Story Adoption · 4:01pm Apr 1st, 2015
Hi Everyone.
If you’re seeing this blog post, you likely either follow me, or you follow A Daughter and Her Dragon (DaD). If you’re following the story, hopefully you will still recognize me as its editor. Fair warning— this is going to be a rather long post, but I think it’s necessary to give a full explanation of what’s going on.
Since I'm posting this on April Fool's Day, I probably ought to clarify right now that yes, I'm serious. The timing is just a coincidence.
Anyway, if you haven’t already seen his blog post, Crystal Moose, who is a good friend of mine, announced that he has had much less time for pony-related writing, and is instead committing his time to more original work (which I may or may not also be helping him with). Because of this, he put many of his incomplete stories up for ‘adoption,’ some of which are still available, as far as I am aware. For some of those stories, he’d had some specific plans, but he said anyone that took them on could send those stories in a different direction if they wanted to.
Now, I have been editing DaD almost from the beginning, and I believe that working on this story together is what allowed Crystal Moose and me to form our great friendship (since we live on opposite sides of the world and have never met in person), so I have a rather sentimental connection with this story as well. Because I’ve had this connection with the story, I felt it was only appropriate that I take it on and adopt it.
For those of you that love this story and are afraid that I am going to move it in another direction, don’t worry. Since I’ve been editing DaD from early on, I’ve had access to all the notes, and I know where the story was headed; I’m going to do my very best to stick to the script. If you’re not up-to-date, and wondering why the story had notes but still wasn’t being written, here’s why. What the Moose did not mention in that blog I just linked (because I don’t think it had happened yet) was that after my bugging him numerous times to figure out an alternate ending (since he didn’t want to go with the original), he and I actually had finally done some brainstorming, and came up with that alternate, but he still wasn’t able to continue the writing. Why, you ask? Well, because he’s been too busy being a dad. Personally, I think that takes priority over writing pony fanfiction, and I’d hope most of you would agree.
Now, since I’m taking over, I’m guessing some of you may be thinking and/or hoping that I will be writing toward that original ending. Those of you that are, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but this will not be the case; I am going to write toward the alternate ending instead. I rather like the way the brainstorm played out, and now you readers won’t already know the ending. However, like I said, I still intend to stick to the script as much as possible— many, if not most of the notes should still be able to work into the story. On top of that, I will likely be running my written chapters by the Moose first before I publish them— DaD is his baby, after all. I’m more like a stepfather.
If you’ve happened to have read not only DaD, but one of my stories (Through Crimson Eyes) as well, then you probably noticed that some of my original characters made cameos in DaD, and a couple of the Moose’s characters played roles in my story, too. We originally did this as shout-outs to each other, not intending for them to have major roles in each others’ stories. While we tried to make the crossovers work chronologically, the stories take place in different settings, so they don’t really fit together. We just wanted to try and collaborate with each other for fun. However, the crossover characters have ended up playing roles that are more than just cameos in our respective stories. If you’re familiar with theater terms, think of them as ‘character parts.’
Here’s why I bring this up: Crystal Moose had actually started writing the next chapter of DaD (the first chapter of Act 2) while he was on hiatus, and had once again given my characters appearances in that chapter. I’d like to leave them there, because I like how the chapter was starting out. Now, I do not intend to place my characters willy-nilly (did I really just use that phrase?) into the story whenever I feel like it just because I can, but if I find that their appearance may work into the story without it being completely unnecessary (or even help the story along), then I just might do it. I will not, however, place unneeded focus on my OCs. Edit: you likely won't be seeing much more of them after that chapter.
Now, in terms of updating, I’m sorry to have to tell you that you will likely have to wait even longer before you see any more of DaD. I think it would be wise for me to finish the story before I send out any more chapters, especially because I’d like to get the Moose’s approval. This will likely take a while, because not only am I trying to finish Through Crimson Eyes first, but the Moose and I have been working on a collaboration story that we started back in late 2013, but haven’t been able to complete due to various circumstances. We both have two chapters apiece left to write, and then it will need to be edited. For me, those two projects have priority over DaD, but they are the only other stories I am currently working on in terms of long-term writing (a side story to TCE is finished and waiting to be published, but I need to wait until I hit a certain point). However, I might jump between the stories if I’m having writers’ block on one or the other. Any other ideas I’ve written down are being put on hold— they aren’t very fleshed-out, anyway. (Edit: TCE is finished, but we still need to work out the kinks on the collab before it gets edited, and we've kind of been neglecting it. We'll get to it eventually.)
