Random Ramblings CLXXII · 12:00am May 2nd, 2017
IN WHICH THE FALLOUT
So I had intended to go to the park today to check out the flooded creek, but I kinda passed out for most of the afternoon again. I'm also kind of irritated. Ever since I donated most of my ponytail to cancer kids right after my grandma died (not from cancer, just old age), I've been shedding like a mofo, which makes my already terrible anxiety and paranoia worse. This was also not helped by the fact that my ex's little brother got married yesterday. Great for them, but it just made me realize how alone I am in this world. That's why I'm glad to have this writing outlet. Well, about that. If you'll please follow me past the jump.
So I posted Spider Queen (SSSQ) yesterday morning after staying up all night occasionally revising it but mostly listening to music. And the verdict appears to be in. In percentage terms, it is my most unpopular story to date!! With, as of now, a dislike ratio that remains stubbornly above 20% because every upvote seems to get accompanied by a downvote. That includes the downvote fairy who showed up yesterday and gave a donut to every single one of my Recovery stories and most of the Burritoverse ones. This drives me up the wall, because… I know I'm not the best writer out there, but if you feel my work is lacking, you should at least have the decency to tell me what you didn't like about it, to see if it's something I can improve upon.
It gets to me because I think SSSQ may be one my best-written stories on a pure technical level. Plus I enjoyed writing it, and I love the fact that it made Coffee do a double-take. He's been kind enough to help me out with the next entry in the Recovery Arc, so he knows what's coming up. But I gave him no more info about SSSQ than anyone else, and he was shocked that the story turned out to be (1) Fluttershy-centered, (2) absolutely consistent with everything I'd written up to that point, and (3) still made sense despite Sunset being "whacked out of her gourd".
Oh, and I have a title for the next installment. Look forward to it!
Posh, the inspiration for SSSQ, gave his qualified approval, in the only truly appropriate manner: like the post-episode followups from SFDebris's Voyager reviews. He pointed out something that I knew implicitly but never really thought about: Sunset in SSSQ is something of a throwback to how she acted during Highs & Lows. I think that's actually a very good thing because it means H&L is no longer the odd-story out in terms of Sunset's behaviour and, like he said, demonstrates that she still has a long way to go until she's "cured". Granted the reasons for Sunset's weird actions are different -- in SSSQ, she decided to be a Pony and ate jimsonweed which made her high as a kite. It was fun to write Sunset Stoner -- a combination of her normal college-level vocabulary and surfer-dude idiocy. Not unlike how my former flatmate spoke whenever he would smoke weed on my patio. (I did not partake because I am a square of the highest order).
I regret I was not able to finish this story on 4/20. It might have been more accepted. But, with the exception of my annual Mayor Mare stories, when have I ever finished anything on time?
Oh, Masterweaver suggested I remove the AU tags from the Recovery Arc stories because, at this point, they don't really contradict the canon that much. I put those tags in in the first place because Moth got onto me for Sunset being "out of character" in H&L. He's got a point. Since the Recovery Arc takes place around Rainbow Rocks, there's not much that directly contradicts what we see onscreen. The real canon-busting won't happen until my next arc, which begins with a follow up to Anon-A-Miss but will incorporate certain important character details from Recovery.
What do you think? Should I remove the AU tags or leave them up?
That's all for now. Peace out!
Remove the tag, don't remove the tag. Doesn't really matter to me. You write good yarns. You do what you feel best and keep writing those excellent Sunset stories.
Don't let the downvotes get you... well, down. Not every story is gonna storm the feature box or whatever. You've got a vision, you're executing on it, and your audience is out there. Maybe not everyone shows up for every story but in aggregate you're still going to come out ahead.
I'd say the AU tag isn't super necessary, though I can accept its presence without much issue. The basic explanation either way is that Sunny has a breakdown around the time of RR and she pulls out of it by the time of Friendship Games. I guess the question is whether she does pull out of it by then, because from Friendship Games onward she's pretty much the paragon of having-it-together. Or at least she knows how to put on the act.
On the other hand, that'd be interesting if she's faking it in FG and LoE, and maybe only Rarity understands the degree to which she's faking it...
4516728 - I'm always happy for the encouragement I get from readers, you included. Many different people have told me that reading the Recovery Arc helped them through their own problems, or at least to understand there's someone else out there who "gets it". That's the best compliment I could have possibly received. The idea that my silly stories actually mean something to even one person, well, it makes me feel like it's worth my while to continue.
As to AU, the main reason I include the tag (besides Moth chewing me out over it) is that there's no indication in canon that humanoid Sunset isn't a teenager, but I consistently hint that she's around 25 and faking her age. Plus, some of the hints I've dropped about Sunset's backstory -- including in SSSQ -- aren't confirmed or denied. But it's once I'm done with the Recovery Arc for good and have moved on to the closely-linked Redemption Arc that I'll get into serious AU territory. I have no intention of acknowledging the events of FG or LOE at all, for vitally important plot reasons.
I guess I can remove AU tags for Recovery. That'll make having them on Redemption seem more meaningful.
4516630 - Sunnybuns is kind of my muse at this point. I have a LOT more planned for her, and I hope I'm able to write everything I want to.
My big regret is that doing more Sunset means Pinkamena takes a backseat, which Mugen and a couple others will be upset about. There's just not enough time to write everything I want to before everyone moves on.
The most helpful advice I've seen came from the mod Eldorado, who pointed out that the thumbs up/down system on this site should be seen more like like/dislike on Facebook than upvote/downvote on Reddit. Downvotes don't necessarily imply that a story is bad or badly-written, or than the author is a bad author and/or person, just that some readers didn't enjoy reading them. I have a friend who's written a fantastic examination of Sunset recovering from the trauma of being beaten up in an alley by the sirens, but since it opens with a brutal and graphic description of a beloved character being assaulted, lots of readers didn't like it. It's not a comment on the writing or the story, just that it wasn't those readers' cup of tea.
The problem really comes when people use the like/dislike ratio as the basis for deciding if a story is worth reading. And it's not unfair to do so - if several other readers didn't like this story, then maybe I won't either, right? But at the same time, that's what the title, description, art, tags, bookshelf/tracking counts and other stats are there for; so that potential readers have a bit more to go on to see if they'll like the story or not.
One issue here is that one of the more reliable ways to judge if you'll like a story is to read the comments first, but those are often filled with spoilers, so one thing you can do if you feel a story has a harsh dislike ratio is to encourage potential readers to read the comments in the description, and insist that the comment section remains spoiler-free.