2022 Writing Retrospective and 2023 schedule · 9:29pm Dec 30th, 2022
Well, here I am at the office, though all I’m really doing right now is holding down the fort. There’s nobody else here but a custodian right now, which is fine with me. A nice quiet building with no work to do gives me the chance to write with no distractions. Thus, I can now report that the next chapter of Feathered Hearts - Eros is draft complete except for its initial editing pass.
It will be off to prereaders this evening, though it remains to be seen whether they can get to it in time for a Sunday (New Years Day) release. But that aside, I figured I’d look back on 2022 and then ahead to 2023, writing-wise.
A look back at 2022...
I came into the year with my usual grandiose array of writing goals—finish off my Unleash the Magic stories, resume work on my second Dominion Academy novel, complete my story commission and make strong progress on Feathered Hearts.
Only two of those goals were met, unfortunately, but they were still big wins. Harmonic Resonance is finished and I’m very pleased with how it turned out, while I churned out twelve chapters on Feathered Hearts - Continuation and Chronicles, completing its first major story arc and (though this wasn’t originally planned) updating the story from T-rated to M-rated.
In contrast, progress was made on Unleash the Magic but not enough as the story commission and C&C consumed much of my time and muse’s attention. And I regret I put no work in on Dominion Academy, which has been languishing for years now.
One thing Feathered Hearts has taught me again...
Is that it’s impossible to write something that pleases everyone, especially when I’m picking up an old story like this one and attempting to rewrite it with brand new scenes, lore, and characters. I had complaints about everything from too much suggestive content to too little, objections to the scene that marked its ascension to M-rated, another reader dinging me on politics (which I toned down further in the early chapters), and still another reader claiming that I’d ruined the story my making the griffons guess the nature of human weapons before they saw them.
There’s nothing you can do a lot of the time except accept the critiques plus accompanying downvotes and move on, though it’s not in my nature to not respond when I receive a negative comment—especially those that are impolite. Still, when I decide someone has a point, I make changes. I’m not too proud to accept negative feedback I think is valid, whether its from my prereaders or commenters.
That said, the first person that I, as the author, have to please is myself. If I don’t enjoy what I’m writing, readers won’t either, and ultimately, I have to find the balance between my interests and what readers want. But the key word there is balance. In a story like this, its inevitable that there’s going to be stuff people don’t like. All I can really do is make sure that there’s enough in there that they do, so all I ever ask of my readers is that you don’t lose sight of the forest for a couple trees you don’t enjoy.
A look ahead to 2023...
I’ll be setting out my usual array of ambitious goals, and they’re mostly the same as before: finish off Unleash the Magic, push forward on Feathered Hearts, and finally resume work on Dominion Academy.
The problem is, unless I’m writing full time (and I do have a day job), that full list is not going to happen. Focusing on writing one by definition means I neglect the others. More realistically, I’ll probably be able to finish one of the UtM stories (likely Midnight Rising) which has to happen anyway before I can finish off Nightmare Night. But the latter will get a new chapter first thing this year after the new Eros release, as I failed to keep my promise for another post-Halloween chapter before 2022 was out.
Writing Schedule
First up is the new Eros chapter, hopefully releasing on Sunday (New Years Day). After that comes the overdue new chapter of Nightmare Night, which won’t be clop-heavy as it will be battle time between Ascended Sunset (in the form of Solar Inferno as opposed to Daydream Shimmer) vs Corrupted Twilight (Queen Eclipse).
As I’ll be getting new testosterone pellets later in the month, that’s the time I’ll pick up the pace on Midnight Rising, ending with the final Gryphon Kingdom chapter before segueing into the final Shadowbolt girl to be punished—Lemon Zest. After that comes Sunset’s ascension to Daydream, then Daydream vs Midnight followed by the aftermath.
We’ll see how much of it I can get done before the spring. The main thing I need out of Midnight Rising for Nightmare Night is the completion of the griffon sequences, and keep in mind that you’ll be seeing some more griffies crossing over even aside from the action in the Kingdom, including our favorite griffie girl Gilda.
I also pledge to resume Feathered Hearts by spring with the first chapter of the next story arc. I promise it will include the major plot points from the old version while incorporating plenty of new stuff, same as before. Plenty more clop and combat lie ahead, and I’ll set a goal to see if I can complete the next story arc by the end of next year. But that may be difficult given another writing objective.
