Equestria Daily · 1:45pm Nov 9th, 2015
Yay, another fic submitted to EqD! This time, A Changing Perspective. Did you read that one?
They actually posted a review for me: https://www.ponychan.net/fan/res/23.html#1236
Do I plan to edit it? No. The story is fine the way it is. I've been asked by much more passionate people to add to it. I'm leaving it alone.
There are few people I trust with editing my stories. I'm not one of them. I am not an editor. I write. I write until the words are down. There's a reason my 'ponysona' is called Rough Draft.
The day I go back over a chapter and make sure Zecora's meter is correct is the day I stop writing.
I'm a little baffled at the complaint of Spoiled Rich acting like she did -in the one episode she appears in at all-. How else should she act? Should I just make up a personality for her? Should Diamond Tiara's one hissy fit have changed her core character so quickly? I think not. She has to have her own moment of growth before she's going to stop being who she is.
So, what are your thoughts?
My thoughts...
There are too many, and I'm afraid that half of them are insulting. I think being too stubborn to ever edit anything for any reason whatsoever is a mistake.
And this line:
infuriates me.
Firstoff, Zecora is hard to write. She is hard to do, and hard to do well. You are writing poetry, and I've seen many an awkward Zecora. I probably wouldn't write Zecora trusting my first dialogue from her, but I also obsessively self-edit as I'm writing and spend extra time on Zecora when I have.
Secondoff, there are things to be said about the logic that you don't want to spend too much time on one story, and that moving on is productive for your skills as a writer and your psyche. Or that intuition is a powerful tool you should trust, and that anxiety or anything else preventing you from being productive with writing is the enemy. Both of those are good reasons to limit the amount of self-editing you do.
But this seems like you're saying "I won't edit because it's not fun, and doing it even once is enough to sour my attitude about writing forever."
To separate myself from my feelings, though: if you're not going to edit at all, then instead take what the criticisms you receive (that you agree with, obviously. If you think the criticism is invalid don't spend any time worrying about it) of your works say doubly to heart, because you won't be implementing them for this story, which means you need to pay attention for the next one.
3531358 Have you read the story?
And I'm already doubting it.
I am not of one mind on this (and I think using the term infuriating is a little too strong) so allow me to play devil's advocate to myself.
3531358
I talk about intuition, then talk about "fun" as if it's separate. It's not. Our enjoyment of things is part of intuition. If you make a good decision, while it's more valuable if you do it knowing the "best reasons" to do it, it doesn't become not valuable because your reasons are a little different.
Especially given that "I want to enjoy what I do" is a pretty darn good reason. And who am I to criticize someone for wanting to enjoy what they do, and wanting to avoid the unpleasant parts? I want to avoid the unpleasant parts of my job/hobby/life. What business do I have being unhappy at someone else for wanting to do so?
I will maintain my last sentence is good advice, though. If you're not going to correct yourself (or cannot), then at least take the advice and use it to better yourself in the future. That's just good advice overall, though. Nothing really very novel about it.
3531378
No. I think I had opened it to read when you first published it, got distracted by something, and forgot about it.
Your old nemesis returns. Still, I seem to have let you down if he/she/it could find all those grammar errors.
Zecora's lines in the show are often badly-written, but...if you wrote her better than they do, it would still improve the story.
Although the reviewer has the harsh and condescending tone of a career critic, he's not wrong.
Except Spoiled Rich. Don't make her a better person; I nearly called you out for making her too nice as it is.
3531491 Everything I've heard says being features on EqD has less actual impact on readership than being front-page featured on this very site.
I cannot be assed for them. You're a damn news site. Remember that.
3531501 Maybe not, but don't be too proud to take advice, even if it was offered by a d-...a less than nice person.
3531524 Most of it is basic grammar mistakes.
I will continue to make basic grammar mistakes.
Typos happen. Starting to fuss over them would mean NOT getting 8k words out a day, as I have been. Speaking of which, time to get to Ponyfinder. 4k of updates down, still about 6k to go. So much work...