Underappreciated Author Spotlight: Lucky Dreams · 5:43am Dec 27th, 2017
Time for another one of these, yes? Well, let's dive right in, below the break.
At the moment I'm typing this, Lucky Dreams (hey, he changed his avatar recently) has 330 followers. And that's not bad! Lots of people around would love to have that many. But most of those people haven't been around long, don't write much, or both. According to his home page, he's been a member since March 5, 2012, right through the high point of the fandom, and he has 16 stories on his account. So he has't written a ton. That's the thread I'll start pulling.
Lucky Dreams actually started on a different account, and I don't know what name it had. He published one story in 2011 then four more in 2012 under that account. All but the first have been deleted, and the link to that one is dead now (maybe the story is unpublished?). Then he posted eleven more under his current account that year. That's a lot! And I'd wager the vast majority of his followers come from that era. One thing I've learned is that followers like signs of consistent output, and as I've dwindled from writing a story per month to maybe 4 per year, it's gotten a lot harder to generate new followers. If they see you're not producing, then what's the point of following after all?
And Lucky Dreams seems to have hit that wall right away. By the very next year, he only published two stories, then one, three, two, and two, and a number of those that were chaptered have been cancelled. Only three of his stories over the last three years have cleared 1k views, and even then, not by much. Plus those last two aren't included on the year-by-year litany he's got on his front page, which may help make him look inactive (Edit: this has been remedied). And he has been, to be sure! I remember at one point him submitting writing samples for something. A program of study, I believe, but possibly to a publisher. Either way, that takes time away from doing something as inconsequential as writing ponyfics.
I have to think he'd have twice the follower count if he'd been able to add a story every other month, for several years running, but hey, we all have more important demands on our time.
And so far, all I've looked at is how much he's written and when. To garner much of a following, the stories should be good, right? Sadly, that's not always the case, but for Lucky Dreams, that's a resounding yes.
Before I get into them, a slight digression. There's a curious thing that tends to happen in this fandom. Does it happen in all fandoms? I don't know, as I haven't been involved with one anywhere close to this degree before. In the real publishing world, specialization is almost seen as a must, if not an asset. If you try to be a jack of all trades, it's impossible to get much name recognition in more than a couple of genres. And we all know that skill doesn't necessarily correlate with fame. Even if you can write all genres well, circumstances will conspire to limit how the whims of popular culture receive you. It's a more realistic arc to figure out what niche you can achieve the greatest success with, and there's very little outcry against these commercially successful authors as "being good at only one thing."
Here, that's a different matter. If you write one kind of story and only one kind of story, you're seen as not challenging yourself, not stretching as a writer, playing it safe. Which is a curious attitude to me. Sure, fanfiction is a good place to exercise your abilities and go out of your comfort zone, if you care to try. But if you don't? Maybe because you want to develop that very specific genre and parley it into a writing career? Lucky Dreams wouldn't be the first. I wonder if it's cost him followers, though, who feel like he's too specialized. There are certainly shipping specialists around this site who have done very well for themselves, but I think it's probably easier to sustain an audience that way. Just my opinion, though.
Lucky's choice? He writes children's style stories, and wonderful ones. He has a great authorial voice that's full of awe and whimsy and all the kinds of things that convey a childlike viewpoint vividly.
I've only read six of his sixteen stories, but I'll step through a bit of commentary on those.
Fly Before You Run
Lucky Dreams lists this as having been published in 2012, but it didn't show up on FiMFiction until 2014. It's a nice story about a young Rainbow Dash trying to take on some responsibility and babysit for an infant Scootaloo. There's a storm going on, and Rainbow Dash is just determined not to be scared. This is written with an older voice than most of Lucky Dreams's stuff, which fits our narrator: Dash is a bit older after all, old enough to be entrusted with babysitting. It's a nice study of her character, and the only complaint I'd have about it is that Dash sounds too mature at times. The word choice and insight and very formal punctuation speak to someone much more experienced than Dash at the same time the story tries to portray her as a kid trying to fumble her way through her first real taste of the kinds of things adults have to deal with. It's just a tad on the telly side, but that's also something that becomes more excusable the more you hew toward a child's perspective. Well, I'll go ahead and spill the beans and say most of the stories I've read by this author are because he submitted them to Equestria Daily. I replied that I liked the story, and it was on the verge of making the cut, but that the narrator came across as too old to be an ideal representation of Dash. Lucky was very receptive to the feedback, but unfortunately, the story never came back. He did submit later stories, though.
A Light in Dark Places
This one is right in Lucky's wheelhouse. Not only does he specialize in stories about children, told from their perspective, but also in using dreamscapes as his setting. Sometimes the line between dream and reality blurs so that the child experiences waking life as if in a dream, but either way, that's the real charm of reading Lucky's stories. Here, Apple Bloom navigates some bad dreams, and she has to overcome her own stubbornness in admitting they scare her.
