This month in Horizon · 8:00am Feb 8th, 2016
It's been a busy month, in between the Writeoffs and the new $16 million grant at work and actually getting a new story published for once. I did, however, have some time to deploy my minions on an important brand recognition mission.
Speaking of brand recognition, I've got about ... oh ... another three days left to savor my King Of The Writeoffs title, since for the first time in over 12 months of steady submissions, my story got knocked out before reaching the finals. 
It's a downer, but it was a legitimate loss; I severely ran out of time on the entry and turned in something underexplained by half. Congratulations in advance to Cold in Gardez for breaking his second-place curse and sitting unchallenged atop the Writeoff scoreboard.
Speaking also of the Writeoffs, I've been pretty silent around here, haven't I? Ever since the Original Fiction competitions were added to the rotation, the time between round starts dropped from 5 weeks to 3, and literally half of my time was spent in full-steam Writeoff mode. The good news is that I'm dropping half of the rounds to avoid burnout, and since it's the minific rounds I'm no longer participating in, I've got a full six glorious weeks before I have to pay attention to the Writeoffs again. That's going to give me a grand opportunity to play video games edit all those old fics that have been accumulating in the backlog. I plan to write a post this week inventorying them and giving readers a chance to speak up about what they're most enthusiastic to see next!
And speaking of readers, hello to my new followers from Quiet Boy and Moon Horse! While you're waiting for new content to come down the pike:
• If you enjoyed the Luna romance angle of QB&MH, but would like something non-tragic and less gut-punchy, my contest-winning romance Thou Goddess is my most critically acclaimed story, and comes from a similarly heartfelt personal place. It's got poems in, but you don't have to like poetry.
• If you want more heartstring-tugging Best Princess drama, No Regrets is the story of what happened after Princess Celestia averted the Nightmare Moon tragedy by trading places with Luna and giving her control of the day.
• If you just want to hang out and chat, go check out the bonus content in the comments.
So how've things been on your side of the internets?
For those of you clicking through to the comments, here's a little bonus content :V
Don't jinx it! D:
derpicdn.net/img/2014/2/15/553103/full.gif
--arcum42
And on that note, I'm thinking pretty hard about dropping the pony minific rounds. I'll still do both OF rounds and the ponyfic short story rounds, but I think I can survive without the pony minifics.
And, as you note, it will free up three weeks to work on other stories. The new pace of these things is just brutal.
Aww, well welcome back to the land of the mortals. It's tough living, I know
Anyhoo, I'm glad you've decided to take a bit of a breather, horizon. Honestly I don't know how you're not dead yet from constant writeoffs. I don't like it when writers I like burn themselves out. Nothing is worth that.
Am I allowed to eee! uncontrollably at this suggestion? Ah, who am I kidding... it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.
You have reminded me of one of my favorite side character duos of my childhood. I forgot they were a thing. Thank you for this.
Okay, if the write-offs start to feel like hectic source of pressure, ditch them. Fanfic is first and foremost supposed to be fun, and if writing turns into a chore, it's time to scale back.
3740414 Meaning you'll finally give me stuff to edit again? I approve!
And definitely looking forward to those inventory blogs.
3740412 I think zippo lighter is powered by caffeine or possibly cocaine addiction, not cuteness.
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But you beat me fair and square, jinxing is all I have!
(Warning: math geekery follows, because I math for fun)
More seriously, the math is so heavily in your favor with me out of the finals that (unless you're as unhappy with your story as I was with mine) I don't think there's a scenario which gives me a serious shot. Right now we're 72 points apart, and I'll be losing 7 more than you to decay, so all you have to do is outscore me by 66 points to pull into first. I know Roger has posted the scoring formula somewhere but I don't have it offhand; the gold medalist's score for the round is based on cumulative wordcount for all entries, and then each participant gets a weighted fraction of that based on their score rank.
The Distant Shores round had 49 entries and 192k words of submissions (compared to the 48 non-disqualified entries and 218k words this round), so looking at its scoring is going to ballpark this round's scoring with remarkable accuracy. My best-case scenario would be missing the finals by one and getting 15th place: the DS 15th was Titanium Dragon's "May Those Who Step Through This Door Know What It Means To Rule", which earned him 340 points. 340 +
7266 =412406 points. Bookplayer's "The Ten Second Game" in 11th place earned 406, and Georg's "The Adultery of Princess Twilight Sparkle" in 10th place earned 423. In my best-case scenario, if you score at least10th11th place out of the 14 in the finals, you are a lock.In your worst-case scenario (14th place), you will score 356 points (Filler's "Balloons"); 356 -
7266 =284290. HBAO's "Sometimes Maps Are Dumb" in 18th place was 293 and Prak's "Pony Express" in 19th place was 278, so no matter how you do I don't even have a shot at you unless I score between 15th and 18th place.Based on the feedback in the thread I think I'm in the running for Most Controversial again, but Distant Shores' Most Controversial went to very trustworthy rodent's "The Wealth Of The World" in 20th place, and that was only 263 points.
So, yeah. You've got this.[1]
Edit: Corrected my math, which makes it look even better for you.
--
[1] jinx jinx jinx jinx jinx jinx
Do whatever you need to to avoid burnout. All us figments of your imagination depend on it
QB&MH is next up on my reading list, followed by Thou Goddess now that you mention it.
Stuck in the quagmire my own dumb publication schedule, which dictates that I don't publish the final three chapters of my currently in-progress fic until later this week. Silly Valentine's Day...
That, and OF craziness
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To be fair, Pink Earth Filly No. 4 sewed that spot up long ago. #MorePEF4
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I remember noting in the schedule thread that skipping one out of four in the rotation brought the Writeoffs back to an average of one per month, which is how it used to be. It was my intention to transition into that, but I've been feeling more and more comfortable with my decision to just ditch the minifics. I agree with the discussion last round that it's not enough space for effective original fiction; and I've always hated the swarm effect of pony minifics, and the way that sheer quantity encourages slapdash reviewing.
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Last year the Writeoffs were a good distraction from the divorce (full disclosure: and also a nice egoboo), but ever since the pace stepped up it's been really wearing at me. Best to cut back while I still enjoy it.
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As long as that request for forgiveness is accompanied by reading stories you enjoy, I'm sure you're good. Alternatively, I'm tempted to assign the penance of writing that Mindy!Flurry / Buttons!Flash fic so you can save me the trouble.
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From the mythical next chapter that never was. 3.5k words, last edited in Nov 2014...
--arcum42
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I might actually have to accept that penance, if you offer it. That sounds like too much fun.
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If you write it, you have my signal-boost.
Four days until your four year anniversary on the site!
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Oh man, I wouldn't have even noticed — thanks for the heads-up.
That's a span of 24 published stories and 250,000 (published) words. About 175 words (and half a follower) per day. How time flies.
Happy fourth-and-a-bit poniversary to you, as well!
Flash as Crystal Empire Royal Foalsitter FTW.
At airport now returning from
WhinnyworldDisney's Magic Kingdom. Way too much synthetic magic. Brain not working. Pondering story "Ms. Harshwhinny vs. Whinnyland." Short description: "Ms. Harshwhinny visits the Happiest Place on Equus. Irresistible force, meet immobile object."Looking forward to all Horizon words, unimportant which.
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I would upvote this story so hard that the upvote would travel backwards in time and retroactively apply to your comment too.
pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw4402_medium.jpg
In other news, hope you enjoyed the vacation, its syntheticity aside.
It's true and untrue at the same time.
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At some point it crosses the line from bizarre into awesome.
I'm almost tempted to keep jinxing you, just to see how many consecutive silver medals you can get.