Featurebox... · 5:53pm Mar 16th, 2015
Okay, so the first story I ever wrote was posted on this very site. I've always been a great essay-writer, naturally gifted with the English language, and knew I had the guns to make something that looked good.
As far as ideas, using my imagination... that was much more difficult for me. I've never been good at putting my thoughts down on paper. Sure, I can write words, but they don't really mean much. My first story here was my first ever foray into how I feel.
Of course, that didn't make my writing an instant hit. The world wasn't waiting to see what Scootareader's brain feeds him. The only person wanting to know was me.
I didn't see it that way; no one ever does until they have experience. I was somewhat familiar with the way FIMFiction worked when I posted my story; I knew about the featurebox on the front page, reserved for the most well-written stories. I looked over a few of them and knew the competition. I certainly had better grammar, and stories about the droll crap I saw in there... compared to my idea? Why, I was a shoe-in.
So, I wrote my first chapter. Posted it. And watched it. At the same time, a friend of mine posted the first chapter of his story. And he watched it. His story did better than mine... and never made it to the coveted featurebox.
I was convinced it was a fluke. I hadn't given up on the prestige of having my first story up there quite yet. I wrote my second chapter. Then my third... and fourth... and I realized, there weren't legions of readers hanging at the end of every chapter, asking what would happen in the next, speculating on where my mind would take them next.
No one cared. Not really.
If I cancelled it, the world wouldn't be worse off. If I took a break from writing, I wouldn't have angry fans asking why I hadn't updated yet. It went largely unnoticed by the site at large.
There are several factors for this. Firstly, I had no kind of reader base to begin with; it was my first story, so I had no reader base. It also (I think) was a largely unwritten and unpopular topic; either not very many readers are as interested in mental trips as I am, or maybe I just suck at writing them. Thirdly, it was apparently similar enough to an incredibly popular story written by an incredibly popular author (Background Pony by shortskirtsandexplosions) that my first few comments were made from users speculating my story's similarity to it. I'd never heard of the fic being talked about, nor had I heard of the author; I had not been on the site for long.
Ultimately, though, I don't know how many people have read my first story, or if it's even any good. I hadn't heard of LUS, so there's a lot of that present; I wouldn't say my grammar has improved, but my perception of how sentence flow is most effective in a pony fanfic has definitely improved and I can write better sentences now; and I had an underwhelming amount of experience writing from my own imagination, rather than my reflections on the words of others. Looking back on it now, I see why it wasn't a masterpiece. At the time, I didn't see it as such.
Now, what does a story in the featurebox have that my story doesn't?
I can't say it's got to be a unique story. I remember, back when I even bothered to check what was in the featurebox (and mature filter is off), the #9 story would always be the story of an animal (natural or anthro) that has come to Equestria to live among the ponies and fight their animal instincts. This was a consistent thing. 1/10 of the stories in the featurebox were always animal/anthro in Equestria.
Romance stories also have a significantly high chance of getting in... as long as they're between canon characters. My first story had an OC (an earth pony, not an alicorn) romance with a canon character, so it was excluded. I still refuse to read Vinyl x Octavia, even University Days, because of how overdone it is; anyone writing that is basically just looking for a featureboxed story.
Clop is also pretty prevalent for the featurebox. Out of all the poorly written stories I've noticed in there, a shockingly high number are clop. I guess masturbation material doesn't take note of quality.
Apart from that, it's basically how many followers the author has and how many of those followers are for the stories. Sure, up-and-coming authors can make it in there, but they almost always use the generic formula for success, whether it be intentional or unknown. It's rare indeed that you find an original idea from an author under 200 followers--but it does happen.
I thought I was one of them.
Initially, I chalked it up to the time I submitted my story. Then I chalked it up to my story not being formulaic enough--too original, if you will. Finally, I realized why I continued to write, despite my story not being instantly featureboxed: I loved what I was writing, and I wanted someone else to read what I loved writing, too.
The featurebox thing was not a goal. It was a dream.
However great my mastery of the English language may be, I'm still an average writer at best. My ideas aren't profound or earth-shattering; they are just... ideas. And I don't write them so that they show up on the front page.
I write them so that I can share my ideas with those who want them shared. It doesn't matter to me who wants to... only that someone does.
To this day, none of my stories have ever made it into the featurebox. At least, not that I know of. I never check anymore, and no one has ever told me my story has made it. Wouldn't matter to me even if I did. I submitted a story to Equestria Daily once, and it got shot down. I decided I don't need them for those who want to read my stories to find them, either. If anyone wants to read what I think up, they can find whatever it is.
I like it better this way anyway.
Eh, University Days is overrated anyway.
