Variably-exciting updates · 3:34pm Jul 9th, 2016
Firstly, if there's any followers of mine at Bronycon this weekend, I hope you're having fun there! I'd attend if I wasn't too transatlanticed (totally a word, shut up) and preoccupied with stuff over at this end of things, so have fun on my behalf. Ignore this at the time of posting. Go attend one of the panels or ogle the plushies or offer up your firstborn as a sacrifice to Tara Strong or whatever else goes on at these things. I don't know. I shan't judge. This can keep.
For everyone else, this is just throwing out a few announcements and updates regarding behind-the-scenes stuff and general book-keeping. Two are fairly boring, one concerns the tagged story and a couple of others, and the other promises vague and wonderful things (with 'wonderful' being one of those ever-so-subjective terms). They're arranged in that order, so skimming might be advisable if you want to get to the good stuff.
Check them out past the page break if you're sufficiently deprived of other things to do with the day.
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After falling as casualties to the whole Imgur malarkey, I've finally pulled my finger out and thrown the world maps for the Palaververse onto a different image host. Both Ungula and the overall civilised world should be viewable again through the Asinia and Changeling blogs respectively, as well as through the preceding finely-crafted links. If you ever want to remind yourself of what the world looks like, or ever need to feel better about your own cartography skills in comparison, you know where to look.
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I've finally (and given how often I use that combination of words, my spirit animal being a sloth is beyond dispute) taken advantage of the new Fimfiction tags as well. Moonlight Palaver and The Tempest have had their Slice of Life tags swapped out in favour of the new Drama tag. Going by Drama's description under tag information:
This type of story focuses on the realistic, emotional reactions of characters involved in some serious life-affecting problem. It explores the various characters’ conflicting feelings between each other and within themselves.
'Realistic, emotional reactions' is probably debatable, but the problems Burro and co. have dumped in their laps certainly qualify as life-affecting, more so than Slice of Life's 'daily, normal experiences'. Maybe that's debatable as well, though, since existing as a statesbeing in their world would require rolling with Equestria's world-ending magical calamities on a regular basis. But screw it. Drama's there now, unless some reason or cunningly-crafted argument emerges for me to flip-flop on the issue. These are deathly important issues, you know, and not to be flip-flopped on lightly.
3
Here's the least fun of the updates. It had to happen at some point or another, and it's just confirming what's already practically happened, but still.
As of this being posted, The Devil's Details is cancelled.
Anyone who's read it and bothered keeping track of it probably won't be surprised in the slightest. It's gone without an update for the better part of two years, and I can't even find Chapter 16's google doc, that's how long it's gone without being touched. Once things are at that point, stick a fork in them, they're done.
Inevitable, as I said, but still not fun, and it's a story to which I owe a lot. It was my first foray into horsewords, conceived of and started back when season 2 was still airing, and while it's as daft and unpolished as lots of my early stuff, there's an energy there as well that came from that initial enthusiasm. That enthusiasm was probably what doomed it as well. I had a rough plot outline and set-pieces for its main cast to greet face-first along the way. But it wasn't sustainable, and a lack of planning meant that there were long doldrums between the setpieces where I flagged. There were already several hiatuses before I stopped altogether in 2014, spaces where I'd just stopped having fun writing it.
But stuff's owed to it, like I said. My worldbuilding for it may have been outstripped by later stories and later show seasons, but it was the root of what grew into the Palaververse. I sketched a map of the continent for it back in 2012, and that map's still a dead ringer for the one linked above. Equestria's neighbours, the corvid clans, the arcane wilderness surrounding Ungula's civilisation, the Diamond Dog underholds; all were conceived and built up for Details' sake. Even if the story's no longer being told, its setting's still in fair health. And who knows? I liked its cast of characters, and maybe there's more use to be wrung out of them in some other story. Even if Fluttershy's brother muscled in on the 'Zephyr' act, did it before it was cool, mutter, grumble, etc.
I'll use this point to pass judgement on Stopped Clock and Noctivagant as well. They're not cancelled as yet, and I've got clear ideas of what I'm doing with them. But until I get round to mustering enthusiasm for them once again and until I can join up their setpiece dots, they're officially on hiatus and tagged as such. I would genuinely like to finish them off, though. Half-finished stuff rankles.
All done? Read/skimmed all that? Just one more point to go and then you're free, I promise.
4
Soon.
Soon!
Soon!
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It's been a while since I've read any of those stories, but I'll throw out some quick points.
