The Year in Review: 2017 · 7:30am Jan 4th, 2018
So, uh, this is a little late. Normally I try to post these before the year ends, but with a combination of family, friends, and party preparations taking up all of my time from Christmas until today, I haven't had the chance to. It's a miracle I've been able to stay on top of my daily writing obligations through it all. I cut it close, but we're still going.
The year Two Thousand and Seventeen After Donuts was probably my busiest and best year on this site so far. I published so many new stories, saw a few of them rise to heights I never expected them to, and released the first installment in my sci-fi tetrology. I was on a panel at Bronycon and have had many readings and other gifts sent to me over the course of the year. I'm thankful for all of it, and for all of you who so appreciate my work. I've said it before, but I feel like it can never be said enough: without you, I wouldn't have any reason to write. You make these finger calisthenics on my keyboard actually worthwhile. And I can't wait to see what 2018 brings us.
But without further ado, it's time to look back on 2017, now 4 days old at the time of this posting.
Echoes of the Past by Ruirik
2017 started off with a bang when I was finally able to drop this beast on you all. Two Thousand Miles: Echoes of the Past is the first entry into my sci-fi series about life on a failed colony world after some unknown calamity caused it to lose contact with Equestria, causing an era called "The Silence" by its inhabitants. This story follows a mare on said colony world and her attempts to unravel a mysterious code sent to it as The Silence finally and abruptly ends. I'm incredibly proud of this story, even if it wasn't rated the highest, and look forward to concluding the rest of the tetrology. Hell, I've strongly considered taking bits and pieces from this series and using it to create a work of original fiction someday. Call me inspired or obsessed, I wouldn't disagree with either.
Orca by JhonnyRebel
Ever have one of those moments where inspiration strikes you out of nowhere and you have to do something about it? That's exactly what happened here. Why? was inspired by the art linked above, and in a feverish mad frenzy, I put the entire thing together in 8 hours, stopping to eat and maybe do some other things in between. I don't quite remember, it was all the way back in February. I love experimenting with new writing techniques and styles, and Why? gave me the chance to do just that by centering the story on a naive, one might even call 'primitive' protagonist who didn't understand much of the technology and interactions of the ponies she encountered for the first time at the top of the world. Why? skyrocketed in success, and for a brief moment after its EqD feature, was the #1 ranked story on the site. Vain and in constant need of sad self-gratification as I am, I took a screenshot when that happened and have it saved on my computer. This was a story that I loved, still love, and am proud of how well its done. I never expected a one-shot written in such a hurry to make such a big splash (puns), but I'm honestly left awestruck at it. And this wasn't even my best story of 2017.
Can't give credit to this one, I don't remember where I snagged it from.
...Which isn't this one. After winning the Rarity award in Scribblefest 2016, I decided to try for it once again in Scribblefest 2017. Sierra has a fond place in my heart despite its largely lackluster performance. Coming off of the success of Why?, and given what I pulled off with its predecessor, I once more felt the need to try and be artistic with Sierra. Though I'm proud of the cadence I managed to establish in it, with every paragraph recounting an important event in the titular character's life at a given age, it didn't go very far. It was my attempt at organizing a bittersweet slice of life story with an artistic twist on it, and it probably could have been done better. But when I reread it, I find myself gripped in the emotional tumult of Sierra's life, and I can really feel for her. So at least I know of one person who really liked the story.
Twilight Snapple by cheezdoodle96
And then I tried my hand at comedy mostly because somebody told me to. A fellow by the name of Blueshift told me to write a parody of Weekend at Bernie's where Twilight accidentally kills all of Ponyville and has to cover it up so Celestia doesn't find out. This was another oneshot I wrote in a day of frenzied writing, though it took longer than Why? to write because I'm not as good at comedy (I'm still not convinced any of my comedy stories are funny, but people seem to like them, so eh?) and I didn't have the same raw inspiration to pump this thing out as I did with Why? But in the end, I wrote my best comedy to date (and still highest upvoted story), Celebration at Twilight's. I... well, I don't really have much to say about this one; you're better off just reading it for yourself. It did spawn a sequel and an audio reading, so that's pretty neat. Maybe I should write comedy more often or something.
