BP016: A Writing Journal · 6:41am Sep 29th, 2012
The rough draft to BP016 is done. It's a delightfully kaizo 71 page romp through a Donald Duck's Mathmagic Land of fuck. Here's hoping that it's actually good, but I somehow doubt it. BP015 is a hard act to follow. Also, for those of you wondering, the 3-digits in the chapter numbering does not mean that there'll be more than 99 chapters of Background Pony, much less more than 20. When I start multi-chapter fics, I always tell myself that the "sky's the limit," and so I formulate three and sometimes four digit slots, because fuck rationality. Also, it makes things more organized when I look at my fanfic folders and fap to my own schematics of pretense.
Speaking of which, I know a lot of marsupials have been gawking at me for being some sort of writing freak. The fact of the matter is, I do have lots of free time on my hand, and it's not like I'm writing all the time. To prove such, I decided to keep a writing journal thingy to chronicle the last 6 or so days of slapping my skull against a word processor. The usual business is that I finish whatever I'm doing for the day, then proceed into the garage around midnight, turn on a ghetto computer that's not even connected to the Internet, and--somewhere between drinking Dr. Pepper and pacing and other questionable activities--I proceed with the standard keyboard cunninglingus. All it really takes up is sleep, which I usually don't do much of anyway, except for when sane people should be walking this earth. I dunno. It's all good. The writing thing kind of does itself.
Anyways, here it is. I've tried to keep it spoiler free, not like anyone can't already predict what's going on in this upcoming chapter. But while the pre-readers do their best to salvage the garbage I have shipped off to them, I leave you here to peruse this tiny nugget of blue blazing glory:
09/23/2012
=11:27pm awoke from nap and created BP016 document.
=Working title: “A Robotnik Belly is Considered Sexy in Twelve Countries”
=General outline in head: (Okay, so I censored this part out for the sake of spoilers. Maybe when BP016 is uploaded, I'll post yet ANOTHER blog and show off my original outline, so that you marsupials will get the idea that I do plan ahead when I do this shiznet. Oftentimes, the outline changes as I break on through to the other side, but in BP016's case, I stayed pretty true to the original formula. It took watching a Star Trek episode or two to figure out how the second half of the train wreck would go. Now, back to the Fimfiction exhibitionism.)
=Plans to Dr. Pepper et and pace for thought
=Will likely not do more than 10 pages tonight, though 14 would be cool
09/24/2012
=12:30am starting first writing session of BP016... f'naaa
=2:36 am stopped writing. Just barely got to 10 pages. Meh. First day of writing is always the lousiest and stiffest. It doesn't get good until about three-fourths of the way into a chapter, and that's when I start pulling double-time. Also, I'm not a huge fan of this whole journal thing. When I measure myself, I start to feel constrained, if it makes any sense. Anyways, I have work in the morning, and I think I'll vegetate a bit before kerplunking aka practicing for death.
Day One Tally: 4666 words (I'll take that as a good omen)
09/24/2012
=11:18pm I always feel like shiet after waking up from a nap. And yet I keep taking them. Think I'll reread what I've done so far of BP016, proofread, then go for a walk until I get the energy to continue. When I say “go for a walk” I really mean put on some flip-flops and go pacing in circles along the sidewalk outside my garage in the dead thick of night, hoping the neighborhood watch doesn't give me a strange glance when they drive by in their huge-ass pickup truck with the lights on and the noise blaring like they always do around 4 in the morning. Whatever: so long as I'm not wearing a gray hoodie, I should be fine. Also, there's the whole “not black thing” working out for me. Silly Florida.
09/25/2012
=12:58am Not a bad walk. Re-structured the chapter outline somewhat in my head. Things are starting to mentally come together. Now to do some more writing.
=3:21am Done writing. For now or just for the night, I've yet to discover. It's only ten more pages, but I feel like things are starting to pick up. Not sure if I'm writing Discord well or not, but that's usually what the editing process sorts out. F”naaa.
