A Schedule, and Afterthoughts on "Volunteer" · 2:12pm Nov 28th, 2018
With the end of Volunteer, here's the schedule which is subject to change because Christmas and New Year's Eve are my favorite holidays and I'd like to spend more time on them than last year:
- A Magic Turn of Events: Finishing with a few more chapters, must end by December 16 tops.
- A story focused on the Gift Givers of the Grove (Aurora, Bori, Alice): A considerable chunk of mid-to-late December. To be done before year's end.
- Sequel to A War: The big one. Starting late December/mid-January.
I hope you enjoyed the ride. Honestly, I don't think I'm up for more Converesion Bureau writing because I have my eyes set for my own projects. Still, it was a fun and enlightening journey for me with tons of Google Mapping and searching up on cities I've never visited at all.
Now, on to my not-spoiler-free afterthoughts on A Volunteer at the Bureau.
Writing A Volunteer at the Bureau was my first fic with almost none of the baggage of Magical Curiosity. I've said it before, and I've promised that I won't repeat it, but I'll break that promise because I'll say it again: Curiosity was bad. Really bad. A Magic Turn of Events was much better, but it was tied to Curiosity since it was a sequel. You could read it as a stand-alone, but reading the original before it would provide the full experience—and it's bad if getting the full experience meant experiencing some huge lows before getting to the good stuff.
I could give you a million dollars, but I don't want your house burned down for you to earn it. Sequels shouldn't be compared to insurance companies. Yes, writing Curiosity was a learning experience, but it's like learning how to play the saxophone or some other loud instrument in your neighborhood.
So, in the middle of Turn, I realized I had to go somewhere else and write something not related to my blunder. Start out somewhere new.
I've heard of The Conversion Bureau before. I've read some of the stuff way back when. However, in 2018, the Bureau was, admittedly, past its peak. That's not necessarily a bad thing: without all the drama and controversy surrounding it, the ones who're left are usually those who are in it for good, who're dedicated to the group's central idea.
I've seen some of Alex Warlorn's stuff. I only peeked at the Pony POV series because I don't have the time to jump into a cool epic that's about triple the length of War and Peace. That's one reason why I read his Bureau one-shots. Their lengths were manageable. Pragmatic? Yes, but between balancing real life responsibilities and the tough fanfic schedule I hook myself up to, it's a luxury for me to invest myself in a 150,000-word novel, let alone something...I don't know, 1,500,000 words long?
His Conversion Bureau stuff revived my interest in the TCB. People were warming up to his one-shots there...so, I thought to myself, what if I fill the gap by bringing a multi-chapter tale into the mix?
Another thing that influenced me to write Volunteer was to gain some experience writing human characters and OCs in general. It wasn't the first time I've written original characters as protagonists: Society as We Know It had the quartet of new changelings, and The Search in Winsome Falls starred pony OCs. I even had a human character before: dear Carter from Lyra and the William's Diner. However, the human element a Bureau fic had did carry some complications: I couldn't write them the same way I could write ponies or other Equestrian creatures, for example, and I had to continue that thread for a full story, not for one chapter like William's.
So, with that in mind, I wrote.
The first step is always the hardest, and it rang true here. It was the first time I had to write in a real-life location. Lyra and the William's Diner doesn't count because it takes place in a fictional town in Washington state. I've never been to Los Angeles before either...nor New York or San Francisco, which were two other choices for the story before I settled for the Big Orange. New York was the easier choice, but I felt it'd be somewhat cliché, and I wanted to save it for the Earth-meets-Equestria fic next year. San Francisco was more familiar to me than Los Angeles, but I got the feeling that, outside of the States, San Francisco was known globally as a big city and not much else...while Los Angeles has Hollywood, beaches, LAX, theatres, et c.
Literarily speaking, then, my first step would be where in Los Angeles would I start. Where would the Los Angeles Conversion Bureau be? Then, the questions unraveled from there: Who exactly was volunteering in this bureau? Who is this Sam Henry? Who's Crowhop? Why are they here? What does the bureau look and sound and feel like? What does Los Angeles look and sound and feel like?
