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Bitter over the unexpected direction her success has taken, Ink Well, famed author of the Daring Do books, decides to take a holiday in the small rural community of Ponyville in the hopes of escaping the pressures of fame; but sometimes it just takes one fan to make all the difference.
Oh dear, the feature box will get bulldozed hard.
Let's read...
Ok done.
I don't know, AA. Lately, your work hasn't been as good lately. Fix it!
Nah, but seriously,this was a nice, if routine, tale of how every writer feels. No matter the size of the audience, you always feel that fear of disappointing them, or of sucking, or having lost your touch. Sometimes you just lose that urge to write. And often, you only need one fan to sincerely tell you you're great to renew that energy. While not exactly an original idea(I recall seeing a fic where the Daring Doo author was a stallion, was losing his enthusiasm to write, and a letter from RD got him back on track, for example), you pulled it off well.
Why do you post so many stories? They're good, no doubt, but come on. You're making us look bad! Or is that your intention?
Nevertheless,
Heh, this was a nice read. Nothing too fancy, but there's nothing wrong with 'day-to-day' stuff either.
Rainbow being a passionate fan about anything she likes definitely shows itself here. For a moment I thought Rainbow was going to catch on to who Ink Well was. Glad you kept it the way you did though. Made it more touching, in a way.
Thanks for the story.
By an amazing coincidence the fandom described by Ink Well feels like a parallel to an unfortunately vocal portion of the mlp fandom, with Rainbow Dash representing the more positive and genuine fans of the show.
But it's probably just a total coincidence, I'm sure you didn't intend that sort of interpretation at all. But yeah, great story! Loved the conversation between the writer and the fan.
this story is for those people who has absorbed in too much dissatisfaction and have been thinking that the story they write is becoming poorer by those critics .. more like when a person write.. just let the imagination take u to another level and write with fun and pleasure not by stress or even poor criticism..
An author losing inspiration and then regaining it by way of naive fan is a fun type of story to play around with. It may be slightly cliche, but the twists you can put on it can make it worth the read, if done well. So although I was slightly wary at first, I thought, "Hey, it's you, so it's gotta be good." But...
This seemed like a scathing attack on critics more than a story about the characters. That's there, but it's not the focus. 99% of what Ink Well was saying was too harsh, inaccurate, ridiculous, and/or condescending, there's too much of it. If you want to have an author be embittered towards their fanbase, then fine. But them ranting about it the entire story is overkill. And it all feels like it's personal.
I wanted to see more healing for Ink Well, or at least more interaction with Dash. Something that made it more character focused. It felt like the characters were the vehicle for a message you wanted to deliver, and that's a shame, because I always feel these stories have some much potential.
CONFOUND THOSE GRAMMAR MISTAKES I SAW
>>580103 I concur with this, but, to me, there appear to be some other issues with this.
So, to add just that little bit more of a damper on the seventeenth birthday of a Canadian girl whom I have never met... 
Dear Ms AbsoluteAnonymous,
I fear that the timing of this will be awkward, but I cannot help but feel that this needs to be said. Or, at least, I need to get it out of my system.
Let me start off by saying that I am still amazed by your storytelling. Whether it be a simple, humourous little piece of fluff (and I mean that in a good way) or a multi-part epic, chocked full of character growth and drama, I have always been drawn in by your work and not been allowed to leave until I have come to the end. Your characterisations, your dialogue, the way you get these characters to interact and bounce off one another in ways that seem innocuous but still speak volumes for their depth, and how effectively you pace your works have always been so crisp, and wonderful, and engaging, that they have simply glossed over any of the rare flaws that I have found with your prose.
Until your two most recent works, that is.
Now, don't misunderstand me: these are still good works, deep down. But I can't help noticing one phrase you included in this story.
"to truly communicate ideas, and not just trigger responses."
That sums up, at its most basic, the issue with these works. They're told. They're told well. They tell the right things to trigger the precise response I think that you were hoping for, judging by their overall tone and pacing, but they don't show me much. Ink Well's opening inner-monologue in this story, for example. It's certainly thought-provoking, and I can tell that you poured a fair bit of your own emotion into it, but... I just can't help but think that the ideas that are told could have also been gotten across by a 'description', if I can put it that way, of Ink Well sitting at her desk, alone in a rather small room that is stuffed with her previous typings and scribblings and half-finished plans, struggling to keep her eyes open as she flicks through yet more fan-mail, and with her thoughts as responses to each piece.
