It's My Cheeri-versary! · 5:45pm Nov 15th, 2014
Woohoo! One year ago today, I published the first two chapters of Cheerilee's Thousand, and it's really been amazing journey for me. I was totally shocked by the reception that it's gotten. To be honest, I'm still kind of shocked. Who knew ruining a pony's life could interest so many people?
Now, I say that like this is Past Sins or something. It's certainly isn't the best known story or anything even approaching that, but of all the things I've written, it's the one people are always asking for more of. They crave more terrible dates.
I've answered the question a million times, it seems. No, I have no idea if the story will ever reach one thousand bad dates or not. I'm pretty surprised, I've made it this far. Sometimes people ask me if I wish I'd called it Cheerilee's Hundred instead. All the time, my friends. All the time.
Lately, I've been thinking of various ways to keep the story interesting. One thing I may do is end this story at one hundred chapters and call it volume one. Then I'd find a new author that would do things in a different way. Say, someone who specializes in Romance or Dark or something other than Comedy. Then let them do the next hundred, and then they can pass it on. I'm not sure, but I do think people will be tired of my schtick sooner or later, and it will probably be sooner, unfortunately.
But for now, the craziness continues, and I have a guest authored chapter to release today that I hope you guys will really enjoy. I've been sitting on it for a while so that I could release chapter fifty on the anniversary. I'm pretty excited about it. I did have to move the story up to Teen for it, though. I've actually needed to for a while, but I think this one is just too saucy for an Everyone rating.
So, in celebration, have some cute picture of Cheerilee!
And finally, Cheerilee's face when she sees me beginning to type.
Hooray! Cheers should drink more. I bet she has a huge stash of booze at her house.
But pretend it's a year, and it's about your story.
Wow, a year already? Time sure does fly.
Congrats! It's like 50 First Dates, but in her case the memory loss might be a blessing - or it could be a curse. Her little black book is getting pretty full of bad dates with lots of red pen strokes...
So here's a thought along with your others for the future format: You could have just a few stories (3 or so?) strung together by additional themes. An example might be Cheerilee asking Twilight to cast a spell to help her forget the previous experience, which could necessitate the forgetting of the entire day. Her interactions with other ponies would show her over time that she's missing out on other important experiences by doing this, not to mention the lessons (and dates) she could have learned from. Just a thought.
Whatever you do, giving this to another author for 100 dates seems a bit much, since you've only published 50 over the course of a year...
Good story. I've enjoyed every word of it so far.
2596612 Pinkie Pie and Cheerilee. Two of my favorite things, finally together.
2596607 Oh, I think she probably has plenty of booze sitting around. Takes the edge off of all that lonely paper grading.
2596636 I'm lucky someone pointed it out to me last month. I would have totally missed it.
2596740 I'm very happy to hear it. I have a lot less time now than I used to have, so getting the updates out now is a lot harder than it once was. Sometimes I wonder if it's even worth it, but it's really encouraging to hear that people are still into it.
2596719 Well, like I said, it's just something I'm mulling over. There's going to have to be a shakeup of some sort. It could be a format change, or new authors, or longer dates than span multiple chapters. I could be a stronger background story coming to the front that ties the dates together somehow. I'm just not sure yet.
2596814 Not gonna lie, I forgot about this story. When I saw you posted another chapter, I had to reread it all as a memory refresh. It is just as funny now as it was when I first read it.
Hooray for one year of terrible dates! Definitely one of my favorite stories on the site and something I read as soon as it updates. Thank you for putting Cheerilee through so much trauma for our amusement!
What is the process involving guest chapters?
I have wanted to try my hoof at a chapter or five...
2597137 I'm actually winding down the idea of guest chapters. They are actually a lot more work for me than I'd anticipated, and I barely have the time to write myself anymore, let alone work collaboratively with someone else to come to an agreement on Cheerilee stuff. The guest chapter that's coming out today is the last one I have planned.
HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that it's set in stone. Someone could come to me with a really great idea and it would change everything. I'm just not actively recruiting people to write anymore.
There is a set of rules for the chapters of this story, so if you're burning to write one, PM me and we can discuss it. I'll warn you up front, though. I'm pretty picky about stuff. I don't like to disappoint people or dump on their ideas, but I've probably turned down more stories than I've approved.
2597026 No, thank you for reading it! It brings me a lot of joy that people enjoy this so much.
2597140
Ok.
I will PM you with the details.
Thanks!
2596752 I would ask if the two would ever go on a date, but I'm sure Pinkie Pie has probably been crossed off of Cheerilee's list of potential dates by now.
2597194 Pinkie is my favorite pony, so it'll probably happen at some point. However, in this story, she's basically only been an off-screen force of nature, and I kind of like that. The Cakes basically have their hooves full containing her in Sugarcube Corner. For some reason, that cracks me up, so I've just rolled with it.
Steel Resolve and I have talked back and forth about a chapter with Pinkie and Rarity, but we haven't really sat down and outlined something yet.
2597215 I feel like Cheerilee would see Pinkie as a good friend, but would find her to be as annoying as some of the children she's taught. Pinkie Pie does tend to act somewhat childish at times.
2597217 It just depends on the goals of the chapter. I think Pinkie would probably be best used as a pony who was well-intentioned, but screwing Cheerilee's life up somehow. Like, she'd set up a date for Cheerilee, then pop up each time things were beginning to get romantic to "help."
It's tough, though. I'm a believer in a more competent Pinkie Pie, so I don't really like to see her used in a way that makes her look like she doesn't get it. Pinkie's job is to make ponies happy, and she can't do that if she's oblivious. That's one of the main reasons she hasn't been in this story. One of the basic laws of this tale is that everypony sucks at their jobs. I could certainly make a story where Pinkie was trying to get things cooking for Cheerilee, but comedically screwing it up, but I probably wouldn't enjoy writing it.
Holy hell, it's already been a year? x_x
Will this really have a thousand chapters?
2597464 ::Shakes fist at you:: Why I oughta...
If you want different perspectives, why not pass it off to nine different authors and encourage them to write simultaneously? They'll be reading each others' work, and no one's going to be able to keep continuity perfectly over a thousand chapters in any case, so that shouldn't be a problem. I love that this is a work that's receptive to guest authors and so on.
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Damn, I came up with a great idea for a Pinkie/Cheerilee date when I read 2596752 that probably would have rankled you in any case, but it looks like such a thing would never get published. Pinkie sees how down Cheerilee is and decides to treat her to the perfect evening, and Cheerilee starts out disliking the artificiality of it -- she thinks Pink's only doing this out of pity -- but has such a great time she winds up trying to kiss Pinkie at the end of the night. So Pinkie denounces her and screams that she's going to Tartarus, because she's Pony Mennonite/Puritan/whatever and you don't do that sort of thing before marriage. WHADDA TWIST, but it's pretty similar to stuff you've done before.
2597300 That's what I said, too. I wouldn't even have noticed except that someone pointed it out to me last month. I've been holding onto that Skywriter chapter ever since.
2597481 I definitely thought of giving it to nine other authors at once, though it would surely be chaos. Not that chaos can't be entertaining, but I don't think very many questions would get answered.
Any no, I probably wouldn't use that. Anything that shows Pinkie in a bad light is a tough one to sell me on.