A short summary of why I'm here.

At first I juste wanted to be able to keep track of updates to unfinished stories. But then I thought "Hey, you wrote stories before. Why not try one in English for once?" (I'm from germany and not a native speaker). So I began to write a pony fic as my first ever english text outside of school.

I've written a few short texts (don't really want to call them "stories") so far, but never finished any of it. And it bugs me profusely. This time, I intend to bring the story to its end. And it looks good so far. Why? Because there is a significate difference this time: I've got an idea of where the story will go, not just an idea of a setting with almos no idea for the plot itself.

But there are other reasons as well. For one, I'd like to practice my written English (grammar, wording etc.). I've always had problems with fully grasping grammatical rules to the point where I can consciously use it. All you read from me is just instinctual use of grammar ("that sentence sounds right" or "that sounds somehow...crude?"). You can ask me what "simple past" is and I will begin to sweat and stutter something about tenses and "I think it was the thing with the '-ed' at the end of words".

A few years after school I took a refresher course in English, and I was one of the best at speaking freely, but we reached grammar, my mind got tied in a knot. I don't even remember anything I should have learned/relearned there. And I don't think that I will ever be able to use grammar the way I'd like to use it, but I like to try a different approach this time. Writing a story is something entirely different than doing some grammatical exercises. Going over your story again and again, working in hints from proofreaders or comments is something that works far better for me. The first chapter of my upcoming story is finished plot-wise and now in the polishing phase where I get rid of grammatical and spelling errors, as well as rephrasing some sentences. And what can I say? Suddenly grammar turns almost fun!

And the last reason is: I want to give back something to the fandom. There are so many great artists out there. Musicians, illustrators and writers. My collection of pony fanwork is bigger than any colelction I've ever had before. So if I can contribute something, and I hope it won't be considered "trash", I'm happy to do so.

tl;dr
Hey everyone! Nice to be here!