Day Two Tally: 5255 words (God, I'm sweaty)
09/26/2012
=12:53am Proofreading the previous ten pages. No nap or walk this time. Too jacked up on sugar.
=1:22am Writing time (back in the day, 2am was the normal time to start writing EoP chapters. Food for thought.)
=3:56am Taking a little break. Feeling jazzed. Ten pages so far. I think I have another five in me.
=4:57am Argh... back to writing
=7:03am Done writing for now. Nietzsche above, I'm using my thesaurus like a Thai mistress this chapter. Not sure if that's good or bad.
Day Three Tally: 9427 words (See? Just like any... average... lemur... eh... F'naaa)
09/27/2012
=12:09am Had to haul stuff around at work, then come home and help move a couch to the neighbor's house. Back is being a female dog to me, and I've already downed a bottle of Dr. Pepper. Going to proofread, but I doubt I'll do much writing tonight. I open in the morning. Also, what's with IRC's /fic/ channel? Am I a celebrity there or something? F'naa
=1:04am Writing. Let's see how much I defecate forth.
=2:17am Done writing. That wasn't so bad. This was actually kind of fun. That probably means it sucks. Whatever.
Day Four Tally: 2658 words (Took a screenshot tonight for a blog. Because I'm ghei, lulz.)
09/28/2012
=1:37am Long day today. A school bus full of Japanese cheerleaders smashed through the wall. Asian vixens piled out, armed with tasers and lances, and they proceeded to crawl all over me. “We must acquire fibrous tissue for the Grand Empress!” they shouted in chirping cadence. “Away from me, vile wenches!” I hollered back. “I am chaste!” And then they formed an estrogenical pyramid on top of me and collapsed with a thunderous echo of gasps and sighs... Hah. Nah, just kidding. I worked retail today. Anywho, proofreading.
=2:44am Oops, forgot to mention that I started writing. Just pretend that I started about thirty minutes ago.
=3:30am Taking a break for now. I'm at the point where the plot is so intense that the story sort of writes itself. Unless I get hit over the head by the exhaustion faeries, I might actually write my way through the end of this chapter, which means I won't got to sleep until noon or some shiet. Meh. Off to lose some weight.
=4:13am Nnnnnyeaaaaaaaablaaaaaaargggh—Resuming. Help me, Pink Floyd.
=6:37am Still writing. Opening a fresh bottle of Dr. Pepper and switching to Radiohead.
=8:37am Oy. Gonna... Gonna stop here. These are some bigass paragraphs I am having to write, and my mind is running on gossamer strands of wakefulness. I hate to do it, but I gotta kerplunk and resume finishing this chapter later in the day. I think my editors will be grateful of the slightly more digestible prose that results from it, if nothing else.
Day Five Tally: 11221 words (Hmmmm... Eh, whatever. Fucking prison of a fanfic, I swear to Allah.)
09/28/2012
=3:23pm For better or for worse, I am back. Forced a salad down my throat, 'cuz I'll need the energy to do... whatever it is I'm about to do. Things have gotten pretty kaizo in this chapter. Here's hoping I finish it with relative dignity. Proofreading.
=4:15pm Writing. Save me, Octopus Project.
=5:58pm Aaaaaand done. The end of this chapter is probably gonna have marsupials crucify me, but I've been planning it for months and months on end, so f'naaa. I think I'm a bit proud of this one, but—as always—I stand to have my ego deflated as I slap this upon the brain bone of my unfortunate victims of pre-reading. Dear Nietzsche, I really am the luckiest sonofabitch in fanfiction. Some day, that's gonna wear out, and then I'll have my own permission to die. Or play Skyrim. That's been looming for a while.
Day Five.point.Five Tally: 3936 words.
Total 6-Day Writing Tally: 37163 words, 71 pages, 19 various uses of the word “explode”. (That equates to a bullshit average of 6000 words a day. But, as you can see, I only did the actual writing in random spurts, in between which I worked, slept, and generally slacked off. But at least I didn't play any TF2 [So sorry, Spotty])
=6:04pm Transferring BP016.odt to my HDD, exiting the garage, logging onto my main computer, and sending to the pre-readers. Thank Gawd; let the weekend begin.