...Nah, that's probably a bad idea.
Art by Pirill
So logically the very next thing I wrote was another comedy story, and again, it was inspired by a nerd on discord (or at least, she told me to do it after I floated the idea to the channel, so I did). How Does She Do It? sought to answer a funny connection I'd headcannoned after all the glimglam episodes we got through season 6 and such where I saw the fandom shipping her with like 4 other ponies (and who can blame them, she's so shippable and perfect). So I figured, why not have Starlight getting laid all the time with several different ponies, and then contrast this with the relative lack of shipping we see with Twilight in the show (at least, outside of the Mane 6, I know you Twidashers and Raritwi lovers are rabid and crazy). The result was Twilight bitching to a conversationally captive Fluttershy, while shitfaced, about how she can't find any love and Starlight gets all the mares + Sunburst. So that was a fun thing, and judging by the comments, I think I hit a little too close to home for some readers. So if you're in Twilight's position here, uh... sorry?
Draw Some Raridash by Modak
I don't really think I need to say much about this one. I was inspired by a picture of raridash, and as I'm sure most of you know, I'm raridash shipping trash and this is my cocaine. So of course I wrote a lovely story about these two cute fuzzy poners. You can find Through the Prism there, along with an awesome audio reading provided by PonyStemCell. You'll enjoy it if you like raridash, and probably won't find anything more there if you don't. So yeah that one's kind of a selective piece.
RainbowDust by 8bitamy
And then I found a new appreciation for a ship I'd kind of toyed with back when it was relevant but hadn't thought about in a while. When Jake the Army Guy announced his uncommon ships contest thing, I quickly settled down on RD and LD as my pair for the entry. It culminated in a story just shy of the maximum word count and presented beneath a clever pun by the name of Dashes to Dashes, Dust to Dust. It won an honorable mention in that contest, and I'm pretty sure it's all because of the title pun and nothing else. Definitely it. But regardless, I made a redemption arc for our dear brazen stunt flyer, Lightning Dust, since apparently Hasbro doesn't want to give us one and I'm still upset about that. During her journey to return to the Wonderbolts after her disgraceful discharge, Lightning gets help in training from Rainbow and starts to develop feelings for her. I broke the story up into five chapters, each one covering an event in a singular season in a vein similar to that of Sierra. This one went much better, though, because it has canon characters and the story was more story than artsy presentation. Another good one that I'm proud of, and maybe it'll inspire me to write more LD x RD in the future.
Stock photos are great
And now there's the monster in the room and the great consumer of most of my free time to write. This story actually started in 2016, when I had the insane idea to write a daily updating story, inspired by Austraeoh and other stories of that nature on this site. But after writing like, 8 chapters I think, I shelved the thing for a long time. Until around June or July of 2017, that is. At that point, talking with the same nerd listed above about raridash related things, I got a kick into gear that got me to start writing it. And then I continued to write it. And I kept at it and wrote more and more and more. Eventually, by the time Bronycon came around, I was sitting on a 30 chapter stockpile ready to go and keep me buffered if I was actually insane enough to do this. Which I was, and that was how Surviving Sand Island was born. Since that first day, I've managed to keep the story going with daily updates, not missing a day so far. Who knows how much longer it'll last, but I'm going to keep at it for as long as I can, and hopefully I can finish it without missing a day, pipe dream as it is. But if you're into adventure, romance, and a little bit of mystery, then you may enjoy SSI. After all, it updates daily, so you don't have to worry about when the next chapter is going to come out, right?