Even if I had a concrete idea in my head thanks to tons of pre-reading stuff with Alex Warlorn and Venerable Ro, that first step remained the hardest one. It took me a while before I could get rolling.
And rolling I did.
I've never seriously read any of the big names in the Bureau universe(s). Closest I got was Reality Break and Last Man Standing.
On one hand, it gives off that feeling of someone fresh, someone new, to reinvigorate the genre. If that sounds prideful, if not narcissistic, then that's true. I must confess I've had flashes of such thoughts while writing this up—I'd help clean the Bureau's name, I'd help make a spin-off grow, and so on. But, as I wrote, that mindset faded away, because I was humbled by the rather polarizing rating the fic got for the first week or so.
On the other hand, it seems like a bad idea to throw one's self into the fray without knowing much about the field. I did read up the appropriate TV Tropes pages, but, as helpful they are, they could never be truly enjoyed without reading them. I'd be missing out on the rollercoaster of thrills, emotions, ultimately, a satisfying ending and a treasure chest of experiences.
So, what did I do? Did the least logical thing and just kept writing and hoped the tropes would pull me through.
The second chapter of the fic, The Keynote Speakers, slowly taught me a lesson I should've learned long ago: Quality over quantity.
During A War and up to the early parts of Magical Curiosity, I lived by writing a chapter everyday except Sundays. It was a tactic great for YouTubers and other social media content producers, to post and post and post. But, as time went on, it became draining to the mind and, ultimately, untenable to hold. So, I cut it to three chapters per week, and that continued on through A Magic Turn of Events and the first handful of chapters for Volunteer.
Then, people put up constructive feedback which is always nice. However, the consistent stream of feedback through chapter after chapter signaled to me that something was wrong on my end. Something terribly wrong.
I was being clumsy with my writing.
I had a spellchecker, but that didn't catch every error made—of course, it shouldn't. But, when I had only two days to write and edit a chapter, there'd be times that my schedule wouldn't line up, and I had to content myself with an unpolished chapter.
It's pathetic it only took me two chapters to get to rock bottom.
I had to recast various parts of that chapter, but it'd be a chore to ask those who've read a sloppy bit to read it again for the cleaner version.
Quality over quantity, then. Later on, I had to go for two chapters every week and reduced my load so that it wouldn't be 1,500 words a day but 1,000 words a day.
I had to learn how to make lemonade out of the lemons I've given. Like the alcoholic drinks I've mentioned later on in the fic, quality took its sweet time. While I still abide by consistent and constant new chapters, I wasn't taking this fic for a ride. This fic was taking me on a ride.
So, I continued on. I tried to keep myself within the 1,000-word limit, only to surprise myself in the later chapters that I could pump out 5,000 words per half week if I'm feeling like it (and if the time's just right). Somewhat unrestrained by hectic self-imposed deadlines, I felt free to lead the chapter wherever it took me. I no longer put the chapter on a leash...well, not often anymore.
So, let's talk about something else, shall we? Or, rather, someone else.
I'm bad at names. Really bad at names. Sam Henry has a name that sounds very generic. Yet, being the star of the fic, he should at least be given some credit for having the readers' eyes on him most of the time, right?
Writing Sam (and everyone else, really) was a nebulous process during their first appearances. While I had a general idea who they were, much of their personalities were written on the go. This was in contrast to what I used to have before, writing characters with established personalities. This was also compounded by how Twilight Sparkle needs no introduction whereas creations like Canter Crowhop have to give a good first impression to be bought in by the reader.
Back to Sam: I caught myself giving him way too many good signs and actions. I don't believe this is a case of Mary Sue, but rather me being forgetful...which could lead to a Mary Sue anyway. I had to give him some flaws, which had to be thought up on the spot in the third chapter, Before Drift Off: irritability, for one.
