Fimfiction's Autumn · 2:16am Feb 2nd, 2022
So Seattle's Angels and The Royal Canterlot Library both shut down this week. I confess that I find that to be pretty sad. I had my share of success on this site, but most of my attention came from critics. I really appreciate the time that they took to review my stories and everyone else's who would normally fly under the radar. It meant the world to me, even when the review itself wasn't all that glowing. Each review was a stepping stone and I tried to use their opinions as a growth opportunity. I can't say that I was good at accepting that criticism all the time, but I did try.
I've been thinking about the ninth season a lot recently. I never watched it. Well, I watched the premiere and the first episode. I didn't care for the premiere at all, so I basically just wrote the series off. I do remember thinking that the first episode was decent, but I can't remember anything about it. I think it was about Pinkie? Maybe? I dunno. However, I do feel like I should pick it back up just to close out my experience with the show. I haven't watched any of the episodes in years.
I'd like to get back to some level of normalcy, but modern life seems to be aggressively weird and stressful these days. Not just for me. My life is actually a bit better than a few years ago, but for the world in general, I feel like everyone is living on shifting ground. Covid is jacking everything up. Supply chains are disrupted. Income inequality is rampant. On and on and on. It never seems to settle down. I kinda wondered if it was just rose-colored glasses from my youth, but I talked with my mom about it a few weeks ago, and she says that she's never seen life as crazy as it is now. I really do miss those much more secure days ten or twenty years ago. I feel like the world has lost its mind.
I remember the glory days of this site really well. Pumping out several chapters of stuff every day and getting tons of attention. Now I post one chapter every few months and it gets four comments. It makes me sad, too. I knew it wasn't going to last forever, but that doesn't make it hurt less. I've gotten to do so much cool stuff and meet so many cool people through this site and show. I don't know what the next thing will be for me, and that's unsettling.
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Yeah, it's really hard to get excited for writing when the audience is so diminished. I'd like to be one of those people that doesn't care about the audience or is content with just one person reading their story, but the truth is that I'm not. I like that attention, and I definitely got spoiled by the numbers of people that were here before.
I'm hoping that one of these years things will calm down and I won't be so completely drained all the time. I'm hoping that I can return to writing when that happens, but each year things seem to get more insane rather than less.
At least I get to retire in nine years. Nine... long years...
Sigh.
Eventually, and this is a lesson I need to learn as much as anyone, the writing has to be for you and your own desire to create. Attention is a hell of a drug, but like all drugs it starts losing potency over time.
It's good to see you, as always.
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Good to see you, as well!
I get the itch to create when I have free time. Unfortunately, that's in short supply for me these days. I'm either at work or mentally recovering from work. I've sat down at the computer with the intent to write a few times, but I just stare at the blank page and think about going to bed. Hopefully one day things will calm down and I'll get that itch again.
Always glad to hear from you, even when it's bad news.
Hope you're doing better mate.
The last few years have been an endless shifting pile of misery that hasn't done much for my faith in people but, oddly enough, has brought me back to ponies. At least I'll gleefully kick along in the archives for a long while, but I definitely miss the social aspect of Fim.
Good to see you, though!
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Nice to see you, too! My news isn't too bad, though. Personally, I'm doing better than I have in five or six years. It's more the general state of the world that gives me anxiety now. But here in my own little sphere of influence, things aren't too bad.
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Yeah, it's sad to see where the fandom is from its heyday, but that was inevitable, I suppose. What I really miss is the feeling that people were collectively trying to be better to each other. For just a little while, bronies actually did move the internet's needle a little toward "Nice". For all the talk of how trollish and pushy bronies were, I witnessed a lot of support and positivity in comment sections by people with Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy avatars. It did feel for a while there that maybe people were tired of the internet being an endless series of site where people were jackasses to each other constantly.
But good things always see to last for so much less time than bad things, so here we are...
Sorry to hear that your life has been a shitstorm. Mine was too for several years. Things are looking up these days, but the problem with modern life is that you can't at all count on that being the probable trajectory. I feel like every day brings a new view into scenic Crazytown. Hopefully these ponies are giving you at least some comfort and/or distraction.
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Yeah, I learned that years ago and I stopped. I knew I wasn't doing it for the right reasons and it was just building up resentment and fatigue.
Now I finally have an urge to just write for the sake of it. Doesn't matter what. I write little downtimes between RPG sessions just because the urge is boiling over. That's why I popped up here and reread my old stuff. I was honestly surprised to find that I still liked most of it and utterly adored some of it. Now I'm ready to do it for fun.
Oh, and hi, Juggs :)
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I'd still like to collab with Star Destroyer. 3am at the Wafflehouse is legendary.
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good to see you alive, m8!
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I've followed the opposite trajectory. I've really been trying hard to embrace love, hope, and kindness over the last year or so, even for cops, landlords, transphobes, and fascists. It's hard, but feels a lot better than telling dumb right wing boomers I hope they get cancer.
Also, I think you'll like this wholesome new new sincerity song: