The Next Chapter · 11:51pm Jul 20th, 2012
I sent in "A Solemn Summer Night" to an editor for review, which will take a little bit of time. I told them to go hard on it, as I'm determined to submit it to EQD sometime soon.
But what does this mean? It means that I'll have plenty of time to get started on the next story that I have planned. It's a sequel-turned-prequel that picks up where "A Solemn Summer Night" left off. Chapters will be much slower, as each is planned to be over 8,000 words in length. It's not going to be a short story, either; I've planned 12 chapters. That makes (a tentative) 100,000 words! The outline is nearly complete.
Family will be here starting Sunday, so odd as it sounds, I'll have plenty of time to write, but I won't make any promises regarding an ETA, as I'm terrible at keeping up with those.
I think I'll call it "Past Imperfect"— a mixture of the dark, romance, sad, and tragedy genres. That title may very well change.
It will be happier, too. Not a sad-fest like the last one. :P
An entire fic without Applejack and a heartbroken Rainbow Dash?
You like to make ponies suffer, don't you?
I can only imagine you letting Dash get over AJ and build a new relationship and act as if AJ never existed
I'm sorry, I get emotionally invested when an AppleDash ends before it's appointed time.
Oof. I support you in every way. I started out my second story on the site thinking "hm. I need to make each chapter 8,000 words! 'Cuz that's how stuff happens!"
Now it's on hiatus.
I dunno...
I mean, that's just some stupid random story I wanted to tell you. I believe in every way this upcoming story shall be great (plus, you are not me). I look forward to it.
Now I have sooooo much more to read! Argh! I need to read faster!
This post contains spoilers. Important ones. If you haven't read "A Solemn Summer Night", do that before reading this.
240704
Oh, nonononono noooooo. Not at all. I would never be that mean... okay, I thought about it, but that's not this fic. It's a sequel in the fact that it picks up with the box of letters (in fact, the very letter RD pulled out at the end of the last story), but it's a prequel in the fact that the events within it take place more than 26 years before "A Solemn Summer Night". Almost every one of my stories will be AppleDash (because really, AppleDash <3) and I can't very well do that if I killed AJ. This story will be taking place at the start of season 2. The dark/tragedy/sad tags are for reasons other than killing main characters, I assure you.
...that idea of yours is good, though. I might have to explore that someday. Might. I kinda imagined ASSN as the end of all the fanfics I'd write.
Oh, and yes, I love making ponies suffer. I'm a horrible person, I know.
240706
Well, see, I never said I'd finish it in the next decade. Just that I'd work on it. :P
I've always loved stories with longer chapters. I get more immersed in them, as there's fewer pauses in the narrative. Every time I have to hit "next chapter", it sucks me out of the story a little bit. Similarly, all of my author's note go into the first comment on the chapter instead of in the actual story area. If you're reading comments, you're already out of the story. I don't like it when I'm reading something and then I see "A/N: blahblahstoryblahblah". Kinda ruins the moment.
Again, for the length, I have plenty of events happening to warrant it. I won't be adding filler text or anything; I actually prefer being concise.
240754 You can't possibly be talking about finding the idea of a story with AJ dead good, right?
ASSN? Are you planning on inserting assassins in your shipping?
240754 No no, do as you wish! If it works for you, then it works for you.
Why would I tell you otherwise? I know my place.
Again, I will read it and then bring it back! (wait, whuh? Dug?)
Okay, I'm sorry, I'm insane. Anyway, I will enjoy reading the story. I'm sure it will be quite good. Have fun with it.
240758
It is an interesting idea, yes. I would have a love/hate relationship with writing it, just as I did with "A Solemn Summer Night", but if it's in the name of a good story, so be it! Really, I went through an entire box and a half of tissues writing ASSN's first chapter. I barely shed a tear on the second one. Does that make me heartless? D:
And no. Heeeeellll no. I was reading a shipping fic just the other day that was also an Assassin's Creed crossover. I'm trying not to point fingers, but it's in one of our folders, so I have to finish it.
240763
first chapter is about the sadness
second is about the silver-lining
offcourse will it be less sad
oooh, ASSN is an abbreviation for A Solemn Summer Night. Boy, I feel stupid now
Will the letter chapters be written like a letter or will a detailed story take place?
More spoilers ahead.
240777
Currently, I'm thinking (and this should be true for all stories containing this letter format):
Chapter One (Always titled "The Letter"): The next letter in the box, written in letter form. Considering *very* minor narrative (such as RD opening it or something).
Chapters 2 through X: The story in regular 3rd-person limited past tense.
Last Chapter: I'm unsure about this one, but I might have narrative back in the same time frame as ASSN with all the ponies in the library together, discussing it or something. I'm a long way off from actually writing one of these, so I have tons of time to think on it.
240761
Fimfiction derped and I didn't see your second comment. I took it as you meant it, don't worry. :P
I kinda wanted to explain a bit about why I picked 8k+ words, as I know somepony else will ask.
