State of the Author - August 2019 · 1:32am Sep 2nd, 2019
Today will be the first of three blogs. I think I'm going to try a 'State of the Author' and 'State of the Reader' blog each month from now on until my whimsy flags off. State of the Author should be fairly obvious. State of the Reader will be more about the FIMfics I've read, and attempting to compile a word count read. The third one this month will be a one-off combined on my BronyCon experience, all the cons I've been to, and somewhere between a brief and an exhaustive personal retrospective on my being a fan of FiM.
It's been quite a while since I submitted any writing to this site. 22 months, in fact. That's quite a hiatus. After that amount of time, I wouldn't blame most people for thinking a fic is dead, an author is (metaphorically) dead, and it's time to move on. That did not happen this time.
Let me give some background. A few readers may have already heard this from me in person at some pony conventions, or read it online on Discord. I started a new job in early 2017. The first few months were good. However, from late 2017 on, I was often slammed with heavy workweeks of 60, 70, occasionally even 80 hour workweeks. There were months where I was logging 300 hours of work. This isn’t necessarily actual work work, but still time where I had to be at my work with my butt in a chair at a minimum, or to be out in a plant site, and no real access to anything that would allow me to write like I had at my previous job. It also involved lots of graveyard shifts. The ordeal sapped a lot of my energy, since we were short on people for over a year and a half. It wasn’t like this every week, but the lack of energy carried over to the normal weeks. Plus there is just something about the job that tires me out. At my previous place of work, I could do lots of overtime, but I would also still have lots of motivation to do stuff afterwards.
In early May of this year, my department finally got fully staffed, and I got back to a normal schedule. It took a little while of this, and a few weeks off on vacation, before I could finally throw off the writer's block I've had for two years. I have lots of rust still that I am trying to shake off. The process of the first chapter update to Phantasmare in two years was a lot of ‘write 1000 words, delete the last 500 words because it wasn’t going where I wanted’. Usually when events go away from where I intended, I can adapt to it fairly organically, but not when I am out of practice.
I mentioned once that the hiatus in publishing the Empress arc allowed me to think the plot over and change some events around to make it better. This hiatus, though far longer, also gave me time to reflect and change certain details to make the next few chapters several better. I also came up with a neat alternative ending that, though it will not be the planned ending, incorporates many of the story’s elements. Once the story is done, I intend to publish my original outline, then another follow-up going over the changes I made throughout the story.
For those who are currently reading along, you've likely guessed the story is near the end. I've held the cards close to my chest and never told a single person how many chapters are left, but I'll say it now, though put it in spoiler text: 4. Assuming I don't end up splitting a chapter again due to length, but I don't think so.
I'll probably break after the next chapter for a little to do a couple of one-shots. I've been able to recharge throughout writing this fic by doing other FIMfics, which have typically been quick one-shots. Of course, the last one-shot I published was February 2017. I've come up with far, far, far too many ideas in the time period since. Fortunately, like what I mentioned a few paragraphs above about time and self-reflection letting me change details in Phantasmare's arcs around for a better effect, some of the one-shot ideas I've had I've developed in my head to flesh them out. A lot of them will be silly slice-of-life or comedy fics. Some of them will be my more philosophical, subversive fics where I build a narrative and then throw out a plot twist that completely upends your understanding of the entire thing. But I have so many ideas that, if I can continue to push and get writing some more...I may even do that suicidal fic-a-day challenge I've given to myself twice before.
Anyways.
August Written Word Count (published): 20,753
Projects I would like to get done this month:
2 chapters on Phantasmare
Pinkie Pie-centric oneshot. Tentative title 'Friendship is Laughter'
Entry for Sunset Shimmer 'Endings' contest
Well, I for one can't wait for the next few chapters.