The Past, The Present, and The Future Walk Into A Bar... · 6:38am Sep 18th, 2013
... it was tense.
This is how I feel whenever I tell people a pun.
Anyway, if you follow me, you have probably noticed that I don't blog a lot. If you haven't noticed that, then I've posted two blog posts since the end of May, when I wrote down my thoughts on finishing Evening Flames. I'd rather not be a Fimfic user who oversaturates his blog with posts; that reduces the impact that my posts have when I do have something worth bothering people's update bars with.
And today, I have things to write about: The Past, The Present, and The Future of my writing projects. For space's sake, I'll get into them after a quick page break.
The Past
As most of you are probably aware, I wrote a story called Heart of Gold, Feathers of Steel and after some critical feedback, I followed it up with what are now considered Summer Days and Evening Flames. I have no disillusions that these don't represent my largest contribution to the realm of Fanfiction (unless people suddenly get extremely smitten with a Bittersweet Pinkie Pie story), but I'm okay with that. I don't want to be the next Kkat or Pen Stroke, where one story is insanely famous and fandom-impacting to the point where I know that none of my other works will ever live up to it. Or worse, I might let that fame go to my head, and I'm already enough of an ass at times without throwing an ego trip into the mix (I'm trying to work on that, though).
I say all that diatribe because I have mixed feelings about an idea I saw on Wanderer D's blog a while ago: Director's Commentary. Meaning, someone posts / PMs a portion of a story I wrote, and I give a little flavorful information about it. I like the idea and I like my story, but I don't want to come off as grandstanding by offering it (Next blog post: "Can you sing songs about me?").
Still, I'll offer the service, regardless of how it may appear. If you post a snippet of my story in a comment on this blog post, a PM, a Skype Message, or an email, I'll tell you what I remember of my mindset was when writing the scene, some trivia, inside jokes... whatever I can. I'll try to make it interesting, at any rate.
The Present
Currently, I am on the cusp of finishing one projects' rough draft, in the primary phases of two more projects, and am somehow in the revision phase on a fourth project. I realize that this technically means that these stories will be released in "the future", but bear with me on the blog's format theme.
The rough draft and one of the "primary phase" projects are a pair of commissions. Two individuals have honored me with the trust and prestige of entering into a somewhat businesslike agreement where I spend some of my time to write stories for them. Despite the learning curve and the challenges my schedule brings to that equation, I think that these two projects are going and will go much smoother than my Las Pegasus Unicon Relief Fund contribution (which actually turned out well; I like the sloshy griffin hug. Still, damned if saying "I can write X words about any Y" wasn't a disastrous lack of foresight on my part).
The story that I'm currently in the revision phase with is actually the oldest story that's on my Fimfic account: Schweigen ist Folter. If you're not German savvy (we don't all have a guy like Federhengst to tell us when we're being stupid in two languages), that's essentially a translation of "Silence is Torture" and a reaffirmation that I have some of the most melodramatic titles for stories. Regardless, it's a ~14k-word story about Gilda's older brother and his boyfriend, and if that sort of thing doesn't tickle your fancy, I wholly advise you to skip the rest of this paragraph. Schweigen ist Folter got posted back in June of 2012, and I took it down about a week later; there were a multitude of reasons, but essentially, I was far too sensitive over what turned out to be a mis-labeling of content guidelines. So, I'm toning down a few sections just to be certain, but once I get some fancy new coverart for it (a.k.a., something I didn't draw, so it actually might not make your eyes bleed), I'll probably re-publish it and another blog post (I don't get to "post" it for the first time again, per Fimfiction rules; unless I publish a blog post with it, no one will know when it reappears). And I'm not really cutting anything obscenely graphic, either; it's more akin to lowering a skirt one inch so it's only three inches above a knee.
Finally, one project that somewhat came out of nowhere but offered a good way to wrap up some loose plot threads / ideas: Vignettes. Essentially, I've got the idea to write short (1.5k-word) scenes involving many of the main characters of the "Farringtonverse", as it were. I've got ideas planned out for Gilda, Iron, Maxie, Sherry, Starfall, and maybe Comet. Plus, definitely Memo. And Stephen and Gerard again (that one's already written).
All of these projects should be finished and/or posted in various portions of October. The order is roughly going to go Schweigen, Commission 1, Vignettes, Commission 2.
The Future
Once I'm done with those four projects, I'm not sure what I'll do. I've got a review thread on Ponychan where I hope to help people on their stories. I wouldn't mind taking on some more commissions to help make ends meet, financially. I've got some more vignette ideas involving my favorite pair of gay griffins (also the only, to be fair). I've got huge ideas, tiny ideas, stupid ideas, smart ideas...
Maybe it's best to not bank too much on a specific series of events, but instead to try and swim with the current of the future as I try to guide my path.
That picture is how I feel when people tell me puns.
Good to hear! Definitely looking forward to it.
aw snap son, you just 'versed :O
Excellent. I don't have words beyond that.
Interesting idea...
Let me comment on two things.
Firstly, please don't try to censor yourself too much, FimFiction has a LOT of clop (among other things) in material of all kinds, but what it doesn't have is QUALITY of the measure that you can bring to the table. Don't bother in toning it down, lowering the skirt, hell, flip that skirt right on up (sorry for stretching this metaphor....heh)
Looking very much forward to the M/M of Gilda's brother ^^ not because of the potential scenes but because of the potential character development.
On to the second thing I wanted to comment on....About the other 'snippets' for the characters like memo and such, don't do it....
Now don't misunderstand, I don't mean don't write about them, I mean don't make several small stories that feel more like chapters, all very loosely related or even wholly independent.
I think you should stick to what you know, write it in the same vein as the other farrington chapters. Make the stories interconnect via following up on their lives, perhaps using the setting or even the actual scenes of the times of the other stories as a set up.
An example would be, after Gilda's duel, what was memo up to when not on duty, what was going on with her after all the insanity died down, or...in another example; what EXACTLY did our miner-turned-captain's sister REALLY do when she was away on deliveries <3 ^^;
Hehe, these are just my ideas, but then I'm not exactly the most chaste minded ever....If you'd like to stick to your format on how it's presented and not give juicy details, well that's your prerogative and indeed your right as the writer, you're a good enough writer that I'll love what you put to the screen no matter what because the quality will indeed be there, and be amazing ^^
Can't wait for em, also curious about the commissioned details too. Nice to hear actually, got me excited to see em.
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Heh. I got this one out of a pretty old jokebook, but I'm glad you heard it for the first time.
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Here's hoping I don't disappoint.
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But the higher I hike the skirt, the more duct tape I'm going to need for structural integrity.
I thought of doing an "everyone's story is interconnected" deal, but it started to get a little far-fetched with including Gilda's family, a Stalliongrad mob boss, and whatever Maxie does for a living now. By doing separate "chapters" (these things are >2k words each), I get to focus on an image / scene rather than riveting the emotional continuity of each of the characters to one another. That's easier to write, while still putting out about 10k words' worth of content.
I never would you call blöd, no matter which language
. But thanks for the mention and good luck with your stories 
. Having the mature-filter off, I can acknowledge what Crimson_Moonlight says about the amount of porn here.
Woot~ Looking forward to more of your stuff. I've been waiting for some more quality reads now for awhile : 3