What happens when you suddenly remember an idea from an old music video you last saw back in middle school tied to a song you can't remember by an artist you can't place? You write a story about it, obviously. So that's what happened with Numbers, and I'm glad it did, because it turned into my highest rated story after the downvoters found and killed Why?'s ranking. I found Fluttershy to be the perfect protagonist for this story, because, well, I don't know, this just seems like something that would happen to her, and her kindness and compassion would be the perfect tools to play off it with. Honestly, when I finished this story, I doubted all the way up until I posted it that it was ever going to do well. I didn't really like the ending too much but couldn't figure out a better way to tie it together, I felt some of the conversations were janky or just not right, you name it. And then it ended up staying in the #1 spot on the feature box for like, 3 days or something. Talk about defying expectations. I don't even know how I did it. Hopefully I can capture that magic again. Also, no, I did not get the idea from Death Note, and I was in fact unaware that this trope existed in it. I do not watch any anime because I don't find it appealing and don't think most of the stuff I've seen from my super weeb friends is actually any good. But that's a rant for another time and shit. Though I suppose getting inspiration from Nickelback isn't much better...
So what else? Not much, really. I actually hosted a panel at Bronycon this year, and it was tons of fun. Me and Applejinx held a panel on writing entertaining fight scenes, and I put some of my knowledge from my many war fics to some good use there. I'm hoping that one day Bronycon will have the panel videos uploaded, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm not sure when I can expect to see that, if ever. But hopefully, after doing a panel this year, I'll be back and able to be a part of one next year as well.
And now for the numbers. Everybody loves the numbers. Or at least, that's what I tell myself.
24's END OF THE YEAR STATS:
-Views: 51,131 (2017 = 32,211)
-Views per Day: 140.08 (84.66)
-Total Story Views: Not Tracked by Fimfic RIP (133,599)
-Total Followers: 672 (406)
-Followers Gained: 266 (88)
-Followers per Day: 0.73 (0.26)
-Follower Rank: 435th (794th)
-Blog Posts: 21 (33)
-Stories Posted: 9 (4)
-Chapters Posted: 192 (24)
-Words Posted: 452,467 (90,014)
And 2017's Goals:
[X] Release all of Two Thousand Miles Book 1
[ ] Finish the first draft of TTM Book 2
[ ] Finish A Rainbow of a Different Color
[9/4] Release four new stories
[X] Pass 500 followers
[X] Reach 150,000 story views
[X] Have a story reach 500 likes
[2/2] Participate in 2 writing events/contests
[X] Get another story on Equestria Daily
[X] Be on a panel at Bronycon!
All in all, a very successful year. Now I'm gonna sign off on this blog post before my computer dies or something and I lose all this progress and am very sad. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll be posting my Year in Preview blog post like I usually do. Not too pleased that I've gotten off to a late start on these, but what can you do, right?
I hope the rest of you enjoyed 2017 as much as I did, at least on the fic side. The real world is nasty and we don't touch that here. This is a place for ponies, not whatever is happening outside the walls of the computer box.
Ante Legionem nihil erat, et nihil erit post Legionem
24
I'll read SSI EVENTUALLY, I promise!
2kMi's (It would be 20km but you went with the inferior measurement) sequel is what I'm after.
I'm a sci-fi fan. I found your world interesting and want more... Feed my sci-fi desires... Please don't force me to read Fallout fics for my semi-sci-fi post apocalyptic cravings.
Pssst, switch your avatar
Also well done on a successful year and so forth
Well, that’s quite impressive.
24th, don’t be a second Plum. Watch the anime. It’s good for you.
i hope you don't mind me asking- I bet you get asked this a lot- do you have any future plans for "A Rainbow of a Different Color"? I love the story idea and the way you are crafting it, and it's the reason I found you and continue to read your work. Thanks!
4767194
I want to, but it's so far down on my priorities that I don't often get around to it. That's a story I write as I have the drive to, and as of late, with my daily and everything else, I haven't had the drive or time to do so.
4766866
The sequel's sitting at about 175k words right now. I figure I'm about 5 or 6 chapters from the end. I just need the time to actually write it out, and then I have to do a ton of editing and revisions to get it ready for posting, as well as start collecting chapter art from my art slave Ruirik. Hopefully I'll have it ready to go in a few months.
4766949
Lies and deceit. As a wise man once said, "Anime is a mistake. Except for Jojo, Jojo can stay."