Battle Plans · 5:55pm Nov 16th, 2019
Things are going well. I am less sick now, and you should expect to see new and exciting content from me soon!
The first thing up will be a new short multi-chapter story on Monday, but there's more big news on the horizon.
Monday's story will be the completed story that caused a tremendous fuss in the Writeoff. I wanted to complete the meta-story about the experience I had with it first, but that one is too painful and personal to write so soon after the event (which includes more than just what happened with the Writeoff, as I was having a terrible week psychologically just prior to it), so it will probably appear in a few weeks instead. It will reveal a bunch of stuff about me you likely never knew, so if you are interested in the author (which, if you're interested in my stories, you probably are even if you don't realize it) it may be worth a glance. Then again, when stories get too personal I often have a hard time reframing them so that they're writerly (is there a word for that?); see Flash in the Pan among my buried fics for an example of when that didn't go well. So it might take longer.
The upcoming story for Monday is a T-rated allegorical exploration with disturbing elements, aimed at a limited audience even though its message is generally broad; it's one of those special TQ stories where getting through the uncomfortable parts of the story is part of the intended selection process for the target audience (see Conker's Bad Fur Day for that sort of thing done properly). I feel unwelcome at the Writeoffs following several things that were said to me both privately and in public (for which I blame nopony other than myself, just to be clear), and that morbid perspective is not just the depression talking.1
Now I'm in a quandary because I don't know whether or how to credit the inspiration for my story. It was a pic2fic round with the prompt "On the Verge" from which a picture drawn by GroaningGreyAgony emerged to spark my muse. Part of me feels obligated to credit the specific Writeoff event and image by Grey, but I think that would probably be a bad idea. So I'm leaning toward just mentioning "written for an unspecified Writeoff from a picture drawn by GroaningGreyAgony" and linking to the group and author without providing any details. If I go that route I think I need to ask Grey before I further associate them with what I've done, and I'm really not prepared to do that yet.
So I'm still mulling it over, but I have at least three days to decide. 
Anyway, more news on the interactive fiction front! 
I've been working with several IF systems and have already ended up migrating to the one that the professional writers use: Inform 7. It's remarkable. It's a programming language that reads like a novel, clearly designed by writers, for writers. As a theoretical computer scientist and an avid writer, it hits all of my buttons. There's a ton to learn, so I'm engaging at high speed right now.
I've decided I'm going to be releasing some smaller interactive stories first while I work in tandem on the larger ones, both for practice and to give rewards to my patrons. My Patreon will be reworked soon (perhaps in the next week or two) to advertise my interactive fiction with actual rewards allowing patrons to get involved in the interactive writing projects, see early releases, playtest the games, and even suggest features and storylines.
My tentative plan at present is this. The first interactive short story I'll be introducing is called Yona's Final Quest, and it will be a Young Six story told from Yona's unique yakspective. For her senior project at the School of Friendship, her job will be to create the perfect gift for one of her friends, but in order to do it she'll need to use Zecora's help to learn to see things through their eyes. In doing so Yona will learn not only more about who her friends really are, but also who she is to them. It should be moderately challenging, heartwarming, a little dramatic, and funny.
When I publish my interactive fiction stories, I'll do it by simultaneously publishing a minific prequel here that sets the stage for the story, and the minific will link to the completed work. I'm sure this will be popular, and I can probably post it on EQD even though the minific produced here won't meet the word limit, because the interactive work will far exceed it. I'm not sure if I should submit it as fanfic or "other" though, but I'll have time to figure that out in the coming months. It will be at least a month before my first interactive book comes out.
Thanks for reading, everypony. 