When it comes to editing, on the other hand, I am currently working on two ongoing stories that I intend to see through to their ends, whenever they may be. The Moose has been one of my regular ‘clients’ when it comes to editing, but there is one other person (Shahrazad) whom I regularly edit for. If he comes to me with a request, there is a 99.9% chance that I will help him out, because he also edits for me in return. It’s kind of how we roll. Aside from him (and the Moose if he changes his mind and writes something), I will likely be declining any other editing requests so I can focus on what I’ve already got on my plate (though I MIGHT make an exception if it’s a quick one-shot).
While I’m hoping I can get a lot of this done in a timely fashion, there are two other big factors at play here if I can’t— medical issues, and school. If you’re following me, you may already know some of this, because I’ve posted about it on my profile, but if not, let me explain. Over the past two decades, I have had a heart transplant, which led to me being diagnosed with Lymphoma, which in turn led to me having numerous stays in the hospital for a number of operations (I’ll spare you the gory details), and most recently (this past December), a stem cell transplant. Through Crimson Eyes covers/will cover much of this (if you’d like to read it, I’d recommend waiting until I’m finished with it).
Because of my cancer diagnosis, after four years of college pursuing an elementary education degree, I had to go on medical leave when I was only two semesters shy of obtaining it. Chemotherapy and other medical crap prevented me from going back to school. However, this stem cell transplant has been very successful as far as the doctors can tell (and is hopefully how we will CURE my Lymphoma), so they have given me the OK to go back to school in the fall, and I might take a class online over the summer. Unfortunately, I had to transfer schools, and I now need to pursue a new degree because I am immunocompromised (which, on top of other things, basically means that spending a lot of time around kids would make it very easy for me to get sick— they couldn’t have told me this BEFORE I spent four years in teaching?).
Because of this, I am now pursuing a degree in English with a writing track, which includes editing. I actually have the FimFic community to thank for this— had I not been actively writing and editing on this site, I would have had NO IDEA what to pursue (except maybe gaming, but I’d rather keep that as a hobby, not a job). Unfortunately, this means that I will be spending a lot of time writing and editing for school, which means I won’t be able to do much of it here.
The reason I’m explaining all of this is because if it does take me a while to work on these stories, then school will come into play, and I will have even less time to devote to this site. That would mean that DaD will be moving even more slowly. I’m hoping we won’t get to that point, but unfortunately, it’s highly likely.
In terms of how the story is currently written and what you see here on FimFic, I should tell you that DaD is one of the first stories that I started editing on this site. Since its hiatus, my skills have improved quite a bit. However, because I am going to be continuing the story’s writing, I will want another editor to help me out— hopefully Shahrazad if he has the time, but he is a busy man. Whoever it may be, we will likely start again from the beginning, but I am going to try and change what is written as little as possible, hopefully only altering some wording and correcting any grammatical errors I may not have seen or known were incorrect at the time. Because of this, when I start updating the story again, you might want to start reading from the beginning.
The other things that will be changed are the story description (to make it clear that I am not the original author) and the author notes. Many of the A/Ns were just Crystal Moose thanking me for my help and saying to give me some love (which I greatly appreciate, but—). Since the story is now on my account, and you’d technically already be giving me that love, I’m going to delete those notes. I will also be deleting notes pertaining to time it was taking to get out the chapters that have now been published, as they are no longer applicable. Anything else, which there isn’t much of, I will leave in a quote box in the A/N (with some possible adjustments if they are necessary) to clarify that they were written by the Moose himself (I’ll state this in an A/N in the Prologue). The one exception to this is the first chapter where my characters appear— while it is also one of those ‘give LD some love’ messages, THAT one I’m going to leave, so new readers know I’m not just sliding my OCs into the story because I can.
Before I continue writing and turn this blog post into a story in itself, I will finish off by saying I will only be changing the story description and author notes for now. My intention is to not change any part of the story that’s up on the site until I’m finished with it, and can consistently edit it all the way through. If that changes, I’ll say something.
Hopefully you were willing to read through this whole blog post (I’m sorry to say I really couldn’t think of a way to provide a ‘TL;DR’), and hopefully you understand the time requirements and my priorities and are willing to wait. When I do get around to finishing DaD, I hope I don’t disappoint you. It is a great story written by a great author, and I hope that I can follow in his footsteps and finish it properly.
Thank you.
—LD
Glad to hear this story will be continued. Also:
Confirmed
2931716 Great. Thanks a lot!
also comfirmed
Because it is April first i need to ask if ypur serious. I would assume so by the length of the post but i really want to see this story continue.
2932502 I actually almost included a PS about that (I'm going to add it). Despite the date, I am in fact serious about this. If you'd like some proof, here you go.
2932720 Thank you for the confirmation. I look forward to you continuing the story. I just started reading it again after your post.
2932502
It was pure coincidence that this finalized on April 1st.
You don't known how much I love right now. This is one of my very dear favorites. I still wish Moose good luck and all those things becoming a dad.