Random Ramblings CCXXXVII · 3:45am Mar 10th, 2018
IN WHICH FRIDAY NIGHT
Hi! It's Friday night, and I've been writing more Sunset Shimmer and Rarity. I may have to split this one into chapters, but I don't want to. For the record, I often tell people I work well, not fast. Why not follow me past the jump? I promise not to bore you too badly! 
First of all, I need to admit my guilt -- I've barely worked at all on the Recovery Arc stories. Don't get me wrong; I want to see the arc completed just as much as you do. But, I made a promise to myself nearly two years ago that when I got a new computer, the first story I would complete on it would be one where Sunset buys a new computer herself. I have my new(-ish) laptop thanks to my ex leaving some valuables behind for over a year while deciding the years 2008-2016 never happened (and I thought I was crazy), with some assistance from ebay and a mutual friend who knows how to sell on it, as I've only ever used it to buy. Thanks to the public library and some workarounds, my "Hiatus" really wasn't as severe as I'd expected. That's good, because I truly enjoy interacting with y'all and giving you the best stories I can. My best may not be good enough, but I'm doing my damnedest not to half-ass anything on here.
Seems like every few days I get another FimFic newbie watching me, usually Sunset Shimmer fans. I'm always glad for the attention, but I feel kind of bad since it's been literally months since I've published anything Sunset... even though I have FIVE short stories about her in the pipeline, three of which are completed save for revisions.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm not a very driven person, and sometimes writing is like pulling teeth. Sometimes I could get myself into a nice groove and just crank out a thousand words or more at a time. Other times I can only write a sentence a day, if that, or tweak stuff I already wrote to make it less suck.
As "Canterville" (my version of EQG-Canterlot) becomes more of a fleshed-out setting, I become more concerned about whether or not my earlier stories contradict what I wrote later.
Although it was not published until November 2015, it has been three years (!!!) since I first wrote Highs & Lows and inadvertently began my most popular series of stories. Moth hated H&L and told me so; after being pissy for a few weeks, I realized his criticisms were absolutely valid, and I've tried to improve myself since. I know I can never join the pantheon of great writers on this site, but if I can get my quality even halfway there, I will be satisfied.
Incidentally, I realized that this Sunset & Rarity story I'm writing right now can, just like the Halloween one, be reworked to use non-Pony characters and submitted somewhere as a proper story. Not like fanfic is improper -- I've mentioned before I was writing original work long before I started fanfic, and I use my MLP stories as a way to improve my writing on the technical level -- but you can't make income off someone else's characters (public domain excepted). So that's a possibility.
On a sadder note, my dad called me yesterday from the ICU. As you can imagine from the preceding sentence, he ain't doing too good. He kicked Donald Trump's (yes that's seriously what he named his cancer) ass but the recovery process is kicking him hard. I went to see him. Not pleasant. While he's determined to get his strength back up, his body doesn't want to cooperate. Chances are high I'll go over and see him tomorrow as well even if it is raining. That, of course, will keep me from being able to write. But surely you can give me this mulligan.
I also miss my ex-girlfriend terribly. I bought tickets to two Babymetal concerts in May. Were she still with me, I know she would have loved to have gone. So many things I see online I wish I could share with her, even just as friends. Alas, no. She's determined to put me out of her mind forever. That includes forsaking her cat who stayed with me because we agreed Cat does not handle change or other cats and I needed someone to insult to keep from going crazy.
Well, that's my Friday news dump. Hopefully next time I'll actually have my stories close to ready.
Peace out!
Sorry to hear about your dad. Best of luck to him; that’s a rough recovery to go through.
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I appreciate it. I just visited him in the hospital again today. After I left my dad I went and asked his RN how he was really doing. I won't go into detail, but the short of it is: Not good at all, and cancer (which hasn't been detected in over a year) isn't actually the reason.