Dominion Academy
For those of you unaware, I have a well-reviewed erotic anthro novel available out on Amazon, published back in 2014:
The second book in the series has severely languished to this point because I’ve been so intent on my fimfiction writings. This is different because it’s something I can actually get paid for, but I haven’t put much work on it because it’s also something I don’t really get feedback on like I do here. So if you go for anthro or ‘furry’ type stuff, feel free to check it out. It honestly needs an editing pass and a couple scenes could use correction, but I’m still quite proud of it, and those few fimfiction readers who have seen it have liked it.
Readers of Firefly and Feathered Hearts have seen an analog for the main protagonist in the form of Kamilya Ampok, who is based on the character of Kamilya Kampo from Dominion Academy. She’s another in a lengthening line of strong female characters from me to go alongside those of Gilda, Five Stars, and Captain Firefly.
The point, however, is that it’s way past time for me to work on it again, so what I’m considering doing is setting aside four or five months to work on it exclusively, or nearly so. I believe the most likely time frame for that would be starting in April and going through August. If this means there’s no new content from me for a bit, so be it. I need to finish this and get a second book out there.
And for the last part of the year...
Another mix of Feathered Hearts and Unleash the Magic, most likely. Like I said, I’ll aim for completing the next story arc of the former and at least finishing off Midnight Rising for the latter. Might be overly ambitious, but serious progress will be made on both stories and they won’t be languishing for another year.
Any new stories?
It depends whether I receive a commission request that I a) want to do and b) won’t take up much time. I also have a half-idea for an erotic anthology series involving characters from Firefly, but I’m going to let that simmer for a bit. You can think of it as showing some of what was happening behind the scenes that the main story couldn’t tell.
As for the Firefly series itself, I will resume it eventually, but if I start it now, nothing else is going to get done. And I really need to knock out more of my active stories before I take on any major new projects.
Closing remarks...
As I finish ten years on Fimfiction, I find myself still going strong with a desire to continue my stories. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for following me and your feedback, and know that I have every intention of finishing what I’ve started, from Feathered Hearts to Unleash the Magic.
Thank you for your patience and patronage, and if you’d like to leave a token of thanks, I won’t object to a tip being sent by PayPal to firesight72@hotmail.com. Aside from that, nothing else left to say except... 🎇🎇Happy New Year!🎇🎇
An absolute champion.
Well said.
5705913
And well said.
I am looking forward to more Unleash the Magic. Given how busy you have been with writing I suspect that before you can statr with a new Firefly story you have to finish Midnight Rising first.
Plenty of things coming up, and the new faces on the pre-reading will help a lot of things go through with minimal issues
That seems like a good plan, but as you mentioned, starting a new project will only end in nothing being done at all, which will be worse for you of us all, seeing that previous year's plan already hadn't been fully completed. Even if the only flaw I see in your stories (FH and Eros only as of yet, actually, but I will allow myself to extrapolate) is that there is simply not enough of them, I understand that amount of work it takes to write without loosing the high-set quality mark on all of them makes a speed up impossible, especially considering the day job. So you would probably be better off following through with original plan, and start anything new by the end of the year, if most of the things you already planned would be done.
As for the furry novel - it could have been interesting to read and comment on it, but there is the unfortunate but unavoidable problem with putting your work into a payment-only access - a drastic drop in renown and commentary. Would have liked to buy it anyway, but Amazon descided that they don't want my country's money.
All in all, that year's picking up on your stories was easily one of the most pleasurable of things to happen. Happy New Year!
5705913
Thanks!
5705914
Well said.Appreciated, partner.
Hope you feel better soon.
5705999
I know you are.
I’m gratified you’d enjoyed the two stories so much and look forward to seeing your comments on new chapters of them.
Not just a new Firefly story. Before I can start with any new story, I really need to finish what’s on my plate, first.
5706080
Here’s hoping. And thanks for the rush job you put on the new Eros chapter.
5706091
It does tend to weigh on me rather heavily, not being able to get stuff done and seeing my other writing plans keeping slipping off into the indefinite future.
I’m very much a quality over quantity guy. I’m sure I would be much more popular just churning out generic one shot clopfics, but that’s not who I am as a writer. I want to write epics full of rich characters and worldbuilding, and it doesn’t matter whether they’re M-rated or not. Even for my adult fics, you’re going to get (what I hope is) good storytelling and plot.
Most but not all, even if I stuck to my plan. All I can really do is prioritize, and right now, priority belongs to my Unleash the Magic series.
Sorry to hear. Depending on where you live, I might be able to mail the novel to you directly.
Now that’s what I like to hear!
I’m glad you found my works and saw fit to comment favorably on them. If you’ve only read C&C and Eros to this point, then I invite you to pick up some of my other stuff like Firefly, which I’m always trying to gain additional readers for. Regardless, appreciate your patronage, and thanks for dropping by.