O Where O Where Has My SciFiPony Gone? · 4:51am Jul 1st, 2016
It has been over two weeks since I cracked a 100 followers. Woohoo! I have to say it: "Thank you. Thank you, everypony!"
Sometimes I bite off more than I can chew, but trust me, I am still here and still writing. I had a discussion some days ago with a friend on the site about the number of views I had for The Enforcer and Her Blackmailers (436 as I write this). It is an incredible effort to write such a large work. Writing short works almost always garners more views, merits more up votes, and is more likely to get into the Featured box, which gets it even more views. Unfortunately, writing short isn't something I do naturally. I'm a novelist. Since the demise of the Equestria Daily Writer's Training Grounds and the prompts and deadlines it provided, I am finding excuses not to write constantly.
The upshot of all this is I ended up with a bit of burn-out slash writer's block. Posting to my friend, I realized the tone of my remarks. Below is how I answered myself. (It's always great to talk out stuff with others!)
This is an unusually tough story to write. It is SF. When I consider the relatively few people who read Enforcers, it becomes even harder.
I later realized I was asking to be slapped upside the head (Midwestern slang) and told that I was writing here to practice my craft and experiment and that I should shut up and write. You, with your kind words and great observations, and the 101 other followers I have on the site, are a bonus I've earned for trying hard.
To reiterate above, all you who are my readers, you are a bonus. As a SF writer, I've written novels only 2 or 3 people have ever read. That's hard.
So... I am in the middle of writing two fimfics right now. The first is a MarbleMac sequel to Marble Pie and the Pairing Stone tentatively named Letter from Celestia.
The second one, over 12,000 words at this moment, is a foal-Sunset Shimmer story. I won't give away the title for reasons of spoilers, but like many of my stories it is based on a background detail a character talked about in passing. In this case, it was Sunset Shimmer who said something in The Enforcer and Her Blackmailers that was too good not to generate its own story. It is totally standalone, but it works as the prequel to one story (obviously) and a sequel to another (which I won't identify). Should I manage to keep writing in the MLP universe, this story would be the middle section of another novel tentatively titled It's About Time Already. To whet your appetite, the tags for the Sunset Shimmer story are Adventure, Tragedy, and... Romance.
I won't publish either until I'm sure I can complete them; I hope you understand.
Please comment to root me on!
Well, congrats on the 100 followers.
Writing can be really hard, especially if you post it and no appreciates it.
And one of the main reasons I have no stories is because I want to complete them first.
So yeah, but I look forward to your stories.