State of the Author 2023-03-03

I'm writing this to procrastinate working on my taxes, so let's have a lovely long chat, shall we? I'm here a week after my last post, but don't take this to be any kind of commitment to a consistent weekly schedule. Just an effort.

Ah, I had plans for this year. I put out a new story in January, and I had a neat little schedule written up with a project for each of the first couple of months. It is now March, and not only is what I wanted to publish this month not ready, the reason for that is that February's story is still unfinished. It's not long, nor does it have any challenging pieces that are refusing to come together, it's just mostly done and into the boring part of editing. This is why you need discipline and not just passion to get things made. Of course the next project after that is being a pain in the rear and refusing to get itself into shape. Well, I tried. I suppose this blog post serves as a way of generating some sort of activity from me even if the stories won't cooperate.

I do find myself thinking: these are not long, complex stories I have on the docket, do I really need editing and hemming and hawing over whether they're good enough? I want to improve my writing skills and to have a reputation—as much as you can have a reputation in this day and age—for quality writing, which certainly requires exactly that level of care and polish. But there is a point where what you need is simple quantity; if you want to improve you need the raw material to practice on. So maybe a shitpost or too would not hurt. well I'll leave it there. When I say I need to write more I don't mean complaints about needing to write more.

And now, onto my reading list.

Perpendicular Curves

Twidash by Monochromatic? What is the world coming to? In any case, this is very relevant to my interests. Rainbow and Twilight being huge dorks with each other is something I love to see.

The Enchanted Carousel

I was interrupted while reading the latest chapter of this
and the browser tab has been sitting around ever since. Well, after that last fic 1 decided it was time to come back and get caught up. The chapter doesn't technically end with a cliffhanger
but is a piece of foreshadowing that has me just as worried as any cliffhanger would. I shan't say any more.

Final Mission

Next up we have a fic starring Bon Bon. It's nice to see her get the spotlight. She makes plenty of appearances in fanworks but most often as a sidekick to Lyra, getting the spotlight is rarer. It's nice to see. On to the story itself. This isn't Background Pony for Bon Bon, but it does take a few cues, at least in the first half. A cursed Bon Bon in a hoodie is as overt as it gets. This is an adventure, Bon Don is out here causing problems, not philosophizing. The ending, unfortunately, is not much happier. LyraBon is a happy place for me, and I hate to see them put apart. But this is not a story in which everyone gets what they want. A sad ending is okay if it is done well, But There needs to be a reason for it. The motivations of the antagonists is never
satisfyingly explained. It's fine to frustrate your hero, but we the audience need an explanation if we are going to accept the sad ending. It has to be inevitable, not the dictum of a faceless bureaucracy (good lord that’s a hard word to spell)—that's what real life is for.

I finished the published book I mentioned in my last post, The King of Elfland's Daughter, yesterday. I'm still digesting it but I have another snippet that has aged interestingly. This is
from the perspective of a character from Elfland, a timeless realm of magic: "And there were no berries at all, for there is but one season for berries, as we know well; it is one of the tricks of time. But that all the berries on Earth should pass away for a period was to the troll too astounding to be comprehended at all." Things have changed since that was written, which was not really so long ago. I can get berries whenever I want, it's a thing so trivial that I don't even think of what it takes to make that possible. Perhaps I should treat that fact with as much wonder as I would magic.

I'm not sure what I'm going to read next. If you have any suggestions for books or fanfics please do let me know.

Well, then, I think that's just about everything for now. Until next time,happy horsing and happy writing.