Great Scott! Where'd You All Come From?! · 5:16pm Oct 23rd, 2016
GREAT SCOTT!
Twilight-Level Panic Rant In Progress. You've been warned.
Okay, seriously, would somepony please tell me in blue blazes happened this week?
How did Cloudsdale land in the Featured Box for four and a half days? How did I suddenly get another 100+ followers? How did Applications suddenly skyrocket to 250+ upvotes? How did I get over 500 notifications of favorites, comments and watches?
I just don’t know what went RIGHT!
Throughout the week, all of you have been plowing through my stories! All four of them! Going nuts! Leaving comments! Adding all of them to favorite lists! Heck, even some of you put comments on my Retrospectives!
Do you people have any idea how disruptive this was to my creative process? I couldn’t focus on work or my writing. You people are very, very distracting!
...okay fine, that’s entirely my fault because I kept hitting refresh… maybe a few times a minute.
So yeah, I’m kinda freaking out here. I suddenly have a heck of a lot more followers, my stories are all over the place and I suddenly have this huge amount of attention that I never expected.
Heh. It’s fine.
Okay, enough screwing around. Sorry, I needed a Twi-Rant. Badly.
....okay, one more Doc Brown.
I’m good now, really. I am. ...ish.
Now, I originally wrote this on Thursday night. At the time, I was still shocked that Cloudsdale is up on that list (though only if you disable Mature Stories). For some reason, this allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief. I expected it to settle down quite a bit by the morning (and it did).
Well, first and foremost, I have to say thank you!
I was chatting in the Writeoff Discord channel with Oroboro and he told me that Cloudsdale would likely be a hard sell. I agreed with him, too! I wasn’t really expecting much here. After all, it’s the final piece in a short trilogy of novelettes. To really get the full impact, you needed to read Applications and History first. The absolute last thing I expected was for Cloudsdale to become a sensation for as long as it was… or become a sensation at all.
It was written as the natural progression of the Applications storyline, revealing the big twist that apparently no one saw coming: Wavelengths is indeed one of the alternate timelines created by Starlight preventing the Sonic Rainboom. People seemed to love that twist.
I guess straight-up AUs are much more common. Which make sense. They’re a heck of a lot easier to write.
I actually created a timeline in a program called Aeon Timeline 2 (good program, but not really worth what they’re charging for it) that details every major event in Sunset’s life in Wavelengths, including the age of all characters involved, how long she was at school, how long Twilight was at school for, when Sunset’s Midterm was (which happened in the MLP Annual 2013), when she met various ponies and a lot more. I literally have everything plotted out and I’m constantly adjusting and tweaking it.
My goal with Wavelengths was to create a completely plausible and logical progression of the events if the Sonic Rainboom never happened and Sunset remained as Celestia’s student. And while I’ve taken some creative liberties with that (since we all know the dates and times of events in MLP are all a bit whacked *cough* Tanks for the Memories *cough*), you folks don’t seem to mind!
So, errr… now that I have like 240+ followers… what the heck do I talk about?
OH! Yeah! Probably about what’s next!
Well, I’m happy to report that Bards of the Badlands, the second story in the Origins Arc has cleared the first draft. Now, I’m not really happy with the current state of the story. I ended up rebooting the story after writing 6,000 words of it. I hope to integrate some of that 6,000 words back into the story, but I’ll need to help of my trust Beta Readers, Ebon Quill and Little Tinker, to pull that off. However, I do need to report that you won’t be seeing that story until December.
Why, you ask? Why would I tease you like this?
Well, because I have something special planned for you for the month of November. It’s going to stay a secret until next week (which happens to be the beginning of November), but that’s primarily because I don’t know if I’ll be able to pull it off! I hope so. But, if it works, you’ll actually have an entire month and a half of stories set in the Wavelengths Timeline!
Be excited!
Moon Dancer is excited!