Then there's the 'descriptions' of Opal's personality in Transdimensional Zoology. They're told, as well:
"She was confident in her own beauty and charming personality and didn't require constant reassurance, nor did she feel the need to prove it to anypony who dared question her likeability. She had no time for such doubting skeptics, and always made sure to make them perfectly aware of that fact."
Again, it's telling me exactly the right thing to trigger exactly the right response, but I can't help think that this could be done better. In fact, it probably was. You had here and Winona in a conversation together directly after this, and you managed to communicate what was needed to be known about Opal's personality fairly well through pure dialogue. and little tellings like this: "There was precious little that she loved more than talking about herself." Now, I know that this is telling also, but it allows a little more room for interpretation. It's not quite as blunt as the statement of her confidence.
I don't know. I probably shouldn't be saying this. I'm probably in no position to lecture anyone in the quality of their own writing, but, as you said: "The worst is probably those letters that aren't even specific enough to tell you. They just complain about how everything's ruined, and they expect you to know what they mean and fix it accordingly. Imagine knowing that hundreds of strangers disliked you, and you didn't even know why because they just won't tell you."
Don't get me wrong, though, there are still some excellent parts of these stories. Gummy's introduction in TZ is stunning, both in terms of what he does and in terms of Opal and Winona's reactions to it. The little line about Rainbow not looking up from her book, too, is an excellent communicator, though it is let down a little bit by the "She was too busy reading" line.
And even if they are poorly written, these are still good ideas and stories. And they do pull out an emotional response from me. Funnily enough, I sympathise rather well with Ink Well at the beginning of this story. I just can't help but feel that these could have been done better. As apt as it is given this story, the AbsoluteAnonymous of... two weeks ago, really, needs to be let out again from this telling blockade.
So... I don't know if that made any impact, or if you even read any of this, but I hope that this helps a little.
Then again, given what you had an author tract, sorry, Rainbow Dash, say, I can't help but feel that this won't make any difference at all: "She's the one who wrote the books, after all. Anything she says goes. They might not like it very much, and it might kind of suck sometimes, but she's the one who decides how it goes in the end. If they don't like it, they just shouldn't read it."
Yours sincerely,
Arbarano
Happy Birthday... to you...
Well, I'm glad that ended on a positive note, since I started out wondering if you were a bit unhappy with the outcome of your writing. Reading this felt very personal. Self reflection is one of the few ways an OC that reflects the author can be used well and the piece certainly works.
It's interesting to see the other side of this, since I'm a consumer rather than a producer and there really are authors I think took sudden downhill turns-- though i just stopped reading their stuff instead of whining at them. It's not like telling them is suddenly going to make the bad books un-happen after all. But on the other hand, there's plenty of times when I see a fandom complaining about the stupidest things in an author's work, stuff that should make no difference at all to their enjoyment.
The main lesson I got out of this is that I should bother reviewing things more often, since I haven't been doing that lately. It may keep the people whose work I enjoy working. Something I think I knew but needed to be reminded of.
The nature of the story leaves me hesitant to post a shallow compliment as I usually do, like a true sycophantic fan of yours, and yet I find it difficult to say anything more in-depth, as I know very little about writing and can offer little constructive criticism unless there is something very obviously wrong with a story, which is not the case here. I suppose I can try writing something slightly more interesting than "AA is awesome", though.
In this story, I very much feel the characters are merely a way to make your thoughts about writing known. Ink Well is designed solely to communicate a message; Rainbow says what is required to further your point. The message behind their actions carries the story; they themselves are merely a means to an end. In "The Games We Play" there was an obvious philosophical layer about our relationships with people and the boxes we place them in, yet this philosophy was communicated to us through the actions and thoughts of the characters; the characters weren't there just because of the point you were making. One might even say it was the other way around; the characters and their actions were what made it possible for the point to be made at all, which meant the message was natural and supported by the story. This story felt more like a treatise on writing, writers and their relationship with fans than a true story about Daring Do's author meeting Rainbow Dash.
