I finally decided to stop procrastinating and write that sequal that I should have started a year ago.  Though I might be a little slow to upload new chapters, hopefully it won't be as slow as it took get this fic up.  In the least I'm hoping for once a month, but then I said that about getting the first chapter up back in January.  My bad.

    As for some of my other stories that have been in sleep mode for almost six months, I still plan to continue them eventually.  Night of Harvest was meant to be a Halloween themed fic started and finished in October, but I was sidetracked by my focus on my Let's Play series, so at this point I'm hoping to finish it again for next October.  Again, we'll see.

    Spiral: The Strangeness of Ponyville, has been an interesting run for me and my reason for slowing down surprisingly does not entirely have to do with me being lazy.  The fic takes place ten years in the future, but I started writing it before the Revelation of Princess Twilight, and thus she's not an Alicorn in the story.  Even in a crossover fic like that one, I always try to keep things as show accurate as possible while still retaining some of my own ideas that are decidedly not show accurate.  For Spiral, I'm trying to decide if I should continue from where I am or go back and adjust what I have already written to account for Princess Twilight.  It wouldn't be too change a few major details and events around too reflect our newish Twilacorn, but it would still take at least a little replanning on my part, since I don't know exactly how the show is going to continue with Princess Twilight, or rather what direction they are going to take the show from this point.  Being a Princess, does that mean she has to live in Canterlot or can she stay in Ponyville?  Season 4, I need you for clarification!

    And for the last fic, the crazy Celebrity Deathmatch crossover, which has been surprisingly more popular than I was expecting, that one I could probably continue rather easily since I already know most of what I want to happen.  I'm probably going to try to focus on Cheer One More Time though, since it has been so long coming.

    Anyway, thanks for reading, I always appreciate the comments on my fics and I'll try not to procrastinate on my fics as much as I have in the last year and a half.

     One year ago today I posted the final chapter to Cheer On, my most unexpectedly popular fic.  (Yes, I actually keep track of these things.  It must be the Twilight in me.)  On that day I also promised a sequel sometime in the future, but last year I really didn't post much after Cheer On, nor have I finished any of the projects I've started since then.  It would seem odd to do so now with some three or four unfinished fics still under my name, but I think I definitely need to get the Cheer On sequel going, since I feel I owe it to the readers who have been waiting for so long.  I'm very nearly done with the first chapter (which I had hoped to finish by today but sadly didn't;  Darn homework) so I figure I can release it sometime in the next week or two (absolutely before the end of the month is what I am gunning for!  No laziness now, GW!!!!)  

     Before that I really do have to thank all the folks who read Cheer On.  It's all of you who make writing fanfics fun and motivates us fanfic writers to keep going (even though I've been horribly lazy the last year.)  Thank you all for the support and the enthusiasm and all you're answering of the math problems which I think was the most popular thing about the fic.

    Speaking of such things, writing a sequel is kind of scary.  Obviously there is a certain expectation among the readers that I have to meet (has any sequel to anything ever met that expectation?)  It makes me kind of nervous because the sequel has a somewhat different tone from the original and of course a different plot which really should be expected.  I can't expect to get away with repeating the same plot.  So far there aren't any insane math problems and the Cutie Mark Crusaders may or may not play as large of a role, but it looks like Cheerilee is going to be more involved with what is going on than last time where she rather happenstantially fell into it.  I probably shouldn’t say much more than that.  

     Once again, thank you all for reading the first one and I hope you enjoy reading the second once I release it.

          - GWFan (The Softcore Brony)

    Did I just post a new chapter after months of inactivity?  I totally just posted a new chapter after months of inctivity!  Woo Hoo!

    Still, I was hoping to get some three chapters finished a good two months ago and here I am finishing one only just now.  I would like to think that I wont be so lazy in the future but I get the feeling I probably will.  I'm certainly going to try but I still have lots of things to do on the side, like work and school, and I'm also preparing for my next LP already, which will probably start after the first week of January.I think the LP is what is really killing my fic writing productivity but I really enjoy making those videos.  In any case, here's me hoping I'm not so lazy in the future.  

    Despite the fact that I already have three or four unfinished fics to work on, I'm thinking that its probably about time I finally worked on the Cheer On sequel since I think I do owe that to the readers who have been waiting for it for almost a year now.  I already know what I want to happen and have a base story with a number of things already written out.  I honestly could get the first chapter out before the weekened if I really wanted to.  (If I don't continue being lazy)  This is just a possibility of course, though I'm heavily considering it since it's going to be a while before my other thre fics are finished, or at least Spiral and Deathmatch anyway.  Night of Harvest is going to be somewhat short, probably around Onigoko length I would say.  Anyway, it's just about a new year (and already one for some of you) so here's me making my first New Year's resolution ever and hoping to finish at least one chapter a month (of any of the above including the Cheer On sequel).  That seems like a reasonable goal, though much longer than I used to be able to produce fics.