Reminds me of what was going on when I first posted a story and felt kind of miffed at it not getting the recognition I thought it deserved. This was like, three years ago, and generally I didn't really care all that much about being featured for the sake of being featured, but what really got under my skin was that where my story - Applejack turns into a werewolf - was struggling to get any attention, high on the feature box around the time my story was wrapping up was almost a near-exact duplicate concept, only it was about Rainbow Dash turning into a werewolf. It got over 600 upvotes in less than a month and at last I checked it's sitting at 700 despite not having been updated for almost a year and a half now and only just under a total of two chapters of 4,400 approx. words. My story still only has half that much, though by now I think it's because I actually played the whole lycanthropy thing very subtlety and it's barely hinted at in the story description, while that other story has werewolf RD as a cover image and just outright says that happens in the description.
Of course, my sequel story got into the featured box and this was before the sequel function links were implemented, so this sequel's first line in the description was a link to that first story, so technically in the end I still got it in that dumb box somehow
One of my favorite authors on this site Cold in Gardez once said, 'the more ridiculous your ideas are, the more successful your stories will be.' Paraphrasing here. But SS&E has also said that some of his stories were too out there, and they would have been better off as original fiction.
In many ways, I'm still looking for my style. I'm still learning how to flush out ideas and develop characters. I'd like to think I've been getting better... but I don't know. My grammar has certainly improved. So, there's that at least. After having EQD shoot down a number of my stories, and after them showing me what's wrong, I've leaned how to review a story and explain why it works or doesn't.
It's a hard line to walk, avoiding the tropes everyone is tired of, being original, and getting people to actually care. Sometimes just having a good pre-reader to bounce ideas off of really helps. I like when my pre-readers say, 'that ending is weak, this idea is just flat...' ext.
Overall, it's my dream to become a real writer. I doubt if I can ever make that dream a reality, but I will enjoy it just the same.
IT IS K
I NEVER MADE TO FEATURED BOX EITHER
How 'bout you post something shorter to read, you cancerous bag of fuck-sand? I got shitty concentration. I ain't readin' all that.
2882764
I've heard it's well-written and a roommate strongly suggested I look into it, but I've never wanted to strictly based on the fact that I've seen so many OctiScratch fics everywhere and I don't find anything particularly interesting about the ship. I've never been one to seek out well-written stories over ones that entertain me (i.e. are poorly written), anyway.
2882767
Well, at least it got the recognition it deserved posthumously.
2882773
I don't actively aim to avoid tropes; if I have an idea, I pursue it and see if it's worth it to me. Same with originality; I don't try to be original, I just write what I think. As far as getting people to care... well, I guess that's what I actively don't try to do now.
I just let whoever stumbles upon my stories enjoy them as they will. My interest is in writing, not publicizing.
2882814
I'm quite frankly shocked that Rap Settlement never made it.
2882818
I apologize, Chad-san. I will try to make it shorter next time.
Well at least you don't have bad English and bad horse words ;_;
but yeah I'm kinda glad I never got featured, although probably just because I hate deadlines and more attention would mean more demand for more shit I guess
2882814
rip
Wow, you wrote a sincere blog and no one seems to give a fuck.
2882958
It takes people time to read blogs.
Only been up for about an hour, silly.
I write things that are too short. I don't have the patience or concentration to write longer stuff.
2882965 It's because no one cares about any specific individual, hence why they always make personal analogies and revert it back to themselves. The Internet is the perfect example of the unrestrained human Freudian narcissism at work.
That's why 4chan is awful. Give humans anonymity and see the true potential of their depravity.
2883376
Well, I'm looking for how others feel about it. My blog is usually written from my perspective, being my blog, but it makes others reflect on themselves. I enjoy those replies.
If voiced introspective is a bad thing, I probably just shouldn't talk.
2883389 Filtered introspection. Do you honestly think that these people truly care about you? You're a social tool for them, an excuse for them to talk about themselves. A self-absorbed generation Y product. I mean that in the least offensive way. It's only natural.
2883400
Uh...you sure you don't mean Tumblr?
2883400
I'm not trying to get them to care about me. I want to hear their opinions on my thoughts. It's an experience-sharing thing I'm going for, not people wanting to jerk me off.
2883507 Sorry for being an edgelord, you know I love you, Scuti Scuti Desu <<3333333333
I had an edgy outburst.
2883566
Lucky you I already cut, so that edge wasn't scary to me.
I don't actually cut, so don't ask.
2883570 CRAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWELIIIIIING IN MY SKIN
THESE WOUNDS THEY WILL NOT
HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEUL
my dank maymes mak errytjiiin bettuh????????
2880532 Tumblr is le extreme version of Facebook. I honestly wonder if it isn't a conspiracy, one big hoax made by /pol/.
You don't want to make feature box because then you're compared to everything else that is/has been in the feature box.
2883595
Well, then that bar is set pretty low. As long as there's ponies in the story from the beginning, nothing can be worse in qualifying than Air Superiority, the only story that I've seen make the mods panic when it topped the featured box without the mature filter enabled and it was quickly realized it had done so purely because of the upvote farm that was LoHAV in its prime and not because anybody had actually read the story and realized the only chapter had no ponies in it whatsoever.
