Change of Plans for Sun and Hearth · 5:14am Dec 5th, 2017
Short version:
Sun and Hearth will no longer be updating weekly, but will be finished in roughly the same amount of time (somewhere around the end of the year.) The last five chapters will be posted all at once, when it’s done.
Long version:
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I’m conflicted about Sun and Hearth. I mentioned that I really, really love the story, and obviously I love the characters and my version of the setting. I love writing it. I love hearing from my prereaders.
I don’t like rushing to try to get a chapter through prereading and editing to get one posted once a week, but I can manage that.
Now, publishing it…
Let me say flat out that no one has been out of line in their commenting and criticism. It should go without saying that people who don’t like it or question the character or narrative direction are well within their rights, and they’ve also been well within the bounds of polite discussion. I’m not fishing for compliments or saying that anyone has been mean to me, and when the rest of it is posted I encourage you to say exactly what you think.
That said, it’s not fun. Very few people have commented to let me know they’re looking forward to it or really enjoying it, and for every one of them there’s another not-exactly-encouraging comment.
Combine that with the push it takes to get a chapter written, give my prereaders time to read it, get it edited, and leave Journcy time to proofread it… like I said, I can do that, I wrote, edited, and published (a chapter every three days, no less) all of Lost Time in about the same timespan, at about the same time of year. But I had a lot of support from readers for that one; posting a new chapter was fun, even if I had to turn around and get to editing the next chapter while writing the one after it at the same time.
But, and this is very important to note, I love writing this fic. The writing isn’t work, and will continue at probably a faster pace since I can streamline the process some.
So, as I mentioned first, the plan is that I’ll finish writing the last five chapters over the same amount of time, but without worrying about publishing them right away. I’ll be publishing them all at once around the time I planned to finish anyway. Everyone will still get to read it, and they’re invited and welcome to comment on it at that time, whatever their thoughts.
This will be easier on my prereaders (who will have weeks to get to most of the chapters, rather than days.) It will be easier on my mental health because whatever critical discussion there is will happen once, at the end, rather than every week.
I do feel bad, because the only people who are seriously put out by this are the ones who did look forward to reading it every week (I know there’s one of you!) So, in closing, I wanted to make this offer: if you’re totally into this, and going to go through withdrawal or something, PM me. While I won’t have a chapter every week, I can work out a way to get you each one as it's finished.
It's probably just coincidental, or anecdotal, but it really feels to me like there's been a big rise in negativity on this site. Both the outright trolling, and just... how do I put it? People who feel entitled to have the story they want, not the story you wrote? Something like that.
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My guess, thinking about my experiences, is that there's more of a decrease in the really excited, enthusiastic comments. That's going to make the negativity stand out. Of course, it's hard for me to say because I'm writing very different stuff now; I might just be used to mane six shipping and its built in cheering section. But I have gotten the feeling that things are quieter and more subdued these days, just looking at the front page and the people I follow.
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Yeah, you may be right. Certain the site overall has fewer active users than it used to, the site stats make that clear in a pretty objective way.
Best of luck to you on that approach man
This seems like a perfectly sane course of action, given the circumstances. I hope it means you and your prereaders are a little less stressed.
Entirely reasonable course of action. Doing what's fun is often the right choice.
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there's fewer longer really good stories, no one wants to walk away from them these days. At the same time we've known thee characters for seven years now, so different takes on characters may be judged as out of character or at least unlikely compared to the past
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This. Most group forums are pretty much dead by now, at least the ones I am a part of. Personal drama, waning interest, more and more people going over to Discord servers to chat...
You can still get lots of "this is great!!!" comments here, but mainly for stories of a particular brand. Spike Anthro Harem stories, for example. It almost doesn't even matter if the writing is technically bad.
Your story isn't badly written at all. It does have the disadvantage of seeming to come down rather hard on one side of the conflict at a cursory glance, against a character widely beloved and in favour of an OC.
Lastly, a personal reason. I've stopped posting comments like those for the most part. With what you note here, that might have been a mistake. It's just that, they're ultimately no more 'useful' than negative ranting. 'Hurray' and 'boo' are not helpful when one is trying to improve. Take all this, and... it can be easy to forget it's supposed to be fun. For everyone.
i am really enjoying sun and hearth . you write a very good story.
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This is depressing to hear.
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To provide a relatively optimistic counterpoint, there are still new people finding the site - I myself started here less than a year ago, and am having quite a time absorbing the years of stories that people have created (including ones both of you have written). That said, I am definitely guilty of not positively commenting on them, which I should work on. I've just been busy reading all the stories.
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I don't really understand the point of complaining about a particular portrayal of a character. There's so many different takes and variations that if you don't like a particular one it isn't hard to find one you do - as long as said interpretation stays in character within the work they're in, it's all good as far as I'm concerned.
Then again, I'm also not typically one to argue on the internet, so I may just be missing the point.
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Site demographics are definitely changing. I posted a new story early Monday morning, and it stayed on the front page for most of the day (!!). It's been in the Featurebox about 24 hours now, and while normally I'm used to getting a wave of new followers when I actually post something I've written, I've gotten … one.