=7:17pm Blogging, because I haven't done that in--like--forever.
=7:18pm Need to lose some more weight. Praise the holy soda for showers. End of line.
-SS&E
Your blog posts are more entertaining than some of the stories I read.
Cool. I'll get on this tonight or tomorrow night depending on something that may/may not happen in a few hours.
Numbers are fun. Now I have even more reason to hate myself when I look in the word processor.
...Wait, they're definitely won't be more than 20 chapters? So we're almost done?
Does this mean we will see Ch. 16 soon? And if so, HOW SOON?
Only Lyra can rock that pose.
That was delightfully insightful.
390377
As soon as we at SATGF finish the pre-read and editing. Probably gonna be three or four days from this posting.
This is shortskirtsandexplosions, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.
Quite the look into things, if I do say so myself.
Call me crazy, but I think this may have something to do with your phenomenal facility
Got to love anypony who can write _twice_ as many words as I comfortably do in a day. I rarely get a 7000 word chapter in a day, it's usually two or three of differing sizes.
Stay safe in Florida! Wear no hoodies and remain white!
>.>
Please take care of yourself. I would be very sad if you died or engaged in similar tomfoolery.
390388 Ooh, is that some kind of super-secret-acronym, cuz I'm really good at guessing acronyms, and I bet I could guess what yours means, but I'm wondering if you'll tell me, cuz otherwise I'll spend 3 hours guessing and that would be annoying and *GASP*
We have the same time of writing and favorite soda. FUk YeS.
390411
We are Spanish Announce Table Goes First, and unless you're channeling Pinkie directly it's very unlikely you'd have guessed that. We live in the shadows underneath the massive ego of Skirts.
390406
I've toyed with the idea of trying this, but everything I have that's capable of processing words is connected 24/7 and the extra disconnect/reconnect step makes me reluctant to have such a routine.
390410
I won't let him die until he finishes EoP, and if my data is correct, that won't be for at least six months.
390411
Spanish Announce Table Goes First
390417 Darn, my Pinkie Sense is malfunctioning... ALRIGHT, WHO'S GOT THE RUTABEGAS?!
s3.amazonaws.com/bronibooru/7acd4839af26307744c30ada4bd8ffb9.png
390388
Umm... I have a question to make, and it's been bugging me for a while.
It's actually a tiny bit embarrassing, because apparently everybody else knows but me.
How do you correctly pronounce "F'naaa" ?
390479
A) Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.
B) NBA Jam
C) Anti-Backwards Crystal
...
D) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQO2nbD56hc
390521 Ridin on cars... Lovecraft mythos.. video game... and some other reference I don't get.
I'm pained by the apparent reality that any honest or serious question must be met with tongue-in-cheek sarcasm, or some other form of ridiculous reply.
I seriously am conflicted as to how to pronounce this nonsensical word which is employed by the author who goes by the name of "shortskirtsandexplosions" at regular intervals! Sure, it has virtually nothing to do with the blog post, and sure, most likely no one else give's a damn, but I'm just curious if anyone would be nice enough to raise me from my level of oblivious and ignominious ignorance in order to bring me into the enlightenment that occurs for anyone who actually figures out the "proper" way to pronounce a word which doesn't even properly exist.
Is it like... "fin-ah"
Or like, "fin'aa" with a short a, like apple?
Or perhaps like "effin a" with a long a as in spade?
I'm just so dern confused and conflicted, I'm like, on a scale of Decisive (1) to Indecisive (10), approximately Hamlet. (Over 9000).
So please, other readers of this blog post, Pimp my Ride! I mean, Improve my mental pronunciation!
