I'm cancelling the Kirin story · 6:55pm Apr 9th, 2018
Yeah, I'm cancelling How To Raise A Kirin In 12,371 Steps. Why? Well, it's complicated, but here goes nothing...
The whole project, which wasn't planned when I started writing Spike Finds Love At Last, has been rough from the beginning. It did feel like running in circles because it was yet another story featuring Twilight, something that's overdone for me personally, but the new elements(an OC daughter, writing for Starswirl, a mystery angle) still made it enticing. Actually writing it was challenging, however.
Admittedly, the reception it got from the beginning was extremely disencouraging. To be blunt, it sent me into a massive depression out of fear that it was disliked(it had just one upvote and one downvote for a while) and not well viewed(took a long while for it to break 100 views, something that hadn't happened since Memories in the Stars--my least viewed story ever). It took a lot of effort to get that third chapter out, and in the end, I didn't enjoy it. It felt stressful and anxiety-inducing at the thought of doing another chapter, and when I debated on cancelling it or not, cancelling it actually felt relieving.
Not only that, but my whole thing with pony has been on a rough road as well. I think the collection of drama I've been through--Twilicorn, Equestria Girls, the drama around Kiss of the Dark, the seedier parts of the fandom, seeing the movie bomb(if you believe the email leaks, it made half of what Hasbro expected in the box office and possibly led to their decision to make G5)--started to get in the way of my enjoyment of pony. I haven't seen one episode of season 8 despite thinking the show was on a roll for the last few years, I haven't wanted to talk about it as much as I used to(ironic given that Equestria Daily post in the Soapbox I just sent), and in the end, it felt like it was time to move on. I might still watch season 8 once it's on Netflix but it feels uncertain beyond that.
As for what's next...I don't know. A lot of friends have told me that I should take a break from writing and I'm gonna take them up on that. Even before this, Spike Finds Love At Last was a really taxing story to write, and at the very least, I'm taking a break from pony stories. This would be when I say I'm done with pony fanfiction, but that's been said twice on this blog and we all know how that turned out.
Although, there are people that really enjoyed the Kirin story, so I'm going to give them a parting gift later today, and publish an unofficial chapter detailing how the rest of the story would have gone. Until then, thank you for the support up to this point, and I apologize if this decision disappointed anyone.
