Looking to The Future(Semi-Retirement Notice) · 7:13pm Jun 24th, 2015
This has been a very busy year for me. In the past few months alone, I've finally graduated with a Bachelors of Arts from my University, as well as recently returned from a much anticipated visit across Western Europe.
Most importantly of all, I made a solid decision to complete a manuscript for my first original novel.
Things have been progressing well and I've been keeping to a steady pace. A lot of my previous practice with pony-fics has given me greater skill in the craft that I love, one I hope may one day translate into a professional career. As of now, if I keep to my daily writing routine, I should complete the first draft sometime in mid July. As many writing experts, authors and teachers I admire have recommended, after a 6-8 week period of letting the manuscript 'ferment', I should have a second draft ready for beta reading sometime in October.
The ultimate plan has always been to have a piece of professional, publishable work ready before the end of the year. So far I'm still on track, and I get more excited with ever additional word written towards that goal.
Of course, this does leave the fate of my hobby of Pony-Fics in question. At least as of now, I simply do not have the time to work on two pieces at once, so all my attention has been on this original novel. THe worry I have is once I've finished, will I feel the interest to continue working on Pony-Fics?
My love for the show and the fandom has not waned as it does for most people, but I have been trying in my life to be more agreeable of change and personal improvement. I realized a long time ago that if I want to turn my love of writing into a profession, at some point I would have to put down the Horse-Words and get back to the "real-world" as it were. This reality very much means that I could be facing an upcoming retirement from MLP Fanfiction.
As it stands, I have multiple other projects that I still want to involve myself with in the MLP fandom, but they aren't necessarily fanfiction related. I have to always shift my efforts into things that can support me.
To be clear, I am not unhappy with my time in the MLP FanFiction department. It has been a wonderful experience, but I have also noticed a steady decline in follower feedback. Stories are getting less comments, less viewers, less feedback etc... While I don't know if it is a reduction of my skill, my passions, or simply a sign that its time to move on, but it has helped me solidify my decision to prepare myself for the eventuality of stepping down from full-time work on FanFiction.
For now, I'm calling it a semi-retirement. In that regard, it simply means that I will no longer be devoting time to longer, complex, multi-chapter stories, sticking instead to simply one-shot short stories. It does mean that any in progress chapter stories, mainly Mane Effect, a project I truly believed I would go back to and complete, will most likely go unfinished. I do apologize for any followers that were hoping for it to restart, but I simply cannot see a realistic conclusion with my new responsibilities in moving towards professional author status.
In short: I'll be continuing towards my original work. Any further FanFiction work from me will be in the form of short stories only, if any. I am NOT leaving the fandom. I will still remain active on FimFiction and Tumblr as much as I can, as I prepare to work towards those previously mentioned other projects. I'm hoping to announce something for it soon, but we'll just have to wait and see.
If anyone has any comments or concerns, I encourage you to say something, either here in the comments, in a private message through the site, or on my Tumblr or Email.
I do want to end on a thank-you, to Fimfiction, Knighty and his admins for their hard work at maintaining the website. I want to thank EQD for giving me a set of goals and roadblocks to challenge myself with. I want to thank all the artists who made cover art for my stories. I want to thank my many editors over the years for helping me get to where I am today. Most of all, I want to thank all of you, my followers, for giving me the inspiration and the proof I needed that I could actually make a living out of this.
I'll see you all in the next story,
With Deepest Thanks,
Quillery Penfeather
Well that's good. At least you haven't lost interest. Though.... this does mean the challenge I was gonna give to you is gonna have to be put on hold.
3178228
a challenge, you say? while it sounds like it would be writing related, and as such I might not be able to concentrate on it immediately, i'm eager to hear what it is.
3178325 It was a simple one. Write a story where Gilda and Rainbow got together.
Somepony is slowly moving up in the world. Congrats on finally going thoroughly forward in trying to publish your first story! I'm still at that crappy 'attempt to meet a daily quota of something' stage ... basically the first stage. I do wish you luck on your story--hopefully it is scifi, nothing better than a good scifi story--, may the letters flow and the good times follow.
Poor Mane Effect. The unfinished epic will forever go unfinished.
While I'm sorry to hear that your excellent, pleasingly deep multichapter stories are coming to an end here, congrats on heading to the next level as an author.
Thank you for all the stories!
I assume you'll make a blog post on Fimfiction when you publish your original novel.
Seemingly lower comments and favorites could simly be that people having not much else to say overall.
Still, there are times to move on.