The Future of Pony.exe (NOTHING STORY-ENDING) · 5:39am Dec 17th, 2015
TL;DR -- Not sure if the story is going is the right direction, and frustrated that this will be something that I'll have to figure out myself, circumventing my personal goal of releasing the next chapter before the end of the year.
I need to get this straight with you guys. This is something I need to address, and I need to address it now.
As of chapter 12, explorer.exe, we are reaching a point of no return very quickly. I planned the outline of the story a month ago, after realizing I had a real deal on my hands and had to actually write a story outline instead of winging it like I always do. Doing so, I took an hour to type out an outline that was satisfactory to me. But now that we are reaching about a third of the way through the story, I need to decide what's next. I need to decide whether to follow my outline... or scrap it entirely and make a new one.
I'm going to attempt to portray my issue with as little spoilers as possible, so bear with me if this or the next paragraph doesn't make too much sense. The current course that the story is taking is, well, not very pony related. Sure, there are ponies in it, and there's FiM lore in it, but there is a much bigger focus on the human world than the pony world. Am I dissatisfied with it? No. Do I love it? Absolutely. Am I afraid of the threat that my story will be kicked off the site if it loses focus? Yes. And once again, it is pony-related, and it will stay pony-related until the very last chapter. But I'm not worried about keeping it pony related, I'm worried about the amount of relation the story will have to FiM, and that if there's a minimum amount of relation I need to keep my stories with in order for them to stay on the site. Sure, I've seen stories where ponies turn into humans and get whisked off to the human world, and it's a up to a young guy living along in a small home to take care of them and try and get them back. I've seen the concept before, and I think that's as far as you can go with the story's relation with the FiM universe. All those stories have is one character from FiM and there is little else that is connected. If those stories were ok, then why can't mine? Well, maybe because those stories were a tad bit smaller in scope. Maybe they weren't planned to have a long length, or maybe they didn't end up having a long length, or perhaps maybe the story was never finished. Unlike those authors, I plan to finish my story, and hopefully do it by the end of April, 2016, a one year anniversary since the day I released the first chapter.
So yeah. There's a little bit of doubt on my mind. But that's actually not my biggest worry. My biggest worry is on the potential my story has. As you might be able to tell, pony.exe has tons of potential. It can whisk off in any direction it likes, with what I believe to be a little bit more freedom than some other stories on the site. As the author of the story, it is within my duty to choose the most optimal route to take, so the story can get the most potential out of the scope I've imagined for it. I don't want it to get crazy, or too big, or with a storyline that lasts forever. But maybe that would be the most optimal route to take? To clarify, I'm not looking to maximize the happiness or joy out of the followers of the story, but instead maximize the potential greatness, for the lack of a better term, for the story. And now, with the story approaching a critical breaking point, I have to consider abandoning the ship that is my outline and look for a new, better ship that will lead me to discover great things. Once again, I don't want the story to get too big. I'm not Christopher Columbus. But it's the issue of potential coped up with the fact of relation to FiM that's really got me on my edges.
I want to release the next chapter before the end of the year. But unless I really have a genius moment, that may not happen. The last chapter took 2 weeks longer than it should to write because I was in the middle of debating with myself if Twilight was out of character! And that was just dialogue! Imagine how long it would take me to make a decision on something that would change the entire plot of that story! Now that's a scary thought, isn't it? Therefore, the next chapter's release date is unknown, and can't be ballpark'd. I need to consider as many avenues of venture I can, what would work and what wouldn't, what would make for a good story and what would make for a grand story. I don't know how long it's going to take.
It's times like these I wish I has some sort of pre-reader, or editor, or someone to bounce off ideas with. I don't have any of those things because the more people on the project of pony.exe, the longer it will take for chapters to get out because there is more people working on the project and they all have different lives with different schedules. Also, more responsibilities will be taken to get work done on time (well, as many responsibilities that writing My Little Pony fan fiction brings, I've gotta be honest here), and editing sessions will take longer as more issues in the chapters are pointed out and discussed. When it's just me writing the thing, I can write it, edit it, edit it again and publish for the public. With a pre-reader or two, who knows how many more edits I'll need to make! And I hate editing. It's the most boring thing in the world to me. When I write something, I want to write it and get it right the first time. Of course, this never happens, and I understand the importance of checking your work (I've been through school before!), but if it's done and it's edited, I don't give it another look. I whisk it off, which is probably why some readers notice numerous mistakes in the text. I am my own editor, and that isn't a good thing.