390538
How does one pronounce the ubiquitous, "F'naaa?" It's really quite simple. We here at La primera mesa iba anuncio españoles can help resolve your dilemma. To hear an example of the sound, you must merely listen to the following song: Space is a Waste. During the final seconds of the track, you will hear the noise. Enjoy!
i love your blog posts
and your stories
and your lyra images
6,000 average words? I need to improve my word count per day... That sounds much more productive. I have such a hard time getting my writing to flow and, as a result, my process is slow as hell. Must improve on that
390538
See: Space Is A Waste. The very end has the way it is pronounced.
Whoa. PianoPonky's got some mad skills.
390599 The first table was going news Spaniards?
Spanish anounce table goes first
Español anuncia mesa va primero
EAMVP.
I figure the translation should be word-for-word since it's nonsensical either way.
Source: Took too many Spanish classes.
390599
. Dayum, Ponky's got talent 
That song
Grats. The last time I had time to write 7,000 words in a day I burned an entire weekend sleeplessly, from 5 pm Friday to 6 am Monday. Penned over 50,000 words in that time, though. A useful amount, I think.
Now I'm lucky to get twenty thousand a month.
20.
20?
oh ok.
twilight.ponychan.net/chan/files/src/133939476724.gif
Yeah, more or less :V
And ah, of course! Who knew the secret was as simple as never sleeping?
i.imgur.com/tjXAil.png
My reaction to this. (But replace "Ed" with "shortskirtsandexplosions".)
God luck, and hope to see the next soon!
Duuude, don't fucking swear. That's not cool, man.
scranton.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw4236-Rarity_bong.jpg
Yeah, and my poor eyes would look exactly like Lyra's if I treated them like you.
If only I could deprive myself of sleep like some of you. Sleep is so overrated and a waste of time.
391304
In seriousness, rather than stay up all night, I force myself to get up at 3 AM. That's almost always less than six hours of sleep, right there. And I found the key counterpart to this when I began taking a one hour nap (setting an alarm for an hour and then trying to drop off to sleep, with some success) around noon. Turns out adding the nap, if you're rigorous about it, really helps keep energy going throughout the day. I'm told you can go ALL day with a set of equally spaced naps, but if ever you skip one you explode.
I'm sticking with the one hour at noon. Nobody else at the air traffic control tower seems to mind.
yeah, self employed writing software- which is another key secret- have some kind of lifestyle where you can live frugally or starve, but have plenty of available head-space for keeping books-in-progress on the boil.
You're freakin' insane
You're one of those freakish geniuses who stays up all night, but comes up with something amazing.
I've done that before, weeks on end (*shudders*).
Anyway, get some sleep! We don't mind waiting a couple more days/weeks for another chapter, do we guys?
*Shaking of heads all round, and I watch as all of Background Pony's readers rock back and forth, slowly.*
Just me, then. BUT SERIOUSLY GET SOME SLEEP RIGHT NOW!!!!
I used to wonder how the hell you could write so much. Then this came about. Now that I know that your writing spurts happen roughly the same time as mine (my brain is a more forgiving mistress, kicks off at 11p.m.-ish), and you manage to get stuff written because it's essentially a trade-off of your soul, I feel somewhat better.
Also, it's always interesting to get insight into the mind of the genius that is ss&e, whose name we whisper like Voldermort's in pre-Harry days in the /fic/ IRC. ;)
I envy your speed.
I might be tempted to do this myself, although it'd read more like
"3:23 PM: Finished with everything I'll need to do at my eight-hour shift of work in twenty minutes. Begin writing.
3:42 PM: Get pissed off with my shitty writing skills and ragequit. Word tally: 43"
Then, ten days later, I'd churn out 10k in a day with entries like
"3:42 AM: I KNOW THE BEES CAN SEE ME
4:10 AM: iT CoMEs FroM BEYoND"
>Silly Florida.
OH GOD SKIRTS LIVES IN THE SAME STATE AS I DO HOLY SHIT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
So, let me get this straight. You actually lock yourself in a garage, thoroughly lacking such vital facilities as an Internet access, for the sole purpose of treating your readers with their daily dose of wordsmithing?
I admire your madness.
Also, 42th!
A glimpse into the mind of skirts. Well... that went well.
I feel bad for your hands.