WTF is this, I don't even... · 4:05am Aug 14th, 2012
Before I get lynched by those expecting another Chapter of Mane effect, let me explain what exactly this is.
About a month ago, my brother, my roommates (who are also my friends and editors), and another friend from out of town were engaged in a conversation. I was not there for that conversation, but I was later told that the subject turned to the fact that my brother, who is the one that got me into ponies in the first place, did not have a FimFiction account of his own. He is not exactly a writer, but my other friends were still somehow confused enough to do something about it.
So the out of town friend suggest a writing contest between us, with her as the judge. Not only would it giver her a chance to evaluate our work, it would probably force my brother to get an account of his own. And so the contest was set, and the rules were laid out. It was a simple enough challenge; we all had one month to write a story. The credentials were two things: It had to be about Cheerilee, but it could not be about her job as a teacher/ a day in school. So this errant thought crawled into my brain and after about two weeks of festering it earned a life of its own and I somehow managed to type out this twelve thousand word monster, especially when it was suppose to be only two thousand. What can I say, when I write, I go big or go home.
Suffice it to say, I'm pleased with this little side project. It allowed me to break out of the tedium of writing a first person narrative with Mane Effect and work on something more original than a cross over. It isn't peer edited though, because my editors are also my competition, so I had to resort to proof reading it myself as best I could. If anyone sees any problems let me know, and once the contest is over ill get my editors to properly go over it.
This project also helped me deal with a massive case of Writers block i'd been having on Mane Effect in the first place. In short, the thought process went like this.
A wild Writers Block Appears!
Quillery uses Side Project!
It's Super Effective!
Writers Block faints!
So yea, I'm back on track and steaming along on my work buffer. Hooray for me.
Now on the subject of Mane Effect, with my most recent chapter, I noticed a few things.
Fifty thousand words. Sheesh. And I haven't even finished Act One yet. If I were to wager a guess of how my plot is developing, I'd be at 200k + words before I ran out of Mass Effect One material to work with, and would still have two other games to get through.
So yea, its a long and arduous road ahead. Hopefully I can keep up.
To respond to a few comments I've noticed, the end-of-chapter bits like the Codex Entries and such are meant to be subtle meta-humor in relation to the game mechanics. I never really intended to actually write Codex entries, but if there was enough fan feedback I may consider the option. The Renegade/Paragon bits are there to show where Shepard's morality is leaning towards as I write it, though my editors have been quick to ensure that they are correctly done.
In regards to my submission to EQD, I was unsurprisingly rejected with my first draft. The Pre-readers did not like the fact that my Preface was in script-like format, or that the prologue was a giant wall of narrative exposition. Looking back at them now, I can see that they were not easy to read and I should have picked up on it sooner. Even my editors pointed out that the quality of my writing changed significantly after the prologue. So i'll be considering redrafting both the preface and prologue to be easier to read, while still maintaining their current themes and plot relevance. I also may be looking for another pre-reader of my own, but that depends on how my second submission goes after the rewrites, and how my current editors can handle editing with their own school work. Bleh
I'm still looking for feedback and criticism though! I find it odd that i'm practically begging for people to point out my flaws and errors, most people jump at that chance. I'm grateful for all the positive feedback as well, but its the negative ones that force me to reevaluate and improve what I'm doing wrong, so I improve as a writer. So get out your sticks and start poking!
Yay, writers block fainted.
Odd, I didn't have any problem following the exposition in the prologue... but then again, I am a geek of both Mass Effect and MLP, so I guess it might have been easier for me to follow than others.
Sorry about the rejection, although I will say... oh, Loyal2Luna beat me to it. (Sigh.) Thanks for explaining the morality system. It's already better than the game.
If this hits 200k words, then A) you should be proud of your work and B) you'll smash everyone's expectations, which is a really good problem to run into.
You raised another question, though. What do you mean by "the quality of my writing changed significantly after the prologue"? Is that a good thing or a bad one?
286931
they said it got way better. /shrug, my editors are crazy.
286938
That's great! Also, I might join your editors in being crazy. Turns out AP English IV is really analysis-heavy.That gives me a reason to catch up on the hundreds of thousands of words I have waiting on this site.