Pardon me while I ramble a bit. · 4:22am Jan 29th, 2016
(Warning: Could be considered a bit of a rant actually. Was really trying not to make it sound like one though.)
The regrettable thing about writing stories is, there's so much you want to put into them.
You have characters that you want to show the good and bad sides of. Heroes that you want to overcome their weaknesses, villains whose motivations you want to explain, all the failings and triumphs that come with the journey from beginning to end.
If you do the story in installments, then you have even more to consider. There's the advantage of seeing how the fans respond to your work as it's being done. You can see where your strong points are, where your weaknesses are, find out what people like and don't like and work on adapting the story to try and make up for the failings as you go. Even if it's all planned out, every story has at least a little wiggle room so you can try to address everybody's concerns.
Fanfiction is no exception to this. If anything it gets a bit more complicated since you're working with an already established world. You want to account for the characters that you're using from the canon, make them seem to true to themselves (or at least the versions of them you're using in certain cases).
Sometimes there just doesn't seem to be enough space to put everything in, no matter how much or how long you work at it.
In writing Boast Backers, I played around with my writing style a bit from time to time. I did my best to write the story that I originally wanted to tell, and after over two years working on a fic that I originally thought I'd dash out in a few months tops I'm equal parts relieved, happy, and disappointed to have reached the end.
I knew going in that I wanted to tell the story people were clamoring for since Flipside: One that dealt with Spike and Trixie's rivalry. I did my best to stay true to the characters as they've been seen on the show and (in a few cases) with the way they were different from canon thanks to being part of my own universe.
Looking at the reviews and my notices bar, I'm glad to see that so many people like my story. I'm also doing my best to take the criticisms others leave because I know that the story didn't wind up exactly how I wanted it. Fan reactions in the comments made it clear that I hadn't gotten across things in the way I'd intended, and I did my best to address them as I approached the ending.
BUT
I'm not going to apologize for or change what I wrote.
After going at it for so long, I finally managed to tell the story mostly the way I wanted. A story where Trixie is the instigator, coming after Spike for revenge, but Spike enables her by constantly jumping at her challenges and falling for her traps. And in the end he realizes that their fight just causes more trouble for him than it stops, and so he shuts Trixie out and refuses to fight on her terms.
I tried to address things near the end, mainly the complaints regarding how the other Flipped Six had been reacting to Spike and Trixie's conflict. Some elements I had adjusted while writing just because I thought it would make for a more interesting story. Zecora, for example, was originally intended to have been secretly judging and testing both Spike and Trixie the whole time to see if they could learn anything from their conflict. And all while trying to keep things condensed so it wouldn't be a boring read, trimming off bits I thought would just be padding (like showing Spike taking the antidote bath). In the end, it still ran on for a couple chapters longer than I'd hoped it would.
Wrapping up here, what I'm trying to say is that this is the story I wrote, and I'm happy that I managed to finish it and keep it as close to my original intent as I did. If you liked it too, then I'm glad! Thanks for all the support. If you didn't, I'm always open to taking comments either on the story page itself, right here in my blog, or via PM.
I'm not gonna say it doesn't sting to get negative feedback about something I worked on for so long, but I will do my best to not make those same mistakes in my future writings.
TLDR: Boast Backers is done, and mostly the way I intended it. If you think it worked, awesome feel free to say why and stroke my ego, otherwise, feel free to tell me why not.
I will gladly stoke your ego. I enjoyed Flipside immensely, and while I didn't get quite the same kick out of Boast Backers, it was still a good read.
...
Though considering that Spike is the star ...
Completely honest, I thought the ending was good.
Sometimes It feels like people are trying to force that "Trixie-Twilight Rivalry" cliche on AUs, and having Spike reject getting dragged into that was a better take on it.
The best part of the ending in my opinion, was when Spike, still terrified of her, said sorry to Zecora. It's probably been a long time since anyone has sincerely apologized to her, and she's clearly touched, enough so that Zecora offered Spike the Poison Joke cure. The fact that he decides to be friends with her was the icing on top.
And you never should. Congratulations!
What I liked about it is that Spike's path to getting away from a toxic situation isn't a photocopy of what the Mane Six would do. Instead of pious and essentially futile goodthink, he simply cut a vindictive neurotic with an allergy to personal responsibility out of his life.