You know what? I'm sick of it! · 2:28am Sep 6th, 2016
Damn it all, I am sick of holding back. I am sick to absolute fscking death of going over every one of my stories with a fine-toothed comb, worrying them smooth, squatting on them until I can be certain that they are perfect and consequently never writing anything at all. You know "Buckball Season"? You know how Flutters and Pinkie are just sitting there having fun and being excellent until the AppleDash power combo convinces them that the very world hangs in the balance of their Buckball performance, whereupon they totally crash, fail, get depressed and angry and then refuse to play? That's me, right now.
So, just for tonight, I am going to break all the rules. I'm not going to submit to pre-readers. I'm not going to tinker with the phrasing. I'm not going to hold myself to finishing this. I'm just going to release something because it's fun to release things. Kids, don't do any of this when you're writing your own stories. Do as I say, not as I do. Eat your vegetables. Hold yourself to finishing what you start. Be a responsible author.
...unless you're like me, rocking slowly back and forth, chipping away at words with a tiny little chisel at the rate of about one sentence a day, convinced that every new sentence is going to be the one that Ruins Your Reputation Forever As An Author Of Quality. Because man, that's why I haven't been writing jack squat this year. Apologies in advance to all you reviewers out there, because this isn't going to be my next masterpiece. But I'm tired of having no fun whatsoever.
So anyway, Bam. Stay tuned for part one of "Becoming Aunty Celestia." There may not be a part two.
And tonight... tonight, I'm going to let that be okay.
Hey, I think that's absolutely fine, personally. Stressing over the stories is the worst! It's your writing. Have fun with it.
Have fun, you magnificent bastard.
Woo-hoo!
Aw yeah. Writing by the seat of the pants. Speaking from experience, it's great to just do what you feel and turn off the brain for a while. The finished result won't be literature, but that's fine too.
A story that is published is always better than one that never is, because only the former can be shared by others.
I don't use pre-readers. I've never quite seen the point.
One of the most spell-checked and double-checked stories I wrote, after weeks of close examination and final publication, had a typo in the title.
I am deeply grateful to people who PM my myriad of errors to me after publication so I can fix them in the dark. I am particularly proud of the one reader who left a comment criticizing an error that I had already corrected, while making *two* grammar errors in his comment. I got the opportunity to write back the *driest* response.
woah there.
Next thing you know you'll be putting honey in your tea.
4194585
TWO SUGARS
DO YOU HEAR ME
TWOOO
4194595 keep up this blasphemy and who knows?
I would like to see this trend continue! More skywriter stories, even unrefined ones, make the world a better place!
Hey, good on ya man. I'm happy to see more of third best princess from the expert.
Sometimes, you just gotta give'r, eh?
Now that's what I would consider an inspiring speech.
As so many other fellow authors and friends told me these past few months when writing my own fic:
res.cloudinary.com/teepublic/image/private/s--h20IsSlv--/t_Preview/b_rgb:191919,c_limit,f_jpg,h_630,q_90,w_630/v1447279457/production/designs/208840_1.jpg
And don't worry dude, you're not alone. Not writing because of fearing that it isn't any good is a problem a lot of us struggle with, but do it anyway! Live, learn, and CREATE!
This is fanfiction, not literature. It's more of a messy brawl in the mud than a messy brawl in the mud with someone to give you a towel afterwards.
Let the catharsis floooooooow.
4194595
Dare I say... Sugar and cream?
Dude, I've been reading your stuff coming up 20 years now (geeze, doesn't that just make you feel old?) and you'd have to have some Mel Gibson/Michael Richards level public freakout to break your rep. Edit: That, or pull off a Mike Myers/Love Guru creative bomb, but I also don't see that happening. Yeah, you might have done stuff I didn't care for over the years, but none of it was bad or anything!
Look forward to reading. Cheers!
HELL YEAH!! That's the spirit! And don't you stop!
Good on you, good sir. Have fun with writing; if your passions aren't fun then why have them?
