Please Tell Me I'm Not Prince · 1:54am Dec 16th, 2015
David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) wrote in one of his album booklets that he'd heard a rumor: Prince only listens to his own music. Like, Prince literally listens to no music other than the music he himself has composed and executed. Ever.
Purple Rain: the only pony who ever refused Cheese Sandwich permission to mock him. (True story.)
David Byrne thought this was hilariously appropriate. He wrote that he hoped it was true. I'm fairly certain it is.
Now, let me change gears for a moment.
I have a hard time reading stories. It's difficult for me to do a lot of things while still struggling with pain management, and my work suffers as a result. But this is even more true for reading. What others might see as leisure feels too much like work for me to get started on, so I have a shelf filled with fanfics I've never glanced at.
Fortunately, the Writeoffs allow me to read some good fanfics, although now it's once every six weeks instead of four. The necessity of doing reviews is a big push that helps, actually. But apart from the Writeoffs I haven't read much, and while I'm quite ashamed to say this...
I like reading my own fanfics. 
Seriously, I do. Every once in a while I'll reread one or two and get the same sort of emotional connection that my readers are intended to. I'll finish up a chapter or a fic with a great emotional feel and an added "nailed it" inside.
Somepony tell me I'm not Prince. For the love of Luna. Or at least, tell me how to read other ponies' fics.
I do the same thing. I have about twenty tabs of other peoples' stories open... but some of them I haven't even glanced at in months. However, it takes no effort for me to open up one of my own stories and give it a read.
I think this is because since I already know how everything is constructed and how everything plays out, reading my own stuff takes much less investment on my part.
I am going to use this to privately vent on the 6 week thing, and how it is dumb.
The 6 week thing is dumb and I actively dislike OF being in it because I'm losing out now. So screw OF in not the good way
I love reading my fics, especially the random comedies. Those are the epitome of "written for myself", why shouldn't I love them? :V But usually everything else gives me some modicum of grief.
And then there's the stuff I wrote when I first got on the internet, and ohhhhhh boooooooy D:
3621251
You, me, bookplayer, and at least two other regulars. Not to mention having lost Bad Horse and PP for other reasons.
"hey let's totally change the format on a whim, without regard for ponies who have been participating for more than a year now"
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Yea...I dont mind that it exists. I mind that I have to give up what I like doing because of it.
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There's a porn story I wrote years ago that makes me absolutely cringe to read, and I still get requests for it.
There are also a few porn stories I wrote years ago that I get requests for that don't make me cringe.
I should probably ponify one of them, but I've managed to steer clear of heavy pornification for the most part so far.
I read my own stuff all the time (except Mares because that story disturbs me). I love my own stuff. I started writing ponyfic because nobody else had written the story I wanted to read.
And I'd hope that as a writer, you could read your own stories and still like them.
Now, I don't really have any good motivational words about reading other people's stuff, except that it can be a good source of inspiration. Either a way to do something that you hadn't thought of, or a very definite what not to do. Or it might inspire you for a character, or bring something out in a background pony that you'd never noticed before . . . or social commentary on Ponies . . . or whatever.
You pick a story whose premise speaks to you, and then you get into it to see if its going to deliver and show you a good tale along the way.
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This is why I try not to write serious porn. :B
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I've got mixed results on that front. I could tell you more, but then I'd have to kill you.
Trick, you're not Prince, you're Queen.
Seriously, I don't care if you don't read my stories. It's a downvote avoided, this so much the better! :B
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I wouldn't watch you if I didn't like what you could do.
Pbbt. Don't talk down about yourself like that.
Eh, if you want to read someone else's fanfic, you just have to get something sufficiently awesome.
That's probably why I have a ridiculous number of them in RiL. I find lots of thing awesome.
Sounds about right to me. If it's a story I'm proud of for one reason or another, I definitely enjoy rereading it. Even stories I think have problematic writing. They're all my babies.
Heh. I'm the exact opposite. I have one story out that I haven't gotten much work done in half a year, and I'm always scared I'm going to miss one of my own plot points cause I can't go and read the whole thing again without cringing.
Doesn't help that Crusaders of the Lost Mark kind of pulled the rug from under it.
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Tut-tut! I’m sure you’ve never read one of my stories…
Besides, no, I seldom re-read my stories. Once they are in the wild, I disown them.
You're not Prince; you're Grant Morrisson. When you run out of things you like to read, you write some. No biggie.
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wat :B
How funny, just a short time ago I was repeatedly thinking about writing a blog entry and asking my followers if they also sometimes read their own stories and the only reason why I didn't is because I don't have so many followers, so not many (if any) would answer.
But I'm doing this too. Sometimes I read my own stories out of pure enjoyment and when I do, I see them as a reader, not as the author, and after I'm done I can sit here and say "Wow, this was a great story!" like I just read a story by another author.
I think that's something that's really good to find out if your stories are actually well-written, the ability to see them both from the perspective of an author and the perspective of a reader, because, even if it's helpful, you can't always rely on feedback from others.
Sometimes you just got to know by yourself if your story is good or not.