that's not really my intent. I'm not looking for pity, or sympathy, or even empathy really. I simply want you to understand where I'm coming from when I say that I'm going to put Letters From a Friend at the End of the World on hiatus until I can sort myself out and get motivated to start writing it again, because as it stands now, I have almost no drive for it.
Hiatus can be a scary word, since by its very definition it means to stop, or to take a break, and I can see why this might seem like bad thing. For all you know I might not come back for 6 months, or a year, or two years, but that's not going to be the case. I won't put a hard date on when the sequel, Unread Letters From a Friend at the End of the World, will be released, but I will say that it won't take very long. Some of the chapter is already written, and all I need to do now is get in the mood to write it again so I can finish. If I were to guess a time, knowing that this is no way any kind of promise, I'd say probably two weeks or less. Writing my most recent story has already started to make me want to write more, and it shouldn't take much provocation to get back to Letters. For now though, I'm sorry if you were looking forward to the release of the sequel and the continuation of the story, but you'll have to wait a little longer. Rest assured though, it will be done. I once promised that I'd never quit this story, and I intend to keep that promise. I'm going to finish it no matter what.
Anyway, enough serious business. Let's do something fun. I've got three one-shots I want to work on right now, and I want you to help me pick which one I should write first.
First up we've got this ridiculous story:
Then this:
And finally, this:
I vote for Princess Suplexia. I'm a sucker for that [Random] tag, sometimes...
Suplexia, because it's the most random of the three.
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I'm committing myself to the ending for the reason that I feel it would be somewhat disingenuous to change it now. It's not as if it's set in stone, but I don't feel right changing it. After all, this was how I planned on it ending from more or less the very beginning. It could possibly stand to be rewritten to be less rushed, but the outcome would be unchanged.
I feel like the issue with the ending wasn't the ending itself, as some people may be suggesting in the comments. Rather, it was the rushed nature of it. I feel like Astrid's death needed a bit more build up - A chapter or two? Maybe just a couple thousand more words? - and then it would have worked just fine.
Also, my vote? The Snake thing that isn't one of those three. You need to write that story, alex.
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Oh god... the snake thing. Yes, I do need to do that at some point. Also, I need to write Raz's fic at some point. Anything with Trixie and Daring Do can't be anything less than the best thing ever.
Fwiw, although I'd agree that the ending seemed a bit rushed, I don't think it severely detracts from what is otherwise an excellent story.
I'm definitely looking forward to its continuation, whenever that will be. :)
I vote for 4.24 Light Years
4.24 Light Years
4.24 light years… or possibly Suplexia
Whatever you're in the mood for.
I know you said you weren't after pity or empathy, but you'll get both from me anyway. I had a nearly identical issue with my most popular story, and it took a while to get back on my feet. In all fairness the story I'm referring to was a short slice of life released over the span of a week, as opposed a grand opus like Letters. Either way, take the time you need and come back swinging (or at least typing) with ferocity.
Good luck!
Let's Skype sometime. For as much as we're in the same chatrooms, it feels like we haven't caught up in ages.
(4.24 Light Years)
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Oh man... I was not expecting so many people to say 4.24 Light Years. I might have to actually write this now, heh.
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You thought people wouldn't go for the Romance story?
Princess Suplexia.
Also, okay. Legit good on you for acknowledging the critiques.
Princess Suplexia please!
I want to see how many mega-Sabins an alicorn princess can generate.
Okay, and maybe I also want a fic with Celestia wearing a leotard. DON'T JUDGE ME!
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As opposed to comedy? Comedy is practically my lifeblood, and it's what most people follow me for.
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I love your comedy fics (and Trixie), but what's life without variety?
Also more history posts!
Princess Suplexia, because it
was my idea and I want to see it better received than Mobius Raritylooks like a really silly, really fun story.2552538
Y'know, you have a point there. Your comedy fics are certainly why I started following you, but something about that synopsis of 4.24 Light Years just seems to reach out to a primal part of my psyche; plus I love the reference to Proxima Centauri in the title.
Well, for what it's worth, I loved the ending.
I vote 4.24 light years
Okay. Regarding Letters. I've been reading since... Chapter 2 maybe? 3? It's your story. You're writing it because of whatever reasons drive you to write, but in the end, the only person you have to please is you. Not me (who, to be honest, thought the ending wasn't terrible. Rushed, but not bad), not the people in the comments complaining, not some /b/tard writing '1/5 want my brain cells back', YOU. Based on this post, you're not especially happy with it. The question you ought to ask is what do you want to do about it? Garth Brooks is well known for going back and writing another verse to a song. A normal author has editors and publishers to catch things that aren't quite right and are given chances to rewrite. You posted to the site. That's published. Could go back and rewrite the chapter or could easily enough just leave it as is and continue on to the sequel eventually. All that matters is if you're happy.
Secondly, as for the next fic... I'd vote 4.24.
Red Bull Gives You... Well, Something Anyway, it is clearly the best story of the three as it features best horse. I am of course referring to Braeburn.
Best horse, option 2
Psst... in the blurb for #3 I think you wanted "unavoidable" circumstances, not "extenuating" (which means making something bad look less severe, such as an urgent doc appointment being an extenuating circumstance for being late for work).
That said, I'd be most interested in the first two stories, so either of those gets my vote.
Princess Suplexia. I can't even keep a straight face right now.
Let me get this, you rushed the final chapter of Letters knowing it wasn't going to get the feedback you expected and then put the story on hold after receiving that negative slash?? That makes absolutely no sense. Also, you basically killed Astrid, arguably one of the most developed characters in the story in less than 10 lines. Sorry for the expression, but that's just bullshit. If you planned her death ina dvance is ok, is your history, but you basically pulled a Sirius Black-> Rowling situation here.
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Well, yes I did rush it, but I didn't rush it knowing that it was going receive negative feedback. That was a total shock to me, and it's why I decided to delay the release of the sequel. If it had been well received, despite its rushed nature, things wouldn't have gone the same way. Also, while I can agree that within the context of the scene Astrid's death was rushed, I would at least argue that it's not the same as Sirius Black's death. Sirius' death was not set up beforehand, and it happened very quickly, which is why it annoyed people so much. For all the issues one might have with my handling of Astrid's death, I can at least say that it was set up, and set up multiple times and for a very long time. But anyway, thanks for the feedback, and I'm sorry if I upset you.
2570515 I am sorry if i was a bit too agressive but it just, i feel kinda hollow after that chapter, i was absolutely entranced with this story and i devoured each after after they came out, it just, well, i wasn't expecting that :c
Btw by the Black/Rowling situation, i dont refer to the initial backslash, but more like the lack of development, she was sick and it was a chance (and in a certain way, i knew she was going to die) but she died..... and well, that's it, she died.. It reminds me the way Fred in HP7 died too, killing just cause' reasons, i hope this get developed further in the sequel because, right now, we are clueless :c