That's what I started doing. Writing is supposed to be fun and doing all of that is supremely not fun.
Have fun storming the castle Skywriter!
Perfectionism really is the bane of getting any writing done; I know it all too well.
4194567 I only use prereaders if I'm writing something of decent length and quality, which is why I never use prereaders.
4194631 at first take I thought that said "Let the catheter flow"...
4194779
Well...
It the catheter doesn't flow...
Well, that would be a problem certainly...
4194595
But I thought you hated tea.
You're famous for writing about the loathing of tea after all
(Release like this more often)
Something I always tell myself (but struggle to put into effect) is that you should write for yourself. Write stories because you enjoy writing them not because people expect you to write them.
At the end of the day all that really matters is that you had fun.
FOR FREEDOM!
*Burns the style manuals and the notes*
I think it’s about too late to ruin your reputation as an author of quality anyway. These things last.
I saw that in the featured box and was like, "Oh, wow, what, what kind of weirdo would write something like that?"
:V
I'm really happy that I wasn't the only one who made the connection between Pinkie/Flutters = Writers, RD/AJ = Editors.
Have fun writing!
Oh, gods above, I sympathize with the above so very hard. I've been paralyzed about writing for ages for... pretty much the same reason as you.
Not that I have much of a reputation to ruin, of course, but what little I have is about six thousand times more than I deserve, so I'm a bit... protective.
All I can really say is point out that the only reason I've actually even manged to write more than one pony story was because of your direct input; and the story that's been kicking round in my head since seson one is almost never going to get written (even if people WERE prodding me!)
So you take whatever motivation you need and if you feel you just want to get it out, then do it, dude! Unpre-read Skywriter is most likely better than most of us manage with a full editing pass at the best of times!
(Fair warning, though, my rate of fanfiction comsuption has dropped off a bit sharply in the last week or two, because I have gotten REALLY into catching up on Pokémon (the anime), after catching some glimpses of XY and XY&Z and going "fracking hell, when it Pokémon get that awesome again!" And I am thus working through the Diamond/Pearl series (which I never saw, since I stopped watching after Advanced Battle); and, after the better part of ten years to come to terms with the voice cast change, I am VERY much hooked. So don't be too shocked if this uncharacteristically floats on my read later list for a few days, instead of the usual near-instant "NU SKYWRITER STORY READINS RIITE NOEW!!!")
Right on, dude! (Or... write on?)
Damn the torpedoes; full steam ahead!
There's a saying in Turkish that I'd like to share. I'm sure there's an English version, but I'd rather translate (a.k.a. butcher) the version I know:
"Placing a golden saddle on a donkey doesn't make it a horse."
Even if an author has an army of editors, we can still tell if there's a donkey or a horse under all that gold. Hiding behind editors may become habitual over time, but always bear in mind that they're not *necessary*, even if they're very valuable. They add a layer of polish, sure, but no amount of polish can save a crappy author. If you've done well so far, then the credit goes to you first and foremost, before your editor army.
Next time you feel your reputation is at risk, remember that you're a horse, not a donkey pretending to be a horse with the help of editors.
Edit: Accidentally posted this to your story. Movinf it to here as it is more relevant here.
4197014
Thanks for the cross-cultural wisdom!
I stand by Tolian and others when I say that the quality of your writing is not dependent on your editors or your 'process', and that doing something like this is a really beneficial thing for you. I hope it's a lot less stressful, and I personally think that first chapter you put out turned out very nicely. You're enough of a professional that, frankly? Even your 'unedited' pass looks better than 90% of the finished work on the Internet.
TESTIFY! Get jazzy on it!
Perfection can be a trap, there is a reason they say it's the enemy of good, though they should say it's the enemy of 'complete'.
I'll be glad to see your new piece.
My only response to that thought is to point out that you once published a story with this line in it:
Go ahead and have all the fun you can possibly have writing silly non Author Of Quality stuff.
4218906
Thanks, I think!