Status and stuff · 5:02am Aug 6th, 2015
I don’t like writing status updates. Still, since two months have slipped by I figure I’m due. For the past couple months, real life hasn’t been very conducive to writing, or de-stressing at all, really. Just as the pressure started to ease up, the real sucker punch came: my principal beta reader and idea sounding board extraordinaire is leaving the fandom. The already solitary activity of writing just got a whole lot lonelier.
I’m a solitary person by nature, but the close friendships I do have are years long and miles deep. I wish I had more of them. Losing the opportunity to share joys and tribulations of the pony-writing craft with a close friend on a regular basis is very depressing.
Still, writing goes on. As long as I’m breathing, that will be the case. Don’t buy into the “if you fail, try again” mantra. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is pure insanity (unless you’re flipping a coin, I suppose). Here’s the real deal: If you fail, try harder. Think it over. Take your time. Revaluate your approach. Revaluate your true goal. Challenge yourself. Put some elbow grease into it! Don’t be afraid of doing some hard work to achieve success or even to fail in a more interesting way. You are the true measure of your success.
That’s enough heavy stuff, I think. Here’s where various writing projects stand (or lay gasping for breath) in approximate priority order:
- Short, cute, and sappy romance: ~30% complete. I’m writing this primarily to drag myself out of a funk.
- Non-pony project, i.e. “The Novel”: penultimate editing pass is 50% complete. After this, it flies off into the hands of a professional for a (very expensive) critique and copyedit. My personal goal was to finish this thing in 2015, and I’ll likely put other projects on the back burner until this editing pass is done.
- Slice of Life story from the last writeoff staring Big Mac: Fully written and edited, but caught in the fallout of losing the aforementioned beta reader. It’ll get posted soon, preferably once another pair of eyes have looked it over.
- Adventure story staring Spike: ~50% drafted, but temporarily stuck. A major plot point doesn’t look as good in prose as it did in the outline.
- Adventure story staring the princesses. I actually had an excellent brainstorming session with bookplayer on this one, in which I laid out the hole-ridden synopsis and she helped me fill in some missing pieces. I’m excited to write this one.
- Semi-dark adventure story staring Applejack. This is the one I alluded to in my last blog entry (poor AJ). Bookplayer also helped me iron out a few details with this one, but the overall story needs a more fleshing out.
- Sequel to ‘Til Sunday Do Us Part: I’m not doing this based on reader demand, although encouragement certainly helps. I know what Spike and Rarity’s next adventure will be, I just need to figure out how to keep the same comic tone that permeated the original. In my head, the first story originated as a funny ‘what if’ scenario involving Rarity attending a secretive social club. In other words, I wrote the jokes first and then built a story around them. For the sequel I’m doing it in reverse.
- Another installment to Friday Night Twilight: Once again, not totally based on reader demand. Most of my stories simply borrow characters and locales from the show, but the Friday Night stories revolve around the happenings in particular episodes. I don’t know if that pattern will continue, but I’m still not planning on touching this until after season 5 concludes.
Is there anything else that should be on this list?
I'm here for you, buddy. If you want someone to do idea-bouncing and editing (such as my abilities allow), send me a pm and we'll chat!
Silly to ask considering the theme of the show that brought us all here, but: does having friends help a great deal? Like, a huge, ridiculous amount? I don't complete shit and I've never made a friend interested in writing, and I begin to wonder if these things aren't connected somehow.
The hardships of the daily grind and the pursuit of pone word crafting. Such is life. Still, glad to see you have the determination to persevere. If you ever feel like talking about writing but have no one handy around, don't hesitate to hit me up; I hear my impersonation of a cool person can be pretty convincing.
If nothing else, I hope you get through the checklist in relative quickness and get to writing that sequel for ‘Til Sunday Do Us Part. 
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I think it helps…
Reading good stuff that other people have written is important, but learning about their actual creative process is like stepping into the factory where their stories were made. Plus, talking about writing gets me motivated to write. Granted, so does getting up in the morning
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Thanks, at some point I might take you both up on those offers!