Underappreciated Author Spotlight: Ceffyl Dwr · 2:14am Feb 12th, 2018
Hey, it only took me a month and a half to do another one. Time flies. Why does Ceffyl Dwr deserve a follow? Find out after the break.
With a name like that, he has to be Welsh, right? Or try to affect Welshness. Naw, he's the real deal.
As I click on his page, Ceffyl Dwr has 255 followers. Not too shabby! He hasn't been around all that long—since July 2015, so maybe that's actually a reasonable amount for an average author to accumulate in that time, but then Ceffyl Dwr isn't an average author. He's published 20 stories since then, so around 8 per year, which is a pretty good pace. That's what makes sense to generate a following, right? Putting out good stories at regular intervals?
Here's where I poke at the column on his home page showing his writing goals for the year by month, all unchecked except for the 150-word minific in January. For shame!
I've only read 3 of those 20 stories, but I've really enjoyed all 3. The first one, "Adaptation," was published back when Ceffyl Dwr used an older name, Strides_the_Stars. This is one of those stories that pulls a bait and switch, and I'll risk some small spoilerage by saying that the romance doesn't have an obvious plot connection until near the end.
Eh, that's not even right. There are shipping notes sprinkled throughout. The first one seems to be a casual mention, but as these storytelling episodes get interspersed with seemingly slice-of-life elements from Rarity's life, the shipping angle gets developed. It's more that it feels extraneous to the story's main plot, but it does get woven in later. In fact, it's one of those tales where they're already an established couple, so it's less about watching them fall in love and more about deciding what to do about it once they already know. Too many authors are fine with just saying, "Hey, they're a couple!" and expecting you to buy it. This story demonstrates it. We see the two doing the little things that couples do. It's about comfort, about familiarity, not having them make goo-goo eyes and profess their love.
Even so, it is a bait and switch. The story starts out being about one thing and ends up being about another, and it's not every author who can pull off something like that. It can even be hard to describe why it works in one story and not another, but it does work here. We begin with Rarity reading a bedtime story to Sweetie Belle, but Rarity has just lost all enthusiasm for the same old, same old. She'd really rather embellish things and tell a more progressive tale, but Sweetie Belle will have none of it. She wants her usual story told in the usual way. But Sweetie Belle does issue a challenge to her: if the story's so bad, then write a good one.
Which Rarity does, but it takes her a few attempts to refine it. She gets kind of lost in the experience and imagines criticism of each draft, but it gradually comes together. Or is that actually Sweetie Belle giving her take on it as Rarity reads her the latest version at bedtime?
The character voicing is great, both in Rarity's frustration and insistence, and in Sweetie Belle's childlike viewpoint. It's not told in simplistic language, but it still has kind of a children's story feel to it, which is very appropriate, given the subject matter.
Ah, but then we find out there are a few bumps in the relationship, and they're played perfectly according to character. Since that's the main conflict of the story, I won't reveal what it is or how it gets resolved. But the really sweet note here is the implication that Sweetie Belle has been subtly guiding Rarity's story this way for some time now. I told you the plot threads would come back together! It gives Sweetie Belle a nice awareness of her sister, plus Sweetie Belle's just plain adorable.
The next story is "True Bowmance." I'll have considerably less to say about this one, because it's your classic comedy of errors, coupled with the tale of someone trying to find her place in the world. It's not complicated, but that doesn't mean it's uninteresting. It's actually a very cute story. Getting an audience to care about your OC is no mean feat, and while our main character here is actually one seen in the show's background, she has no canon personality, so for all practical purposes, she's an OC. She's very charismatic, and as you might expect in a comedy of errors, she's got big problems, but they're not played in the way that would make her the sad-sack anti-Mary Sue. She's actually very competent in her incompetence and has an almost willful ignorance. Inasmuch as this is a character piece, it really delivers. Definitely a fun read.
And the last one I've read is "Rarity's Fashion Alman-yak." This is another one that's not going to take much to cover. It's a simple idea, one we've seen done plenty of times before. But of course there are always new ways to breathe life into old ideas, even if they're only subtle differences. Coco Pommel (whose canon name has apparently changed to slightly less of an obvious reference) gets the plum assignment of running Rarity's new outlet in Yakyakistan, and of course there's the huge personality mismatch of the boisterous, loud yaks and quiet, unassuming Coco. Except that they don't reach a compromise. That's not usually possible with yaks, and Coco rather... embraces her role to an unexpectedly heartfelt extent. Then there's a lovely little epilogue.
So we've got a very sweet story that deftly straddles the line between a believable romance and a children's fable, then two simple-concept comedies that keep a light and fun tone throughout and never feel stale. Granted, this is a minor sampling of the full buffet, but 3 easy recommendations without a miss make him worth a follow.
But wait, there's more! Ceffyl Dwr contributed a piece of flash fiction to last month's Flashfic 150 prompt, and it's a charming look at Sassy Saddles's family. There's nothing consequential here, but it's always fun to see a riff on a minor character to flesh them out a bit.
UPDATE: Ceffyl Dwr had left the site for a time and deleted his stories. He's back now, under the name paperhearts, and in this blog post linked to fimfetch versions of those old stories, though those links go dead occasionally.
Check out my previous underappreciated author spotlights:
Casca
Lucky Dreams
Yeah, Ceffyl Dwr is pretty dang awesome and needs more followers. :D
I've been following for some time now, and never regretted it.
Good to see Ceffyl Dwr here. It took me too long to start reading more of his stuff.
Good grief, turns out I've read Adaptation and have it favorited. Time for a reread!
Rarity's Fashion Alman-yak has been on my Read It Later list for eons. Sounds like I need to get to it already!
To anyone else looking, sometime in the past few months Ceffyl Dwr's account was deleted, along with their stories. This is a saddening loss. I had not read enough of their stories but the ones I did read were fine works. From Here You Can See it All in particular was exceptionally moving, and I reread it several times in spite of the tears it brought forth.
I hope Ceffyl Dwr is okay. I don't know what happened or why their account is gone, but they will be missed.
5072128
He's fine, he's just not interested in pony fic anymore.
5072182
I'm glad he's alright, and thank you for letting me know, but I'm sad that his stories are gone. Interests change and I can understand if he wanted to move on, but his stories still meant a lot.
5072235
I agree it's a shame, but if you still want to read his stories, there are places that archive FiMFic content, and you could find them there. I haven't used any of those places, so I can't point you to any particular ones, but I doubt you'd have any trouble finding them by googling or asking around.
5072237
Way ahead of you, though I haven't linked to any out of respect for his desire for his works to disappear from the Internet. But it's still a shame.