The Devil's Details is definitely a story that I enjoyed, but I did feel that it could have used some more... foundation, I guess. The worldbuilding was solid, and I'm glad that it's found a home in your blog, and the characters were definitely enjoyable. Especially the anti-social one; I really enjoy a well-done anti-social protagonist, and I could hardly care less if it's an OC or not.
But, just based on what I can recall, I didn't feel like there was a ton of... potential, i guess, with the characters. I can't remember the other two as having major flaws or mysterious backstories to uncover, and even the anti-social one seemed to be overcoming his anti-socialness way too early in the story for my liking. Basically I didn't feel that there was enough tension between the characters or... "questions," I guess, to carry through for a long epic. The more questions the reader is asking, the more gripping the story, and with these characters being well-done but straight-forward, the only major problem or question was "will they get home again," which is not a particularly sophisticated question.
I also kinda felt that the plot wasn't going to be super-complex or gripping, just more of a "draw a line on the map from point A to point B and then have them encounter an obstacle at every new area that's rooted in the worldbuilding in that area." Which describes Lord of the Rings as well, but I guess I'm just not a quest-plotline kind of guy.
Anyway. I'm just saying that I understand why you petered out on that story and ended up doing these blogs instead, because other than the worldbuilding, I don't know if there was enough "meat" there story-wise for a really rich and gripping epic. I still would have read it and enjoyed it, but I understand the decision.
Stopped Clock is a story that I enjoyed, but if I remember it correctly, I think it suffered from a rather severe case of what I believe is colloquially known as Cerebus Syndrom; that is, it started off as a goofy comedy, and then became... not-so-goofy anymore. Frankly, I'm not super fond of zany comedy most of the time, and if I can be straightforward with you, I don't think that the beginning of Clock was your best work, but I did enjoy the more serious side of the story once that got going.
...Frankly, I think it's pretty hard to "fix" a story that has major tonal dissonance without outright rewriting it, but I would be interested in seeing it continued. I think you've got a better handle on the tone now anyway, even if I would have preferred an evil-future-Twilight that was a little less over-the-top and instead more self-aware.
I remember almost nothing about Noctivagant except that it was decently written, featured dream-magic worldbuilding, and had Luna as the POV character, and if that's not a winning combination, I don't know what is. Your Nightmare headcanon isn't my favorite, but anything related to dreams, dark magic, and possibly the Tantabus is something that I'd be interested in reading more about, especially in a story format. It would still need to feature standard-issue narrative stuff like character flaws/development and plot points to truly be a good story, though; you've shown that you can do some really good character-centric storytelling in stuff like Second Sun, though, so I'm not too worried about it. Loved that story, and I'm looking forward to you maybe continuing this one one day.
Anything to do with changelings has my vote. It may not be what you have in mind, but given your established proficiency in getting inside Celestia's and, to a lesser extent, Luna's head, I'd love to see you do the same with Chrysalis. And of course there's no question that your worldbuilding will be up to par.
I can't get me enough of that vampire bug pony goodness.... ~ Sable
I shall look forward to it.
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- For what it may be worth, there were plans to make Details' plot more complex and to splice in more stuff to make it more than just a straight-forward 'Get from A to B without dying and maybe while learning a life lesson' plot. Not much harm in spoiling something that's cancelled, and even then, it's not much of a spoiler to say that a villain would have emerged throughout the course of the story and become increasingly known to the protagonists as they traveled onwards. There would have hopefully been gripping complications on that front, not least since the main three would have always been normal ponies facing someone with alicorn-level powers with designs on both them and Equestria, and said villain did get a few scenes to try and build them up. Unfortunately, I suspect these scenes were too vague, too few and too far between, and the main three were just left spinning their wheels in mud for thousands of words at a time as I tried to shuffle them from place to place. Add a lack of early conflict between the three onto that and ... yeah.
Maybe if I were to ever try it again, I'd be able to bring in more tension between the characters, set up more pronounced internal and external problems for them to overcome, foreshadow the events unfolding around them. Sink more meat into it, as it were. Unlikely, though.
- Tone's always been a bit of a problem for me, especially when it comes to judging what might qualify as Dark or not. I've never been a big fan of purely zany comedies, and I've always thought it best to leaven them with dark bits or sad bits or other tones as need be, just to let the comedy have a serious core to play off of. But when nearly all of a chapter's comments are to the effect of 'oh god what the fuck happened to all the goof' ... theeeen you've maybe overstepped a wee bit.
Said chapter got rewritten with fire from orbit, though I'll confess that the reaction there knocked the wind of my sails for the story a wee bit as well. The rest of it, or what I've got planned at least, shouldn't be too horribly dissonant from the early stuff, though the serious stuff's set to stay. I'll see how that goes.
