Random Ramblings CCCXXIV · 10:45pm Oct 3rd, 2018
IN WHICH FOUR HUNDRED
Well, it was a roller-coaster, but I have officially passed 400 followers! Here's Babymetal to celebrate.
Maybe I already shared this, but oh well. I have more to say past the jump if you'll follow me.
Yesterday, or the day before, I don't really remember because days kinda run together for me which as you can imagine gets annoying when you have bills to pay and you're not on autodraft but that's beside the point. Anyway, a reader who was new to Sunset's Recovery Arc became, shall we say, rather irritated, and berated me for not putting the entire thing into a single story. He even cited one of this site's rules ("Don't post individual chapters of a story as independent stories") with the implicit threat that he might report me to the admins for breaking that rule… which I didn't. He finally gave up (literally I got a notification that Recovery was added to his "I Give Up" bookshelf). I was tempted to call his bluff, but that would not be smart.
Y'all know I'm not usually one to go after my own readers, but… Yeah well fuck you too, pal.
The reason the Recovery Arc isn't one single big story has to do with how it came about, how each bit was written, how it's not written, and the restrictions the site itself places on stories. Allow me to explain.
- I never anticipated the Recovery Arc would BE an arc - I wrote one short story, sat on it for eight months because I was afraid people might hate it, posted it anyway because I worked up the courage to do so, and was amazed at the response. So much so that I decided to write a followup story. Its positive reception inspired me to keep going until, 2 years later, I had done everything I wanted to do.
- POV shifts constantly - This is the big one for me. If I smushed all the pieces of the Recovery Arc together, it wouldn't read well because individual entries constantly switch perspective -- some are from Sunset's POV, others are from Rarity's; most are 3rd-person limited, but some are 1st-person and at least one is "omniscient". These two facts together are the problem. The Poisonwood Bible is an example of a novel that switches POV each chapter, but Barbara Kingsolver did that for a good reason, plus ALL of her characters told their stories from the first-person.
- Tone shifts constantly - The whole point of the Recovery Arc is a journey through a mind broken and then repaired as best as it can be. Individual entries vary from random to fluffy to depressing to downright weird, and sometimes even funny. Sometimes, but not always, there's an undercurrent of darkness. If you were to read SRA as chapters in a single story, you'd probably be hit by mood whiplash each time. Once again, it wouldn't form a coherent singular narrative.
- Tag Restrictions - Going along with the above, I simply can't get across the many moods of this series with only three tags. I'd need at least five or six. In addition, more characters show up than those tags allow. While I could probably get away with only listing Sunset or the EQG-Six, it loses something when I don't have the option of saying who is or isn't in a particular entry.
- Not every entry is a one-shot - Even with all of the above, if EVERY part of SRA was a one-shot, I might consider moving to collect everything into anthology form. However, that's not the case at all. Reconciliations, Spider Queen (of all things), The Rejected, and Recovery are multi-chapter and designed that way. The individual chapters of those stories are less important than, say, the one-shot And That's Good Enough. I mean, I suppose I could number things by subchapter, as I've seen other writers do and I myself would do if I ever published my Pinkamena story (and I'm planning to do with my final Sunset story ever, if I manage to actually write it).
- Entries were written out of order - Now this technically isn't a huge deal because I have the option to move individual chapters anywhere in a lineup I want. In fact I did exactly that with the bonus Pinkamena chapter of Reconciliations, which I wrote a week after I posted the rest of the story but eventually moved up to follow the regular Pinkie chapter. Still, it would have to be annoying for readers to have read the arc and then suddenly Boom! new First Chapter (Sasha).
So, what do you think? Now that the Recovery Arc is completed, should I give in to my critic, contact an admin, and force disparate stories of a disjointed but overarching narrative into anthology form, damn the consequences? Or should I just keep things as-is? The latter carries the added benefit of not deleting around a hundred comments across fifteen entries.
The irony of the whole thing is that The Burritoverse actually would work in anthology form. The only reason it isn't like that already is simply because when I started, I never expected to write more than the first one, so I'm stuck with what I've got. Also the "Anthology" tag didn't exist when I began. But nobody bitches at me telling me to consolidate that series. Oh no.
I've been feeling pretty listless lately. I should go to the gym tonight but who knows if I will, or when. The doughnut shop is doing a Pumpkin Spice strussel tomorrow. Fuck any diets, I'ma buy a dozen then go to the courthouse and pay my property taxes (sigh).
Adult in legality and body, but only barely in mind. Welcome to my life.
Peace out!
I say just make a bookshelf you can share on your page or w/e that includes all the stories in order.
As for the critic himself, I say get fucking rekt. I can't believe he has a bookshelf called "I give up." That's incredible.
Sorry you've been feeling so listless.
First time I decided to read SRA all in sequence, by opening every story sequentially so as to reduce transitions, I did indeed get mood whiplash. I would also argue it's a part of the experience. That said, I would suggest you keep it as-is, and merely consider anthologizing any future large projects when it starts looking like they'll be a big thing.
I enjoy the way the continuity is built, because each individual installment imparts (in itself) one story. They all feel natural solo, even if they lack some context.
Yeah, he's just being an entitled whiner. So sure don't do it for him. If you feel like doing it for yourself at some point go for it, but as is I think it works fine.
4947711
I already have that. It's called THE GUIDE and it's been accessed over 12,000 times. I just updated it again yesterday. Honestly I find it way easier to deal with than a bookshelf. A couple of my readers have made their own bookshelves just for the Recovery Arc.
I wish I still had a scanner because I drew a flowchart. Y'all's heads would tilt at how the various timelines I created got out of hand. And the Burritoverse intersects ALL of them.
As for the critic, he gave up at the first chapter of Recovery (I don't think he read in order), saying it felt really weak. Does no one understand the concept of a "breather chapter" anymore? Also he might have been upset because he's a Twilight Sparkle fan and that's the only story in SRA where Twilight appears and she's, well… Hey, at least Twi isn't an outright antagonist like in my Mayor Mare stories!
And then there's Sci-Twi. I'm almost giddy at the wheels I've started turning for her.
4947716
Confession Time: I've never read the Recovery Arc in chronological order, even now.
In my defense, I felt writing new entries was more important.
However, when I went back a few weeks ago to fix broken word-counts, I also made some continuity fixes.
4947813
Lol holy shit, wow. XD And yeah I use the guide when I first started reading. :)