• Member Since 23rd Dec, 2013
  • offline last seen Aug 25th, 2015

Silent Strider


Compulsive reader, novice writer.

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Jul
8th
2014

I'm not dead, and a plea for help with my writing. · 6:43pm Jul 8th, 2014

I was posting a fic each week until early May, and then I suddenly stopped. So, what happened?

Well, three things. The Equestria Daily Writer's Training Ground ended (and, on top of that, I didn't make the last two deadlines), I decided to attempt giving my stories extra polish, and real life intruded.

I didn't stop writing, though. I took part in contests and writeoffs, so, while I didn't post anything new, I have some things (hopefully) coming up.

And this is where I ask for help. I believe I've reached a point where getting an editor/proofreader, and perhaps pre-readers, won't be a waste of time for everyone else involved, and I would like to bring my upcoming stories to a higher quality level than I could do alone. I will ask this in the appropriate groups later, but, since I unexpectedly have people following me, I wanted to give them (you :raritywink:) the "first pick", so to speak, if anyone wants to help a new author that is hoping to learn and improve (me :scootangel:)

(And, of course, the fact that I've received feedback similar to "I like this story, but you should get an editor" multiple times does serve to push me towards asking for help :twilightblush:)

There are two catches, though.

- When it comes to creative writing, I have never worked with others. I'm not even sure how to interact with an editor. On top of that, I'm usually exceedingly shy and find it hard to ask for help, so I might need prodding.

- English is not my native language, so whoever decides to help me might have to deal with the kind of strange grammatical and word choice errors foreigners make.


So, what do I want help with (and, hopefully, will be submitted here in the future)? From the closest to pleasing me to the most raw:


White and Pink, a story about Celestia and Pinkie Pie switching bodies[1]
Originally created for a comedy contest, then rewritten for a body switch one; I'm not yet completely happy with it, but it's close, apart from the scene with Luna negotiating. It's also my largest piece of fiction yet, at a bit over 15K words, and I'm told it still has some remaining errors that I can't seem to find.


Under the Moonlight and Notebook, both minifics meant to evoke nostalgia, the first about Luna and the second about Twilight.
Those two were reasonably well placed in the last Writeoff, and apart from a certain lack of polish, I'm fairly happy about them. Each should open a new small fic collection I plan to start, Notebook a collection of music-inspired fics, and Under the Moonlight a collection of smaller fics.


Applejack and the Orange, a silly piece about Applejack finding an orange in one of her trees.
It's short (though, if I can find someone to help me with rhymes, I might try to add back the Zecora scene I had to cut; it would happen while the apple pie bakes). It's also fairly rough, and open to larger changes than the previous fics, though I think the basic plot itself won't change.


Faster than Fears, an unpublished sequel to The Other Route about how the OC handles finally earning trust.
It was done for one of the WTG, but I missed the deadline and decided to not submit to FIMFiction until I got the chance to polish it more.
I like the basic idea, and some of the execution, but this still feels clunky to me; besides (and before) any help with editing, I would love to get some feedback on whether or not it's worth polishing (and expanding) as is, or if I should rework parts of it.


Strangely Familiar, a fic with about every bad premise you could cram inside.
This one was created for a contest about picking the worst premises and creating something good out of it. My entry is about a human coming to Equestria, finding a seventh element, falling in love with an established character, meeting an alicorn nopony even knew existed, and it has some parts in second person to boot — and I want to preserve all of those elements.
Surprisingly, the first reaction seems to be positive, though there is quite a bit to improve in what I have already written. The human and the alicorn OC don't yet have a well defined personality, it is often rushed up, and there are things that I left unexplained in error. Consider this an early version; even the name was just a placeholder (it was supposed to be the name of the first chapter, until I decided to not divide it in chapters for the contest).
This is also a story I want to write a continuation for, though the plot for that continuation is only defined in the most tenuous sense right now.


The Masked Mare of Canterlot, about a precursor to the Misterious Mare Do Well.
This was another Writeoff entry, but one that ended far smaller and more rushed than I intended. I want to completely rewrite it before posting it to FIMFiction, bringing the mare's feelings and emotions more to the fore, having one or two extra action scenes, and attempting to misdirect better who the mare is while leaving clues.


Inconvenient Helpers, a Daring Do misadventure
This one is a bit more complicated. I want to figure out how to improve this version for that collection of short fics I want to start, but at the same time I want to write the full story this was supposed to be based on — Daring do, Cheese Sandwich, and Trixie going out on adventures across Equestria. This had some extra issues compared with the two other minifics I wrote for the same writeoff, though, so if I'm not satisfied with the result I might choose to just never submit the fixed version of this, and instead go directly with the larger fic I want to write based on the same premise.


Finally, there's the rest of the fics I have already written. I want to eventually rewrite most of them, and Smudge Conspiracy I want to turn into a larger story, of which the already posted fic would become the first chapter; thus offers for help with my old fics are also welcome.


And this is it (at least for the fics that are already in a readable state). Feel free to read any of the linked fics if you want; while not finished, they are at, or above, the polish level of what I've published previously. I will be glad for any help, of course, either in a direct way or by providing me with advice on how to contact and work with editors and pre-readers.


[1] In case GhostOfHeraclitus ever reads this: it has a Dotted Line cameo, and even footnotes. Within the limits of both contests it was created for, it's meant a homage; the style was originally intended to mirror Discworld, but I can't think about Discworld and Pony together without thinking about Whom the Princess Would Destroy :scootangel:

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