Victims of Magnum Opus Dissonance 147 members · 195 stories

This is a support group for all you authors out there who feel that your most successful story doesn't actually deserve that success, because one of your other stories is so much more deserving.

So why did that cheap little oneshot earn so much more attention? Maybe you poured your heart into a multi-chapter epic adventure story, only for it to fall by the wayside in comparison to that trollfic you churned out in five minutes. Maybe that serious work you've lavished all of your efforts on and had the highest expectations for didn't receive nearly as much attention as that clopfic you wrote once.

For whatever reason, the stories we couldn't care less about became instant sensations, and that masterpiece that you had such high hopes for will quickly fade into obscurity. You will be remembered and celebrated for that silly little hackwork forever, and there's nothing you can do about it.

And I totally didn't crib most of this description from this tropes page on the topic

If you feel that you've been a victim of Magnum Opus Dissonance at some point in your career, then join this group.

You're among friends here.

We feel your pain.

We feel your pain.

Comments ( 26 )
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I'm joining to see what others submit.

I have two chapter of my new story spike's new brother check it out tell me what you think.

I have written some stories, and although I wouldn't consider them to be my 'magnum opus', they are better than my more popular stories, and that really annoys me. I am planning on writing my own magnum opus though, but I haven't truly started yet as I am still working out the headcannon stuff.

~Crystalline Electrostatic~

I just realised that the same thing is my stories: I wrote a detective story, now I'm writing its sequel, yet the 3k long one-shot I wrote in 5 minutes as a relief after coming up with "Tools" ending, has, like, 3 times more views than both my longer stories combined...

Hi. My name is Mysterious Stranger, and I am a victim of Magnum Opus Dissonance. My Story, The Stars of Nightmare Moon, was supposed to be my magnum opus. I even finished the story before publishing the first chapter, just to make sure it was perfect. While writing that I started a crossover with Dr. McNinja just for fun. Loose plan, write, publish, write more, keep publishing. Guess which story became popular? Guess which story became my least viewed story ever?

But I can't really complain looking back. I wound up having more fun with Dr. McNinja than my other story, and I learned a lot more from writing it. It grew as I wrote it. I myself don't look for complex meaningful serious OC centered tales on this site. I look for fun stories staring the characters I already know. It was silly of me to think others wouldn't do the same.

304114
A bit late to this comment, but I don't care.

You can consider me a dedicated fan of "The Writing On The Wall". Hell, it's even listed as a favorite on my profile; that's how moved I was by the story. I just hope it garners more views for you.

304570
I concur. I read it, and wondered why the hell it wasn't upvoted into oblivion. It was dark, gripping, and even though I figured out what was happening halfway through the story, I was still somehow shocked at the end.

I was trained in the Army about NBC threats (I don't want to explain it, so Google will have to), and believe me, I'd rather be shot at (been there, done that) than go through rad poisoning, or nerve agents. That shit is just plain scary.

Comment posted by Comet Burst deleted Jun 24th, 2013

Was Hoping to be Famous
Sins of Our Sisters EDIT: A story I still feel very passionate about finishing. No massive, world shattering revelations or complex artsy stuff. Just a good story.

Should Have Been Famous
Hurt. EDIT: A story I actually poured a bit of my own outlook into. A look at the eventual entropic heat-death of the universe as-seen by an immortal. Essentially. Inspired by a song you may have heard.

What is Actually Famous
WHELP I GOT NOTHIN. EDIT: A story I started to get over some writer's block. A self-insert brony-in-Equestria fan-wank story that was 100% not ever supposed to be serious. It, uhm, it got serious.

Hey there everyone! I got it bad, real bad. :fluttershysad:

The Story I Wanted to be Famous: Vision, a beautifully crafted, multi-chapter psychological piece with an amazing crew of editors and co-writers, with every chapter fully illustrated and beautifully realized.

The Story that Was Famous: Regarding the Need for Sex Education. A Twilestia fic. That I wrote on a dare. :raritydespair:

Ugbl, I know that feel, though it kind of crosses media. Some throwaway doodle on my ask blog will snowball into this runaway thing, while I've got like maybe 5 people who could be considered "fans" of my stories. Admittedly my fiction to date is... not the best work, but an 80,000 word adventure story definitely takes more effort than a two-day cut-and-paste job for a meme.

304114 Writing on the wall was freaking amazing.

"The Writing on the Wall": a tightly-wound psychological horror story, which some called the creepiest pony fic they had ever read.

"Biblical Monsters": an oppressively grimdark thing I belted out as a form of therapy. It's my least original, most flawed work so far.