And after only two stories, I don't seem to be giving very detailed summaries, do I? Partly that's because I don't want to spoil things, but partly, it's because there's nothing complicated here. The stories revel in their simplicity and bring a very wondrous setting to life, and it's less about the plot and more about the stunning journey. It's really an experience to read these. Not to denigrate the plot—it may be simple, but it carries a very clear and valid message.
A Candle in the Sky
Hey, another one about Apple Bloom. One thing that makes it difficult to say much about these stories is the aforementioned aspect that they all fill the same niche genre. But I will say that this one's a good example of what "Fly Before You Run" faltered on, and that's actually making it work to use fancy phrasing and word choice above what the perspective character could know. In some stories, that's a given. Say you're using the perspective of an animal or a baby. You have to use language the character wouldn't understand. But there's a fairly tale conceit that even when inhabiting a child's perspective, you can still use very grandiloquent language, as long as you affect a mannerism that puts that conceit out for the reader from word one. And you have to maintain that very whimsical style throughout. "Fly Before You Run" didn't do that. It wouldn't have been age-appropriate for Dash anyway. But "A Candle in the Sky" delivers. It's so whimsical and lyrical that it overcomes that usual matching of vocabulary to character. I've had great fun writing a couple of stories in this style myself, and it's a wonderful experience. It's also hard to keep yourself in that mindset so that the story maintains it.
Given the synopsis, it's not too hard to figure out what happens here, but you'll also note that it isn't tagged as a sad story, and that's very much the angle it takes toward its subject matter. I've even done that too: taken an event that would seem sad on its face but that none (or few) of the characters actually treat as sad because that's precisely the point the story is making.
It's Not a Cold Dark Place
Now I'm a bit out of my element. This is one I'll be covering here that I didn't read in my duties as an Equestria Daily pre-reader. I haven't even read the second chapter. I read a GDocs version of chapter 1 to help Lucky spruce it up for this other endeavor he had some time ago, and I have to say I missed the point. I didn't realize it was an existing story, and I thought chapter 1 was supposed to be self-contained. I liked what I read, but it felt incomplete to me, like it never went anywhere or made a point. Well, of course it didn't. It's only chapter 1. I can't say anything about this one that I didn't about the previous two—it's yet another child's dream story, yet one that was supposed to be quite extensive, and as I said, I didn't even know it went past chapter 1, so I'm unqualified to say much about what happens in it. It was a very nice beginning, and sadly, it was discontinued after only the second chapter, but Lucky's newest story, Emberwolf, is something he's called its spiritual successor.
Yes, Apple Bloom, there *is* a Santa Hooves
Another I didn't read as a pre-reader, and easily Lucky's most read story. I mean, how does a story with about 15k views at the fandom's height garner only 330 followers? (Answer: well, there was a purge of non-registered user ratings and comments that might have cost some, and... I got nothin'.) And yet another about Apple Bloom. A favorite character of his? This was one of the first stories to use that gimmick of actually handwriting something and using appropriate paper, letterhead, etc., to sell the effect, then post the story as images (with a text version as well in order to satisfy the minimum word count, of course). Since then, there have been many pretenders, with varying degrees of success. And some of those pretenders keep going to that well, thinking it somehow continues to be inventive. I'm looking at you, eh, I'm not naming names. Once per author to give it a try, sure, but then it starts to smack of relying on the gimmick to be the story instead of actually having a story, which is what they often degrade into.
Anyway, this is very much a product of its time, what with the friendship report at the end, but hey, those things work sometimes, y'know? I don't mind them so much. And this one differs from a lot of Lucky's writing in that it doesn't take that whimsical tone in the narration because, well, there isn't any narration. This is essentially dialogue only, so the characters have to sound authentic. It's a little harder for authors to keep narration in tune with a character's voice, but it's absolutely critical for dialogue to do so. This story very much achieves that harmony.
In the Place the Wild Horses Sleep
Yes, I saved the best for last, and it's one of Lucky's older stories, too. This story is a gem, and it's one of his most read. The joy here is that it's not even a pony story. Yes, ponies are involved, but there's nothing saying they have to be the MLP characters. One of them is ostensibly Luna, but it wouldn't take any work to make her generically applicable, and then what you have here is a wonderful children's tale for general audiences. And I'll sound like a broken record again in saying it's a simple plot showing the blur between a child's experiences in dreams and the real world. Specifically, it's about how she relates to her mother, but the interesting twist here is in how sympathetically the mother is presented as well. This story has won many accolades. It placed third in the Most Dangerous Game contest from years ago, it's gotten positive reviews from all the noted critics—Present Perfect gave it a highly recommended. More than that, it made his top fifteen all time. More than that, it rates at the top of that list. It's one of my favorites all-time as well, and it isn't even confined to MLP. I would love to see this published for real someday.
So if you like children's style stories at all, you can't go wrong by reading Lucky Dreams, and I'm glad to see him back and publishing again. He's definitely worth a follow.
Check out my previous underappreciated author spotlight:
Casca
Amen! (yeah, I've been following Lucky for a while, in awe.)
