It's been a while. Let's have a chat, shall we? · 4:55am Aug 16th, 2016
Well hello there, gentle readers. It's been a long time since I made a blog post. Eight months, in fact. So let's sit down together, put on some easy listening music, and get caught up on life, the universe and everything.
My girl Rarity's got us covered with some smooooth sax.
Now that we've got the mental image of beatnik Rarity making sweet, sweet love to that sax of hers (metaphorically), let's talk.
First of all, I want to thank everyone for sticking around and continuing to read my story. I know my update schedule is often iffy at best, and I tend to not be the best at communicating when people leave comments because I just kind of...forget to...but I want you all to know it's greatly appreciated. I am absolutely terrible at procrastinating, and always have been. I read every comment I get, regardless of the story it's posted on, and they still make my day. I've been on this site for a long time now, and it still amazes me that people are interested in the words I vomit out of my brain-hole onto the internets.
It's been four and a half years since I started writing ponyfics. In that time I've put countless hours into creating stories that I hope people will enjoy. Some have had a lukewarm receptions, while others have really taken off. S&B was a story of many firsts for me: first ponyfic, first romance fic, first 2nd person fic, and definitely the longest story I'd ever created. The fact that it was so well received, and continues to be so, is awesome. It's one of the top-rated romance stories on the site, and I believe it may be the highest rated HiE 2nd person romance story. If not, it's pretty close.
Sophistication & Betrayal was a huge undertaking for me, and during the nearly two years that I worked on it I went through a lot of changes in my life, both good and bad. Those of you who have read it will likely associate various chapters with favorite scenes or what-not, but for me, it goes way beyond that. I can remember where I was when each chapter was being worked on, or what happened with every gap in releases. It was an incredibly tumultuous time in my life, and though it might sound a little dramatic, knowing that I had an unfinished story that people wanted me to finish was a big part of what kept me sane during those trying times. Some of you were with me way back then, when I had no real home to go to and no idea how I was going to make it through the day, bouncing between relatives while I inadvertently burned bridges behind me. Believe me when I say your words of encouragement made a difference I can scarcely begin to describe.
Once I finished S&B, I swore up and down that my next story was going to be shorter.
That, uh, obviously didn't happen.
Just Before the Dawn has turned into another doorstop, a table-breaker. What was originally going to be 5-6 chapters at most is now on its 56th chapter, and I wouldn't be surprised if it takes until January or February to be entirely finished. By the time it's done, I will have worked on JBtD for three years. THREE YEARS. Holy shit. If I could go back in time and slap myself, I would. "Shorter stories" my pasty ass!
Honestly, if I would have known I'd be potentially working on one story for so long, I would have cut things down significantly. JBtD started as a simple concept in my mind -- I wanted to make a Celestia romance fic, but in a pseudo-Roman setting during the early days of Equestria. HiE became my "thing" after S&B, and people wanted more of it, so I was happy to oblige.
What started as a single idea blossomed from there, to the point where I honestly feel like the story currently has too many threads, with too many characters, and these latest chapters have taken so long to release because I've been trying to fit everything together in something resembling a satisfying way without taking another two years to finish. I feel like George RR Martin, only without the talent or the money or the beard. I certainly won't be abandoning the story, but honestly it's felt like a slog recently, like something I have to do, instead of something I want to do, and that's no place to be if you want your story to feel like it's got something resembling a soul. I don't know if it's just me being my own harshest critic, but I don't think the last several releases have been up to snuff with what I usually release. I don't want to disappoint anyone, so I end up over-thinking every little detail that hardly anyone will really notice, yet it ironically has led to a story that has meandered when it probably should have been wrapped up a good six months ago.
I enjoy creating new characters and exploring new facets of the world. I love making things feel alive and real, with a setting that's grounded and familiar despite being about magical talking horses. In an ideal world I would write nothing but scenery porn, but sadly that doesn't make for good story telling.
What I'm trying to say here is that I've let JBtD spiral away from me. I love writing, both for myself and for all of you. Once in a while, when I really get into the flow of things, I get so caught up in what I'm doing that the outside world almost feels like it's vanished. I can spend an hour or two typing away, look at the clock, and think, "wow, where'd the time go?", like some sort of fugue state minus the nudity and the meth cooking. References!
