Whycome so long on approval from EqD? · 2:11am Apr 6th, 2019
GG buddy, took them long enough eh?
That, I must admit, is entirely my fault. 
Here’s some fun facts: I sent No Nose in for possible acceptance way back at the end on January 2018, and I didn’t send all of No Nose to EqD with that first attempt. I only sent them a link to the gdoc of Chapter 1, thinking that if they liked what they saw, I could provide the rest of the story. I admit, I hoped that it would be quickly accepted; it had just gone through a huge surge in popularity on FimFiction, and surely that meant that it was good to go, right?
Yeah, you already know where this is going. :)
The first reply I got back from them was ‘there’s an interesting concept here, but there are a few things holding it back.’ The pre-reader sent me a link with some notes on what he or she had seen as issues, and once I had made those corrections, I sent off the whole thing for acceptance.
Then the reply came. The prereader again noted ‘a few issues,’ and provided a link.
If I counted right, I got 30 full pages of errors back, and the vast majority of that was common grammar and syntax problems that I should have known better, though Luna's archaic speech in chapter 29 needed a major overhaul, and even now is not technically right.
So, that's whycome it took so long, really, but the whole thing underscores why I like comments so much. The prereader could have simply said “it needs to be fixed” and offered nothing else, but I am immensely grateful that he or she took the time to basically be another editor.
In the end, I take full ownership for the errors and the lack of repairs. It is my story, and thus I should be the one who learns and corrects these things. I greatly appreciate that Zen and Ponies, Moon Fire, Sipioc, and Georg have taken the time to edit, re-edit, and re-re-edit my mess, and one day, in the distant future, I might be able to 1.) write a chapter without using passive voice, 2.) use a semicolon properly, and 3.) quit using periods where commas should be. I figure that'll probably be about the time we hit Gen 11 of MLP, but hey! It can happen! :)
Mostly, though, I wanted to again thank you, my glorious readers, for taking the time to enjoy (or hate) No Nose, especially if you were among that group that read the first unedited version. Georg's review of “it needs fire. Lots of fire” was very accurate (and still is to a degree), and yet people still gave it a chance. Thank you for your comments, for the upvotes, and even for the downvotes. All of it has motivated me to be a better writer, and hopefully the journey with Bean and Celestia will only become better as time goes on.
Cheers! 
The tastiest of baked goods also require lots of fire (or a high-tech equivalent!) to get that way. Nothing new there.
Nothing gets done without fire. Look, if we all started out writing like Terry Brooks, that would be awesome. We don't, so we have to improve. Zero to Sixty starts at Zero. :)
My first story got in as part of a grouping by Bad Horse, so cheating, but still.
My second one, A War of Words - The Opening of the Guard went in January 2013, and I think went through two different EQD editor correction sheets about as long as the story. (but they loved it, and the feedback was more or less 'Fix this and get it back to us pronto!')
Third was Monster in the Twilight a year *!* later, and I think it too had two different editor correction sheet requests (and I'm *still* finding typos in it five plus years later)
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Very true, but I wanna be Terry Brooks level now!
(Okay, I'm done.) Practice makes perfect, so more writing ahead for me! :)
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It's amazing how often that Refiner's Fire analogy can be used. Still plenty of slag to burn off in my writing, but it'll get there eventually.
Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification; still it's good seeing you get some major props so I'm happy for you either way.
Keep on being you