Underappreciated Author Spotlight: Newcomers Edition · 9:50pm Sep 16th, 2018
We don't get that many new authors in the fandom anymore, and not as many readers are around to help boost readership for new authors, but the good news is there still are people discovering ponyfic, and there are some you probably haven't heard of that could use your attention on their stories. And they deserve it! I don't read too much outside of whatever I'm reviewing, so I don't get a lot of exposure to newcomers, but there are a couple who've lately caught my attention, because they've consistently put out good stories. See who after the break!
Our first subject to examine under the microscope is PapierSam. He's only written three stories, and I've read two of those. The third one actually looks like it might be pretty interesting, too. I might have to give it a try. The other two both got Equestria Daily features, but these days, even that doesn't necessarily do much for people who don't already have some name recognition. I enjoyed them, though, and I'd recommend them to others.
First, we have "Under the Streetlights." It's one of a highly populated genre, that of the "Mane 6 grow apart as they age" variety, but a good writer can make something of a tired trope, as we've learned many times before, like in the Most Dangerous Game Contest. This story gets just enough of a different angle to make it stand out from the rest. One is that it feels less like a continuous narrative and more like a fragmented set of glimpses into life that allows the reader's mind to fill in the bits they don't see, kind of like one of those cool op art pieces. The delivery is great as well, very understated and very relatable. Pretty much everyone has had an experience where someone they considered very dear to their heart had to go away, and Rarity is a good vehicle for viewing these interactions. She has a business that makes her travel a fair amount, so the opportunity will always be there to visit, and her generous nature means she does want the best for everyone, so she gracefully endures and encourages. Except we're in the human world here (it does carry the Human tag, but not the Equestria Girls one, so I'm not sure whether to read anything into that), meaning Rarity does definitely have a talent for fashion, but not a career in it yet. She's not the one staying behind, either. She has college to worry about, and she's already of a mind that she might never be coming back, and even if she did, that doesn't mean any of her friends would still be there.
Sound like a dozen or more stories you've read before? Friends grow apart, we go through a scene with each one of them, etc. There's not a lot different as far as the plot goes, but there's not a lot of plot anyway. This is a character piece through and through, and what makes this story win is the great characterization and sparkling dialogue. I've read stories before where single conversations go on for thousands of words and yet don't feel longer than a page because they flow so well. This one stays on the terse side, but it still does have that quality of good flow and wonderful authenticity, and the limited narration is used to great effect to wedge in Rarity's little comments on everything. There's kind of a wistful finality to it, one that stuck with me for a while, and I hope it'll create that same sense for you. The real tragedy here is that this story only has 265 views.
The other one I've read is "Is This It." It's an AU—well, it isn't marked as one. Does this author like to do that? Well, I suppose it doesn't have to be an AU, though it's a pretty far stretch from canon. Human Rarity and Rainbow Dash take on the roles of master thieves, seemingly just in it for the thrill, but it turns out Rarity has a motive. We barely start to find out what, before we reach the end of the published chapters, however. This one also garnered an Equestria Daily feature, but no new chapters have appeared since then. I hope PapierSam intends to continue this, because it's once again a lovely use of language and an exercise in great characterization and dialogue. It's a pleasure to listen to the two interacting, and the author carries their unique voices very well, yet it's only gotten 343 views. I'd have more to say about this, but it's still far from complete. Get on that, PapierSam!
So two (and possibly three) great stories, both that were submitted to Equestria Daily got posted, and... only 7 followers? What's up with that? As I've noted on prior authors, maybe it's an issue of perceived lack of output, but hey, a good author is a good author. This is someone who should have hundreds of followers.
(EDIT: The story links for this section won't work, as President Dead deleted them.)
Next on the slate: President Dead. He's got 8 stories and 51 followers, so at least a little better for people paying attention to his writing, but he needs a lot more. Of the 8 stories, I've read 4. The first was "I, Fluttershy (or Autumn Without End)." This one was a real gut punch. I've read stories that had a real emotional jolt to them, and were beautifully written, yet didn't feel like they had that justification behind them to really get me on board. I have a specific title in mind, but it wouldn't be fair to name it here. This one doesn't actually have that much backstory behind it either, but in some cases it's not necessary.
