Derpy's Final Misadventure · 6:26am Nov 4th, 2015
I have a confession to make:
I have perhaps not always put in every ounce of effort I possibly could have in writing for this website. I have oftentimes been lax in editing, have taken the easy way out on certain elements of storytelling, and have generally not given everything that I could have here. The reason why is simple: This is just fanfic, and I'm not getting paid for it.
For the last year, I've been working on an original book set in my own world with characters of my own creation, I will have it published by the end of this week. Unfortunately, I can't tell anyone here what the title is or where to get it because I want to keep my professional writing separated from my fanfiction as completely as possible. What I can say is that the experience of writing and editing it has made a better writer in every way, to the point that I am no longer satisfied with much of my work here on FiMFiction.
Because of that, I intend to go back through much of what I've published here, and do some thorough editing. My primary efforts will be focused on "The Misadventures of Derpy Hooves," which I feel are essentially my best work on FiMFiction, being the closest of what I have done to the spirit of the show. I will not be changing overall content; merely rewording, fixing grammatical errors, and fixing some problems in the flow of the narrative. The changes will be minor enough that many readers may not notice them at all.
Once I have finished this editing process, I will be writing the last Misadventure of Derpy Hooves. I have had a plan for it in mind for the last year, and I think that I can knock it out pretty quickly. It will be given more attention to detail and will likely be longer than any story in the series thus far.
After it is published, it is highly unlikely that I will ever write any fanfiction of significant length again. The time that I dedicate to writing must, in the future, be dedicated to projects that can make me money. I know that some people will probably say that this decision is a case of me "selling out," and I don't care. I have to make a living, and I have my own stories to tell that I feel are worth charging someone a fee to read.
I will be writing this last Derpy fic to avoid leaving that story unfinished, and it will of course be posted here, free of charge (I don't own the property, anyway.) Still, I doubt more than a few people will ever read it in its entirety. That's an example of precisely why I have to bow out of FiMFiction: the reward that I get for the amount of time that I put into writing here is pitifully small. I have made the "popular stories" list only twice, and have been featured only once (and for a crackfic, at that.) In this environment, notoriety is the only reward -- and no; creation is not "its own reward" in fullness. If it were, we would write our stories, and never publish them to be read by anyone.
I never figured out how to really spark whatever it is in people who read fanfic that gets some authors a huge following here, and I honestly don't feel I'll be leaving much behind. This was a place to work through my frustrations and find my own way forward into something that I like to do. No hard feelings, and no, this is not me "leaving the fandom."
It's just time for one last hurrah as a Brony writer; time for one last misadventure.
I promise I'll give it the best I've got.
I look forward to the punctuation mark put on this phase of your career and also to seeing your work on the shelves.
It will be an honor to read your send off!
You will be missed, but I wish you the best in your original writing!