- Likewise looking forward to getting back on with Noctivagant as soon as I can. I've been terribly imbalanced in terms of attention paid to Sun Horse rather than Moon Horse, and the story was partly a way of making up for that. Plus, dreams, dark magic, and Tantabus. That's a mix that can only produce good things. For some definition of 'good'.
- Happy to deliver changeling stuff at long last! It'll be a direct follow-up to Palaver and Tempest, and punching the main cast of those in their faces with Chrysalis should be hopefully be fun for all the family.
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Stay tuned for it. As in 'soon'-levels of tuned.
Excuse me while I go weep quietly in a corner. Now I'll never learn just who that mysterious evil alicorn-thing pursuing our brave heroes was!
Oof. Cancelling your long-running, first-ever story? I know that feeling, and it ain't a good one.
On the other hand, we're getting Wedding March, for which I would gladly sacrifice not only that story, but also all your other stories, and you yourself, as well as everybody who happened to be near you at the time.
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Spoilers?
Screw it, spoilers.
If you ever read The King in the Mountain, Astralus there would have turned out to have been the main villain of the piece. An alternative Astralus, slightly more refined, much more vicious, and considerably more deranged from having been pinned and conscious under a mountain for the better part of a thousand years. A third alicorn who also happens to be Celestia and Luna's long-lost brother, in other words. Don't judge me too harshly there; I was young and glaikit and new to pony when I started writing it. He's non-existent in the Palaververse as it stands.
For what it's worth, he'd have had an ego far in excess of his actual abilities and have been handily curbstomped by the Elements of Harmony and the princesses themselves by the story's end, so no Villain Sue in that regard, but still. Young and glaikit and new.
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Not much fun at all, no arguing that toss. We'll have to sympathise with one another over drinks and discuss this mutual feeling of ...
aaaaand it couldn't last. This is not an optimal way of getting drinks, you should ken.
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You love it really.
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I do, and I hate it.
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Just relax and let it happen. The more you surrender your will, the smoother this will go.
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If any variant of 'Think of England' enters this discourse, I warn you, as a Scot, that won't make things go smoother in the slightest.
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Think of Scotland then. I don't care. The point is that you not resist while thinking of whatever you think about.
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This fails to reassure in more ways than I can actually count.
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Believe me, you're getting off lightly.
4080764 I did read King under the mountain, and I actually thought the long lost third alicorn evil brother was pretty darn cool. But on the other hand, I've now learned an extremely cool piece of Scottish slang, so I don't feel completely glaikit for complaining.
SOON!
Not going to lie, I consistently (and ritually) abandon all hope for anything more than a a year without an update. Sometimes this causes pain, but mostly It's either correct, or rarely a pleasant surprise when I am proven wrong. A shame there will be no more Devil's Details but it is not unexpected.
Great to hear about Wedding March, though. I'm looking forward to that.
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Glad he delighted some quarters, then. And gladder still to spread the best bits of the Scots leid far and wide. Use it at all your friends and thoroughly confuse them.
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Sensible approach, really. Keeps your expectations good and realistic for the most part, and makes those half-forgotten stories updating out of the blue even more of a joy.
Ooh, can't wait for Wedding March. How will the other nations react to an Equestria in danger of imminent conquest? Will there be secret politics underlying the invasion or how it remained a surprise? Will we get to see Twilight and friends kicking butt? Will we see Agent Alloy getting front-row seats to it all?
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Excellent questions all! The first chapter should answer at least two of these.
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No man, I was setting you up for a Dragonball Z joke...
oh well. answers are also good.
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Ah. Being one of those worthless heathens who never watched much Dragonball Z, my failure to properly seize the punchline was inevitable. Hopefully, answers can compensate.
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It's like Yugioh. The show was dumb but the parodies and jokes mocking it are timeless. Though I was just going for the "tune in next time" reference, which I guess could actually call back to any old cartoon.
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I did see a couple of episodes of the Abridged Series a wee while back. I should look them up again, they were good fun.
"Firstly, if there's any followers of mine at Bronycon this weekend, I hope you're having fun there!"
Thanks! Granted, I'm only reading your post and typing this reply after getting back, but I did indeed find it quite excellent. :)
"Ignore this at the time of posting."
Oh, well, job done, then. :D
re the images: Ah, thanks.
re the story cancellation:
Ah, sorry. I've not read it myself, but, as you say, it's not fun for you to cancel it.
re the fourth item:
This day is going to be per~fect...
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Properly obedient followers are always a joy. Keep up the good work.