I'm A Dying Breed · 4:31am Nov 18th, 2015
So, I just gotta go on a mild rant here. Nothing serious, just something I've noticed.
When I first started writing on this site a couple years ago, I had a mission. My mission was to do something not everyone else was doing. I wanted to take my favorite character, Spike, and write him in a respectable way and ship him with characters that weren't overdone.
Hence, stories like Heart Invasion, Crystal Affair and others exist.
However, at the time, there were a few stories and several authors I took great inspiration from. Authors who did stuff along similar lines that helped me out in the beginning. Here are a few names:
Freelancer
Mr. Afro Pony
Mallajong1
Without the stories that those people wrote, I'd have never even thought of writing a Spike and Vinyl ship, or Spike and Silver Spoon or whatever. I really looked up to those people from an author to author standpoint.
Now, though, almost all of them are inactive or don't write anymore. The fellow authors who once inspired me to write something new, something i loved to do have all gone away, and to be honest, there's not really many other authors I've run across who do what I do. Not that that's a problem, but still, it's a bit of a lonely feeling.
Anyway, even though most of the authors i linked are pretty much done with writing around here, you should totally check out their stuff. Without it, there wouldn't be any heart invasion 101 or Crystal Affair. So, you know, spread the love!
Rant over.
Cool, good to know.
what's spike saying in that picture?
3549967 rip headphone users
Freelancer seems to still be active as far as reading goes.
3549967
Hopefully someday, you'll inspire someone in the future, just like they inspired you.
3549998 I inspired a couple stories actually. One by King of Beggars which was actually really good. so, I'm pretty happy with what I've done so far, but it's just kinda sad that a lot of the people i looked up to are gone, and now i'm kind of on my own.
3549972
"So *Much* music, lady. It's almost like Magic!"
Still, at least yours is a fine breed! I hope you stick around for awhile, I'm not a fan of ship fics because most of them just suck imo but I like your stuff.
3550010 ah, thankie thankie
3550004 that ain't really a bad thing though. just makes you that one specific needle in a hack in a warehouse full of needles and haystacks man.
You belong here on FIM, Famous.
Don't think of it as 'they've all gone away'... think of it as, 'you're the last one standing',
3550088 That... is a very true statement. I've got the entire market monopolized.
I sort of know what you're feeling; I'm still slowly working on actually producing anything at all, and I've been here since the site's very early days. It's saddening to go back through some of the older stories and see how many authors, well-known or otherwise, have gone. But, it always heartens me to see all the new people joining every day, and all the new work that everyone produces; us old guard just have to get used to that sort of thing I suppose.
3550091 Now follow up with a Spike x Tavi ship like that picture
If I might make a suggestion; make it a point to review and encourage new writers and stories. It does not have to be detailed, just a point of advice, encouragement or acknowledgement of a writer's efforts.
I have been on the site for two years and it gets discouraging after awhile when I put up a story and get nothing from it. No advice, no critique, no idea what I'm doing right, wrong. No idea what I need to improve on. And this is a huge barrier to budding writers as they would feel that they are not good enough to be accepted into the community, and enthusiasm would wane, and authors and stories would dry up as a result. Which would lead to your problem as it were.
Therefore I would like to suggest that older, more experienced writers such as yourself take the time to review new writers and share their stories to other senior writers. This would, I believe, inspire new members into writing and also help hone their abilities to higher levels of creativity and talent. Consequently, you would not feel all alone anymore.
Just a sincere suggestion.
Well, I'm glad another author is striving to write Spike in a meaningful way. Too many authors, especially the show's get lazy and write him as a one-dimentional peanut gallery instead of an individual with an interesting story and tons of potential. That's one of the reasons he's a main character in my Twicord novel series instead of a foot.
It's a shame to hear about your favorite authors going silent. But, the nice thing about inspiration is that we can always find a new source of it. I'm sure with time, other authors will start to take their places and you'll find new inspiration. Spike's an epic character, I don't imagine ship fics with him will stop anytime soon.
Short comment is short as I'm writing this on my phone. . .
3550091 'Corner the market, then raise the price. Simple economics'
I can feel you here dude.
All the guys that influenced me to write, and keep writing Soarindash initially are all long gone or very inactive.
(Someone actually blamed me for that at one point
)
But at the same time, my case is a bit different since my motivation was to write my favorite, popular ship in a way no one else had as opposed to a ship no one had done (even though i ended up doing so anyway with Applejack and Thunderlane.) Many other Soarindash authros rose up and i find myself in good company again.
However, i don't know if you should see this as a negative. Being an author who is heavily unique to a certain thing like this makes you stand out that much more. Never forget those who came before you, but never let the mark they left on you fade.
As someone who also got their start a bit by your method of unusual, though not ship-related, pairing, I can say with all honesty that my biggest goal on here is to do what those three did for you. I will spend the rest of my life waiting for a second Coco/Babs adoption fic, because even if it's a terrible ripoff, that will have meant I inspired someone. So glad you got the inspiration you needed, though.
3554182 Well, you inspired me to keep updating my stories and not giving up, so that's gotta count for something
However, if you keep doing what you do, you'll inspire some crazy good fics in no time.
3554202
Thanks. I'm glad I've been able to do that for you.
3554229 orig05.deviantart.net/2219/f/2014/182/4/7/coco_pommel_by_bugplayer-d7o1qfe.jpg
#swag