Incentive · 1:28am Mar 13th, 2013
So: Benman is currently working on a long-form story that (quite sensibly) he wants to finish before posting. I'm getting impatient because it's so awesome. I think I've got a way to encourage him to finish up the next draft.
Here's the deal, my dear prereading buddy: Every day until you hand me something to edit, I will add another chapter to this eldritch abomination. If we reach April 1 without a draft, I will submit it to the FIMFic front page.[1] If I somehow manage to destroy the world before Bad Horse does, you will only have yourself to blame.
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Wait, why are you all fleeing? I can write serious pony fiction, I promise!
I'll prove it! Listen … I finished a 6.5k-word (non-troll, non-explicit) story about love and musicals. I believe it's more or less in its final form. I'm being cautious and sending it through the editing spin cycle one more time, but the instant I get a final prereader thumbs-up, it'll go out to EqD.
In the meantime, I've added an infobox to my user page showing the status of my projects in progress. I have an embarrassing number of fics that are done writing, or many thousands of words in, and simply need me to buckle down. Being "that guy with the awesome unpublished stories" is not a badge of pride.
So, my commitment: This is the month I bear down on follow-through and get some stories out. The only new pony words I write (aside from my threat above) will be Bad Horse's commission fic.
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[1] Barring intervention by my nemesis. Unfortunately for the world, I don't have one of those yet.
Wow. Writing under pressure. A nasty deadline.
You knew Heart of the Swarm came out today, didn't you?
It's getting close. I just need the finale, then another pass to get Celestia's character right, and the draft should be done.
(Also, it's definitely going well. I had another one of those moments yesterday.)
913587 Is this the same story that I've got a link to and have been neglecting?
913587
This might be amusing: My first thought was "Changeling story?" It took me three different google searches (getting less fimfic/pony-specific with each one) to realize what you meant.
Your every moment of beautiful, poignant character torture strengthens my resolve.
(Tell you what, though: I'll cut you a deal. Give Fugue State a quick pass and I'll give you an extra week's leeway to get sucked into vidja games.
You can just read the last 1,000 words, starting from the busker's story. The rest has been polished but not recut.)
913873
That's the one. I sure don't have two stories like that underway. After all, someone else went and claimed the "guy with the awesome unpublished stories" slot. At this point I'd say wait for the next draft; between your feedback and enforcing compliance with canon Twilicorn, the beginning is pretty different.
914035
Oh, I don't know. I'm kind of tempted to stall until April, just to make you post that, uh, that.
914059
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Note to self, should we survive this: Extracting ransom via the looming threat of catastrophic textaclysmic devastation only works against the good guys.
914059
Tick, tick, tick. Do you want to take advantage of the promised seven-day Fugue State grace period, or are you enjoying watching me torture myself too much?
(Seriously man. I just wrote the sentence "We frenched in a 69 with my tongue in her navel and her lips between my thing." This is an experience through which I may not emerge unchanged.)
923329
It would be downright unethical to stop a man who's having this much fun.
923733
(*stifles a sob*) Fair enough.
(Other acceptable answers would have included: "Please stop and preserve your remaining brain cells — at least until you finish editing Social Lubricant." Or perhaps, if your tastes run to the literary, "At the end of this road, Dr. Frankenstein, lie only pitchforks and torches". Or if you want a more modern spin: "This website is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The gutters are full of Halo crossovers, and when the drains finally scab over, all the readers will drown. The accumulated filth of all My Harshwhinnial's sex and grammar will foam up about their waists and all the clop authors and meme posters will look up and shout "Save us!"... and I'll look down and whisper "No.")
924834
I'm a classicist at heart. I was thinking more "Give in to your anger. It is unavoidable. It is your destiny."
925819
Tick, tick, tick, tick. oh god why
You're working on Mortal, right? Tell me you're working on Mortal.
I swear to Harshwhinny that if I submit this and it is my first story to get featureboxed I will ragequit every single fandom forever
934499
I don't think this plan is working quite the way you intended.
After due consideration, I have decided that an affront of this magnitude deserves a commensurate response. Two can play at this game, sir.