All I want for Christmas is VIEWS!!! · 4:24pm Dec 25th, 2014
It was a good Christmas morning. Quiz and I got just what we wanted.
Thanks to the very nice people at EQD, I woke up to a nice bump in my readership (not that I don't write for the pleasure of writing, it's just that I publish to be read). Wonderful was posted as the Hearth's Warming update to Quizzical (which meant Quizzical got a bump in views as well as Wonderful - a surprising number of you out there thought Quizzical would be nice holiday reading, a bunch of those were re-reads) Thank you, readers!link
Views are, of course, nearly the last thing Quiz wants. But she got something else. Maybe not what she asked for, but what she needs. After the events occurring in Wonderful I have to either start writing her as self-confident, or I admit to Blue_Paladin42 that he's right, and Quiz has Aesop Amnesia. She may not see herself as extraordinary, certainly not as much as others see her. But she's come to accept that she's actually pretty good.
How much will this change her stories? Not as much as you think. Not enough for Quiz to lose her charm, anyway. She's learned about pride (Q:"A very nice feeling, actually. But it's best kept to one's self.") but she's still humble (Q: "Oh, dear, I certainly hope that never changes. My humility happens to be the quality about myself I am most proud of.") She's also still shy, and will be well into the future (that's been foreshadowed. No, that was actually dropped as a flat out spoiler, in chapter 5 of Wonderful). Compliments will no longer confuse Quiz. But they will still embarrass her, and she'll probably ask the complimenter nicely to please not exaggerate.
It was a good year, and it looks like a good year to come. Merry Christmas to you all.
Truly, there is little as precious as the gift of character development. Merry Christmas, JMac.
Happy Hearthwarming! and Grats on the boost.
I don't know, she grew pretty fast in the first story. Not to mention the confidence boost she got throughout that first story. I don't see a problem with character growth, if anything the lack of growth is what can make a character dull, especially with the super straight-laced asocial smart ones.
Quizzical can keep growing, you'll just have to keep her feeling like there's still challenges for her. If she's too far ahead of everypony else, she starts to come off as 'too perfect'. If she resets after every story despite having learned and done things in those past stories that show she's confident in being able to handle bullies or how she's become less socially awkward, it just irritates the readers who've followed your stories and she ends up feeling like a refurbished trope every story.
Hmm... Quizzical being inflicted with some form of amnesia or some sort of disability could add to her character. I'm not serious about that last one, but it could. Depending where you want her to go. First story read more like there were no real sequels in the works planned, since she felt well-rounded by the end of the first story. Able to fit in and stand hoof and hoof by everypony else.
Aww, you got to admit, she's getting better. Getting better, all the time.
Happy Festivus!
I hope to get to wonderful at some point, but until then the next one i have up to read is The Poetry Of The Layers and then ill hit up Basements and then Wonderful.
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