• Member Since 23rd Apr, 2013
  • offline last seen 9 hours ago

Merchent343


More Blog Posts68

  • 48 weeks
    Probably the last update on Smashing Down for the foreseeable future

    When I last posted about it, a year ago, I talked about how the Invasion of Ukraine left me unwilling to write it because of the central focus: The Russian team that is the primary POV of the story. Back in 2020, I even started preliminary work on a rewrite, but that was before the invasion, before I started to read up more on military equipment, and before I improved further as a writer.

    Read More

    0 comments · 169 views
  • 110 weeks
    Rewriting Smashing Down: How the Pandemic and the Invasion of Ukraine smothered most of my will to rewrite it

    The title is descriptive enough, but I don't think I need to tell any of you how rough 2020 was. For me, 2020 and 2021 were both years of stress, near-homelessness, loss, joblessness, and many other difficulties. Writing slowed, and then stopped.

    And then, once I was finally pulling myself together, the invasion of Ukraine happened.

    Read More

    2 comments · 256 views
  • 195 weeks
    On Rewriting Smashing Down, And Writing Again

    I have tried thrice to rewriting Smashing Down, or to pick up where I last left off. Every time, I am reminded that the story was written when I was sixteen, in 2013. My writing back then was decent enough to get attention, but I look back on a lot of it with embarrassment, for a large variety of reasons.

    Smashing Down, as it stands, cannot be rewritten.

    Read More

    13 comments · 455 views
  • 320 weeks
    Sometimes, to make something better, you have to burn it down first...

    I last posted an update nearly two years ago stating that I would be editing Smashing Down. That turned out to be a lie, a task I gave up on several months and barely a couple chapters in. Within that time, I have become a far better writer, and thought up far better ways to introduce the story and setting in a way that will both make more sense and make for a far more interesting story than the

    Read More

    14 comments · 561 views
  • 407 weeks
    On the future of Smashing Down

    I should warn you that the following will contain criticism of my writing and my plans for what to do with Smashing Down.

    It was one of my first stories, and certainly one that gained a fair bit of popularity. It even hit the front page a few times on FimFiction. Plenty of people have enjoyed it, and it maintains a very good like ratio.

    Read More

    4 comments · 618 views
Jul
7th
2016

On the future of Smashing Down · 3:51am Jul 7th, 2016

I should warn you that the following will contain criticism of my writing and my plans for what to do with Smashing Down.

It was one of my first stories, and certainly one that gained a fair bit of popularity. It even hit the front page a few times on FimFiction. Plenty of people have enjoyed it, and it maintains a very good like ratio.

Unfortunately, I am not one of those people who has enjoyed it.

Since around the end of Act VI, in mid-summer of 2014 I began to look at my story critically for the first time. I also began a series of rewrites to make the story's beginning more coherent. Sadly, this has not fixed many, many glaring issues in the beginning of the story.

Believe it or not, but I had few future plans at the time I began writing. I played things by ear, and written off the top of my head. This has resulted in a large number of questionable story decisions that, in the end, don't make much sense.

The idiot ball is passed forth between both sides in a way that makes things seem almost comedic, and while that may be enjoyable to some, it pains me to see how blatantly stupid I made many of the characters. On purpose, and entirely out-of-character.

In the coming months, I plan to do several things, outlined here:

- Combine the acts together into a single chapter rather than disorganized, 1,000-3,000 word snippits
- Rewrite most of the beginning of the story to make significantly more sense than it currently does
- Up the quality of the writing and remove the Google Translate Russian segments: Believe me, it's almost painful to read sometimes
- Seeing if my editor is still up to looking over things

Do keep in mind that more will be added to this as I figure out what I need to do to improve the quality of the story.

Report Merchent343 · 618 views · Story: Smashing Down ·
Comments ( 4 )

I'm more willing to wait, so I can see a continuation of the story. Although there was some things that is, as you said the "idiot ball passed to one side & the other". I assumed that it had to do that the events all happened in a matter of 10 days, events occurring in fast & furious pace, so no one had the chance yet to sit back & think it over. Thanks to the Russians who decided to attack those guards, then the confusion augmented by Discord, misinforming the character & intentions of the Princesses to the humans. Then the issue that the human soldiers were at war before being "teleported" when they died on Earth.


Well... not surprising that it is a mass. But I see that there were some issues, for example what deals the humans made with the Griffons & the Changeling in exchanged for what? Anyways, hope to read your story again, see what were the changes, & hopefully not much has changed & hope to see your story continued.:pinkiehappy:

That is for the best longer chapters.:coolphoto:

I look forward to reading it bro!!!:pinkiehappy:

What's the latest news on this bro? :rainbowhuh:

Login or register to comment