1. Just to stop all the questions: the story is a heavily allegorical tale with some incestuous overtones featuring immortal characters who remain foal-like in appearance but have the option to become sexually active once they turn forty years old, and it addresses the potential implications on society from several different viewpoints. After blunt accusations of the story being a pro-pedo author tract, I tried to explain my state of mind, apologized twice for submitting what I didn't realize was so far out of bounds, and promised I wouldn't submit anything that controversial in the future, upon which I was told by somepony I respect a great deal to "stop acting like a martyr because you can't stop writing about kids being raped" and seventeen other authors immediately upvoted the comment. It is a clear and prevailing sentiment that I do not belong in the Writeoffs. As I didn't see any of this coming (I even thought it was a good story), and the anger still persists, I must agree it would be unethical for me to continue to participate.
Despite this, I will always cherish the time I spent at the Writeoffs. The experiences made me a much better writer, and I appreciate the friendships I've made, some of which I haven't wrecked despite this mess. I have deep respect and admiration for RogerDodger's hard work making the community as amazing as it is, and I continue to look up to all of the authors who take part in them. I also continue to recommend them to any author I meet.
tl;dr I'm sorry for what happened, I accept that it was entirely my fault, and I am not the victim. That's all there is to say.
Man, fuck the haters. Slap a CW on the top of your shit and keep writing weird fucked up stuff. Now I want to get involved in the write offs again just to troll them.
Getting taken outside of my comfort zone is the reason I read your stories (it helps that they are well-written). Glad to see that you're feeling better!
Flip a coin a few dozen times if you can decide any other way
Ah, glad you're less sick. :)
Ow. Sorry again about what happened with the Writeoffs.
Good luck on that mulling. :)
Glad you're enjoying the interactive fiction work!
Thanks for writing. :)
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If you do, let me get you caught up on what's actually going on. I tried to get my writing ass in gear for both that round of the Writeoff and the one immediately after, but alas, I'm a theater school student, so those weekends were sapped away by productions and rehearsals. I arrived late to the Writeoff drama, and Trick's story was already scrubbed clean. Next round theater prevented me from writing, but the entries were short. so I decided to read a slate. One entry in particular stood out to me as a little bit... on the nose, so after the contest I got in contact with a (stubbornly anonymous) author who confirmed that their entry was an allegory for the situation with Trick's fic.
The fic itself has two or three layers of meta, but basically the cast and crew of MLP (who are ponies playing our favorite characters) had a falling out with Starlight's actress (who is our stand-in for Trick), who is on the verge of leaving the show. Meanwhile, they're filming an episode wherein Pinkie (another reference to Trick) makes a repulsive-flavored pie, and decides to take all her pies off to Appleoosa to enter into a baking competition just because nobody liked one of them. Fluttershy's actress (the perspective character) has genuinely learned from the show she's in, and is frustrated at the others' lack of action. She asks the rest of the cast to help reconcile with Starlight's actress, and they do. So at least somebody in there is sticking up for Trick. Again, I don't know who because they always use the same fake name.
tl;dr The answer to drama is not more drama, especially if it's not what you think it is.
5156541
Ugh, I'm sorry.
I'm in a Catch-22. If I talk about how much it hurts to be seen as a drama magnet, that just adds more drama. If I don't say anything, misunderstandings continue. I wish I could push a button and fix everything. It feels like I've really hurt some people I care about and there's nothing I can do to make them happy again because trying to fix it is exactly what they don't want me to do.
Basic logic suggests I'm making something huge out of nothing, and it's the act of making something out of nothing itself that is the real problem. It's just, literally the worst thing for me psychologically is when people think I care less about them than I do about myself, and nothing could be further from the truth. I'd do anything within reason to make them happy. I can't stick around when people resent me because I feel like I'm hurting them by being a persistent reminder of what I've done wrong, and I feel they deserve to be able to decide to exclude me. The only way I can show I care about their feelings is to do the one thing I know will make their environment better: remove myself from it.
I'm so fucked up in the head. I'm not stupid, I don't want attention, I'm just painted into a corner and I have no idea what to do. I just want the people I care about to be happy. I'm sorry, I swear.
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As a clarification, I said what I did exclusively for the benefit of bringing Super Trampoline up to speed and to discourage an adverse knee-jerk reaction. "Oh look. Now one of Trick's friends is here trolling us." I think all parties involved can see why that would be a bad idea.