The Prestige · 8:28pm Sep 23rd, 2012
To all following The Journey of Graves,
It is done, a major milestone. Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that as of today, I have gotten my 500th follower.
*And the crowd goes wild!*
Thank you all so much for all the crazy amount of love you've shown, what with the favorites, the thumbs up, and all the comments ranging from hilarious to insightful to heartwarming and encouraging. Not gonna lie, it feels like you guys have formed a community. Over the last few months, I've seen a ton of back and forth comments as people engage each other and discuss the story, making predictions on what will happen next and going over their favorite parts. Ironically enough, this means more to me as a writer than I can put into words.
Thus, it is with this thanks that I wish to include you all on my daring, outrageous, and even foolhardy goal, the prestige for which I toil and slave away. From this point on, I intend to become the most followed writer on fimfiction solely through continuing to write The Journey of Graves.
Why do I do this? A large part of this is simply pride in my work. I love The Journey series, and I want more people to love it with me. But on top of that, I feel like this series is a great way to redeem the "Humanized" genre. For those who've paid attention to the comments, there's a lot of negativity around the subject, to the point where people will downvote my story just because it has humanized characters. I don't like this, not just because it impacts my stories, but because I honestly feel that there's value to be gained from humanizing. I think it can be done to introduce a lot of creativity and originality while still staying true to the spirit of the show we all know and love.
So that's my goal: be the most followed writer and single-handedly revolutionize an entire category of writing. Am I flying too high on wings of wax with this endeavor? Probably, which is why I'm also here to ask for your help.
I'm doing what I can to publicize this story, but I'm just one man. But you guys... there's now over five hundred of you, and five hundred people can make a lot of noise. I've heard from several readers that they got to this story because a friend recommended it. As people who enjoy my works, I ask you to please continue doing this. If you have friends who enjoy ponies and reading, point them this way. If you visit chat rooms talking about ponyfics, drop some names and let others know that The Journey exists. Even if just one person comes, that's one more person with whom I can proudly share my creation.
So that's the somewhat sane part; now here's where things get really tricky.
Though I've discoursed on the subject, I'm going to come out and say this clearly: the entire Journey series started out because I wanted to ship Rarity with someone awesome. Simple as that. Rarity has by far been my favorite pony, not only for her hilarious roles, but also for the depth of character I've (hopefully) explored in my writings. She's quite frankly a supremely awesome character and I wanted to pair her with someone equally as awesome. Alas, nobody in the show seemed to be a suitable match for her greatness, which is why I thusly turned to an original character. A little western here, a little manly man there, and from this concoction, Graves was born and the Journey began.
Why do I say all this? Well, recently I discovered that the voice actress for Rarity, Tabitha St. Germain, has a Make my Day email (at http://www.tabithastgermain.com/make-my-day.html) where people can send encouraging letters to her in hopes of brightening her spirits. Now considering the entire Journey series began from the character she voiced, I figured it's be a truly classy act if we all went and thanked her for her inspirational performances. I mean, if she weren't there, Rarity wouldn't exist, and with no Rarity, there's no Graves, and with no Graves, there's no Journey.
So if you would, take some time to send her an email. Thank her for her wonderful performances and wish her luck on the upcoming Season Three. And who knows? If enough people mention The Journey of Graves by name, she might just get curious enough to read it. Just think of how cool that would be: the actual voice actress of Rarity coming in to check out our little community. If that actually happened, I'm pretty sure my brain would spontaneously explode from pure win.
And... there you have it, folks. This is my master plan, my prestige. Considering how ambitious it is, there's a very high chance I'll wind up flat on my face. But you know what they say: shoot for the moon, and if you miss you'll end up in the stars.
Once again, I wish to say thank you for all the support you've shown, and I hope you will continue to support me in the many months to come.
Sincerely,
GentlemanJ
Send her an e-mail? HECK YEAH!
By the Power of Bran Based Breakfast Foods! It shall be done!
Muffins! Hear my command and obey! We shall spread the word of Graves and The Great Journey to every ponified corner of the internets! All shall know his deeds and all shall feel the power of his story! Rejoice! For soon we shall adorn our freshly baked victory will creamy butter and wash it down with a tall glass of ice cold milk! Huzzah!
Well, I'll help you in any way I can, brother. And, Rarity is your favorite? I never could have guessed.
images.pitchero.com/ui/321430/1326794937_0.jpg
Just a thought here, you should do something like a video or something (you read a chapter from your story?) and give us it. It would be funny to see.
Also: Awesome, I can send her a email that says she is awesome.
okay, I am a dumb person. I can't find an email to send anything to on that page.
Yay
, but what's weird is I didn't know humanized stories were held in such disregard I thought it was just another "thing"
378072
Under Contacts, the email (I believe) is info@tabithastgermain.com.
378145
Ah, thanks.
And through blog posts like this, I intend to be the person with the most comments posted!
...
I'm kinda torn.
On the one
handhoof, I'd LOVE to help you, on the other, while I like this story I don't think it's that great. On the third hoof though, I do like humanized stories, and think it's ridiculous that people have such hate for them, I mean, they're more similar to people than ponies anyway and I can't see how them not being ponies could inherently detract from the story. It just puts more effort on the author to create an believable world.isBut on the fourth hoof I kinda feel the same way about 2nd person stories. For me, reading a 2nd person story is like walking around with a stone in my shoe. I try to convince myself that that's totally different from not liking a story because it's humanized, but I'd imagine that is what people who dislike humanized stories feel when trying to read one...
So yeah. Torn.
CHARGE
I've been a fan of "The Journey of Graves" for a long time, and I'm not planning to stop that any time soon.
And congratz on the 500 followers!
JOURNEY! JOURNEY! JOURNEY!
Best Humanized Fic EVER!!!!!
Read it! Follow it! Favorite! WORSHIP IT!!!!!
Keep goin and dont stop writing! You are doing a great job, not only are you writing a very entertaining series, but you are also redefining what a humanized fic should be like : ) also congrats on reaching 500 followers, hopefully you will soon see that number double (even triple)
i am cheering for you
Congrats on 500 followers! The Journey series is the first fic on this site that I actually watch to see what happens in the next chapter. You've got me intrigued with this series, keep it up!
378145, I hope I am not coming on too strong.
I love your stories, and ever since I saw that post in EQD, I have been anxious for the next chapter. Every Saturday I check my favorites, waiting to see if you or Mr.Backpack have posted anything. I really like what you are doing, and you have my full support.
But you will need help. If you really want to redeem the humanized genre, you cannot do it with just your stories, you need more authors. I am willing to lend my weak writing strenght to your cause. I have little experience writing, but with your help, I am sure we can start a revolution.
I offer my skills, and hope that you will accept them. I have joined your cause as a spectator, but I want to take it further, to become more active than just saying that I like what you write.
If I had friends who liked ponies... I would totally share this story with them. However, I'm the only brony at my school that I know of... or someone who enjoys the show at all for that matter. However, you can bet that I'll be watching and reading each update and I'll be trying to give good feedback.
Looking forward to reading more of the Journey.
Also I have to say this is the only humanized story that I've read but I have heard about the poor reception that they have gotten, which has warded me away from them. As to changing the view on humanized stories... that will be a difficult task. I wish you luck!
As your pre-reader, I am obligated to send an email to one of the voice actors of my favorite tv shows of all time?
damn straight.
consider it done.
*sigh* I guess its about time I did a re-do of "Whole New World" then?
alright fine, but its gonna be 50 bits....I mean pesos