Blog A Dog · 6:42pm May 11th, 2015
It's funny to see something I did jump up where it has so quickly after it cleared moderation. Just because it's funny to me, I have to add it failed moderation at first over the Short Description that I apparently bungled. Makes me appreciate our moderators a little more, seeing that something so minor will still be given due attention for a minimum standard.
I've got little applicable education or training and should've failed high school english, admittedly just because I did so little work more than anything else, as well as placement testing a few years ago says I need a class on sentence structure and composition before I can take English 101. It's been several years since high school however, so don't think that's a new thing. At present, all I can say I have for experience is a bit over a year of writing poured into my main effort of Protecting Harmony, of which the first book is almost complete, and it's supplemental of The Wonderbolts Initiative. To a lesser extent, there is also a much more recent story of Pinkie getting a human of her own, which I recently decided to make piecemeal standalone additions to when the mood strikes. It all adds up to less than 250k words, I think. Not counting notes, that is all I've written.
Now I look at the front page of this site and see a small effort of mine in a prominent position.
To be honest, it's kind of surreal and in perhaps equal measure, validating my growing feelings towards taking up writing professionally. Of course, that means pursuing real literary learning, but that is a very iterative (literative?) process. I have little idea of what the crap I'm doing with my work and it's generally more stumbles and 'it just fell out that way' in practice than anything else. And I mean that somewhat literally when I say it falls out because I write by thought-stream most of the time. Considering I do almost zero planning at present, I have to wonder just what I could pull off if I planned a story out.
With real planning, maybe I could even do something as awesome as Kudzuhaiku's The Chase, which may be the single most intricate, complex, and deepest vision of Equestria yet conceived. I still can't believe he's got 1.6m words and hasn't even finished the first farkin' year of the story. Seriously, he's doing something incredible over there and updates a LOT. If it wasn't already obvious, yes, I'm a big fan of his work. That includes Princess Luna's Suicide Solutions, which is closer to what it sounds like, in a sense, than you might expect and approaches some very challenging topics in mental health.
Not A Dog was conceived, planned, written, and edited in a little under three days before being submitted to this site. Mostly, I write my stories in finished form because it's just how it happens. Wednesday before the story went up, I wrote a half page of notes that evening, tried to sleep for an hour, got up and wrote until 4am because it was burning in my brain. I finished about half of it then. Thursday, I ended up repeating the sleeplessness until I had done the first true editing pass. I submitted it Friday afternoon at some point. As I put in the A/N at the top of the first chapter, sometimes my brain won't shut up.
Something else that's been fascinating to see is the comments. One of the great things about the broad access of the internet is the wide variances of perspective you can get. There's actually something of a debate going on in the comments over vegetarian/vegan as a worldview, with some comments how some do it just to feel superior for some reason, or something like that. I'm not following it all that closely, even if I am reading it all. Oh, and because someone was kind enough to ask, however unnecessary it was, I'll let it be known even more openly that people are welcome to borrow lines. Thanks to Schroedingers_Katze, Fluttershy as 'She Who Scares Dragons' is apparently now translated into Skyrim draconic as 'Rek Wo Gefaas Dovah' and I am guessing a story inclusion or perhaps a story idea seed on it's own. 
Having done my requisite ramble for no real reason other than to babble, I'll talk about the story itself and the remaining chapters.
The continuation of the story as it stands in my mind right now will be another two chapters, with maybe a small dingleberry hanging off the end for squishy feelings. Take that metaphor as you will, if you see anything more than anecdotal commentary. The coming meeting with the girls when he reveals everything is actually in the third chapter, while the second is a whole different ballgame. I'm currently unsure when I want to post it, because it's a little boggling to have it sitting on top of the pile and making my brain funny. I may post the next in a few days, or I may wait until it's off the feature box and I can relax again. 
Above all, keep in mind I am writing this story for ME, first and foremost. I'm happy so many enjoy it, but I know I can't please everyone. There are simply too many different perspectives and expectations for that to be possible within Euclidean reality.
As the story progresses to it's completion, just remember it's mine to tell and all of you are choosing to follow me down the rabbit hole that popped outta my brain like Gogo Dodo having tea with Pinkie Pie (see how my brain works? someone write this!).
I hope most will enjoy the journey you've joined me for, though I know some will disagree where things are going. I'm grateful for the attention, but it is not why I write. 
Write for yourself and others will notice and adore your work. Write for adoration and acclaim and find that none will even notice. Strange but true, I've found. At least with amateur work.
3062850 I just get diarrhea of the brain and it itches until it explodes onto the page.
This is, in so many ways, a summation of my present writing ability.