And what an experience it was.  As the first function of anything brony that I have gone to (being an introvert and deeply afraid of social gatherings normally) I have to say that I am glad I went.  It was my first time seeing other bronies face to face and they’re just as crazy I imagined us to be.  We really are an amazing culture and phenomenon, something that I probably appreciate more now then I did before.  In fact I know I appreciate it more.  I call myself the Softcore Brony because even nearly a year and a half after becoming a brony, I’m still a closet brony (The other four people who live in my house still have no idea).  I don’t indulge in the merchandise (which has slowly been changing recently with preorders of the first season boxset and the comics as they are released) and I don’t even know the names of many of the bronies out their who do amazing work like LaserPon3 whose work I saw for the first time in the documentary.  

As far as the screening itself goes, Lauren Faust happened to sit five seats to my right, The Manliest Brony and the guys from Everfree Radio (something else I have never taken the time to listen too which I suddenly feel really guilty about) sat directly four rows behind me, and even Hot Diggedy Demon was there.  Tara Strong showed up some point after the lights went out so I don’t know where she sat.  Two of the bronies who were featured in the documentary were there as well, and hearing a little more about their stories in addition was very touching.  There was a lot of touching statements from Bronies during the Q&A afterwards in fact.

As for the documentary itself, The pre-screening was better than I was expecting, and that is saying a lot from someone who normally enjoys documentaries anyway.  Right from the get go, it pulls you in and is honestly exciting.  We get to see so many good stories of bronies whose lives were changed because of pony and some of the larger trials they went through.  I have to say, for those of you who didn’t see it, I think you will be pleased and maybe even a little surprised.  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, I think you’ll see it all and love it as much as I did.  Heck, I’m expecting it to be better because, after all, it was only a prescreening, not a premier.  As one of the producers put it, it’s only about 80% complete so they’ll make it 20% cooler with the last editing.  Yeah, I saw it with a few unfinished animations and cliff note where an interview with John Delancey would be (Black screen with the words “Interview with John Delancey will go here”).  I can’t wait to see the full finished product and as I already said, I think all of you who didn’t see it yet, will be pleasantly pleased.

- GWFan (Still the Softcore Brony)

So what, I have three unfinished stories sitting around now?  I need to get on this as soon as I can.  I'm going to try to finish up Night of Harvest within a week or so if I can, and then finally continue Spiral.  The Celebrity Deathmatch Crossover is going to be on temporary hiatus (not like the Manly Man Way which seems to be on perminent hiatus) while I try to focus on finishing my horror themed fics.  After all that I can weave into Deathmatch again and finally start working on the Cheer On sequel.  After I finish my current Let's Play, I'll probably put future Let's Playing on hold until I at least get most of the way through Spiral.  This is all while I'm working on my Capstone project for school...  Why do I keep myself so busy?

I've written barely anything fanfiction related in about five weeks now.  My Youtubing really has ben pulling me away, but it's not like I;ve been doing no writing at all.  I've been attempting to improve my writing a bit by working on the "Show Don't Tell" rule, which I seem to be bad at, at times.  However, it's not like you have to strictly follow that rule.  There is a time and place for telling.  The trick is to find a balance between showing and telling.  You can't just have all showing becuase then you would have nothing but long drawn out descriptions, and you can't just tell because it would be really short.  I'm looking to go back and improve one of my previous fics and also improve the new Spiral fic before I update it again.  Hopefully I will do this soon, though I can't promise anything unfortunatly.  Work is picking up a lot lately too and I have a class at school that is literally just about working on a freakishly huge project (And I was defaulted as the leader of my group which sucks becuase I'm a C type personality.)

Anyway, I thought posting some of the stories from the monthly Writer's Group prompts would be a nice way to at least put up something until I can actually finish writing something new.  I practically have chapter two of Spiral written, I just have to sit down and finish it.  By the way, regarding those monthly prompts, anyone in the Writer's Group is free to write for them.  The rule is 550 words or less, which is both easy and challenging and strangly fun when you get into it.  I only mention this because only about 1% of our members participate in it (and we currently have 767 members).   That number is so small I have to think it's more because people just don't know about it.  How could there really be only 12 out of 767 people that feel like writing 550 words that you have around half a month to write?  It dosn't have to be pure gold or anything, just write it as a challenge to yourself, even just to keep yourself writing.  Someone somewhere once said that the best stories are told in as few words as possible.  Did you ever hear that six word story that I think was written by Hemingway?

