State of the Scribe: December 2022 · 2:56am Dec 2nd, 2022
Hey pones, hope you all had some great holidays!
This last month was a sacred time for writers everywhere, NANOWRIMO. I won! That probably isn't a shock to anyone who can see how many chapters I post in a typical month, but I digress. I'll talk a little bit about that at the end, since I know plenty of people just want to quickly check in with pony-related plans.
Frames of War finally got posted (yesterday). I've actually had the cover for two weeks now and could've done it sooner, but first midterms and then the thanksgiving holiday got in my way. Apologeis if I kept anyone waiting.
For those who weren't on the Patreon, Frames of War is a Warframe crossover fanfic, quite firmly entrenched in that world. It follows the protagonist Tenno, who arrives in Equestria after "dying" in the New War. Fortunately for her, there's already a warframe waiting for her to use. Unfortunately, it's also a pony.
Check out this awesome cover here! It probably gives a good look at where the story is headed. As a huge fan of the game myself, this story was definitely a labor of love. I've always been a bit bummed that there weren't many (and no complete) Warframe stories, so I'll be correcting that now.
The only other change for the month is that Don't Bug Me has taken Sisters' Saturday date. With that story complete, the commissioner decided to take a break for something a little different. Saturday has always been the biggest and most important date for new chapters, and I wanted to make sure a pony story got to keep it. Hence, Don't Bug Me's position.
On Sunday you'll find what that client (it's Bitera, not some secret spook pone) wanted--a Splatoon story! Yes, that's not a joke. I said yes, because that's also a labor of love. I've always wanted to make one of my usual tf stories in that world, and the inklings/octolings of Splatoon have always lended naturally to it.
Unfortunately the recent game totally broke the canon I used for this story, in ways I will not explain for game-spoiler purposes. Suffice it to say you'll notice some differences with Splatoon 3's account of inkling history if you read the story, and I'll leave it at that. But this thing started writing long before Splatoon 3 was published, so I wasn't going to go back and throw it out. Better to just call it an AU.
Of course everyone here will know that Genfic doesn't exist yet. This means I have to post the Splatoon story to my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/RealStarscribe, and possibly to fanfiction.net as well (once it has a cover). I've never been as good about that, thanks to that website not having an API for chapter publication. But it also hasn't meaningfully innovated its user interface since I started using it in middle school, so here we are.
As with all the pokemon stories I've done previously, it will be posted for free each week, for anyone to read. I will make an announcement blog for it once it gets a cover, and then probably not talk about it much again until it's finished. At that point I'll make a PDF/Epub for anyone who wants to read the story, as I've done with my other non-pony works.
We can only hope that genfic one day arrives and I can just post them here. Such as Spirits of Change, the Pokemon story I'm writing right now. Expect Legendary Shenanigans, TF, TG, you know why you're reading my fanfic at this point. you can read those whenever you want.
Then of course there's the Monthly stories, Dreamlands and Words of Power. Dreamlands is moving towards its conclusion, but sadly at the monthly speed that will take some time yet. This one tells the story of a bat pony after the failed lunar rebellion, trying to save her tribe by freeing Nightmare Moon from the moon.
Then of course there's Words of Power, which will hopefully have a cover ready by the new year and making its way to Fimfiction. This centers on the unfortunate dude who rescued a pony stranded on earth, only to have a dangerous artifact make him a kirin. He'll have to find a way to work together with the stranded pony if he ever wants to be human again.
Both of those are on my Patreon for now, though they will eventually arrive on Fimfiction. But if you'd like to check them out now, you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/RealStarscribe
Then there's two more chapters of Digital Effigy that have yet to manifest onto fimfiction. They're edited now, and at least one of them will be going up. Possibly both, but I don't want to make too many promises during the holidays.
This thing has gone on quite a while, so I'll wrap it up with a few words about my Nano. I wrote and completed an entire short story in the Magical Girls novel universe I previously completed one novel in, about 27k in length. I then wrote 50k of words towards the second book in that trilogy.
I've shown some art off of the characters before, and talked at length, but to reiterate, I'm going to publish the whole trilogy using the rapid-release model. This means that none of the books will be for sale until I finish all three, at which point they'll be released one at a time.
I think it was a very successful NANOWRIMO. I love both of these stories, and I hope that you will too, when the time comes.
For the moment, I can only wish you a Merry Christmas, or whatever else you celebrate. May your holiday be filled with pone.
-Starscribe
I wish you the best of luck in your future storys next year
What was the story "Machine Learning" from the 23rd about? I can't seem to find it here.
Nice. I hope you don't get burnt out or stuck on the last.
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Machine Learning was the working title while it was on my Patreon. Here on fimfiction it's called: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/523935/digital-effigy
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Alright, thanks very much! Happy new year!