State of the Author, december 2023 · 10:13pm Dec 15th, 2023
Here we are. Another year is almost over. The winter solstice is around the corner, along with any number of special holidays. It's a white Christmas in Oslo. The snow came relatively early here this year, falling in November and staying ever since, with every apparent intention to stick it out until spring. And I am sitting at home resting and relaxing, also, until spring.
Today is a day of special note for me: December 15th is the anniversary of the day I moved into my own apartment, a major shift in stability for my entire life. No more student housing, no more dingy basement flat, no more not knowing if I would be in the same world in another twelve months. I’ve lived here for six years now. If I am still here in another two years it will be the longest I’ve ever lived in one place.
It’s sort of like a birthday to me. I’m celebrating by rewatching Blue Eye Samurai, my favorite show from this year (and this year had a lot of good shows). Blue Eye Samurai is amazing, you should check it out.
It’s also a time for reflection. This was my tenth year on fimfiction, where I arrived during the long hiatus after season 3 with some thoughts about a minor character I wanted to explore. I'm still here. And even though I haven’t posted a lot this year, I’m still at it.
So what has 2023 been like? It's been... long. The world is scary out there, still. And I find that time just keeps getting weirder the older I get. A day can drag on forever but months fly by. I can be exhausted by constant tasks and then, when I look back, find that I can't for the life of me remember what I did.
But time gets spent. I spent the summer going on long bike rides in the woods. I played a ton of games, and watched a bunch of shows. We got to see the apparent conclusion of Make Your Mark, a show I have mostly strained feelings about. I want to enjoy it, I want to find good things in it, but it has kind of been a slow-rolling tragedy. Tell Your Tale is still going, but I find the shorts format insubstantial and I don't know why they keep trying to make Fetch happen, so I kind of suspect that barring some new major announcements G5 is de facto over already, and it makes me sad that it only lasted two years.
I'll be honest, it's hard for me to think of anything to post about, which is why I don't post much. My brain is a mess at the best of times, and even now mostly that mess is consumed with the great work. The great work always continues.
But I think it’s time for a progress update.
To recap: For the past two years I’ve been working on editing the second draft of The Seven Trials of Clover the Clever, after I finished the first draft at the end of ‘21. I am still at it, and still making progress, and I still think this is going to be amazing in the end.
I’ve kept an eye out but as far as I know, no-one else on the site has written their own version of this story but me, a story we know about but which was never told in full even in canon, which means that when it’s finished my story will be the only version of the complete Seven Trials of Clover the Clever in existence. That is also kind of astonishing to me.
I don’t feel great about being a slow writer, and the fact that I’ve spent two years just revising a story is kind of mind-boggling to me. It’s easy to get disheartened. But so it goes: for me, the second draft is the heavy lift, where I have to correct all the mistakes and fill in all the parts that didn’t fit in the first draft, and I’m doing it for the whole story.
Sometimes I edit a chapter in two weeks. Sometimes I spend two months turning what had been a single chapter that was too big and too rushed into three full chapters that do amazing things once they’re given room to breathe. And sometimes I get writers’ block for three months wondering how to even start working on one big chapter that didn’t work well at all the first time but that I know has tremendous potential if I can just figure out how to unlock it.
Those are all things I did this year.
But here’s the tally. This year I’ve edited nine chapters, and am currently working on the tenth. All told those chapters amount to over 78k words written, revised, or polished. The current chapter is the middle of the fourth trial, and when it’s done I will be past the 2/3 mark of the story.
I may be a slow writer, but I am a stubborn one. The story is going to be told.
I have not posted a sneak peek of a chapter since I finished the first draft. Let's have another one. Since the last time was from chapter 10, here’s one from chapter 11:
Platinum bent in close to Clover. “We can’t trust her,” she hissed. “She’s obviously a vampire! I didn’t know vampires were real!”
“We didn’t come here to hunt vampires,” Clover whispered. “Stay alert, and keep Goldie close. There’s no point in antagonizing her. Who knows what she wants.”
Platinum nodded, glowering at the strange pony. “Well. At least we know how to deal with her,” she said. “We’ve all read the stories. Everypony knows vampires are weak against sunlight, garlic, Celestial symbols, and a wooden stake through the heart.”
“Yes,” Carmilla said. “But every vampire story also says that what you know from all the other vampire stories is wrong. Also? It’s very rude to talk about somepony behind her tail.”
The journey continues.
I hope all of you have a great holiday season, and best wishes for 2024.
-Daedalus Aegle.
👍
5759180
Yeah.
Glad you're still around and plugging away. We had snow but it all vanished and hit 9 C today which was...interesting.
Happy Anniversary and here's to many more. I know slow writing can be frustrating but I'm glad you're still doing it. n_n
5759189
The story is incredible and I can't wait for people to see it. And I have waited a lot already. So yeah. But it is incredible.
5759191
I believe it!
Good to still have you with us. Eagerly looking forward to Clover's journey.
I like Carmilla already!
I admire that you can flesh out and breathe life into minor characters that no one else is working on. ^_^ There are so many stories to be told and yet it seems that it's the same stories about the same characters that crop up on the fimfic splash page. Like Anon in Equestria with Mane Character or as Mane Character, with much romance. So keep wowing us D.A. with the originality!
Writing slow is fine. I bet it's taken me 20 minutes to write this comment.
(edit: had a 'to' too many.)
5759244
Thanks, I appreciate it. And it's gonna be a doozy. I've just been editing the notes on the plan for this next chapter tonight, it's looking pretty dang epic if I do say so myself.
5759248
And now also a pony in addition to a lesbian vampire. And thanks, I try, and I have a
As well you should, she's a beloved literary figure to begin with
hyperfixationaffinity for certain unicorns that demands I tell stories about them. They have so much life in them.Time got even weirder thanks to COVID. It's weird as heck to imagine things like BronyCon ending were nearly half a decade ago now...
So yea I totally get a lot of this. Sucks the world has to keep degenerating and is showing no signs of stopping. At this point, it almost makes me crave religion, because the idea there is some karmic justice waiting for all those who are only making things worse for everybody is at least a small comfort.