sett check #1 · 10:09pm Aug 26th, 2018
SETT CHECK
So last Saturday I promised to start doing regular fic-related check-ins, so here we are with the first of these! Today I'm gonna jaw a bit about my most recent fic, Forma Extraordinaria Sua, and highlight something infinitely more exciting – r5h's excellent Partyquest. We'll start these off the right way with ponk, which I hope to make a regular feature of these Sett Checks. See under the break for more!
Last week saw the release of the first thing I had written for almost two years, Forma Extraordinaria Sua. This fic had a thousand things going against it – a long-dead author, a 15k initial work length, a pretentious Latin title, and humanized clop featuring OCs. As a result, it's no wonder that the reception was pretty lukewarm, although certainly positive. A 60/10 upvote/downvote ratio is nothing to sneeze at, but what was sort of frustrating for me was the utter lack of comments. Comments are really the things I look forward to the most – people's reactions and reception to things that I had written, suggestions for what I can do better, errant shitposting, et cetera et cetera.
I can certainly see, though, why people simply haven't commented on it – it's 15k words, with an alternate universe that, to it's credit, has way, way too much implied lore for a clopfic. Not to mention that it's pretty likely that maybe ten of my thousand-plus followers are actually still on the site reading clop fiction. I'm going to stick to this story, though, and continue writing for it and updating it over time, and I have a lot of stuff in the back of my head set in this same universe that might get a bit more of a reaction. If I have learned any lesson from this experience, it is that it's better to come back to life with several smaller, more contained fics than with something giant and ambitious. From observation alone, I could see that Marshal Twilight, an author with an equally long time dead, had somehow made the same mistake on the same night within a few hours of me making it; Futa Wrestling League Season 2 released and had a pretty similar reception last that I checked.
In short, if you've read FES and want more of it, more of it will be coming. Things are going to go from lore-indulgent to proper plot stuff happening in the next update, so get excited!
And now, for a bit of a Badgerpony Read This Lately spotlight. Remember, please send me fic suggestions if you have any! I actually read this a few weeks ago as I was coming home from Bronycon, but now that I've had some time to digest it a little bit, I'm gonna hit you guys up with some more formal thoughts on it.
Partyquest, by R5h
R5h and I are in a few chats together, and we were able to hang out a little bit at Bronycon a few weeks ago. Meeting this guy in person was a good time, and like many things at Bronycon, I wish that I was able to do it for a good eight hours. In person, he's about as much of a usual Midwestern dork kid as I am, minus at least a hundred pounds and plus a pair of glasses. He's the sort of person who you'd expect at a horse convention, the kind of dude to blend in just fine amidst the seas of proto-Chris Chans (and the actual Christine Chandler, whose hand I was able to shake – a momentous occasion in autism), but this fic shows, to me, that there's much more to him underneath the surface. Yes, it's fair to say that there's much more to everybody beyond superficial things like fandoms and physical appearances, but this fellow wrote a fic that managed to make me feel something, which is a rare treat.
The basic premise of Partyquest is that EQG Pinkie Pie comes to Equestria to become the world's greatest party pony. Err, person. Party person. I dunno. I haven't watched any EQG related content, so my familiarity with it is pretty limited, and thankfully this fic works with only a fairly limited knowledge of Equestria Girls. All you need to know is that there's an alternate universe out there where the ponies are disproportionate humans with wide, creepy dollfaces and that there's a link between the two worlds. The fic, I think, stands on it's own without any real knowledge of the property behind it or the characters therein, which is usually a good sign of us dealing with a good piece of fanfiction.
One thing that this fic almost totally nails is pacing. I know that comparisons to other mediums are often useless, considering that every medium of entertainment and the arts has different factors to consider when it comes to pacing, but this fic felt like the literary equivalent to the best of 80s comedies. Planes, Trains and Automobiles comes to mind, where the best scenes are the ones that really stick out in your mind, and the weaker scenes typically are short enough that they fall away. This fic very much had that sort of pacing, with an almost episodic feel to every chapter, and a wide variety of different characters and crazy situations popping up all over the place. The strongest scenes and jokes of this fic completely overshadow it's weaker parts, and the weak parts – with the exception, maybe, of Party Favor's pseudo-noir narration at the fic's midpoint – don't overstay their admittedly short welcome.
Another great thing this fic does is be extremely representative of the clearly best pony and arguably best human, Pinkie Pie. Pinkie here has a reason to be who Pinkie is. Too often do writers, even those who are on the show, tend to write off the silly characters as just being "silly characters" meant to crack jokes and be comic relief. But R5h has this real understanding of what a person sort of has to be to be someone like Pinkie, and manages to fit in Pinkie Pie's ridiculously weird home life into her personality like it's a natural fit. Another thing that's great is Pinkie Pie's relationship with her sisters in this one – although the SMS speak portions of the fic are a little bit jarring, they are absolutely great and insightful.
Overall, I would highly recommend you check out this fic! Be sure to tune in next week when I take a look at something a bit saucier (and probably a bit worse).
Giving an idea of what you like to read and look for in a story would help out anyone who has no idea what to suggest, or just offer a helpful starting point.
Aww, thanks! I was really happy with how that story turned out, even if it wasn't perfect (which, heck, no story is).
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I’m mostly interested in what you guys have been reading lately. If it’s good or interesting enough, I can get into it regardless of genre.
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I've been reading words.Well, this was something I read recently enough. Mostly, I've been having to re-read some of my stories to refresh my memory on a few things and write some drabbles instead of poking through any particularly new words.