It was important to me to finish Bards of the Badlands, primarily because in November, I’m going back to the story that began this entire thing...Wavelength Theorems itself. That’s right, for National Novel Writing Month, I’m going to attempt to finish (or at least get another 50,000 words into) the capstone story of Wavelengths. My brain has been working overtime putting together pieces of this story in my head. The problem is, I need to figure out the middle. I have the beginning pretty well set and I know the ending nearly perfectly, but there’s a lot of middle I need to work out. Middles are hard. And annoying.
At present, Ebon Quill and I are hard at work at the edits to The Alchemy of Chemistry. This is a lot more complex story than I’m used to writing. There’s a ton of subplots and schemes that I want to make sure come across as effective and believable. I could go on about this, but I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just stop there.
In case you’d like to see a broader picture, here’s the timeline of Wavelengths from the inception to the Summer of the year 1,000 and the return of Nightmare Moon. (Same graphic as was in the Cloudsdale Retrospective, but in case you didn't see that, here you go!)
(You can click on it to get a bigger picture, by the way)
As you can see, the Origins Arc is almost complete! Which means after How Not to Use Your Royal Prerogative, I’ll get to start on the Infatuations and Other Lies Arc!
Pinkie is Nervicited.
Okay. Let’s see… let’s see what else...
I know there was something else here... in these three respawning books...
Last thing!
So you know I write stories and you probably know I do a lot of cover designs (including my own). You can see them on my main page on the right-hand side bar with a link to my “portfolio” at the top, as well as a list of all stories on FimFiction current using covers designed by me.
Yes, if you’re interested in getting some cover design work done, please feel free to contact me through a PM. All I ask is a mention and a link either in your story synopsis or an author’s note. But please note that I don’t do covers for Mature stories. It’s come up a few times and that’s just not my cup of tea.
The other thing I like to do I write long, convoluted and (hopefully) amusing followups to some of my favorite stories on FimFiction! I could list them all out for you here, but instead of doing that, I’ll just point you to Novel’s Nook, a little hideaway on Gardens of Equestria’s main site for all my projects. Toward the bottom of the page, you’ll find a list of the dozen-or-so stories I’ve done followups on.
You can also just head to the blog I detailing my original freakout after Applications made a splash! Though that one is missing Felt Heart.
Now, I strongly recommend that you read these stories before you read any of these followups, because they will spoil the entire story. However, if you want to relive these stories through other means, please feel free. Also note that these aren’t really critiques or reviews. They’re usually goofy, silly celebrations (or emotional, tear-filled reflections) of these wonderful stories, very similar to the followups that Equestria Daily does for various episodes.
Well, I think that’s it for today! I’ve freaked out a bit (fine, a lot), shown you around the place a bit, talked about what’s to come in Wavelengths, pointed out the gallery, talked about followups… hmmm… what am I forgetting?
Silly me.
THANK YOU!
Again, thank you all for such an astounding response to not only Cloudsdale, but to the rest of the stories set in the Wavelengths Timeline as well. While distracting (
), it was simply wonderful and inspiring to see it. Now, the key is for me to actually finish what I set out to do! Still, this was amazing and something I never saw coming. So, please forgive the inane rambling that comprises a vast majority of this blog.
Now, I could probably go on for a while longer, but frankly, half of you are probably asleep at your keyboard by now, so I won’t bore you. However, I think I might have a “Recommended Reading” blog come up soon. That might help. I tend to be rather picky in my favorites and I want to make sure you guys experience the best of the best, not only from me, but from the simply MASSIVE amount of fiction on this giant place.
But that can wait until another day.
Until next time, this has been Novel Idea! Thanks for reading and have fun out there!
PS - Originally, I was going to have this huge rant about me freaking out about all the numbers, but decided that wasn't the best thing to start this post with, so I moved it under Sunny below. So if you're curious to see just what went down this week (and like Great Scott GIFS), keep going!
So, I do my research, even check out that wonderful little guide written up by ocalhoun and find out the proper time to post a story. Ask a few opinions for folks on whether I should post it all in one go or do it day-by-day. Originally, I was going to shoot for noon, but decided to do 10AM instead. The numbers pointed better that way. (Actually, I should have done it Sunday according to the numbers, but it wasn’t ready then).