For example, say I want the reader to empathize with one character, who's sad about another character's death. There's a default amount the reader will grant me, but to get him very invested, I need to show why those characters mean so much to each other. That's not the situation going on here. This is one character enduring just because of her love for her fellow ponies, and I can totally see Fluttershy doing that. And yes, that's only because this is fanfiction. If I had no idea who Fluttershy was, then I would need the author to prove that to me. But fanfiction it is, and this one is a real heartbreaker. In fact, I'm surprised it doesn't carry the Tragedy tag, though it isn't one of the kinds of events typically associated with that. I like sad stories, though, and this one is right up my alley. It delivers.
There's even a sequel, "I, Fluttershy: Kill the Dawn," which I haven't read, and a third one, "I, Fluttershy: At Forever's End." I hope to get to these two, but sadly, it probably won't be until I'm not doing reviews anymore.
Next one I read was "Second Thoughts." I have mixed feelings about it. It easily has the most views of any of President Dead's stories, at well over 4k. I'll step aside for a moment to say that President Dead reminds me of Horse Voice in some ways: predominantly a single-genre writer, but very good at that genre. The issue with President Dead's stories is that they can have somewhat anticlimactic endings. That may be done deliberately—he likes to say in the story comments that he left things ambiguous to let the reader decide what explanation works, but there's a line where there's just not enough to the story, and the reader is left having to fill in too much. Then when he does explain his intent in the comments, it's often not something I would have gotten from the story itself, and sometimes far less creepy than the story's tone would ideally suggest.
The plot of this story is by no means a new one, but President Dead shows a knack for creating a creepy atmosphere and an understanding of how you have to keep escalating horror to maintain its effectiveness. The character work, setting, and atmosphere are great. It's just that the ending feels kind of pat. There is some surprise value to how it turns out, but that depends a lot on whether the reader sees it coming, and it's not too difficult to figure it out. It falls under the category of "enjoying it for the journey more than the destination."
Up third is "Into the Other." If you've been reading through the other suggestions, then this one's tone won't come as a surprise, but it's still effective horror. In fact, I'd say it follows the pattern of "Second Thoughts" exactly, with even more emphasis on the ambiguousness of the ending. Lovely tone and atmosphere, genuinely chilling, though at a couple points, I didn't quite buy characters' reactions (or lack thereof). And the ending. It plays a little too coy for my taste with what it all means. Maybe the characters don't know. That's fine. But Applejack doesn't even speculate, which is a bit odd. Seriously, read this one. It's short and worth it. Then go look in the comments to see the author's take on it. I bet you never would have come up with that, but like I said, that's not necessarily a problem, if the hints are there to devise something really creepy, but I found it a bit vague to work with in that regard.
And the last one I read. I won't link it here, since it's M-rated, and boy howdy does it earn that. It wasn't marked as such when I first encountered it, but it is now. It's one part noir mystery, one part psychological thriller in the vein of "how much of this is actually going on," but it pulls off both effectively. The particular turn it takes into the really mature material is something that really does not suit my taste, so I'm not going to be an effective judge of how well it works or if it's even necessary. It takes such a left turn into that, though. Both in that it's happening in the first place and who's involved, and I really want to drop some hints here to help readers decide whether this is the kind of story they could or couldn't stomach, but that'd require me to give some pretty significant spoilers, plus I don't even know if I can talk about that subject matter in a publicly viewable blog post. So... if that description sounds good and you're willing to give "I Am the End of All Your Dreams" a shot, you may find you like it a lot. The writing's very good, anyway.
The first 3 of those were featured on Equestria Daily, and it's great to see a new author consistently putting out that kind of quality.
Consider checking out both of these authors and giving them a follow.
Check out my previous underappreciated author spotlights:
Casca
Lucky Dreams
Ceffyl Dwr
Miller Minus
Impossible Numbers
This is good. :)
Sweet!
The problem isn't so much the number of new authors we still get..... I can't give you an exact number, but I check the new fics every day, and I see new authors popping in with their very first story quite often. Which is why I try to read at least a few of these fics from new authors each week to give feedback and help them along.