240797 I see. And that's totally fine. Now, I just have to read quicker.
This falls into my hooves now, not yours. (actually, it totally falls into yours, since you're writing it. Silly me.)
oh, and good luck with EQD, btw (jealous).
240817
Thanks! I shall do my best to deliver something worth reading. Unfortunately, my writing style is a bit slower than most. Would you believe I hardly edited "A Solemn Summer Night" before I submitted it (and even then, 99% of the editing was fixing grammar/missed words/etc)? I write *very* meticulously.
240822 That's not necessarily a bad thing. I have an entirely different writing style... not really a good one.
Since I had never written a story before I submitted my first one to the site, it went without saying it was pretty rough. I write quickly... then I go back and see if I can add stuff, but it always turns out kind of strangely.
I'd like to say I've improved since then... but some of my mechanics seem weird. My stories just don't... flow... like others do, such as yours. So I am perfectly okay with your style. Don't ya see the watch I stuck to your screen? I only do that for people I like.
240834
I'll be a bit of a hypocrite and say that it just takes practice. And reading. *A lot* of reading. I'm a bit of a Twilight in that I was always reading a book (or three). Books have been replaced by fanfiction for now, but I might pick up a book again soon. Anyhow, when I read, I don't just read the story. I examine it and see what worked and what didn't, then I think about why it does.
I joined this site 14 weeks ago and have read nearly 3.5 million words since. I've only written two stories in that time. The first can be found in the AppleDash group's "Deserted Fanfiction" discussion thread, as I won't be publishing that one. I wrote that when my word count here was less than 10,000. If you take a look at that, you can see just how much reading can help. Aside from that, getting an editor to go over your work for structure can be invaluable. I learned a lot by having one pick apart that fic I mentioned. The phrase "learning from one's mistakes" holds especially true here.
As for flow, good planning can help with that. I write out about a quarter to one-half the chapter's size (sometimes) in notes before I get to even writing it for real. I put down things such as emotions that the characters are feeling, the intricacies of how they'd react, and what, concisely, is going on in each scene. If I think of a good line that should be in the story, I write it into the outline. Sometimes I'll even write in bits of the story as I write the outline. I did this for "A Solemn Summer Night" with the emotions each character had during each scene. Unfortunately, I wrote over those as I wrote the story in full and they no longer exist. If you're interested, I've opened up the outline for "A Solemn Summer Night" on Google Docs. That one is a bit lacking compared to the outline I have for the story I'm going to be writing as it was more of a "spur of the moment" fic. I won't spend much time on the emotion aspect of things, but I try and put myself in the places of the character when I write them. I ask myself "What would I do? How would I feel? What would I say? How would I react?". I then ask myself if that's in-character for that pony. If it isn't, then I repeat the above questions, but as "How would <pony> feel?". I rinse and repeat until I'm satisfied with the characterization. This can also, somewhat indirectly, help with flow.
In summation, read a lot, try writing a bit, maybe give an outline a shot. Have someone else really look over your work; not as a pre-reader, but as an editor. You do get better with time and a little bit of patience.
I did, and I appreciate the watch. It motivates me quite a bit!
...sorry. I kinda got caught up in writing this.
240871 No, thanks for the post. Really, If you need to know two things about me (or three), know this-
1. I like to talk. A lot.
2. I'm not a very sane person. Pickles.
3. I am your best friend.
also 4. You've commented on one of my stories. Thanks for thinking it had some promise... that kinda stuff keeps me going as well
I take all things into consideration. I do read, I have learned a lot from reading other's stories, whether with grammar issues or some mechanics and stuff. I need to apply apply apply and read some more. Thanks for the advice!
I'll be looking for an editor on my next two fics. They might be somewhat halfway good.
240881
Ponychan's /fic/ board has a bunch of editors that'll read your stuff. It sometimes takes a while (usually a week, if not more), but I've heard good things. If it's readable (ie, not a text wall and you've gone over it once or twice yourself), they'll be able to really help point you in the right direction and show you what you've made mistakes on. They'll also tell you what they liked so you know what you've done right— sometimes that's equally important. They can come off as a bit harsh sometimes, but that's a good thing.
And I'll be sure to read more of your stuff soonish. My "Read Later" queue just hit 100 a few minutes ago. I'm going to really focus on shortening it over the next couple weeks.
You don't have to read more of my stuff soonish. It's okay. I find it fine that you liked just that one enough, so thanks!
bookplayer tends to think I'm good at stuff. I'm not sure why. She says it's my original concepts. But I'll definitely check out getting an editor, thanks. I'd like to think my stories are not a massive wall of text. I can handle criticism. It's not like I'm the best writer in the world, I know that.
Wowie. That's a ton in the read later queue. I bid you luck on your perilous journey.
Carry on, carry on...