"Boy, Twilight Really Gets Around!" · 1:57am Oct 5th, 2016
Ahoy-hoy, Gentle Menne and Womenne of Leisure!
...
... Yes, I'm just as surprised as you guys that I didn't disappear for a few more years after posting Hero of the Day. Even more surprising, I'm actually gonna post something else tonight, so keep your eyes peeled for whenever the self-insertmoderation thing kicks in!
This time, I'll be posting a drabble collection; I've mentioned before how I love just chatting one-on-one with readers and writers alike, and bouncing off all the silly ideas that come to my overactive mind. I've also mentioned that during these chats, these discussions will usually lead me to write impromptu story scenes or snippets, usually from the silliest or tiniest seedlings of an idea.... And that's where the new story post comes from! While on years-long writing hiatus, I've still managed to accumulate a number of ficlets, scripts, and random ideas, and I've finally decided to unleash them to the world, mostly unfiltered and extremely unpolished. This is officially, the just-for-fun submission to my library. Don't expect too much, and you might just come out on the other side half-way amused; I know I did when I was writing them while chatting with the usual suspects; Plow Claw deserving special mention for being a very active source of prompts and ideas for the past year, usually sharing equal credit as a collaborator on most of them!
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy the incoming wave of Shippery headed your way.
Now, let's talk about something somewhat disheartening and amusing at the same time: Equestria Daily. A few months ago, when I simulcast published Hero of the Day on every fiction site, I decided to go ahead and submit it to Equestria Daily as well. Now, my claim to fandom notoriety, The Ballad, first gained traction and wide viewership back in the day (before Season 2 and before FimFic!) through Equestria Daily, with Sethisto himself taking quite a liking to all the Trixieness that abounded; I figured it'd be cool to reconnect with the site, since I'd been so disconnected from the goings on in the fandom for so long.
Welp.
Struck out like a motherbucker!
After many days of wondering if my submission had gotten lost in the mail, I received a letter of rejection from one of the pre-readers at the new Council of Elders that apparently formed at some point between 2011, when I just emailed Seth a link to the gdocs for The Ballad, and 2016, when Hero of the Day was submitted through the submission interface they have now.
Now, I'd heard rumblings here and there about some sort of cabal or gestapo that screened the unworthy, but I hadn't actually had a run-in with them until now and, well, I don't think we'll be seeing Hero on EqD anytime soon, considering what the pre-reader recommended I do to the fic to get it past him.
I was basically asked to tone down the fic and make it more realistic; it was too over-the-top to be taken seriously.
...Well, yes, that was sort of the point, wasn't it? The language, apparently, was apparently too purple to be understood by the lay person as well, and the entire thing too overwrought to hold the reader's attention for any amount of time. This pre-reader didn't even notice the spelling mistakes I found a month later, nor did he notice his own spelling mistakes in the rejection letter.
Needless to say, such substantial rewrites would basically make it just... a normal action story, which Hero was never intended to be. So, there we go! Looks like Ballad stands alone. A damn shame indeed but, such is life! We move on, and we keep on shipping!
I like a couple of people in EQD, but, sometimes...
Sometimes the shit they fail for is just flat out baffling.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Hahahaha oh wow
You're like a fandom time capsule! Being re-acquainted with all the new developments.
Shield your eyes, boy, and keep your head down. Clutch your purse strings close. The Shire ain't what you remember it to be.
Know what would be awesome? More Ballad... please? (desperate)
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I mean, at least he was polite about it!
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It's a dangerous business, shipping these ponies... And yeah, I'm so lost half the time to all the things that are happening around here... I mean, you gotta understand: before this writing gig, I used to draw. On DeviantArt. As part of the Sonic fandom. Pone fandom drama pales in comparison to the things I've witnessed; that's why I can weather any shitstorm without getting too emotionally invested.
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It's no Ballad, but I think you're gonna like one of the snippets I'm gonna post later in the week in the drabble collection...
EQD isn't nearly as important as they used to be, but your experience of a whooshing prereader is not, alas, anything like unique.
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Something something green eyes?
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Pffft, oh man, don't remind me! You really got to love a fandom that would interview a creator, and show them a pirated ROM of a beta release of their game right there in the middle of the interview. And I'm not being sarcastic: I'm still an unrepentant Sonic fan!
Yeah, I really dislike the way EQD deals with fanfiction. It seems arbitrary and random, and to me it is obvious there is no template the so-called pre-readers follow to judge a fic of its worthiness. That means that what one pre-reader might reject another might allow. Heck, maybe the same pre-reader will either accept or reject a fic depending on how he or she feels that particular day. That's just not right. I would have missed out on a lot of fics I really enjoyed if I only used EQD for my fanfiction, and some of the fics that do get through I think where atrocious. Meanwhile, getting your fic on there is sort of a status symbol and there are authors who have quit writing stories I really enjoyed because they couldn't get it posted on EqD. A lot of authors who do get a fic on there write entire proud blogs about it. It divides the fandom, and if you ask me that is never a good thing.
Anyway, I'll be looking forward to those snippets!
Oh wow, it's been ages since I've seen someone talk about how they were rejected from EqD because of stupidity. Yeah, EqD used to be the center of the fandom, but now the fandom's spread out so much that it's nowhere near as big a deal as it used to be. Here's the thing, it's not that any of the EqD pre-readers are bad, (anymore) but sometimes a story will meet a pre-reader for whom the story itself just doesn't click at all. In your case, the pre-reader didn't notice that the entire point of the story was to be over the top and unrealistic. That pre-reader just happens to be the kind of person who wouldn't appreciate those kinds of stories and/or doesn't know deliberate over-the-topness even when it is right infront of the nose. Unfortunately, it is extremely unlikely for your story to be seen by any other pre-readers than the one who judged your story again. The pre-readers in general are very good at their stuff, but individual bias is the largest reason for misjudgement by their system.
I'd recommend you reply back to EqD, (if you haven't already) to simply say that the entire point of the story was yada yada. It's likely that, if you ask for it, your story will be re-evaluated. (Don't forget to be polite, of course.) Then, maybe, it'll get through. Eeeeeeventually. The other problem with EqD is that they still recieve a large number of stories that the pre-readers have to look through, which is why it takes them so long.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have an awesome story to re-read.
EQD's standards can sometimes be overbearing, but it also varies *heavily* on which pre-reader(s) you end up with. They handle things differently and have different preferences for content and styles. I'm no great writer by any stretch, so my rejections make sense, but I've heard complaints from others that often compare their work to another story they feel isn't as well written as their own.
I've barely paid attention to fimfiction for the past year or so, so I didn't realize that you'd shown up again and posted some new stuff for us until just now. I will definitely have to give those stories a look soon. And it's good to have you back!
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Don't worry; like I said, I'll keep on shipping all the same, EqD feature or not. The story did just fine here on FimFic!
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Yeah, I was thinking that personal tastes of the individual might be having perhaps a bit too much bearing on the Pass/Fail grade. I mean, it's understandable, I don't like every single genre out there; it's normal. However, having a single point of failure is a pretty terrible idea; a lone gate keeper is gonna be troublesome in any situation.
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It's good to be back!