On Editing and Unpopularity · 5:10am Apr 2nd, 2014
I should preface this with a confession: I posted OLH with massively inflated expectations. I thought to myself, "This is my masterpiece. This is my Fallout: Equestria, my Background Pony. This is what I will be known for."
Of course, Letters is still more popular, as is obvious from both the view count and the like/dislike ratios. There are a number of reasons for this disconnect in what I want and the reality of the situation, both in and out of my control. I've come to accept that OLH's popularity may not come any time soon, if at all, and certainly not when I'm as slow at updating as I've been.
Granted, given the size of each "episode", I'm not entirely out of line in expecting each one to take a month or more. The fact that EP2 is taking longer is a symptom of several things, my participation in a musical production of Sweeny Todd and my impending graduation from high school being the primary culprits. I simply don't have the free afternoons I used to, and what I do have is often taken up by practice or studying.
...but that's not what this post is about. I could rant on and on about what I want OLH to be, but in the end it will only be what I, and those who take the time to edit, make of it.
As I said, OLH is this fairly unpopular author's least popular published story (which sounds a lot worse if you don't recall that only two are published in the first place). It's also imperfect, largely because of its immense scale and the fact that I can only obsessively correct so many tiny details at one time without ripping my own skull out of my head and beating myself to death with it. What this means is that as I discover things "wrong" with the story, I will correct them. This means changing things in published chapters, something I very much did not want to do, but something which has, for various reasons, become a narrative necessity. I have avoided making huge changes to important scenes (with the notable exception of the "rescue" in 1.5) but there are many small changes, which I will do my best to keep track of here.
It was stated that ponies have nanomachines, autopilots, and other robotics and AI-related technologies. They do not. In fact, Kharequuin science has a strong bias towards "thinking machines", to the extent that most electronic devices more powerful than calculators require special licenses to produce and use. This has been alluded to in several passages, and all mention of nanomachines has been removed (with one exception in Amethyst's rambling, which is only hypothetical anyhow). This is an unfortunate necessity, and one I cannot elaborate upon without spoilers.
It was stated that Rarity had access to the schematics for a "Hammer-Class" corvette. She does not. In fact, those schematics do not exist. You have never heard of any "Hammer", and in fact you are mystified as to how carpenters get any work done. In its place, she finds mention of a "Shield-Class" ship. This is due to both HW canon and poor planning on my part, and for the latter I can give no excuse. Hopefully I'll manage to be more careful in the future.
Finally, there are going to be (as in, soon) some changes to the presentation of HW lore. These will mostly be small alterations to the Briefing document, some of which have already been made (seriously, go read the LiirHra section; it's all pretty much canon. I couldn't make up stuff that awesome). Some changes include references to the above robotics problem (which is represented by a placeholder section which I will soon be updating) and alterations to the presentation of several kiithid, mainly LiirHra, Kaalel, and S'jet. The stated symbolism of several Kiith-symbols is also going to change to reflect HW canon a little better, particularly that of Naabal.
I should make it very clear that these are not things an editor could have spotted. These problems are ones that only make sense in the thoughts of a madman who knows how this story must play out, and if an editor of mine were to figure them out I'd start suspecting him of reading my mind. These are my mistakes, and I'm taking advantage of the fact that thirty people (tops) like this story so far to correct them before they fester.
Sorry for the long-winded post. It's 1:00 A.M. where I am and I haven't had a good night's sleep in days. I just wanted to let you all know the situation, so that no one will be unduly surprised when CH2 comes out and people suddenly forget about the nanomachines.
Those damned nanomachines... making everything too damned easy. I swear, has anyone here read The Diamond Age? Either you have to make the entire story about the bloody things, or they just solve all the tech problems before they happen. Shields? Nanomachines! Construction? Nanomachines! Computing? Nanomachines! Food? Air? Water? Clothing? Shelter? Orgasms? NANOMACHINES! They're like "atomics" were in the fifties. They're some kind of... Pandoric panacea. Too easy to use as a cop-out without thinking of all the ramifications. Magic is much a much safer cop-out, anyway. With magic, you make the rules.
....ANYWAY, thanks for reading my rambling diatribe. Hopefully you'll start seeing more OLH by the end of this month, but I just can't promise anything. What with full-time rehearsals and finals on the way, there's no telling how much time I'll have to write and edit. Whatever gods may be being merciful, you'll at least see Episode 2 before I drown.
I thought I'd give you a look out for a series of books by Ian Douglas that touch on a lot of futuristic technology during the run of the books. Mostly in a military setting but also touching on the socio-political and economic ramifications as well. Also, if you haven't read them, I'd recommend the Honor Harrington series by David Weber.
The main character is a bit of a Mary Sue (on the middle-lower end of the scale), but the writing and non-gratuitous space battles make up for it, I think.
Anyway... Ian Douglas wrote the Heritage, Legacy and Inheritance trilogies - a trilogy of trilogies - that go from roughly modern era (about 50 years in the future) to far futuristic (800 years) and spans many generations of military men and women as they fight for survival.
It's a good read.
Also... My absolute favorite sci-fi military series. "The Lost Fleet." Oh, S'Good. *swoon*
By Jack Campbell.
2008474
I read the first Honor Harrington book recently and found it quite interesting—particularly the methods of space combat. The battle sequence in OBS was one of the most impressive descriptions of a ship-to-ship fight I've seen, possiblbe Mary-Sueness notwithstanding.
Other than that, though, I've been shying away from military sci-fi for a while now. I may take up some of those stories in the future, but for the moment I'm working my way through Neal Stephenson's Reamde... which is 900+ pages long. After that, I'm planning on reading 1984, along with a few other older pieces of sci-fi.
Still, I'll see if I can grab some Ian Douglas out of the library the next time I'm down there. Plus, I'll look for Campbell. "The Lost Fleet" is a great title, to be sure.