After all, there's no way I could duplicate Supper of Scootaloo Stew no matter how hard I tried. A wonderful combination of funny/scary/goofy.
I have a great appreciation for In the Place the Wild Horses Sleep
Man I didn’t realize he had so many other stories! I’ll forever be sad that cold dark place wasn’t finished but I guess I’m glad I got to read it when it did have four or five chapters.
Has anyone ever told EQD y’all are too nit picky?
4760252
Yes, but no matter where we set our standards, people will say that. We also get lots of complaints on the other side, that stories we've accepted aren't good enough. So the bottom line is that we always lose.
4760252 Also realize we only have typically two story slots on the blog per day and we get way more than two story submissions per day.
For a long time, In the Place the Wild Horses Sleep was the single most reviewed story on the site. For a while, by a fairly big margin.
Hell yeah, he's underappreciated. ;_;
I'm loving these spotlights. I really need to read more of Lucky Dream's stuff. I stumbled upon Yes, Apple Bloom, there *is* a Santa Hooves, and after following that up with Cursed Be He That Moves My Bones I couldn't click the Follow button fast enough
Lucky is honestly one of the most talented people on this website. He(?) nails that classic children's literature vibe so pitch-perfectly that I get Snow White's evil stepmother levels of jealous.
Sorry it took a little while to comment on this – the last few days have been a whirlwind (Christmas holidays and stuff). But yeah, wow, this blog was an incredible thing to wake up to the other day
In response to a few specific points:
-- I almost gave up on fanfiction after those first few stories on my previous account. In particular, I slaved over that first one I did, so it was crushing, at the time, when it and the others sank without a trace. But in retrospect, the experience of that first account’s failure turned out to be extremally valuable, so I absolutely wouldn’t take it back.
-- It was a program of study I applied to (a master’s degree in writing for children). I managed to get on it too, using deponified fanfics -- and I met the love of my life there! I find it so crazy thinking about what a colossal real life impact My Little Pony has had on me… I shudder to think what might have happened if I hadn’t discovered fanfiction. So, in that sense, I certainly wouldn’t call it inconsequential
-- I’ve wondered myself if being so specialised has turned people off? On the other hand, I’ve sometimes toyed with the idea of writing non-children’s fiction for this website, but after so many years, I think I’ve come to accept that I don’t have it in me. Plus, I seem to find that my even my recent, less viewed stories have eventually found their audience (and that includes the two I’ve published this month).
-- Yeah, I should totally make some time to fix Fly Before You Run...
-- A Candle in the Sky is probably the story I’m most proud of, seeing that it’s the one that managed to get me on the university course (that, and Supper of Scootaloo Stew).
-- Then again, It’s Not a Cold Dark Place is, by far, far and away, the one that means the most to me, even though I never managed to complete it. Writing and planning it helped me through what was the worst year of my life (egh, 2012
), and the response it got was what gave me the confidence to seriously consider pursuing a career as a children’s author.
-- Part of the answer to ‘how does a story with 15k views at the fandom’s height garner only 330 followers’ is that a huge chunk of those views were actually from Reddit! About a year after I first published it, someone posted the story in the MLP subreddit, where it kind of exploded for a day or two. It was a real shock to log in one day and discover that the story suddenly had 5,000 extra views or something.
-- Wild Horses was one of those stories where the stars seemed to align, and I wish that every story was so easy and pleasurable to write. Also, I am determined, truly determined, that Mia will be the star of her own published novel one day. It would be a dream come true for me.
Sorry, this was a very long response. But again, thank you so much for this blog post
4761097
Yeah, it's 'he'!
Also, thank you
4760305
Yikes, I literally didn't know that!
4760252
I've given a lot of thought to it, and I think I am going to post it, or at least what I have of it (I'm gonna aim for the end of January/early February or something). Because, whilst I meant what I said in my blog a few weeks ago about being too exhausted to properly finish the darn thing, I'm still sitting on a fairly substantial amount of words -- about 20,000 or something -- and frankly, I feel kinda weird keeping them all to myself, even if my latest story is extremely similar in so many ways.
Plus, crucially, the ending is done (the missing chapters are mostly in the middle), so I think it would still feel like a relatively complete experience
4762220
YYYAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!
4762212
I never hit reddit at the height of when tons of referrals could come from there, or else I just wasn't in the right ones. It doesn't seem like the mylittlepony one has much fiction posted to it, so I've mostly avoided doing so. And I've only posted a few in mylittlefanfic. As appropriate, I've put some in mylittledaww or mylittleonions, and those only ever give me about 40 views total.
You're in a specific situation where I don't think it's necessary to try for a broader spread of genre unless you decide you want to. Keeping things aligned here with your professional work would be the most efficient way.
4762212
Oh, and it also seems that despite my efforts, I've only been able to increase your follower count by 1. I'm going to take that we have such an overlap in followers that pretty much anyone who'd read one of my blogs was following you already.