"Baby shoes for sell.  Never worn."

Unfortunately, it seems that my ambition for my October Project is a bit too much for me to handle.  It is simple too large a project that, at my currently projected word count, will end up being at some 144,000 words.  As I currently am sitting at 54,324... yeah…

So rather than a big several day release throughout October, it looks like this project (Spiral) is being reduced to a normal project, with chapters released as I finish them.  I guess I’ll still be working on the Celebrity Deathmatch crossover at the same time here and there as well.  With both of them together, it’s hard to say how often I will be updating them, though it seems I might be delaying the Cheer On sequel even further back, whereas before I was hoping for a December release at the latest, it could be longer.

As I feared, I am putting a lot of priority on my LP which obviously takes a lot of time away from my fanfiction writing, since on average it takes around four to five hours in total to complete one episode, which I usually do in one day and release every two days (or at least that’s what I try to do.)  Since I’m still not quite halfway through the game, it looks like my fanfiction is going to be somewhat slowed in general so I apologize to anyone that may have been looking forward to new or updated fanfiction from me.  Hopefully I’ll have the next chapter of Spiral out soon if nothing else.

- GWFan (The Softcore Brony)

National Pony Writing Month is coming to a close and instead of writing something new, I decided it would be best to work on my big October Project.  It was totally within the rules so I was happy.  I’m not happy that I didn’t make 50,000 words.  I only added about 30,000+ to what I already had, though I’m going to work on it just a little more before submitting it on the last day.  I can’t believe how busy I was this month.  Heck, on the last day, I’m only going to be able to work on it for about four or five hours in total so there’s no way I’m going to make the 50,000 goal, which is horribly disappointing considering I had the third highest word count last year at 63,000.  

Oh well, in light of things, since I haven’t posted anything in a while, I figured I would do a sort of preview for the October Project and post the first chapter which may or may not change slightly when I get to the Project.  Even if I don’t finish the whole thing by October, I at least plan to begin posting the chapters I complete.

As it happens I do have a very weird writing style where I write bits and parts here and there, sometimes just one scene sometimes even just one piece of dialogue and then connect them all together later.  I frequently write the ending before I even finish the beginning.  Because of this (as the story currently stands at just above 50,000) I’ve actually written a bit of every single chapter in the story and I know where it is, where it goes, and how it will end.  

So please enjoy Spiral: The Strangeness of Ponyville (which is a partial comedy though not enough to warrant a comedy tag I think) a dark tale not as dark as Onigokko, but still dark enough to satisfy anyone who likes a good dark story.  At least I hope it’s good.  I think I’ve rambled on long enough.  

      Wow, I can't beleive it.  Cheer On, just hit 13000 views exactly.  I'm so touched I could cry.  Thank you to everyone who decided to give it a try.  Truly, I'm still shocked it became such a surprising success.  When I started that one it was just a silly little idea I had and frankly, I had some four fics at the time that I was deciding between to focus on and I chose Cheer On at random.  I never expected so many people would like it and it never even occured to me that its main focus of losing a beloved teacher was a relatable topic to the average person.  I just wasn't thinking that at the time.  Again, thanks to everyone who decided to read it and thanks especially to EqD for accepting it.  

      After National Pony Writing Month is over, I'm going to try and focus some on finishing the first chapter of the sequal.  It's a little nerve wracking becuase it's a bit different from the first, but it still retains the same sense of humor.  Hopefully it will not dissapoint anyone who has been looking forward to it.  Once more, thank you all so much.  A writer could never ask for anything greater than just one reader so having so many is absolutely honoring.

    So I'm going to write for thirty straight days and hopefully come up with something epic.  Before that, I figured I would get down to business and at least finish the next chapter of Celebrity Deathmatch since I've already delayed that one long enough.  Is it ironic that as soon as I start to realy feel that fic again, I go and start something else?  Oh well.  Hope everyone enjoys the new chapter while I'm away.  By the end of this I'll have something new to put up over the course of next month, probably a chapter at a time or something just like I initially did with To the End of Drudges.  And of course my LP still goes on, though its been delayed the last few days due to a funeral and some other stuff.  Anyway, thanks to all the readers who have read my fics and hopefully enjoyed at least some of them.  I'll be back in a month!

      - GWFan (The Softcore Brony)