Twenty three weeks without a blog, so let's make it a good one. · 2:10am May 22nd, 2012
I'm not used to writing blogs, I'll admit. Many of you are more familiar with how they work than I am, so if I don't notice some unwritten rule of blogging or a point on online etiquette beyond the obvious, I freely admit I'm not really much of an Internet veteran. It doesn't help that I've delayed this by a measly 23 weeks, so it does seem a little awkward to make one out of the blue.
That said, I'll use this as a chance to make a progress report, as it were, on how things have gone so far. There's an element of self-indulgence about this, but I'll try to make it interesting to an outsider.
Fic Output
OK, the obvious first stop is my own fanfic output. As of today, that includes nine published stories, from All of a Fluttershy to One Apple Short (In Which Twilight Learns Never To Underestimate An Apple Tree). Most of them are short one-shots, with only three exceeding 10,000 words and none exceeding 30,000 words. Three have been accepted onto Equestria Daily, one of which (Through the Eye of the Hurricane) is easily my best-scoring story and one of my personal favourites, and another of which was also my first pony fanfic. However, it also includes one long fic that has sadly remained in stasis since January (Cutie Mark Espionage Agency). My current story view count is 4,640 views.
So far, so statistics. For an encore, I might try lies and damn lies just for the variety.
My own verdict is that this is pretty good, but over 23 weeks, the turnout rate isn't quite what I was hoping to achieve. OK, I'll be honest: as much as I wasn't expecting to churn out the pony equivalents of an Oscar Wilde novel per week, to produce the occasional one-shot seems a little lacking, especially since one or two were actually meant to be longer works (Dare To Be Awesome, for example, was originally going to be an intro to a much longer Daring Do story).
The obvious remedy would be to write more one-shots, but this runs the risk of sacrificing quality over quantity, and we all learned that one in The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. On the other hand, longer works eat up more time both for writing and away from the computer. If I could produce at least one quality and decent-sized fic a month, I'd consider that a pretty good rate of turnout.
Other People's Fics
The second stop is what I've found on this site. As of today, there are 11,662 fics available for viewing, but Sturgeon's Law says that not every one will be worth reading. Other fics I've overlooked mostly for length - I've been put off reading The End of Ponies and Total Magic Pony Island for this reason. I've also discovered that I'm not a big fan of My Little Dashie or Fallout: Equestria, nor its side stories like Pink Eyes, the first chapter of which I couldn't get past (and barely got through). I have found some pretty good titles, my current favourite being Canterlot Follies, though Binky Pie comes a close second. This is surprising, considering I usually avoid crossovers. There's something facile about thinking that popular franchise plus popular franchise equals superawesome franchise. The good ones that I've seen generally read like a third well-written franchise was inserted in secret.
Comedies in general are what I look for, because if I'm going to read fics based on an ensemble comedy cast of psychedelic ponies and their expanded magic world, I'm going to jolly well enjoy it. I want to feel like I've just met Pinkie Pie - I want to come away with a smile, smile, smile on my face. Though I'm partial to adventures, slice of life stories, and the occasional sad fic, all things being equal I'd sooner find out what silly cultural mix-up human-Lyra has got herself into this time than contemplate the philosophical underpinnings of painting a room pink. So far, I haven't made much effort to pursue Teen stuff, mostly because it looks like a magnet for things distinctly un-pony. A Metal Gear Solid crossover is one of the few favourites of mine that has this rating, but then I'm a sucker for MGS. And no force in Tartarus is going to make me look at the Mature stuff. Like counting before lobbing the Holy Hand Grenade, "Everyone" shalt be the rating, and the appropriate rating shalt be "Everyone", no more no less. "Mature" is well out.
Lastly, I'm still in a mixed mind about Derpy stories. This'll probably earn me a few flutter-rages because Derpy is much-loved, but I'll admit to not being completely won over by the strabismus-eyed pegasus, unconvinced in general by the Dinky connection of fanon, and unimpressed by the hubbub over "Derpygate". That said, Derpy nevertheless has a kind of childlike charm akin to Dopey from Disney's Snow White, and she does attract some interesting stories. Ditzy Do's Dismally Derpy Day and its sequel are pretty contentious for me, because while the Ditzy interpretation was refreshingly different, I generally avoid romance for the same reasons I avoid sticky chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream, chocolate sprinkles, extra chocolate sauce, and sugar on top: it's too sickly and unbelievable, and it's almost never done right. This one was better than most, but still, I didn't read it for the Big Mac ship.
