And unfortunately, that verdict is unanimous:
Complaints were: too meta, hard to follow, does nothing to advance the plot, and potentially makes things worse while trying to fix them.
Which are particularly important this time, because the first preread I got back was negative. As it came from AJ_Aficionado, whose opinions I particularly value mostly because he’s more interested in the story than the sex, I tend to give what he said about it credence but still want to hear from everyone else before I start making changes to the new chapter.
After receiving pleas from multiple readers to keep the Enter the Griffon chapters in place, I have decided to do so and go with my original plan, which was to simply offer new readers the chance to skip over them when they come and then write the current chapter to catch anybody who does skip
I have been advised by no less an authority than CHS acting Vice-Principal Ms. Cheerilee to use the upcoming Midnight Rising chapter as strictly a recap to relaunch the story, and not get into Lemon Zest until the following chapter, when I can devote a full entry to it without any split in focus. No, really. She did. You’ll see what I mean when the chapter launches, but basically, I’m going to make this kind of an interlude chapter where I catch new or returning readers back up and
Thanks in part to one final comment that came to me over PM last night. It wasn't a mean comment. In fact, it was nothing but a simple, politely asked question from a reader I hadn't heard from before: do you have to read the griffon chapters to understand what comes after?
It seems I have another issue to address.
I have to admit, I’m regretting doing the griffon arc right now. 
For as much fun as it was for me to write, it should have been a side story given how much of a distraction it turned into. And even those who liked it continue to complain about even the revamped ending, wanting the dragons to have won.
Sorry for the delay. Was waiting for final prereads to come in, and I’ve been sick this past week with what might have been the norovirus due to symptoms I’d rather not mention.
I’ve given them a week to hit it, and I’ve already started into into a brand new chapter, with the first 500 words down. At long last—and sorry again for the long sideshow there; I will address that directly in the first part of the text as Sunset gets dinged by creative writing instructor Ms. Cherilee for letting her narration lose focus—it’s time for Midnight to deal with Lemon Zest. Probably going to be a two-parter this go-around, but we’ll see.
After a couple false starts, I finally figured out how I’m going to fix the last Midnight Rising chapter and am attacking it with gusto now, though I’ve also been sparing some time to tweak the new Eros chapter that is only awaiting its final prereads.
As promised on a blog in early December, I’m coming back to Midnight Rising with the intention of rewriting the poorly done ending to the Molly/Vesuvius duel to something far more fitting and appropriate. And once that’s done? I’m proceeding directly into the next chapter with the intention of putting the story back on track, finally focusing on Lemon Zest.
Well, folks, it appears that I laid an egg with the last release of Midnight Rising, which was supposed to wrap the Griffon Kingdom side arc. I received not one, but two critical comments on it, with the latest coming just in the past couple weeks.
What does the former have to do with the latter? Nothing except to remind myself that despite being recently diagnosed with high blood pressure (for which I’m on medication and have altered my diet), my heart is strong and stamina is growing. I can do a 10k with ease now, I hit 8.22 miles today without a problem, and I may consider seeing if I can run a half-marathon (13.1 miles) before long.
I’m waiting a couple more days to give the rest of my prereaders more chance to hit it. Be warned that I did decide to break up the chapter again, so you’ll essentially be getting part 1 of Queen Moly vs Dragon Lord Vesuvius with a lot of additional commentary—and a major revelation or two—from the Humane 6 peanut gallery as Sunset continues to tell the tale.
And sorry to be a broken record about it, but I’ve had a very stressful few weeks both at work and at home I won’t go into further here. Maybe later. The story chapter is part of the stress, given it keeps growing as large as Queen Molyneux as she rises to challenge the Dragon Lord.
Both personal and professional. I’ll start with the former: Following a bout with severe stomach pain a couple weeks ago (which turned out to be bad gas but distended my gut enough to strain some of the area muscles), I have been diagnosed with hypertension—high blood pressure—and thus far I’m having trouble bringing it under control.
Chapter will launch when it’s in, either tonight or tomorrow night. Aside from that, the chapter is loaded and ready and has already had its editing passes. As I have a good chunk of the next chapter already written, I’ll continue with the story after. And since you’ve been so patient, and the chapter is now a couple weeks late, I’ll offer up a small (sanitized) teaser, showing another example of the google doc-type comment chains I’m incorporating into the new chapter as a narrative device.
It’s ready for review, but—stop me if you’ve heard this before—I broke up the chapter, since it was getting too long and a completed version would be upwards of 20,000 words. A bit too big for a clopfic, but fortunately, there was a natural breakpoint at 11k words. So that’s what you’ll be getting.
My job is interfering, as well as worries over a couple troubled friends. The chapter is currently sitting at 11,326 words with at least 2-3k words more to go, meaning I was only able to put around 1800 words on it over the past week.
Got it up over 8500 words now, with probably another 5-6k to go. Yep, gonna be another big one, like all the griffon chapters. Among (many) other things, I’m taking pains to touch on everybody else present so you can get an update on what’s going on with them, including the Shadowbolt girls and our illustrious school heads.
And since I mentioned that I’d be using a new narrative device in an earlier blog, I’ll give you a sneak preview of it, told (as always) through Sunset’s point of view:
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
976 users online
1,181,711 hits today, 2,439,861 yesterday
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
