End of the Month Progress: October/NaNoWriMo III—the Fanfictioning · 3:09am Nov 1st, 2017
A night of nightmares leads into a full month of horror.
Happy Halloween, everyone. If you're not too busy eating candy, stop by below the break to hear what's good in my neighborhood (nothing) and get some details on what's in store for the remainder of the year. Also, Sunset. But that should be a given by now.
Pony Sunset went as a princess this year.
Word count?
You were doing so well until the last week and a half. 21,717.
Three month winning streak broken. For good reason though! When not dealing with homework and projects and crippling emotions I'm avoiding like the plague, I spent the last week really digging into the outline of Spectacular Seven, making some changes, correcting some mistakes, and filling in all the last details so I can steamroll through the story for National Novel Writing Month this year.
Yep, this year, instead of taking my usual break to work on original fiction, I'm working on Spectacular Seven! The goal is 50,000 words in a month. With this push, I should more than clear the remainder of Volume II, and begin writing some of Volume III, meaning the wait between the next two will be significantly shorter than the current hiatus. That is, if everything goes to plan.
With writing this month and editing next month, V2 should debut in early January. With a chapter a week, you should all be kept content until about late April, early May. By then, I should have made good progress with V3, so for now, the goal is to have that out next September, and we'll move from there.
So yeah, this coming month will have me squarely focused on finishing V2. After that, I might throw some words into other projects. I do have a present I intend to give you guys this Christmas, so I might shovel a few words into that.
Beyond that, Class Zero's officially release date is scheduled for New Years Eve. I think it's thematically appropriate. I'll have one ore more blog about it as we get closer. In the meantime, Multiversecruise, illustrator of the flippingliy fantastic cover art of Class Zero, recently wrote one of their first stories on the site. Go check out "Not so Vile a Sin".
In other news, I've seen the Movie. I liked it a lot. I didn't go in expecting some grand masterpiece. For what we were given, I thought it was cute, thrilling, world-building fun. And damn, Pinkie was on point the whole movie! It was by no means perfect. They did try to introduce too many characters and too many new places in one movie. But again, for what it's worth, it was great.
Seen the finale too. Of course, most of it got spoiled before I saw it! I would have loved it even more without the spoilers. But I'm glad there are still some episodes where I really get excited while watching them. The finale was great. Like, wow, levels of great. Still, season 7 marks the first season I haven't watched all the episodes. I've missed five or six. When I have time, I'll go back and watch them, but eh. And there's a season 8. Well, if you're happy, I'm happy for you. It says something that this show has lasted 8 seasons. I'll keep watching probably but, the fire for the show is slowly dying. Not for the fanficiton though. I'm afraid I'll be here forever.
So that's the end of an exciting October. Hard to believe the year is almost out. Now comes the moment of truth: cramming 50k into the busiest school month of the quarter. Well, I'll either do it or have a mental breakdown trying. Could go either way at this point. As per usual, I'm going to severely decrease my time spent here to help focus. So don't expect any reply from me at all. If you bug me on Discord, maybe. Otherwise, have a good November. To the Hyperbolic Writing Chamber!
******
"I'm pretty sure this isn't in my contract."
The Albinocorn pressed his palms together in front of his mouth. "Please?"
Sunset crossed her arms, giving him her usual raised eyebrow. "I get enough of you on a normal basis, why would I want to be stuck with you for a whole month in an endless void with no social contacts?"
"Because deep down, you really care about me!" He put on the winning smile he had learned from Artemis.
"Try again."
Albinocorn slumped his shoulders and sighed. "Because we have to finish this volume before the year is over." He jerked a thumb at the simple wooden door behind him. Just beyond it, he could hear the faint ticking of eternity. "And honestly, I don't think I can go in there by myself this time."
Sunset's hard eyes gained a touch of sympathy. Her mouth remained a thin line, however. "And what do I get out of this?"
"The pleasure of helping your best friend?"
"I didn't know Rarity needed help." She smirked.
"You're hilarious," Albinocorn deadpanned. "How about this, remember those parts of the outline I wouldn't show you?"
Sunset's eyebrow rose again. "Yeah?"
Albinocorn gestured with a finger for her to lean in. She lent him an ear, and cupping a hand to his mouth, Albinocorn whispered honeyed words he had wanted to save as a surprise. He watched Sunset's smile grow wider and wider, turning from surprised, to joy, to sheer delight with a hint of smugness.
"Really?" she asked, straining to contain the excitement in her voice.
"Really, really."
Sunset put her hand on the golden door handle and pulled it open, exposing them to the harsh white void beyond. She flinched back for a moment, but squared her shoulders and looked on with that unflinching determination Albinocorn had loved since day one.
She looked back at him. "You coming or what? We have words to write."
Despite the overwhelming fear eating him from the inside, Albinocorn smiled. "Yeah. We'll get there or we'll die trying."
"That's the spirit," Sunset said, watching him walk past her and into the infinite landscape. She pulled the door shut behind them. Only a soft ticking could be heard from the other side...
Plot Twist: Sunset Shimmer is already a Princess! She can't go as something she already is!
Princess Sunset looks gorgeous above. And I can't wait to see what you have planned for her that has her so excited. Whatever it is, she deserves it. Scratch that - she deserves everything. Best pony/human. I wish you luck next month and I hope things are going well for you. Also next month - Equestria Girls series on youtube!
Sunset is scary enough without a costume...
Oh, this ought to be good.
It's about time you accepted it.
Ahhh... back into the pressure cooker. Don't worry. I've calibrated my TPT so my Sunny can pop in with a few words of encouragement occasionally. You might want to warn yours. Just sayin'.
4713874
This fandom has, I think, managed something that very few fandoms have- that is, it's reached a critical mass where the continuing existance of the original property is no longer required for continued content creation. Between fanon, permutations, crossovers, and the cross-genre and even cross-media quantity of fic, there's enough to keep people in fresh Pony long enough for them to want to contribute.
Basically, this has become a Von Neuman Fandom, capable of continued growth based on its own merits.
4713909
I love you and everything you are. (Mostly for your familiarity with complexity science, though that's a minor detail.)