Of course, this birthday is a little more melancholy seeing as how it's the first one since I lost my father last year.
No 'FlutterBat/Dash' Sequel · 12:39am Oct 27th, 2016
I know that many of you who liked 'You Look So Sexy This Way' have been practically begging me for a sequel, and for that I thank you.
However, I don't think I'll do one.
When I wrote that story, I was so confident in it that it would win, feeling that it being a story that ended happily would be its edge. However, not only did it not win, it didn't even place. That's confidence shattering enough, but the criticism on the story really got to me as well. Dalek Saxxon (hey, I just realized he got that from 'Doctor Who'), gave it some strong critics and even said it'd be in his Top 10, but he also said it's not 'complete garbage', which implies that he thinks at least part of it is garbage. Titanium Dragon was just brutally about it. In his review, he even said he wouldn't recommend it.
I know that I shouldn't be taking this so hard, but these are the FlutterDash admins we're talking about! They're in charge for a reason! Getting torn down by them hurts more than it would have if had been a garden-variety review.
Which is why, it's with a heavy heart that I'm seriously considering leaving the 'FlutterBat/Dash' storyline where it is. I just don't know if I'll be able to write sequel that will be seen as an improvement. If you'd wish for me to reconsider, well, then you better pray for a big miracle.
I quite enjoyed it, personally. I don't think you should just not write a sequel for a fic you really liked and others clearly seem to have enjoyed.
Not winning isn't something to be sad about. The fact you took part and many others did as well should be enough. It's not something to get really worked up about, nor is criticism. Criticism should be expected, and you should use it to the best of your ability to better your writing. Could use it when writing your sequel, even.
Titanium also says "not recommended" for most fics anyways... so, it's not like you're the only one.
Are we? I don't really think we've got some qualified ability to judge material that makes us 'in charge.' I don't even think we're necessarily 'in charge' because things can only happen if the majority of people in the group let it happen.
Your story didn't get approval from people in their own subjective opinions, which are not suddenly law and objective just because they said them. It's not like it's suddenly something that is objectively bad.
Objective reasoning also exists, but that doesn't mean they subjectively didn't like it. As Dalek said, he was trying to be objective in his ranking, but he still enjoyed it subjectively. *Thus I correct my proposition that they were being entirely subjective.*
It's kind of like coffee or soda. Objectively, they're bad for you. Subjectively, people enjoy drinking them.
The most you can do is try to make it better. It's not just a slope upwards to better fics, it's more like a circle that's in a paper shredder. Not that I really should be able to say what it's like.
It's evident lots of other people subjectively enjoyed it. Is their opinion less valuable, though? The concept of value of literary work and art is quite hard to put. I personally believe any written work to be priceless regardless: this is going off of the belief that value is objective, though. Depends what you believe, really.
If you don't want to write the sequel, that's up to you. I just think that if you genuinely want to write one, then do it. It doesn't matter what peoples subjective opinions are.
Succumbing to the preconceived notion of so-called figures of "authority" is the first step to ceasing individual thought, opinion, and progress in change for accepting the 'figures' ideas as truth and objective.
Anyways, that's all I had to say. Think about it, since it really is up to you whether you'll take criticism when you can, write whatever you want, and improve.
I'm sorry if you felt my criticism was harsh. I give them not to shatter your confidence or to make you feel bad, I do it so you know where to improve and to do better. If I just said "Man that story was so good" or "Man that story was so bad" that doesn't help you in anyway shape or form. Giving constructive critism is designed to help you grow as a writer and as a person. You shouldn't consider it a negative soul crushing experience.
As I said, I would place it in my top 10 out of the 19 entries OBJECTIVELY as I said my rankings were based solely on my objective reasoning and not my subjective reasoning. Meaning, I read them as DalekSaxon the Judge rather than Dalek Saxon the Flutterdasher. Subjectively I would place your story higher as I did enjoy it, top five maybe considering the Music Box would definitely be below the 10s in terms of subjective enjoyment.
And yes when I said it's not complete garbage it does imply that some of the story is garbage or bad. But that also means that there's good in it too which I listed. In the end, overall I said objectively it was meh, not bad but not really good. I even encouraged you to do a sequel at end and said I'd be down with it if you addressed some of the problems I had with the original....retroactively fixing them in the sequel so to speak.