I have a fairly long reading list at the moment, but any recommended titles are welcome.
I have to say I've read more than I've written on this site. It's not hard to see why - reading is quicker and easier than writing, and in some cases more enjoyable. It's a lot more fun to be absorbed in a story that is gathering momentum than it is to have to weave one out of your imagination.
"Now it ain't about the speed, young'un. It's about the quality."
I suppose what I'm trying to say via a roundabout way is that I would like very much to produce stories on par with the likes of AbsoluteAnonymous, JasonTheHuman and Miyajima. I admit I'm ambitious, somewhat overambitious at times. I have many ideas, but they need to do more than sound interesting in my head, and I can't write all the time. It's frustrating to get a lot of ideas and end up not realizing them. Surely I'm not alone in this boat?
For instance, I once managed to write the first three chapters to a story on Princess Celestia during the historic events of Hearth's Warming Eve (You'll see it as Jovia on my userpage, but it was originally Scarred Swans and then Celestia's Choice).
My take was going to be that alicorns were a fourth tribe of pony unheard of by the main three, and that their society was structured around manipulating the other ponies from afar. Clover the Clever was to be a kind of ancestral Twilight who investigated the mystery and came to the conclusion that the newly forged peace between the three tribes could be threatened by the alicorns, so naturally the Power of Friendship had to be used to defeat the superpowerful alicorn ruler. It's the political equivalent of going for the eyes.
The catch was that Princess Celestia is the ruler. To go into more detail, she wanted to rebel against her own tribe, and was filling in for the Queen alicorn (so that Celestia and Luna acted as joint regent rulers in her continued absence). The Queen was distracted by a conflict further afield (implied to involve a chaotic entity) so her daughter Celestia took the opportunity to try and quell a potential rebellion from within her tribe. And all while keeping an inexperienced Luna safe. As for the alicorns, I had them originally pictured as essentially pony versions of Magratheans, but recently I think I'd recast them as unicorns that happen to have wings and a little more power than usual. Leading the charge of the rebellion would be a group of Celestia's cousins (hence why Celestia has relatives later in the canonical timeline) who are all eager, for different reasons, to see Celestia fall.
I got as far as 14,000 words before I hit some creative problems and ended up putting the project on hold.
One obstacle was how to characterize Celestia, because a benevolent ruler with sun-moving capabilities runs the risk of being a little bland, and we know she and her sister survive. One of the biggest problems I find with writing in the ponyverse, though, is that villains are incredibly difficult to characterize. You can't go for obviously vile because it fails to evoke the feel-good factor of the show, and when your bad guys get too dark, it makes it harder to hold the work together as a coherent whole without forcing the heroes to be ruthless. However, you can't make the villains too soft because this either makes them utter wimps or boringly nonsensical. And Mary-Sue syndrome lurks over the shoulder if they get too efficient - I abandoned one fic precisely because my original character (Pinkie Pie's arrogant and disgraced elder brother, Humble Pie) ended up mutating into something frankly unpalatable.
I'd like very much to get the story rolling, but there is a staleness that sets into a plot when you've left it to ferment for too long, and you're not sure if revisiting it will be like opening a bottle of vintage or drowning in vinegar. Good grief, why does story-writing end up being as hard as Kurt Vonnegut makes it out to be?
Next Episode...?
I remain optimistic, though. There's some excellent talent in this community, and it'd be great if I could make a contribution worthy of it, because I really like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and I enjoy supplementing my pleasure with the gems from the fanbase that has come of it. I've still got time. Even if it takes me another 23 weeks, I'll see if I can get some stories going and published. Maybe I'll continue Cutie Mark Espionage Agency, or revive the Celestia story.
Whew, this is pretty much a private essay. If I wrote stories like this...
Consider it 23 weeks' worth of blogging saved up. I might not do another one for a while. Impossible Numbers, out.
Well, for waiting for 23 weeks to make a blog post, I have to agree this was a good one, eh. I hear you on the frustrations of seeing other people work just seem to flow out of them quickly and seemingly effortlessly. I wish it were that way with me, too!
Thanks also for the recommendations on stories to read. I find that while the fimfiction.net site certainly is pretty, it's rather difficult to find the stuff I'd really like, so I end up bouncing around the favorites of those authors or interesting commentators I like.
Anyway, I don't know if you get time of during the summertime, but if you do, I hope your creative juices flow, eh! I like what you've written thus far.
132539