Then I post the story after doing a few more checks. Wait about 15 minutes or so and then smile as it goes live. After that, I got back to work. It was around lunchtime when I remembered to check on the story. At noon, it had 14 upvotes and 45 views. Not bad. Just in the normal “recent stories” list.
Checked after lunch. At 2:30, it had 21 upvotes and 81 views.
...and it was in the Featured Box.
WHAT?Calmed down a bit after a little squee. After all, History made the Feature Box for all of an hour after I posted the last chapter. And apparently, Applications actually landed there too, but I didn’t get a screenshot of that. Oh well. I wasn’t expecting it to last.
Here’s the thing… it didn’t go away. Two hours later, my view count had doubled.
By the end of Monday, I had 70 notifications, 61 upvotes and 324 views.
WHAT?
I watched as my notification counter skyrocketed. My first day, I had 2 shy of 3,000 views of my stories.
Hey, I was thrilled. Totally thrilled. People seemed to like my stories. Then stuff went crazy. Like, seriously crazy.
When I checked it at 8AM the next morning, it was in the #4 place with 85 upvotes, 442 views and I had 123 notifications and Cloudsdale now had a hot tag on it! But wait! There’s more!
Grading on a Bell Curve, The Application of Unified Harmony Magics and Princess Celestia: A Brief History were all in the Popular Stories list!
WHAT?
End of Tuesday: 693 views. 130 upvotes. 242 notifications. I ended Tuesday with 3,156 freaking views on my stories?! Applications cleared the 150 rating (like - dislike) score!
What in blue blazes is going on here?!
Wednesday at the end of the day: 365 notifications. 180 upvotes. 938 views. During most of Wednesday, Cloudsdale was in the #3 spot in the Box!
AND WHERE THE HELL DID ALL THESE FOLLOWERS COME FROM!?
I got 25 on Monday, 39 on Tuesday, 26 on Wednesday.
WHAT?
PS - Yes, I know how fitting it is I went with a Back to the Future-themed gif series in a story involving time travel though the ‘Great Scott’ reaction occurred to me before the time travel bit. 
RANDOM SUNSET SHIMMER ATTACK!
Will you see this someday in Wavelengths? You'll have to stick around for the whole thing to find out!
Grats! That's what the front page does to ya.
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/95845920255537152/239813408516603906/unknown.png
Mood wings is that massive spike. Things just go up from there!
4267905
A giant Spike, you say?
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/f/f7/Spike_grown_up_S2E10.png/revision/latest?cb=20120123140441
Seriously, I have no idea what happened. Probably involves Pinkie Pie, Sonata Dusk, sugar and caffeine.
Congrats though!
Congratulations!
. 
Though you are a bit silly about it
Your stories are absolutely great, so all they needed was some highlighting in the feature box to get people interested.
By the way, turns out you got featured on EquestriaDaily.. Another round of applause for #Novel-Idea, everyone!
If I were to guess, you had a novel idea.
For realsies though, I think that's it. I'm not here for the plot twists, I'm here to watch characters react to the knowledge that their world is currently off the tracks, without knowing how or why (or that it's presently going better than the alternative). It's an extremely open-ended concept that could be taken in pretty much any direction you want, from existential angst to giant harmony lasers. And that's just dandy.
4268133
Gold.
@Novel: you missed the opportunity to use that one mate :)
Actually I'm pretty sure I know what happened. You see I have yet to read your stories myself but I put them on my to read later list after seeing The Cloudsdale Report in the feature box. I feel it's a combo of three things! the first is simply the name and cover are really intriguing. The report part of the title gives off a very different impression then most stories titles, and the cover has a lot of things that make people wonder what it is talking about. Such as the "Authorized ponies only" which leads me to think of spies. But most of all the cover has a really nice minimalist style that really draws the eye. This is more then enough for people to want to read the description. Now the description would be the second thing that helped the story gain readers! It paints a story of something odd going on. Having mentioned both Sunset and Twilight it's clearly a different universe then we are expecting. Then it goes on to talk about " a dangerous threat on the horizon" then " the Equestrian Secret Service. Making the events going on seem both exciting and mysterious. These together are enough to make people want to check out your story. Which of course often means going back to the first one in the series. And now that people are actually reading the stories it leads to the last thing that caused you to get so many up-votes and favs...people clearly think your stories are really good!. After people actually started reading them the quality of your work did the rest clearly.