The former has a small number of dedicated fans. The latter quadrupled my followers, gained attention from several big-name pony authors, and earned me hatedoms not only here, but on EqD and the spacebattles forums.

troll.me/images2/adam-jensen/i-never-asked-for-this-thumb.jpg

I write things I put a lot of heart into... things I try to make original. But sadly, the thing that I'm most known for? A subpar Dark fic that slipped past the Cherubim to make it on EQD and a story called "Twilight Likes Weird Things". 15 other stories with heart and lots of effort, and the fic about Twilight enjoying stupid, nerdy bookish "dirty talk" is what people actually read.

:facehoof:

Heh... I didn't know this group existed or even that there was a "name" for that problem. I'm not a good writer... Never said I was. But I got ideas and MLP showed me how fun it was to write them down.

I don't speak English, not in my life nor my work. I speak French 99.9% of the time, but since the internet is English, I had to learn it. So, I write more English than French, but since I never speak it... No need to say sometime it turns weird. My horrible grammar and weird sentences structure no doubt block me from moving forward. I work on it, but it's not easy and takes more time than I wish or had. Will never get a 1000+ likes story, but it's ok with me, as I know just enough English to see how mine sucks terribly and how it would put off a native speaker.

But even if I'm probably my harshest critic, I like when people enjoy what I write. I just published a story that was fairly short (9k) that I put a lot of effort and time... I wanted it to be good and people who read it said it was, even with the grammar flaws. I did put a lot of time trying to nail down the grammar, even if I'm not really good at it. But it didn't even got in the current top 45 and the views are very low. On the other hand, I had that stupid story that I wrote because it was wasting space in my brain. No storyline, no plan, one or two chapters with no real development, not even 3k words, no real grammar correction... Six times more views and likes. And don't start me on my 100k words story that I put an insane amount of time, where I felt the story was well planned ahead of time with lot of twists and surprises... and whatever.

And then I look at the feature box and two of the top 5 stories are Halo crossovers. Yeah... Paint me jealous, but it's a jealousy I assume.. :raritydespair:

Ah well, I should post my story here.
I spent a week with a fellow author of mine writing a tentacle fiction with Vinyl Scratch that had no grammatical errors (as far as our combined editing powers can tell) has a cute story line, and everyone who read it says it's very good, and one author amusingly jests of wanting to make neucosal contact with me for writing that story. Even castortroy, the King of Fetish Clop, recognized it and commented on it. So far, only 40 likes. I am dissapoint.

Then, there's my most popular story with over 800 likes. It's got plenty of errors, was a spur of the moment idea that I wasn't that commited to, it was a BRONY IN EQUESTRIA STORY!!! WHY DID IT GET SO POPULAR!? ...And I spent 1 and a half hours writing it. I mean really. :P
It was nice at first, but it's sort of bittersweet now. I gotta write it though I don't know where to take it exactly...:facehoof:

That feel when 'Hiatus' is nearing 200k views and none of my other (and better) fics will likely ever top it.

Feels bad, man.

Woe is me! To be remembered for that hackwork, Dark Demon King Ravenblood Nightblade, when I spilled out my art, my soul, on my true magnum opus --Twilight Sparkle and the Quest for Anatomical Accuracy!

I'll join, even though it seems like whining. 'Coz it lets me plug my stories! I'm more thrilled to have gotten views of my one-shots than I am disappointed to have had other stories fly past the front page (or, in the case of one story that I'm fond of, fail moderation) and be fossilized under layer upon layer of fan-fiction.

I have no right to complain. I wrote my cheesy one-shots to prostitute myself in order to gain watchers for my more-serious writing. And they were fun, and I'm proud of them, even though they are not as good as Pinkie Watches Paint Dry. Prostituting yourself for your art is fine, as long as you enjoy the act.

Sorry if it seems weird that I keep following you around, but this is the only group I've heard of that deal with this, so...:applejackunsure:
My story 'Christian and Geo in Equestria' is a multi-chapter story. It's not done yet, and I'm not sure it ever will be. Within an hour of first posting it, the first chapter received 87 likes and favourites. Not bad for a 3,000+ word chapter with literally no editing. It recieved a lot of praise. That's good. Since then it's spanned into a 50,000+ word adventure, still with no editing or proofreading, and received further praise. :yay:
Then I wanted to write something better. So I wrote 'Brains!', actually got it proofread, made it 12,000+ words, the works. It's far superior to my original story. And yet...it's not doing very well. :fluttershysad:
So here I am. Even if this is just me whining, I'll support others as best I can here. :twilightsmile:
So yeah, there's that.

I can sympathize, really. Spent a few hours on a stupid idea. Most popular fic, spend months on long fic. 2.5K... Oh well...

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