How to Make the Featured Box · 4:10pm Nov 27th, 2014
And I quote: "Make some friends."
Even if most of those friends don't know it's you.
I've been writing Pony fanfiction as AugieDog since before Fimfiction existed: the announcement on Equestria Daily about the site opening for beta testing came a week after Sethisto posted the epilogue to my first Pony novel, Half the Day is Night.
That story got me noticed by the Pony Fiction Vault, and from there, I've gathered more spots at EqD, a place in the Royal Canterlot Library, and nice reviews from Seattle's Angels, the Royal Guard, Present Perfect, and One Man's Pony Ramblings--if you type AugieDog into the search function over there, it'll pull up a list of the places Chris has mentioned my stuff, but I can't seem to link directly to that list. I also received an invitation to become a pre-reader at Equestria Daily, and I've been happily performing those duties since the beginning of the year.
But I've never made the Featured Box with a new story. My longer stories have appeared in the Box's bottom three slots once the site installed them especially for story updates, but I've never posted a story and had it take off into the upper reaches of the Box's atmosphere.
Until I made a new identity and went into a situation that made me extremely uncomfortable.
I first heard of The Writeoff Association from random comments scattered among Present Perfect's reviews during the summer, but the idea of it didn't appeal to me. All I could imagine is that I would wind up feeling guilty if I took part: for wasting the readers' time if my entry didn't do well and for being some sort of braggart if my entry did do well. But I found myself wanting a challenge, wanting to mix up my creative process a little, wanting to see if I could write something under the time and subject limits of the contest.
So I turned to Baal Bunny. I'd made the account last March when I realized that people could have multiple accounts just to see if I could do it to. But that was as far as it went: I couldn't think of anything to do with an alternate account. Entering the Writeoff, though, that was something. So I did.
And everyone there was really nice. They gave me comments on the parts of my stories they liked and the parts they didn't, and I even managed to past a few comments myself, something I rarely if ever do around here. It's odd: I don't mind giving out "yes" or "no" decisions as a EqD pre-reader, but I always hesitate to leave a comment just out-of-the-blue on someone else's story. Maybe it's that if someone asks me specifically, I'm happy to reply, but that I don't like volunteering?
I've said before how much like Fluttershy I am, and here's another instance: I have to keep learning the same lessons over and over again....
The upshot is: I've got some other stories on the site here over under the name of AugieDog. And on this Thanksgiving Day, all I can say is: thank you.
Mike
Huh, Mike eh? Guess that name isn't really uncommon at all. Almost to common. Also, in a nutshell, how do you make the feature box? O.o (I didn't really get the "How to" in you making the feature box.
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My best guess:
Is a slow day--Thanksgiving morning--and a couple high-profile folks from the Writeoff--horizon and Bad Horse--both posting blogs about the story. So all I've got is: write a story your friends like enough to tell their friends about. But since it's never happened to me before, I can't say I've got any real idea.
Mike
2619470 Ah, fair enough explanation.... wait that's actually a great idea.
Amazing in fact. Write a story that your friends like enough to promote by via blogs and such. :D
You are AugieDog? WHAT A
!
Funny how that works, isn't it?
I probably should have guessed from your writing style, but, alas, I've had very little contact with you.
Still, it is very true that friends are the way there. My second story to hit the top of the feature box did so because of RainbowBob (I still don't know what mysterious factors made Shotgun Wedding so popular). The Collected Poems of Maud Pie were plugged by a number of people, including... well, you.
Funny how things come full circle, sometimes.
Anyway, nice to see you come out from behind the curtain.
2619570
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I'm still not sure:
Why I went behind the curtain in the first place. It was just kind of dusty and murky, and the spiders living back there, though they were perfectly polite, were definitely looking relieved when I left.
Mike
So what's your plan with this account, now that the curtain's been thrown back? Will you continue to post your writeoff entries here, or just leave up what's here already?
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Y'know:
I think I'll keep this as my writeoff account. Of course, that sounds like it has something to do with a shady tax deal, but still, as long as I've established the split-personality, why not see about widening that split?
Mike