Apologies, Delays, and the Hazards of Breakfast · 5:46am Oct 1st, 2013
So...I am not, in fact, dead. I am, however, intensely disappointed in myself for effectively vanishing for so long and leaving people hanging on both of the stories I've begun. So, a bit of an explanation, for those interested. Those not interested, well...you can stop reading, I suppose.
In any event, the delays. I could claim I had a terribly good reason, but...I really don't. Simply put...simply put, I panicked. Less simply put...I fear there's no way to say this without sounding whiny, and more than a little pathetic, but here it is. Both of the stories are...I'm reasonably satisfied with the reception I've been getting from them. Which, perversely, has been something of the problem. I am beyond thrilled that people like what I've written. Really, you've no idea how much I enjoy each little bit of encouragement.
The problem lies in my concern over avoiding the other side of things. I don't especially mind if people don't like what I've written; everyone can have their own tastes. And if they're rude about it, all the better, since I can simply disregard them. What worries me is the people who do like it. I am, to be blunt, bloody petrified of screwing it up. I would feel that I'd wasted the time you'd already sent reading it, for me to just screw things up later, to disappoint people. I do not like disappointing people.
Also, sorry if this sounds either melodramatic or megalomaniac; I don't mean it to be either.
So, what happened? Well, I briefly entertained the idea of releasing short stand-alone stories as I released chapters, so that if you were disappointed in one of the main two stories, you would be distracted by the other story either being rather good (by design) or rather awful (...less by design). This quickly proved a terrible idea, not least because I am, as I suspect has been made abundantly clear by now, incapable of writing anything short and concise. I have four stories sitting on my hard drive which were meant to be short, 3-4k word affairs; each is in the 7-8k range, and not even close to finished.
So, that was out. So, I started obsessing over everything being just so. I just updated Six Brides with Chapter Eight - that is the tenth version of chapter eight I'd written. Nine times before, I got several thousand words in, decided what I had was rubbish, and started over.
On that note, let me make a related observation - Writing breakfasts is awful. Maybe if its just two or three characters, or a small family, its fine, but my advice? Never, ever try to write an impressive breakfast. Impressive dinners, sure. Maybe even lunches. Not breakfasts.
Eventually, the lack of satisfactory progress prompted consideration of another option - Simply...stop. The stories, that is; nothing dramatic. It briefly seemed reasonable that if I didn't continue what I'd begun, no one could feel betrayed when it tanked.
Of course, the realization came quickly that just stopping it would probably be worse; so, given that I finally had two evils, I went with what I thought was the lesser of them - update, and hope I don't wreck anything.
So, there we go. If you read this, well...sorry again, actually. I'm certain I came off as full of myself and whiny, despite my best intentions. But in any event...hopefully, updates for Brides will come more regularlly, now that I've at least gotten past the damn breakfast (really, I should have just skipped it, but that...actually never occurred to me until right now) and all of them are broken into more manageable groups, instead of one hoard. And Mystic and Mundane, for those of you still interested in that, should be getting something...soonish?
Yeah, whole other bit of a thing going on with that; much as I'm fine with the whole 'Canon Alicorn Twilight' thing in general, it raises rather a lot of problems with that story. Not because of the differences, mind, just...well, you'll see when we get there.
Christ, even your blog posts are wordy. Look, you don't need to worry about alicorn Twilight and shoehorning it in. You've already diverged from the core timeline so much that you can ignore it. You know what your readers want.
WEDDING! WITH A GIANT CAKE! AND A FULL SONG AND DANCE NUMBER.
and...
Dancing elephants. Yeah, dancing elephants! Hell, I am not sure why Discord hasn't broken out by now given the chaos and angst in the air. He could preside over the ceremony. I bet he would revel in a chance to see Celestia squirm in a marriage she is not even sure about.
I don't even care that you left, I'm just happy that you're back :D
1387337 Oh, no no. Don't misunderstand - the alicorn Twilight related issue is with Mystic and Mundane, not Six Brides. Different thing entirely, that bit of problem had NO impact on the funny.
And yeah...I can't help myself. I tend towards the verbose. Even when I'm just talking to people. Drives 'em crazy.
Ah, you're a perfectionist. Please do forgive me if I am overstepping here, but I know what it's like to put something off because your really afraid of not living up to everyone's (or your own) expectations. Worst thing is, it's most often an irrational fear, so there is really not much you or anyone can do about it, and no amount of reassurance will satisfy you.
Still, I honestly do think your effort paid off, and you as the author can be satisfied with what you wrote.
It's kind hard to disapoint the majority of readers unless you
1: Completely derail the story (namely turning practically every character into alicorns and blowing up Canterlot when the story was previously going in a reasonable, non-alicorn related direction. What were you thinking, Tonto?).
Or
2: Pull an abrupt ending which answers literally nothing (coughDeadmanWonderlandcoughcough).
I'm a huge fan of "six brides for two sisters"
and I can say that the bar you set with the first chapters is pretty darn high.
So if the rest of the story doesn't quite reach their level I will not be disappointed, even if they did all become alicorns and blow up Canterlot. 
After all I've been re-reading what you've published already over and over and it has been worth reading every time.
Wait. Didn't this blog go along the lines of: "So many people like my story! ... Oh God I'm going to disappoint them all now."
I think you have a strange idea of what it means to be full of yourself.
Sorry to say this but your Profil Pic is Perfect for this..
You are a Perfectionist and its totaly normal that you worry about every little deteilt and his Consequences. But thats just in your Head so keep it cool you won't disapoint us as long as you! are Proud of your Storys and what you have accomplished with them and like what your doing, so just do what you like with them if you want to blow of Canterlot than DO IT. The only reason how you could Disapoint me is with a Silenced Quit of you.
1387341
If I remember the story rightly, the first point still stands. It's different enough from the canon that, I don't see what the problem is. You already got an Alicorn Twilight and an Alicorn!Rarity. I don't see how it would cause a problem. It is a fanfiction after all, it doesn't need to follow canon to letter.
1390808 Without getting into the specifics, it was Twilight Velvet that was proving to be problematic. It...yeah, it'll probably make sense when I finally get the next chapter out. Maybe.