Looking back on Trust in the Night · 11:53am Feb 17th, 2016
Even after the story has been dead for over a year, I still get PMs and comments asking me for updates on Trust in the Night. What I'd really like to know is why. I was idly thumbing through it the other day and I realised that it sucks. It sucks really, really bad. It has about the same writing quality as those crappy one-shots with the 'X Verbs Y' titles that you see in the feature box or popular stories list. The ones that literally serve no purpose other than pandering to the desires of the audience, and feature mediocre writing that isn't good, but isn't necessarily bad either.
Even when I first wrote the story, I didn't expect miracles. I wrote it to overcome writer's block for another story I was writing at the time (which also died, surprise, surprise). When I posted it, half-assed and with absolutely no buffer chapters or anything written ahead, I was astounded at how well it was received. It was, to my knowledge, the first story I had written to be featured, and it rapidly climbed up into the realm of more than one thousand upvotes, a place I had only idly fantasised about.
And then I got really, really scared.
The reason was simple. I had inadvertently written the wrong type of story, and now people were looking for something that wasn't what I originally planned to write. I'm talking about the comedy. It was supposed to be a fairly serious story with some comedic moments about overcoming predjudices and long-held beliefs. Instead, I made one joke too many, and now I had a comedy on my hands. Now, because that was what people wanted to see, that was what I felt obligated to write.
You can even tell, if you go back and read it again. The second and third chapters focus more on comedy than the prologue and first chapter did, especially the second chapter (which is absolutely cringe-worthy, reading it again). And those chapters, coincidentally, are the ones I enjoyed writing the least. The third chapter is extremely rushed and contradicts itself a few times, because I hadn't a fool's notion what I was doing when I wrote it.
After that, I ran out of steam, and well...you know the rest. I haven't touched the story in over a year, despite the prods I get from both old readers looking for an update, or newcomers who didn't look at the posting dates.
The reason I'm posting this now? Well, partially because I was rereading my older stories (and realising just how badly some of them need to be edited), and partially because I was getting sick of being prodded about it. I have decided that maybe, maybe, I will consider revisiting this story again. I'd wind up doing a whole tonne of editing, probably rewriting chapters two and three completely, before I continued it.
Don't expect this anytime soon. And it's most assuredly not something which will definitely happen. It's just a possibility. But I though that after a year of silence, I at least owed it to readers to find out why I let the story die.
Just don't burn yourself out! Stories are always better when the author is into it too. My two cents
I agree.
It's great to hear about you revisiting the story! But don't be scared, when writing stories there are times when the story might end up becoming something else that you didn't expect it to be.
Go ahead and make it the story you want, not the story you think the readers want. Forcing yourself to write something you're not into typically reduces the quality (and is no fun
).
I suspect for the same reason as My Name is Nightmare, there are few good "human becomes Nightmare Moon" stories, or at least that's why I like this story. Also, unlike others, I do not hound writers
I think one of the reasons I really enjoyed the story myself is just the occupation of the human turned pony (and maybe in part the gender), as well as who said human became. First off, a vet (or at least vet in training, or whatever it was, Idon'trememberdon'thurtme!) becoming a pony? YESSSS! Someone who can look at ponies and other beings of the pony world with an educated and new scientific perspective! Seriously, how many of these types of stories, or just humans in Equestria stories have a human with scientific background in animals? None except this one for me, that I can think of right now. Then there's the fact that, compared to the number of ones where the human is male, there are relatively of these kinds of stories with female humans. And then you put her in Nightmare Moon's body; bravo, have a cookie. :)
Your story was one of the human-to-NMM stories that I actually enjoyed. While I would've preferred a more serious story with the same premise, it still seems better than a lot of other stories with the same concept that I've seen.
I'd love a rewrite of it with your original vision in mind. Of course, you shouldn't feel obligated to do so and make sure not to burn yourself out or feel like you have to make it. Thanks. :3
Yeah, the story really needs some extensive reworking. That said, if you do ever rewrite it, I'll certainly be there to give it another try.
aw man