EDIT: Looking back through the comments, it seems my attempt to post something at least slightly interesting merely ended up being a repetition of something which has already been stated twice in a much more eloquent manner. Ah, well. I tried.
Also, this comic will always remain my headcanon about who wrote the Daring Do books.
Again? Really? I'm never making the featured box at this rate... But you're a damn good author, so have a thumb.
I hate it when I have to read several comments within an argument to completely understand it.
Anyways, even as a person without many feelings, I can still tell that you're taking this far too much to heart. They're just talking about the features box, not about the story itself. Geez. No reason to get so pissed off.
Dunno about you, but to me they're still there.
@ Absolute Anonymous
I read your blog post about this story, so I understand its intent as inspiration and a reflection on why to write... but I do have to agree with Arbarano about the level of show vs tell included in the piece. I agree fully with the sentiment, but I feel I'm being told to feel that way, rather than have the emotion evoked. I would prefer it the other way.
Happy belated birthday
What a wonderful little story. Whilst I can't say Ink Well's is a problem I can personally relate to, it's all too easy to imagine people actually doing stuff like this, and if you really do get messages like the ones in the story then my heart goes out to you. I mean, I read your blog and so I know you wrote this for a friend, however I also get the sense that you're writing from experience here, and frankly, nopony should have to put up with rubbish like that. In a way, the story kind of reminds me of some of the backlash I've seen directed at season 2 of FIM. It's not much backlash, but some of it was pretty vicious, and nearly all of what I’ve seen was from ponies who didn't say if they thought the new stuff was good or not, but rather focused on pointing out that the season felt different, which obviously meant that it was completely god-awful as opposed to 'good-with-flaws.’ The reaction to The Mysterious Mare Do Well springs to mind here. Some of the comments I saw on EQD when it first aired were unbelievable.
It's also gotta be kind of frustrating to have legions of ponies who have it in their heads that you can do no wrong, and who blindly defend everything you write just because you're the one who wrote it. Whilst it must be incredibly flattering to have fans like that and to have hundreds of comments of 'nice story' or whatever, I’m guessing it must get pretty tiring sometimes as well. I know that not every comment needs to be as long and rambling as what I'm writing now (incidentally I’m very sorry, I can seriously go on and on sometimes), however, the comments I like getting best are the ones where I feel like the other person genuinely connected with my writing in one way or another. They make everything feel so worthwhile 
Hmm, I've written all this yet haven't written anything about the actual story itself 
. What can I say? Honestly, it felt a little preachy at times (although other ponies already pointed that out), but other than that, it was well written, well-paced, and Rainbow Dash was perfectly in character the whole time. Most importantly, I got the real sense that it was something you really wanted to write, which as you pointed out makes all the difference in the world. I thoroughly enjoyed it, so have another watcher!
... Also, whilst I’m at it, happy late birthday!
Thanks for this, eh. As someone who tries very hard to not care what others think about what I write unless the criticizer truly has the intent to help me improve (and to not compare my lack of skill and experience with my betters) and simply write because... well, either I want to, or the insistent voices of the characters won't let me rest until I do... this story served for me as a good reminder of why I want to do this in the first place.
Had I been in Ink Well's hooves, though, I must admit that I probably would not have been able to resist the temptation to go back and introduce myself to Rainbow Dash. At times I wish that having sycophants were a problem I had. 
Hm. You know something? The Internet is an idiot. You know why? Because whatever I type out won't be as good enough as a nod of approval in real life. Thanks for that - opening my eyes and all. I could tell the meaning of this story very clearly, and it makes me want to say just one thing: Apologies.
Heh. Funny. It doesn't even begin to sound sincere enough because it's words on a screen. You may not care to forgive me, nor anything I've done. But just know that I'm sorry. For everything.
Best of luck in all your endeavors,
RaptorSenior/Xelor
Merciful Celestia, it's as meta as they come. 
I know nothing about the hardships of a popular writer, but appreciate every comment under my pathetic writing attempts. 
Well, unless it's "you suck" with no explanation why I do. 
But I guess I'm not the overly-sensitive, occasionally egotistical mare Ink Well is said to be.
Side note:
Can I get it from you as soon as your done?
Et tu, Abby?
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