May Blog: Am I A "Real" FimFic Author Yet?

So. It's been a, shall we say, eventful April?

Between my efforts to get word of the GoFundMe out and pump up the ponyfic production to get more attention for said GFM (and the commissions I opened to help raise money), I ended up putting my TTRPG blog on hold mid-April until the end of it, and I'm still struggling a bit to get on track there. I rearranged my schedule a bit to try to compensate, but my oneshot actual play of the delightful little solo alien-abduction storytelling game, Abducted, still might be a bit late.

However, things in ponyfic land have certainly been looking up. I had my first fanfic reading made, and of my first commissioned story to boot, and I also wrote an honest-to-Celestia shipfic, as well as dripping into EQG as a setting. Plus I drew artwork of one of my own OCs for the first time since before FIM was a thing (don't try to math my age from that I beg of you). A big month for firsts.

I'm also looking to set up a Patreon, and I appreciate any and all comments on how I should structure things. I'll be looking into converting my account to a creator one and setting up the page tomorrow, so there's still time to get your thoughts in!

And now, onto the stats!

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Current Ongoing Stories:

• The Long Eventide
• Lightning Rod

Current Completed Stories:

• A Moonlit Storm
• Dawn of the Chiroptera
• Every Dog Has Her Day
• Lesbian Sheep Syndrome
• Flash Memory
• Better To Ask Forgiveness
• Crystalforged
• If You Go Down In The Woods Today (newly complete)
• And She Captivates (new)
• Like I Don't Exist (Anymore) (new)

Current number of followers: 65 (up from 57)
Words I've published so far across all my stories, both completed and ongoing: 129,204 (up from 112048)

Completed story with the most words: A Moonlit Storm at 16,411 words
Completed story with the most views: Better To Ask Forgiveness at 1,272 (up from 1201)
Completed story with the best vote ratio: Better To Ask Forgiveness at 179:3 (up from 178:3)
Completed story on the most bookshelves: Better To Ask Forgiveness at 352 (up from 347)

Number of contests I've entered: 7 (up from 5)

• Ancestral Tribute: A Moonlit Storm, first place
• SPOOK: Dawn of the Chiroptera, results pending
• Species Change: Every Dog Has Her Day, no placement
• Flash Sentry: Flash Memory, honourable mention
• Science Fiction: Crystalforged, results pending
• Arboreal Yearnings: If You Go Down In The Woods Today, no placement. (new)
• Spring Fling: And She Captivates, results pending (new)

Number of commissions I've done: 1

• For Moproblems Moharmoney: Like I Don't Exist (Anymore) (new)

Number of times I've been reviewed: 2

• By Mike Cartoon Pony: A Moonlit Storm, Excellent rating
• By PaulAsaran: A Moonlit Storm, Pretty Good rating

Other cool things:

• FanOfMostEverything featured A Moonlit Storm in a card blog with the card "Impisi, Spell Butcher"
• Equestria Daily scouted Better To Ask Forgiveness
• Rain_Flick3r did a reading of Like I Don't Exist (Anymore) (new)

Canon characters tagged in my works so far:

• Mane 6 (The Long Eventide)
• Princess Luna (The Long Eventide)
• Night Light (A Moonlit Storm)
• Fluttershy (Dawn of the Chiroptera, Every Dog Has Her Day, and If You Go Down In The Woods Today)
• Twilight Sparkle (Dawn of the Chiroptera)
• Luster Dawn (Dawn of the Chiroptera)
• Rarity (Every Dog Has Her Day)
• Applejack (Lesbian Sheep Syndrome)
• Rainbow Dash (Lesbian Sheep Syndrome)
• Flash Sentry (Flash Memory)
• Discord (Better To Ask Forgiveness)
• Celestia (Better To Ask Forgiveness)
• Tempest Shadow (Lightning Rod)
• Grubber (Lightning Rod)
• Flurry Heart (Crystalforged)
• Zecora (If You Go Down In The Woods Today)
• Trixie (And She Captivates) (new)
• Sunset Shimmer (And She Captivates) (new)
• Wallflower Blush (Like I Don't Exist (Anymore)) (new)
• Pony of Shadows (Like I Don't Exist (Anymore)) (new)

Species representation among original characters (counted if they have both been named and given a speaking role) so far:

• Earth Ponies: 5
• Pegasi: 3
• Unicorns: 2
• Crystal Pony: 1
• Bat Pony: 1
• Zony: 1
• Zebra: 1
• Kirin 1
• Umbrum: 3
• Changeling: 3 (new)
• Sheep: 2
• Reindeer: 1
• Griffon: 1
• Hedgebeast: 1
• Abada: 1
• Nyx: 1
• Crocotta: 1

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And now, my plans for May are:

• Completing a romantic comedy commission already in progress
• An entry for the Cyberpunk contest (planned to be a crossover with the TTRPG Neon Black)
• Chapters for Lightning Rod and The Long Eventide

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

If ever there were a community where it's silly to divide people into "real" and "fake" camps, it's this one. We're writing stories about colorful cartoon horses. You're as valid as anyone else on the site.

[Moproblems Moharmoney]

Loving this organisation Silver. I may have to emulate it

[SilverNotes]

5726760

Thank you. It was partly in jest, thus the quotes around "real", but... well, confidence takes time to build and it's a big, long-running fandom. Sometimes insecurity leaks out via humour.

5726787

I highly recommend it! I started doing it as a way to organize myself more, and show myself how things were growing month-to-month. It's been helping me a lot with keeping up momentum to look back at the cool things that have happened and watch the numbers grow bigger.