But I wouldn't want to put trust into anyone on giving me an opinion when I ask for one on my story. I get many opinions from the comments I receive when I finish a chapter, and I read and consider each and every single one. But that's after the fact, after I've published the chapter and after I've made all of the self-edits. I need a source that I can go to before I write chapters, someone who is willing to get spoilers straight from the author and someone who could care less and someone who can be paid a penny for their thoughts, and someone who won't go blabbing about it on the internet afterwards and spoil everything I have planned. I need someone who I can trust, and, well, I just can't find that someone yet, never mind be willing to try and look. Self-editing is a reality I have accepted. It has pros and cons, and right now the pros outweigh the cons. However, once in a while you get problems that are the scope of what this blog post is really about, and there's something you can't solve on your own.
So what should you take from all of this? Well, up until this point I had a good idea of how to progress with the story, but not I'm not so sure anymore. Call it doubt or whatever, but this may be a slight case of writer's block, if in a weird sort of manner.
"How do I progress well with this thing???"
(Oh, and there's also the issue that I might from time to time want to write things other than pony.exe. But that's a completely different blog post.)
Blaze, I see you around here every so often, and if there is one problem I always have with your comments, it's that they are always so long and detailed that I have trouble figuring out what you are actually even trying to say.
This blog kind of is no different. What exactly is it you even want to know from us?
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There's a TL;DR at the top:
It's not really that I need to know something from you guys, it's more like I need to get this off my chest before I either forget about it later or a month comes and goes without the next chapter and nobody knows what the heck is going on.
Uhh, sorry about the length. I go a bit overboard with these things. I'll try and keep the next blogs a bit less word-y.
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Fair enough, then. Sorry, but you went so many places with this, I honestly couldn't figure out just what exactly the problem was, whether you were looking for an editor or sounding board or whatnot and whether you even wanted a response to that.
We're personally fine being a sounding board, it's usually fun comparing notes on where I think a plot is headed versus where the author intends on taking it.
Honestly, the latest direction I believe the story is going may indeed take it into "too far off topic" zone, but that can be remedied in many ways. I doubt it will get "kicked off the site" so long as you keep tenants of the show's premise or characters somehow.
Heck, there are some Optimalverse Fics that are only pony because that's the species they are, so don't stress too much.
Hey, Blaze. I've been reading for a while, and I do think the story is really cool. I'm an editor, so maybe you'd like to hit me up? I'd be more than happy to help you with story planning or arc building or whatever you need.
That sounds to me you are aiming to create a 'verse for pony.exe
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I've been on the edge for this. On one hand, making a 'verse would basically be free advertising, because if other authors wrote stories based on the original then they would point to my story, and I would get more viewers, and more viewers is good.
On the other hand, the quality of other stories besides mine is not guaranteed. The Ponyfall project was limited to the mane 6 after a month or two, if I do so remember correctly, because of the influx of poorly written stories that followed just because writers wanted to get onto the ride where 1, they'd get a chance of getting free attention because their story is a part of a larger, more popular group of stories, and 2, they would get a free pass on making a self-insert where they take care of their favourite character. I don't want the same thing to happen if I do make a 'verse, and I would need to make sure to moderate which types of stories get my approval in terms of quality. I don't want to have another Ponyfall on my hands.
And at the same time... Making a 'verse would be a huge leap for both me and the story, one that I'm not willing to take just yet. Maybe after the story is done. Maybe.
I would finish it and then post a what if this happened as an alternate to the story. One decision can result in an entirely different universe. Just watch the season finale and see for yourself.
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I've thought about this. An omake would definitely fit to what I'm looking for in the long run. It would probably be short, though, because pony.exe's gonna end up kinda long, and I wouldn't want to make a completely separate story based on "what if".
Hey there, Blue Blaze! Sorry I hadn't commented on this lately, but allow me to offer my own feedback.
You wrote a story and it got popular and that means it has gotten its fair share of commentary and feedback, and some of that it making you rethink the direction of the story. Now, I might be wrong about that, but I'm taking a guess on it because the same sort of thing has happened to me (although "Pony.exe" is more popular than any of my own stories at present).
But let me point this out: the story got popular because of what it is and what it has the potential to be. To second guess yourself is to have a lack of faith in the story you want to tell. Maybe people will love or hate it, but you'll probably get a mix of people who feel both ways about it. But it does not matter as long as you tell your own story. Maybe the direction of the story will change drastically - let it. Maybe the story will meander and not really go much of anywhere before tying things up - again, let it.
I'm not saying you shouldn't think about presentation or portrayal or tone or any of the other things that might make the story better or worse, but you got into this tale by writing what you wanted. I suggest you use the same strategy and keep going forward, regardless.
Oh, and check your messages. I sent you a, um... a thing.