No, the problem I observe is the mentality new pony authors go in with..... I see so many fics that sound like a great idea with tons of potential, but the authors rather crap the fic out than writing it, it seems, with minimal to no editing, very bad grammar and a description that sounds completely boring and not like the good story that is just one click away.
I have the feeling that today, many new authors imagine writing ponyfics and getting popular with those as way too easy. They seem to think it will be enough to write something semi-popular and then just put it out the moment the last sentence of the story has been written.....
There seems to be a consciousness problem regarding how much work goes into a story and should go into a story before it is presentable.
Which leads to it that, because these rushed stories barely get any views, the authors resignate, start to think they just aren't good and give it up again..... Because as many new pony authors I see coming in, as many I see starting their first story and then never writing another one and just disappearing.
Not the best conditions for a writing community that wants to stay alive in the long run.
Good on you for promoting the little guys. Everyone has to start somewhere.
4938778
As someone who's been editing a first story for over a year, your words give me hope. Thank you for that.
4939002
And you give me hope. Once the show is over "We've Got To Find a Way" to keep going and keep the G4 ponyfic writing community alive and we need new authors like you to spearhead this.
And in your case here, I see the extreme that is opposite to what I observe here so often; an author who sits on his story for too long and doesn't dare to put it out, which is equally detrimental to the community.
Would you like me to look over it? I can invest some time into reading it, analyzing it and giving feedback on Wednesday, if you provide me with a link to it via PM.
After reading this, I went to add I, Fluttershy to my RiL list -- and discovered it was already there. I can't remember whether someone recommended it or whether I just happened to be looking for 'Shy stories at the right time, but I'm really encouraged now. On a broader note, I'm always really happy when I see new writers producing good ponyfic -- still happening, even now in late 2018. There may not be as many of them any more, but as long as there are some then there's hope.
4938778
I think part of this -- by no means all, but part -- is that the very large, very active support network that ponyfic had five years ago doesn't really exist any more, except in scattered spots. As such, you have to work harder to find (for example) a really good editor or pre-reader. This also makes it harder to find resources unless you already know where to look -- which someone new to Fimfiction, or to the fandom in general, probably won't. What happens is what you describe: their story will get few views and often no comments at all and the author will wonder why they're bothering and, well, stop bothering.
My subjective experience with new stories here recently has been that things like LUS are making a comeback, simply because fewer authors are being gently pulled up on it and advised as to why it's usually a bad move and helped to appreciate what they can do instead. You know when you read a story from the old days of this site and you think, "Yeah, that's a 2011 fic all right"? I'm seeing more stories like that on here than I did a few years ago. M-rated fics are also a much higher proportion of new stories than they used to be: it's up to around one-third now. Of course Mature stories can be good -- Pascoite recommends one in this very blog -- but a large chunk of them aren't exactly written with making the polished a top priority.
4939304
Go looking for places where you will find the help you need is necessary, it also was necessary back in 2013 already. I just went up and clicked on "Groups" in the green nav bar and I immediately got the following groups put in front of my face:
The Writer's Group
Looking for Editors
Art for Fanfiction
School for New Writers
The Proofreader Group
Struggling Authors
These are all groups with the goal to help authors in one way or another. Now it's biting me that I never really checked out these groups so far..... Does this mean all of these groups are deserted and most of the people in them who helped new authors are gone or inactive?
Edit: Upon a quick look over the rate of new members in these groups, most of them still get a lot. Although, it's The School for New Writers and The Proofreader Group of all groups that see the smallest growth and the rate of new members is declining fast, so I guess we have found our culprits here.
Now what I don't understand is why barely anyone joins these groups anymore, I'm not sure right now if the number of new members correlates with the number of new authors I see. I will have to look into this.
4939709
Another thing is that even if membership in these groups is still growing, that may primarily be people looking for resources, not people providing them.
4940053
That's something I already considered. As I said, I need to look into this to get an idea of the situation there.
Thanks! Under The Streetlights is amazing. Some people won't like it, but I'm envious of PapierSam's ability to look so deeply into the characters so efficiently by what they do and say.