People do this sort of thing, right? Long-winded blogs about getting featured and stuff? · 8:12pm Apr 27th, 2015
So... the 1000 word story about this week's past episode, which I wrote in about two hours... has now been in the Feature Box for about as long as it's been published.
I'll be totally honest: I'm pretty shocked. I almost feel like it was... too easy, or something. After all, I usually agonize and agonize over editing and rewriting my stuff until I practically drive myself insane, but with this thing, I just sort of wrote it. Most of my other stories don't hit the feature box, which is just par of the course, but I find it kind of ironic that the story I spent the least amount of time working on compared to everything else I've currently got on my account ended up being the one that was featured for the longest period of time. Weird. 
Regardless, I do have to say that I'm pretty stoked. This was also my first time trying to write a fanfic in first person, and it appears that a lot of people really enjoyed it, so that's great! I might have to try and develop my abilities with working in first person narration in the future, though I won't exactly be starting really soon. I'm stalling for studying for finals as I type this blog. 
Now, a lot of people (or maybe just a few, really) seemed to want to know how I wrote this thing so fast. And apart from it being only 1000 words long, I have no clue. I just had an idea, typed it up, and published it. I've never written a decent quality story that quickly before, so it was an experience to say the least. I don't expect something like this to happen with me again anytime soon, but we'll just have to see what the future holds, I suppose.
Hell, I actually sort of hope something like this can happen again. Makes me feel all productive and stuff. 
I also want to say thanks to everybody who read this thing and enjoyed it (or didn't enjoy it; still, thanks for giving it a chance!). It means a lot to me that this little thing seemed to have an impact on people who read it, as well as spark some discussions in the comments section (which have been pretty civil thus far, so thanks again!). I know a lot of people say "write for yourself," which isn't bad advice to follow, but I really do enjoy writing fanfiction for all of you guys, as well as possibly sparking discussions, so it's always a great feeling when I can write something that such a large number of people can really invest their time in.
Anyways, I feel like this blog is getting a little on the fat side, so I'm just going to leave things at saying thanks to everybody for reading. And to any new followers who've decided to take a journey down the Arwhale trail, I hope I can provide you with enough good stories to make you want to stick around!
Until after finals,
~Arwhale
It might have been because it was so raw. You wrote it quickly instead of thinking about it for a long time and making constant adjustments and tweaks, and so the complete unfettered emotion could shine through, which works with this writing because it was based on emotion.
It's hard to predict what people will like. You wrote something good, people liked it..enjoy the accolade.
Personally, the episode just got me in a sad Applejack one-shot mood. A friend is actually the one who mentioned it to me since I rarely look at the new stories section and they do (along with their obsession of AJ... that I share). Regardless, I enjoyed it for what it was.
That's the curse of the artist. You ever hear the Nine Inch Nails song "Head Like a Hole?" The album it was on was made up of carefully written, meaningful songs. Head like a Hole was written in a couple of hours with no real meaning in mind just to fill out the album. Guess which song everyone remembers?
I had a similar experience, where a story I'd put a ton of thought into got very limited attention, but another story I just scribbled down jumped right into the Feature Box. Strange how that works out sometimes.
You wrote a great story and you deserve all the attention. Keep it up!