Cats and Collars (or Caveat Emptor) · 10:01pm Apr 13th, 2013
Once again my life runs into an issue (and this was supposed to be a quiet week), since, due to the flea collar I put on him, my cat got very sick, specifically no energy and much drool (Read up on Hartz flea collars and you will see that this is nothing unusual. Caveat Emptor indeed). I took the collar off and now he's fine but still, it's not something I enjoy dealing with. Anyway, in better news, Twilight Sparkle's hot minute is out (and I beat Dashell, Equestria Forums wonderful, quirky admin, to posting it there (and let no one tell you otherwise!), though she missed it due to a sudden burst of posts in the creativity forum), and now I can't wait for the episode where Twilight learns to fly. By the way, before we continue, there's the obligatory Pink Floyd song to post (I am a big fan):
In other news, "The Model Caretaker" has reached 100 favorites, as of yesterday! Needless to say, I'm thrilled with the amazing success that the story has had. An 8 to 1 like to dislike ratio (my only story with a better ratio is "Rainbow Dash discovers The Stare" which reached slightly under 10 to 1, and that has far less views, likes and favorites) and a msaaive number of views suggest I may be on my way to popularity.
Fanfiction Progress
You remember how I said the last chapter of "The Model Caretaker would be short? Well, it seems that I was mistaken. I'm more than 1900 words in and it's starting to look like it's going to be at least 4500 words. Derp. Well, on the bright side, I can at least report that progress is going swimmingly, since I started it on wednesday, then threw that entire day's progress out progress out and restarted on thursday, which I did because I got chapter 5 done on wednesday, and my writing is going a lot faster than it was before. Helpfully, I threw myself into this when my cat got sick to distract myself from the fact. Before I would have stopped writing due to events like this, but it seems writing helps me deal with it, so when things go wrong, expect much writing to be done.
Also, I intend to start the first chapter of "Luna Looks for Love" within the next day or two. May Celestia have mercy on her sister's soul, because the mane six, who are helping her, certainly won't.
Fanfic ideas
The clopfic idea for Fleur and Fluttershy is on its last lifeline. I took another crack at it and it still didn't work out, though I'm starting to think that that's because I'm writing the sex scene first, and I'm going to try writing the lead up first. If that doesn't work, then it's dead. Do remember that I only wrote this down in the first place because it was stuck in my head, coming up at the most random of times and there is nothing more annoying than...I'm not going to take that thought any further, since this post should be SFW.
Anyway, seeing as I get too many ideas, I have to note my newest: "The Great Gig in The Sky" (yay, more Pink Floyd references!), about Octavia passing on to said gig with her best friend Vinyl by her side. It's in incubation at the moment, but I do expect to write it someday.
I also gotta get back to writing my OTP (Flutterdash) at some point, though "Luna Looks for Love" (as a sequel to"Luna's Power and Rainbow's Love) will include a lot of references to it, although it won't be the main focus (there will also be some Pinkiescratch, though that will recieve very little in the way of attention, and some references to Twilight's sexuality, or lack thereof).
Fanfic review: The Outer Limits
This week, I'm reviewing the work of one of the mods of Equestria Forums (The one with many names, but currently going under the title of Snowdrop there, though he remains Salnalus here) and a bigger fan of Luna than I am (Keep in mind, Luna is my third favorite character, behind Fluttershy and Twilight, and beating out Rainbow Dash, just): The Outer Limits. For the record, no arm twisting occured, and in fact, he probably won't know I reviewed his story until I post a link to this blog post in a few minutes.
The story has a simple premise really. Twilight's pretty much maxed out her skill with magic, as far as what she can learn alone, so she asks Celestia for help, and Celestia decides to have Luna help advance her studies, so Twilight travels to Canterlot...and, at themoment, the story ends there (though I have no doubt that it's not dead, seeing as it's updating faster than my own story, though the chapters are shorter than every chapter after chapter 2 of The Model Caretaker, which may be part of it).
Still, it's a good read, especially for fans of Twilight Psycho, who makes a brief, mild appearance at the beginning of the story, and there are some nice, funny references to Spike's crush on Rarity. What I really like about it, though is that, for the most part everyone is in character (save a few OOC moments, most of which are great comedy. See: Pinkie throwing Fluttershy) and it's an entertaining read, with a good bit of comedy. My biggest complaints are that it takes a bit of time to get the ball rolling on the plot and there are some spelling and grammar errors (though no worse than what I tend to do, before brushing through my own story). Oh and the last currently published chapter includes one of Sal's OCs (Ember Spark AKA Ember), whose presence feels a bit forced, relying on Twilight not bringing any reading material to pass the time on the train to appear, which seems a bit OOC for Twilight.
By the way, and this has nothing to do with the above review, if someone has a good name for an extremely posh, high class restaurant in Centerlot, I could use it for The Model Caretaker.
In reply to your review on my story, The Outer Limits:
Something I try to do with this story is have a few moments that keep to the charm of the show, including bits of funny moments that may include Pinkie's crazy antics. Given, I didn't think it was that much OOC, though it may have been a bit too much. I do try a little too hard to keep characters IC as much as I can. Nobody really likes a story in which a story has characters acting out of their set (or available) personalities.
The reason for this is build-up. It builds up to the main part of the plot, because if I just quickly made it to the main part, it would feel a bit too rushed, and that would actually hurt the story more than it would help. But after Chapter 3, I will say it will start to get closer to where the story gets interesting.
I could be missing something here. I do often check my work before typing out more, or publishing the chapter, as I do spell check. I even have a prereader that checks if it is good enough before giving the green light, so to speak. If it appears to be that way, It can be fixed easily, no worries.
This can easily be changed, but it can also be thought of as thinking of being so prepared for her trip to Canterlot that she forgot to bring reading material. Sure, she could check back on her materials to make sure she was fully prepared, but I thought a little interaction wouldn't hurt. My OC fit well because Ember is a unicorn who often visits her relatives in Canterlot. I could go on about her, but this is just a reply to this blog post. I won't be a bother with that.
Aside from all of that, I am grateful for your review on my fanfic, as it gives me different views after reading this, which I will take into account when writing future chapters. Thank you for taking the time to review The Outer Limits, and I hope you enjoy what's to come.