Of course, having Sam be a tragic figure by the end of the story hadn't been planned from the beginning. Yet, it just seemed like the logical last step...to the reader. To me, it was just something to throw in and foreshadow and build up to a lot. It's sad that I felt very disassociated in the writing process.
The others were alright, I think. Arthur, Key Note, Spaghetti Tree, among others. They were OK. Characters as device? Sure, but they at least served their purpose. Or, I hope they did.
Two more things to add: Los Angeles and St. George.
I've said it before. I've never visited those cities before. However, reading up on them through Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, their respective tourism websites, Google Maps...it was a blast. Especially Los Angeles: I'd grown acquainted to the place, grown more familiar with it. I even starred key points on the map if they corresponded to recurring and/or important locations in the fic.
I did spend more than a few minutes wandering around in Google Maps. It was, well, fun to explore a city while not being there. I know it doesn't beat actually visiting the place, but I'm just reminded how far technology's come.
Eventually, though, the fic must end.
Leaving it off on such a not-so-certain finish may not be the best thing for the fic. There are ways I could've done it better. However, I had no idea where this could go without stringing it out for a dozen more chapters, and then a dozen more...and then, before I know it, I'd end up with conspiracy upon conspiracy, layers upon layers, and so on, when this was meant to be a simple walk through the forest, so to speak.
Also, this post shouldn't have been this long, but, at the same time, I feel like I should've said more.
OK, then. On to A Magic Turn of Events once again.
You really did show a lot of growth in writing ability over the course of this. Yes, it did, regrettably, take a bit of shouting, but the results speak for themselves. l look forward to your next story!
4973879
Aww! Thank you! Of course, it wouldn't be good if I didn't encounter hardships along the way; it was worth it, anyhow, all the criticism. I'd rather be told exactly what's wrong with my writing than to be in an echo chamber just because I could write decently.
Anyway, what do you think of the blog format? Anything to say about it? To improve on it? I honestly wanted to try this format out partly because of Admiral Biscuit's blog style and partly out of loosely imitating the style of Jon Bois.
Congrats on managing to write a complete story, that means a lot.
4973888
The format was nice, and I definitely picked up on Biscuit's influence. It is organized, and to the point. The pictures were a bit random though. That is not to say I don't like the idea of pictures, they do a good job of breaking up a wall of text. But they could stand to be a bit more topical. This bunch felt a little disorganized.
I didn't see it because it neither had a sad or tragedy tag( I rather like happy things
) and the story had a balanced encounter of persons and their experiences with conversion.
For me the ending is the most important part of the story because that's what I remember most of it and this plottwist so late in the storyline turned it from a nice slice of life story into a drama and it felt like Trololo changeling charged in and ruined everything in the last second. So when I think about the story now two years later I don't really remember the earlier parts I really enjoyed I just remember a story where everything went wrong.
It's the same backlash I got from the Mass Effect 3 ending-__-
4973973
Thank you, Mr. Warlorn, and you're welcome (again), too! Also, I may be overstepping my boundaries here, but it's OK to say your one-shots are complete stories—or, at least some of them, if you want to hedge your bets a bit. The longer one-shots especially (Conversion Changeling comes to mind) are there...although I'm guessing what you mean by "complete story" is something as long as a novel, hm?
4974008
I wanted to hit that balance of Jon Bois-level surrealism, but maybe this shot's turned out a dud. Still, I tried to go for something subtle—the evolution of drawings to photos to modern images (and then a bit of Bureau hinting with the last shot being in Equestria). Also, most of the images were from or closely related to Los Angeles while the second-to-last one is close to St. George—following the path of the story. The last image would also serve as the "last word" for the story's Earth: That it'd become magical in the end.
Thank you for pointing it out, though!
4974071
I'm beginning to see that not tagging stories properly is a weakness of mine. I don't want to give a lot of the story away, but, at the same time, I know I have to let the potential reader know what to expect. Funny that I haven't mastered the art of tagging stories yet.
4974265
Mean multiple chapter ones.