Some of that may be story quality, of course, since my latest is certainly no Administrative Angel, but every part of the experience feels more subdued relative to even a year ago.
Your distinctive talent as a writer is your trenchant and instinctual psychological insight. This makes you one of my favorite FiMFic authors, but also one of the hardest to read because you keep poking me in my truth. Even when I can't find it myself.
Take Cookie for instance. He's exactly like a close longtime friend of mine: a highly intelligent man who does a wonderful job of whatever interests him (word-play, role-play, geekery and fencing) and never minds about what doesn't (cooking, picking up after himself, earning a living besides pin money).
He's also a firm believer in independence and self-sufficiency who lives off his wife.
Oh, he doesn't do anything bad. He doesn't drink or do drugs or screw around. He doesn't gamble or smoke. He's always sweet and kind and patient, and never forgets a birthday or an anniversary. He's just not good for anything besides company, conversation and, one assumes, occasional sex. They're happy in their relationship so I guess it's not my place to gripe, but I do think a guy should contribute more to a household, especially when his wife works so hard. Doubly so if he pontificates about self-reliance.
The part that really brought this resemblance home was when Cookie told Twilight "I just don't have any head for business." And I thought, Getting a CPA takes four years. Getting an MBA takes two years. You've lived two thousand years. YOU COULD AT LEAST HAVE TAKEN A FEW COURSES.
Some people would say that makes Cookie less believable. But I say the opposite: it makes him more believable. Guys like my friend, if you gave them two thousand years of life and health, would go on being exactly what they were when you gave it to them. And if you bugged them about growing or changing they'd rationalize or make excuses or just plain put it off until next year, and the next, and the next, until they'd gotten a thousand years' experience at procrastination. Which would make their self-satisfaction unassailable. How do I know? My friend has gotten to that point after only twenty years.
He's still a nice guy and all, an absolute sweetheart in fact. And he isn't given to Cookie's stiff-necked idealism, cheese-paring arguments, petulance and priggishness.
That would be where Cookie reminds me of me. Ouch, right in my truth (be sure and wash your pen).
I've gotten better with time (not good, just better). But I think that's not due so much to deliberate personal growth as to increasing debility. I'm weaker and sicker than I was ten years ago and I tire more easily. I just don't have the energy to go around taking offense and fighting it out like I used to. If there is such a thing as wisdom in old age, I think that's most of it. Whatever's left over can be credited to an awareness of mortality. In my case I've got maybe ten more years of work and twenty more years of life ahead of me, assuming I don't get run over by a streetcar. I just have to decide how much of that time I want to spend lonely, angry, sad or afraid, which are all emotions that come with fighting (yes, even good and necessary fighting).
So I find your stories hard to read because they tell hard truths about me, my friends, and all the things we believed in. This is praise. It is in fact high praise. It is not the praise you want, I know. You love these characters and their ideals and you want us to love them for the same reasons you do. But I am old and you are young/ And I speak a barbarous tongue.
You didn't mean to speak truth to a bitter old man. You just couldn't help it. You are just that good a writer.
TL;DR--
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I'm not sure that's true. At least, not as much as it might seem reading my defenses in the comments. See, I do love Cookie, it's true. I also love Celestia and Hurricane (I friggin' love Hurricane, though not quite as much as I love Clover) and Luna and even Discord. I don't love all of their ideals or perspectives, but I find them interesting and amusing, often especially in their flaws and bad behavior. And as a general matter, I make a hobby of figuring out what could lead a rational person trying to do good to be dedicated to any position or ideal I find, and thus far I've been successful 100% of the time, and I try to bring that to all of my characters.
Your take on Cookie is totally fair. It would be perfectly in character for Celestia and Cookie to have a conflict where Celestia told him it was time to get off his cutie mark and do something (though she hasn't because he actually does exactly what she needs him to do, but more about that in the fic.) And the flaws in his idealism, along with his tendency towards unending debate have been on display from the first chapter (I mentioned to someone in one comment that Cookie has actually never won an argument so far in the fic, unless you count the time when he stood his ground by walking out on Celestia.) I do find them lovable, just as I find them lovable in people I know, not so much for the content as the honor and spirit of the fight.
I think a lot of people will be surprised in the end by how little this fic is directly about philosophy or politics, and how much it's intentionally about flawed characters. And I think you'll find the end comforting, or at least interesting.
Now, to get back to work on it...
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You know it strikes me that what Celestia couldn't fix in two thousand years, Chrysalis could fix in two weeks:
"PUT. THOSE MUFFINS. DOWN. Muffins are for Workers only. You -- you're name's Smart Cookie?"
"Yes..."
"You call yourself a Worker, you son-of-a-drone? WHAT. DO YOU BRING. TO THE HIVE?"
"I don't have to take this--"
"You're right, friend, because the good news is, YOU'RE FOOD. The bad news is you've got two weeks to find your weight in food and bring it back to the Hive...oh, have I got your attention now?..."
Wow. Uh. Anyone else think it's a little...warm...in here?...
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...But if Cookie baked his weight in food every two weeks, Celestia would weigh a ton. And that is an entirely different kind of fetish.