Happy Anniversary! (To IWBTM:TMTGTF)

So hello!

Happy April Fool's Day! Now, instead of a joke, I'm gonna talk about some history. No no, not world history, but my own. I know, conceited, right? Well anyway. It's been three whole years since I submitted the first chapter of "I Wanna Be the Mare!" As you may well know, I don't have many stories to my name on this site, and of course didn't back then either. The thought of the story just popped into my head a few days before April 1st, 2013, and I thought it would be a cute, funny "prank" to pull if I wrote a story crossing over one of the more unlikely subjects: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic... and I Wanna Be the Guy!, most commonly known as one of the most hilariously difficult and unfair platformer love letter to the games of olde developed by mostly one person.

So with that idea and a few chuckles at the inevitable jokes and situations such a thing could imply, I wrote out the first chapter. To this very day, the last words of that chapter are probably my favorite out of the entire story. Now this doesn't mean I dislike the other chapters of course, but I still crack up sometimes when I read the end of chapter one.

With that said, I must admit that the entire fic was spawned as an idea for a simple joke. At the outset, it was never meant to be more than a silly story that one could read, get a little giggle out of, and there you go. But as I wrote it, I felt like I had to make it good, to make it a better reference to the game, which itself was a reference to many video games of the past, while also not sticking completely to the game because then people would know what to expect, but if I deviated too much from the game, then the reference wouldn't mean anything but then the story would be more original but then then then!...and so on.

Ideally, I would want I Wanna Be the Mare!(etc) to be a story someone could read and enjoy. Currently, I do enjoy the story, though I am aware of certain faults that it has, at least in my mind. In certain places, I would see a plot hole or something that wouldn't make sense, then write it off as a "feature" of the story because the original IWBTG had a few weird plot-related things as well, and older video games weren't exactly known for having epic tales, at least in their first incarnations, without a few bumps along the way. But when I got around to thinking about it, having plot holes in a story, even if it's intentional, is not a particularly good way to write and will likely only leave the reader confused and annoyed.

I want to become a better writer, and really, who doesn't? But I've heard the best way to improve is to just write things, and keep writing things, and just keeeeep writing things until you get better, probably with some constructive criticism thrown in for good measure. Many a NaPoWriMo have gone past with me really wanting to get something out or to keep writing IWBTM but never getting around to it because I give myself excuses. "I don't know where to go with this particular scene" or "No one's going to care anyway" or even "Someone seriously created a folder to put stories they considered dead and put one of my stories into it why would ANYONE DO THAT?"

In conclusion and actuality, none of my fics are "dead." I still have ideas for them, I'm just very slow about churning them out. But when they do finally update, I hope that what I write is entertaining for everyone, and if not everyone, anyone, and if not anyone, then me. I hope that worst case scenario, I myself like what I write, and you know what? So far, I do.

Happy April Fool's Day everyone, and happy third birthday "I Wanna Be the Mare!: The Movie: The Game: The Fanfic!" May I continue writing you soon, and may you be as epic, if not more, than I ever hoped you would be.