Being in the zone like that has become rare these days. I worry about the details too much, and having to refer to previous chapters so frequently really cuts down on my productivity. Basically, I need to rein it in and start wrapping this story up properly. This doesn't mean I'm going to rush through things and suddenly change the narrative or anything like that, but I think I'm going to take a week and just map out the rest of the story and what I want each chapter to accomplish. I doubt anyone would disagree with my self-assessment that I am far too wordy for my own good. Verbosity is rampant in my writing -- like this blog post, for example! It's something I try to work on.
So, that's that. JBtD isn't going to abruptly end, and I'm not cancelling it. I just needed to vent a few things and face some difficult truths, and I think it will ultimately result in better chapters from here on out.
Thanks for reading through my rambling. I'm way behind on actual pony stuff; I haven't even seen season 6 yet. I think I'm gonna go catch up and get reacquainted with my inner marshmallow fashion horse.
Much love and all that touchy-feely stuff. See you soon, and thanks again for being the best.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that imgur's rampant anti-pony stances and refusal to use their IMAGE HOSTING SITE for HOSTING IMAGES has completely fucking destroyed my old posts that had episode or movie reviews. So that's great. Way to be a bunch of shitters, imgur.
-Dref
PRAISE THE SUN!
Glad you are still here, i been following your storys for almost 4 years already, keep up the Good work
And i Just noticed i never cliked the follow button
Given how many different perspectives you've been bouncing between, I think you've done a bang-up job keeping the story coherent. Go forth and outline and plan, and even though it'll likely still not go as you imagined, at least you'll have a general course laid out.
PS Hunting Season is coming deer.
Still holding out for a sequel to Sophistication And Betrayal.
Also, if you set the album to private, they shouldn't delete it. Mime pony pics are still there.
If you feel the story is getting to complicated with too many story treads and characters, I would be fine with a few side-stories in the same universe to wrap them up if need be, rather than forcing yourself to cram them into the main story where they may not fit properly.
As far as chapter quality goes the newer ones are still fantastic quality, above and beyond most other writers here by a considerable margin, and you shouldn't have to worry about losing quality now.
If the story is become too much of a hard slog, start up a smaller story or do a one-shot or something, just as a break of pace from working on this story for years, everyone gets burned out at some point.
I think we all know that you're quite wordy.
But do what you have to do, man. When you do finally catch up in the current season, I'll be waiting.
4152713
I believe his exact words about something like that were,
To which his reasoning was,
You do what you gotta do. Never stop making these great stories :)
Wow good job on your decision! Love your stories.
Love dat sax.
I think spending time on an outline is an excellent idea. I haven't had a chance to start seriously developing the story that's been brewing in my mind for a while now, but I've been at least noting things down that I want to happen and been putting them in a sort of chronological order of events. One day I'll get up the nerve to actually start and get it out onto FiMFic for people to read.
Heh, tell that to J.R.R. Tolkien.
But in any case, I love that you wander in your storytelling. It's what gives it the unique points of interest that many would just skip over or not even consider. I feel it just continues to add to the adventure and it's never boring for me to have more depth or even typical slice of life events woven in. Don't be so hard on yourself and just let things flow as you will it to be. You want to explore the world, and I can bet you anything that there are plenty here that want to explore the world just as much.
4152833
I honestly find that to be a terrible idea. In Dref's case, a smaller story will almost certainly turn into a massive epic in his hands. In anyone else's case, it tends to lead to stories being dropped altogether, or worse, the author taking forever updating several stories in some sort of odd quasi-rotation.
I still want to meet and shake your hand one day Dref. You transformed Rarity from my least favorite pony, to my favorite, and that's no small feat.
Meant to respond to this earlier but better late than never!
I think one of the downsides of any story where so many plot elements are going on is that there are always going to be some which readers and viewers find more interesting, and to that end it can be a bit disappointing if today's episode/chapter isn't the one you want to find out about next (I tend to skip through half of GoT episodes to get to the bits I'm interested in). I think I may have poked fun at it a bit in a comment where we didn't hear anything from Celestia and co for several chapters, which equated to several months!
And of course, the more threads, the less screentime each one gets. I also think it risks things being a tad misleading to prospective readers if they expect say romance and that gets put on hold for some political intrigue. If I had to describe JBtD I'd call it an adventure story with some romance, and not a romance story with some adventure. Which I don't think was the starting intent at least when you were bouncing ideas around for the story.
To sum all this up though, I think you're pretty on the ball with your self appraisal.
Video is blocked. Damn it.
4329429
I'll just go ahead and update it with a working one.
Edit: Youtube wasn't cooperating. Found a new link, video should work now.
4329555
Thank you, God King.