May is over and where is chapter 15? · 5:39pm Jun 2nd, 2012
"As soon as I get back from hiatus, nothing will stop me from doing a chapter a week."
...
"Well, maybe I'm having trouble with that, but at least I've done a chapter a month."
...
"I can't even accomplish a chapter a month. I've failed my readers who I urged to read now because I thought I could pick up the updates. I've failed my story because the gaps mean people forget important information. I've failed it's popularity, because I missed the windows of opportunity where it was good to have long running fiction, so I've faded as an prominent author to someone obscure. In all these things, I've failed myself."
The things we tell ourselves when stuff goes awry.
Even Pinkie Pie acknowledged that there are some days that are dark and lonely. They say that statistically, bad luck comes in threes, and I can believe that. Yesterday was a combination of the most terrible news, which I won't even bore you with (other than saying my dog's anus exploded in the middle of the night and turned my room into a scrapyard from Fallout, which you may find some amusement in a sort of a bad sitcom way), only one front of that being the depression of failing any story obligations I made for myself upon returning.
I'm slow to make any more promises, other than that I'm going to redouble my efforts to come out with the next chapter, and then to keep a regular story update schedule that is MORE often than once a month. Effort is all I have control over. I do not know how to fix any of the other bits, the parts I don't have control over, like my living arrangements or the shifting of intensivizing long-form stories to shorter-the-better at both EqD and FiMfiction (making it very unlikely to ever see a runaway hit like Past Sins or Fallout Equestria again). I don't want to quit Paradise, even if it's not really gaining all that much from the being updated. It's one of the lines I will not cross to stop writing this story for the aim of popularity.
Look, I'm not in this for mass-approval, but I do hope to have it widely read in possibly vain hopes that when I get a published work, I'll have a small group of loyal fans who already like my writing and will gladly pay 5 dollars for whatever more comes from me. For that reason, popularity does have a theoretical real currency beyond any ego-stroking, and it'll support me writing more in the long run. But, quitting Paradise for that? All the loyal readers I have accumulated? All the strands still left untied? All the story still sitting in my head, waiting to be produce? That, I won't quit, even for the popularity. I guess I'm the kind of guy who gets committed to things. Like some other pony.
So, that's what I'm going to try. More grimly determined efforts to discard all the things slowing down production and streamlining a series of new chapters. I think I am capable of doing it. Now to see if reality matches speculation.
Paradise was one of the first star-6 fics I ever read, and it's been entirely worth the wait. Whatever your update schedule is, the quality of the fic speaks for itself, and people that want to consume good stories will find themselves meandering over here sooner or later.
Keep it up, we're rooting for you (if only to get moar)
Paradise is probably my favorite fic of all time. I put it above FOE so needless to say I will wait as long as it takes to finish this wonderful story. Here take a moustache and know that your work is appreciated.
Do what you need to do, and update when you can. We'll wait. Paradise is too good not to. ^_^
Umm... who are you again? I forgot
Quality has a quantity of its own. Take the time you need to write a good story, and let it speak for itself. You're still faster than G.R.R. Martin ;)
As one of my all time favorite stories that I have been following since before the great hiatus, I will be waiting as long as it takes for updates to come out.
149228 He wrote Paradise.
And, dude... Take all the time you need... Seriously.
149378 Never heard of it dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Derpy_Hooves.png
I really like this story because it is long in both words and in the amount of time covered. I have been having similar problems with my reviewing, but I do want to get back to reviewing longer stuff... but the problem is that when I continue a review of something I respect I want it to be when I am alert enough to do the work justice.
Don't be so hard on yourself, paradise is not forgotten. You will always have all us wonderful people in the general.
oh goodness! I still LOVE Paradise! And hey, it takes time to write a wonderful story like that, I don't mind the wait at all. As long as I know you will not cancel it, the wait is perfectly fine with me.
you don't have to stress yourself out over this. It's perfectly ok to take a hiatus once in a while, and even though your hiatus was a bit long, it doesn't matter. The point is you ARE still planning on finishing the story, so like the good readers we are, we will wait for updates whenever you feel like uploading them. 
149228 You.
149726 Me.