For just a touch more clarity I will say I think the name and cover together are the things that really made me take a harder look at your stories as something I'd like to check out.
Yes Yes, i upvoted and favourited all 3 of them, and i regret NOTHING!
Also, your adorable picture dump crashed my phone. But Sunset looks better on a big computer screen anyway.
This is a joke answer- Behold the power of Sunset! Isn't she adorable? And awesome.
On a more serious note, I'm glad to see your latest story featured, which by extension caused the rest of your stories to be noticed more. I've been following your stories since Application, and happy to see your latest story be featured, especially now that we have a greater idea of the focus of this timeline. Congratulations on the feature, looking forward to more stories (and hope they get featured too).
November.... NaNoWriMo?
4267905 Excellent.
img06.deviantart.net/f7b6/i/2012/246/3/2/twilight__s_evil_smile_by_snifi-d5dg5fp.png
(Thank you!
)
4268133 i.makeagif.com/media/2-22-2014/ms8vdl.gif
...Sonata? That'd be weird. But thanks!
4268168 Me silly? NEVER.
(
)
4268231 Is it weird that I want to grin and do a Flutter-hide at the same time?
4268288 Get it out of your system. Everypony has to have at least one.
Thank you though. I'm a big believer in characters driving the story above all else and I do my best to let that happen. The best part is when they say "Screw you! We're going to do something else because what you had planned is boring!" and run off to cause mayhem. Then I'm just running to keep up. A few hours later, I usually will have 10,000 words done.
4268601 Ah well. Can't win all the puns.
4268742 Wow... I'm WAY more clever than I thought. Like... this is almost arch-villain status plotting here.
But seriously, thank you. Especially coming from someone who hasn't even read the stories, this is a fantastic breakdown and probably absolutely true. I loved it. Seriously. Made my freakin' day.
4269208 I also regret nothing about you regretting nothing! (And the crash was because I forgot to shrink the last pic of Sunny and your phone tried to load a 9000 x 9000 vector file. Oopsies!)
4270297 I don't write about non-awesome ponies. It's a matter of honor. So, therefore, Sunny is awesome. Stands to reason.
Thank you kindly!
4271524 Ayep! This will be my eighth National Novel Writing Month.
4274920 Gonna be my first... Hhhhooooooo boy and the fact the new Pokemon game comes out this month is going to make it hard to focus.... Any tips?
4274981 Well, a few things come to mind. Most of these I've developed over years of practice and they may or may not work for you. Except #1. #1 is critical.
First and foremost, TURN OFF THE INTERNET WHILE WRITING. Discord, Skype, TeamSpeak, Battle.net, whatever. And keep it off until you hit your word count goal for the day. Kill your wifi on your laptop. Unplug your ethernet cable. Don't let yourself get distracted by the internet at all.
The second thing I do is I don't let myself play any games of any kind until my word count for the day is complete. Aside from distraction, I find it's harder to keep focused after playing. And it also gives a feeling of accomplishment, as if the game is a reward for getting it done.
Third, don't take days off. For me, I need to keep my daily momentum going, or I'll really struggle the next day.
Also, when you feel like you can't write anymore, do it anyway. I usually have a wall at around 500, which if I can push past, I can go to 2,000 fairly easily. In addition, never end a scene or chapter at the end. Always go a little bit into the next scene/chapter. Always know what the next sentence is going to be, that way you can pick it up easier when you get back.
Finally, I always aim for 2,000 a day instead of the 1,667. 1,667 is great if you do exactly that for every day, but having a buffer is great for if something comes up.
4274920 I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I've read all your stories now and I'm really impressed!. They really did deserve all the attention. I'll be looking forward to reading what you come out with next =)
4275565 thanks, Novel. Means a lots