Also, to be honest and hopefully this won't leak out anywhere. Your story was miles better than the other Flutterbat fic which both Titanium Dragon and I agreed was the worst one for various reasons.
As for Titanium Dragon's review, let me just say he's much more critical than me and it's rare for me to see him give a recommendation to most of the stories I read in his blog. Remember that one story I wrote a few months back called "Stupid Gems Cannot Keep Secrets" he reviewed that and didn't recommend it. I'm not going to say he's impossible to please, but I will say that it is an accomplishment to make him happy and that he listed problems with his second place and third place story and didn't give them a full rocommendation either.
Also, on a personal note. Just because I'm a FlutterDash admin doesn't mean anything. I'm only an Admin because the old ones disappeared, I pushed for a revolutoin of sorts, then got the position because I literally just asked the old one for the spot...which he gave because there wasn't that many people asking for one if memory serves. I also remember asking you if you were going to apply to which you declined. So don't place any special emphasis on my status as it means next to nothing and certainly shouldn't be the cause to bum you out.
Also, if people like your story and want a sequel, then you shouldn't think about dropping it...it's doing fairly well in the People's Awards group last time I checked and as I said I encouraged you to continue. So don't drop everything just cause you lost a contest which was insanely packed with stiff competition. You had people who were real life published authors like AugieDog competing.
The fact that you're in my subjective top 5 with him says something and you should be happy with your story with how it did with the ratings and people really liking it. ...plus it's better than all my stories as they are 100% garbage and they no longer exist and whenever I decide to do that FlutterDash story where Rainbow needs to win a Beauty pagaent to get a cool prize and recruits Ex-Model Fluttershy to win the contest on her behalf acting as her coach/manager...it's also going in the trash...where everything I write belongs.
Thank you.
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Thanks. I think I'll rescind the cancellation notice. The only real problem is that I'd need a plot idea for a sequel. But don't expect me to show any deep problems Fluttershy has. I prefer to keep this storyline light-hearted.
>looks at who critiqued it
>TD disapproved? That's encouraging.
I'm not even joking.
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It doesn't need to be dark grim depressing problems, but just enough to convey that there are disadvantages to her being a Batpony now. Like...she's mostly nocternal now and that impedes her work with her animals, or you show ponies literally being terrified of her appearance to which Rainbow Dash comforts her over. I'm not asking for the world, there just needs to be something there to get across that "Her change makes Fluttershy upset" thing you were trying to go for.
Honestly, I think the best route you can go down, is what I mentioned earlier in that with her change she's technically a Batpony now and Bat ponies already exist like the ones in Luna's Royal Guard. We hardly see them, we hardly know ANTHING about them other then...they so scary as evidence by all those ponies freaking out in Luna Eclipsed.
Plus since it's now an AU you don't have to worry about continunity post the Bats episode which means you have a completely free hand/hoof. So you can make it like...the Bat Ponies are descriminated against and are always feared despite them being probably very nice and Flutterbat helps alleviate the general fears against them, or she learns more about their culture, or whatever...it's up to you. We rarely see Batponies in the show and I rarely see it in fanfiction outside of freaking clop and it would be very interesting to see.
I'll be honest with you - if any of the stories were complete garbage - I'm pretty sure it was mine.
Sure, I got 9 thumbs-up within the first few days of it being submitted, but that doesn't mean anything to me. Looking back now, I feel that the plot was a bit rushed, perhaps I took the whole 'having regrets in life' thing a bit too far, maybe even Dash was a little bit too out of character and over-reacting. But, I did try. Really, I did.
Even though I'm not too happy with it, I guess I still enjoyed writing it. Suppose that's something...
I'm doing a new Halloween story though, and that features Flutterbat, along with Shadowbolt Dash too. I still have to read your story for the 'Change' contest - it might come in handy if I decide to leave Fluttershy as a bat at the end of my story.
I shouldn't be too down in the dumps, I've still got plenty to be smiling about!
Fluttershy's Secret, Ponies at Dawn, Monsters at Dusk, Driven to Insomnia... I have a lot to work on!