Never been close to the featured box, never sent anything to EQD; I figured, since I had so little experience in fiction writing -- a few thousand words, compared to literally millions of words of nonfiction -- I'd get the story out there, take my lumps, and do better next time. And I surely owe something to the chap who managed to get my magnum opus mentioned in TV Tropes.
2882859
You better, you long-winded piece of asshair twine.
2884179
My first story is actually on TV Tropes as well. A large number of referrals that have caused it to be read are apparently from TV Tropes--3/4, if the pie chart is to be believed.
2885331
I can believe it. In the current pie, just under half the views for that story of mine were referred by TV Tropes, and, well, I have a "real-life" blog which links all my pony stories in the sidebar, on the off-chance that someone out of the fandom might want to read them.
I do not care how popular/overdone a topic is. I will not read it because it is P/O, nor will I avoid it for that reason. There are a million 'young teen from no significant background saves the country/world/universe' stories. I tend to like them. I don't automatically fangasm if I see that theme, but I don't shy away from it either. each and every story I read, I approach as if it is the only story in it's genre I have ever read. I then judge it on it's own merit alone. First, foremost, and most important: did I enjoy it? After that: How was the spelling? Grammar? Were the character's believable? Dynamic? Did they have a tough enough time solving whatever problem came their way, while not so tough as to make it drag out? Were all questions I had answered in a satisfactory way? Did I wind up wanting more, or feeling as though it came to a natural and satisfying conclusion? Did the ending make sense? Did the story feel personally resonant? These are all questions I ask when determining how good a story is.
3209659
I have some bias, but I'm fair about it. I usually admit when I have bias beforehand. When I do judge from a biased viewpoint, I look at my harsh judgments and question the validity of them, and if I saw something like that in, say, one of my own stories.
I am biased against clop. I don't like it in almost all scenarios. I read a clop story today. After I'd read the entire 15k words, I told the author what had gone wrong and what had gone right. I gave it a 9/10. I also admitted that I skipped over almost all of the clop material, since I'm not interested in clop.
The missing point was due to characterization issues, mostly. I am also biased against stories with imperfect grammar, but unless it gets to the point where it's intrusive, I won't ding points. I have a very specific system on what I like or don't like, and even when I have an acknowledged bias, I do my damnedest to be fair.
If the clop story I reviewed made the featurebox, I would believe it had earned its place. It was an exceptional story of its genre. I knew my dislike of clop may color my opinion, but that's because clop is archetypally poorly written. Write clop well, sure, I'll read it, and I'll enjoy the parts of the story that focus on the mood, story, romance, etc. The problem is that so many amateur authors see how popular clop tends to be that they just pump out poorly written crap and expect it to be well-received. The infuriating part to me is that the poorly written crap is well-received.
I may have given a 9/10 to a clop story due to its originality and great delivery, but instead, we get the typical clickbait that's been rehashed a dozen times over in the featurebox.
lh3.googleusercontent.com/gI37Ft0LzWHZdhR6Ozt-JpuFOpSpV9XwOAg1l0PY3QY=w252-h220-no
I even have a folder in my group dedicated to this story archetype over here. I only wish the story I read was recognized as good clop that's not just clickbait.
3209752 Click bait is a term I've seen a lot, but I don't know what it means.
I am for clop. I tend to like a story more if it is sexual. However, I also tend to examine it more harshly on the other points by which I judge a story, with the exception on occasion of OOCness, which I sometimes forgive if the proposed scenario could simply not happen with cannon personalities, and I only forgive it if I both found it hot (S3+), and the author maintains a believable personality throughout the fic.
I am a bit of a spelling and grammar nazi, but my judgement points seem to mostly be the same ones you use.
I also want to point out that I may really like a sexual fic that is terribly written, if the sexual content is significantly arousing. I will not, however, rate these any higher, except in my personal database with a note on their content.
3209932
Clickbait is more or less a story that feels like an ad.
lh3.googleusercontent.com/3n8uucqqGk6m4lGNMkmGU-H2Q7bRcwlFB9KPM-I91AY=w661-h537-no
If the story feels like one of those "you have to click on this because you'll feel like you missed out if you didn't" stories, it's clickbait. Clop that involves Anonymous is generally clickbait, so the scenes often feel a little forced and redundant--like an item you buy in a TV ad that breaks on the second use.
3210055 I have so far read one story (a comic) with anon. Celestia tricked Luna into calling him a fagot over and over, and he told Luna that while once or twice was a sign of friendship, so many times was a marriage proposal. I found it vaguely amusing, but felt like I was missing something about the punchline.
Thank you for explaining clickbait to me. I now know exactly what you mean, and have been baited many times.