State of the writer, May 2023! · 1:58pm May 31st, 2023
It is Wednesday morning, my front looks like cherry-flavored popcorn, and I am listening to top 40 Finnish indie music. Time for a blog.
Okay, serious talk: How much should I really care about story #100 being some kind of piece de resistance?
Because I think I'm at least in part letting that nice, round number add on to the writing block problems. I certainly don't want to just crap out another shitfic for it, but I do think I could get back into writing if I made an effort to go back and finish/edit some really old fics that have been sitting around mostly done for ages. Just, pick something decent, clean it up, and then we get back on the road.
I really wanted it to be Starlight Finds Out Trixie Is Trans, for obvious reasons, but that one's kind of heavily roadblocked because I still have zero experience being a transgender teen. <_< So I think it'd be better to post something than wait for the perfect story to claw its way out of my subconscious. Y'know?
...A shame I'll never be able to finish Sunset Shimmer Is Watching You Pee. I know it would have been amazing, I just have no idea what the fuck it's about. Somehow. Despite the title. :P
Speaking as a total hypocrite, fuck ambition and quality because any story that you finish is better than any story you don't.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going back to the perfectionism mines to excavate the ultimate story I know is buried in there somewhere.
5731107
none but I should be forced to constrain themselves to perfectionism! :V
5731111
Everyone is valid except me
I've got a what-if: What if you did a crossover of your top fics? For example, having characters from various stories show up at an interdimensional party to celebrate the link they all inexplicably share. Oh, make it an unveiling sort of thing! You know, they're all there to welcome story #100. Bonus points if you end the story right before the "big reveal". Or it could be a giant mirror, where the Pinkies and Discords in the audience are like, "Oh, it's us, isn't it?"
I do have a couple thoughts to share about this:
1. Classifying stories as shitfics vs. 'piece de resistance' is perhaps arbitary and futile. My ninth-highest-rated story ever (rating based largely on likes vs. dislikes) was literally labeled in the long description:
I mean, I was THAT BLATANT about the story being a second contest entry that I wrote at the last minute. Nonetheless, it seems that nearly everyone who read and rated it liked it. (shrug)
2. Letting yourself write a quick fun story (which is likely to be a short one too) can imho be a good way to fight writer's block.
"...Granny Smith Is Trans"
I mean, why not?
time to fill the hole of that story number! you know that filling holes can be really satisfying and could probably take down the wall that is writers' block~
Ninety-nine!? And to think I was so proud of 60! Gratz!
*sips coffee*
I could write this story.
I shouldn't, and I won't.
But I could.
Fucknuggets, now I'm tempted to.
My first instinct would be some riff on the number 100 itself. Wasn't Flash Sentry a Centurian? Or was that Scenturian? Am I talking noncentse or am I being centsible? (See? I could write for a third-rate sitcom!)
Reach out to some and let them share their experience. You might find some surprising stuff that's worth telling. Or not. I don't know either.
In any case (and uncaffeinated idiocy aside), I'd love to see any further work from you, significant milestone or not.
5731123
I've really never had much interest in that kind of thing, though it'd also depend on what those stories are. I'm not sure off the top of my head.
5731153
this is very good advice and now I am horny for some reason??
5731156
Unfortunately, talking to teens when you are an Old is considered weird. :/
Talk to people who have that kind of experience (or have had it - it's not as weird as you think), add a healthy dose of using your imagination, and write it anyway. It's by no means impossible to write, and I bet you'd do a good job of it!