What's this? · 9:21pm Oct 24th, 2012
A blog post? From Mally?
Something on the account other than a shit ton of favorites, an even larger shit ton of words read, and a single story?
Yes, I've actually decided to post something. Nothing too major, for the moment, as I have a class to get to shortly, but I figure, what with watchers trickling in, I might as well say something to those of you foolish kind enough to track me. All seven of you, and any who come in later.
Now, a lot of you are likely here because of this guy, someone who I've had a long and glorious history of smacking stories into shape for, and an even more glorious history of being editorially cockblocked by that vicious, fanged beast known as 'stylistic choices'. I kid, I kid. But still, if you watch me, and you don't watch him, you're missing out: He's far more prolific than I am, and puts out some good shit that really only needs the occasional technical input.
I'm posting this partly as a howdy, and partly as a way to let you know, those of you who do not see my name habitually pop up in the comments section of other fics, that I still exist and do stuff on FIMFiction. I'm a full time student, so time is severely limited, and most of my ponyfic time lately has been divided up between a queue of fics to proofread (one of which is done by EB, and don't think I've forgotten about you, you're still sitting there on my list), and the fact that I just recently got around to diving into... a little known beast of a fic. As such, my favorites has jumped up to 35 chapters in need of reading, and my read later has doubled, now at 46. So I'm not dead, not yet. Just extremely fuckin' busy.
I have, however, been working on one other bit of ponyfic apart from the aforementioned monster, and the multiple stories in need of my loving, editorial touch...
Its title is Restless Night, and it is going to be significantly more meaty than my previous outing. Secrets was that dip back into the pool after a few years without writing, testing the waters, as it were; Night is going to be a full on swim. Unfortunately, as a result of my busy non-pony life, the story is slow going, still mostly in the brainstorming phase. I've got basic plot outline, and a few details I want to work in here and there, but as it stands, there's not a whole hell of a lot to it right now: About a page and a half of notes in 11pt Arial on GDocs; to put that into comparison, the notes I have for Secrets from before I actually started writing comprise half a page.
Night is not going to be another short outing. I'm planning on it spanning several chapters, and once I get to writing, am going to focus quite a bit on minding my pacing, which was a major issue in Secrets.
I don't particularly care to reveal too much of what I have in store (one of you already knows some of it), but I welcome discussion/speculation in the comments below, and if you guess something right, I will likely confirm.
Anyway, this has been an authorial blog post from Mally. Not sure when I'll do another of these, but it'll likely be a status report. Or I might share some notes, give kind of a peek into my writing process as far as Secrets went.
Peace.
I need to actually write down notes for my stories; I mostly keep them in my head. It may actually help me write better...
And I'll definitely check out Restless Night!
...I need to read Secrets.
Fun fact: Writing down notes is actually an attempt (for me, at least) to get the ideas to go the hell away. By getting them out of my head, I am often able to get back to focusing on whatever I was doing before sudden idea popped in. It's also fairly handy quality control: if an idea persists after I have put it on paper/GDocs/Ranted at EB about it, then it might well be worth continuing to develop. If it poofs, then clearly it was a terrible idea, and nothing of value has been lost.
I use the notes less for brainstorming, as per the usual suggestions in creative writing/English classes. I use them more for brainCLEARING. The brainstorming comes more naturally, really: If I try and sit down to think directly about a story in the pre-planning/planning stages, I'll end up staring at whatever canvas I am using until I get distracted and do something else. If I allow myself to do other shit, thoughts will burble up, and then I can add them to whatever medium I am using to hold onto them with the rest of the shit. And then repeats the cycle of 'does the idea persist? No? Good.'
Some writers write because they want to convey. I write because I have ideas and they don't leave me the fuck alone.