The Fruits of Autumn, or What I Did For NaPoWriMo · 5:05pm Dec 1st, 2016
Blog Number 23: The Personal Record-Buster Edition
The 2016 National Pony Writing Month is now over. I did not achieve 100k words. What a shock. 
But good grief. I am struggling not to grin right now, for I have surpassed my original modest target of 25k words and the official target of 50k words and the sum of both targets - 75k words - with the whopping total of 75,737 words. All in 30 days! If you'd told me at the start of November that I'd accomplish that much, I'd have said, "You do know me, right?" This is great news!
OK, now for pre-emptive caveat time. Two of them are unfinished fics that, knowing my luck, are not likely to be finished any time soon. While collectively they surpass the 75k mark, none of them on their own would surpass the 50k mark, so technically none of them are novels (not completed ones, anyway). The word count is based off the fimfiction.net counter, which I'm given to understand does weird things in the presence of quotation marks. Lastly, my biggest problem is not writing in and of itself - though granted, that is still a problem a lot of the time - but finishing what little I do write. That tempers the achievement somewhat, given that I've personally gone about the event by creating new stories rather than by continuing old ones. 
With that out of the way, I'm going back to gushing over the results, because look at them! Here is the evidence that I can buckle down and write after all, and I had a good time doing it. Hopefully, the completed fics are just as enjoyable to read, too, but I'm hardly an impartial judge, so can't help you there. That said, if you are interested, here is a list of my entries in all their glory:
46,643 words. Complete.
(EDIT 06/02/2017 in British time: Now with new cover design by Novel-Idea!
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This adventure drama is set after the events of It Ain't Easy Being Breezies, an episode which, in spite of its lacklustre reputation, I admit to having a soft spot for. Focusing on the world of the Breezies, it mostly follows Seabreeze's attempts to shrug off his (to him, unearned) heroic reputation while also dealing with the machinations of a Flutter Pony hive. Most of the worldbuilding I used there was a combination of elf folklore and fairy folklore, with some entomological touches thrown in.
This is easily my proudest achievement of the three. It's my new longest fic after Cutie Mark Espionage Agency held the title for almost five years. It's the longest story on the site involving Seabreeze and one of the few involving him as the main character (because seriously, why does he have so few stories?). Best of all, it's an actual complete story and almost a novel in its own right, with character arcs and everything! The next best thing I have to that is Villainy Abroad, which isn't even half its length. For now, this one's a record-buster.
26,900 words. Incomplete.
Darker than the aforementioned story and therefore rated Teen, this one tells the tale of Rarity and Applejack in the midst of a kidnapping spree that's hitting Equestria. That's just the background detail, however, as the real meat of the fic is what happens when they themselves are taken by the kidnappers and forced to take part in the eponymous Magical Deathmatch.
My main aim with this one was to capture their characteristic struggles as Rarity and Applejack are forced to deal with both the strangeness of the new crystal pony settlement and the ever-threatening abyss of despair. It was also an opportunity to test some worldbuilding regarding the crystal ponies and crystal pony magic in general. In addition, I liked comparing and contrasting the responses of both Applejack and Rarity, as their odd friendship dynamics are fascinating, especially on such topics as high society, showmanship, and relationships with siblings.
2,194 words. Incomplete.
A bit of fluff compared with the other two, I'll admit it, but this short slice-of-life scene was an attempt to flesh out what had hitherto been a nice but not particularly deep character facing a special day at work. The entire tale was going to be a characterization exercise during an event shown in the TV series (you can pretty much guess the event from this little scene, as there are plenty of hints throughout).
In spite of her few appearances on the show and in fan-made fiction, I think she does have some interesting quirks. Between her "Have fun!" boss persona and the fact that she'd actually stay up all night counting cherries, she could make for an interesting character if someone sat down and put the pieces together (this fandom has made more out of less, after all). Plus, her cherries are prestigious enough to warrant Svengallop's special attention despite her being basically a glorified orchard-owner in a backwater town for runaways like AJ, so perhaps there's an element of slob-snob conflict in there, too.
If you'd like to read any of them, just follow the links in their titles and you should have no problem getting to the relevant pages. While two of them haven't been submitted, all the relevant chapters are published and should be visible. Do let me know if there are issues, however.
As for December, I'll probably kick back for the first half, at least. National Pony Writing Month was a blast, but I doubt the follow-up month will be anywhere near as productive, and besides, I got Christmas to deal with. We shall, as ever, have to wait and see.
Until then, Impossible Numbers out.
P.S. In case you're wondering about the Scottish costume on my avatar, it was St Andrew's Day yesterday. I'll be changing it to the more traditional Santa Hat version in time for the festivities. If I don't blog before then: Merry Christmas!
Statistics
New Stories?: No. See above for works behind the scenes, however.
New Updates: I added the remaining five chapters to Hive Versus Hive last month, thus completing the story.
Story Count: 35
My Total Story View Count: 32,513
Age: 1,815 days, or 259 weeks and 2 days
My Follower Count: 82
My Followed Count: 71
Um, wow, those stories did not get many views. I'll be honest and say one Magical Deathmatch interests me, but still. Congrats on getting so much writing done anyways.
4325010
To be fair, two of them haven't been submitted. Only those few who know what URLs to use are likely to see them. Even I'll admit Hive Versus Hive is really narrow in its focus on Breezies, and they get a low amount of attention anyway. Just look at the few groups dedicated to them and count how many members they have.
Thank you!