Your thoughts? · 5:14am May 10th, 2019
The latest review from PaulAsaran is in, this time for All the Queen's Horses.
Naturally I'm a little disappointed that he thought the story was 'middle of the road', as indeed he has for every one of the Celestia arc except for When the Snow Melts, despite the fact that I have attempted to incorporate changes that both he and other readers of the stories have previously recommended I take on board. Some of the more salient points which he makes, and I accept I may be oversimplifying my interpretation of this review, are:
The stories are too long.
The chapters are too long.
The plot is not clear from the beginning of the story.
The story is not completely stand-alone and some of the plot threads are ongoing.
The writing style is 'verbose'.
The stories are too realistic and characters don't always know what's going on.
I am not writing what fans of the series want to 'see and know'.
My writing style is unconventional and a miscomprehension of what readers want from a story.
I appreciate Paul's efforts in reviewing my story, he's certainly taken a lot of time to do this and it's certainly not all negative either. I have read every review he's done of my stories and have listened. Unfortunately by the time he's reviewed these I'm usually at least one story ahead and can't realistically go back and re-write them. That said, the Fairlight series is a different animal. These have been re-written and do indeed incorporate more of the points readers have made previously. I think it's fair to say though that I don't write these primarily to please fans. I write these because, unsurprisingly, I enjoy writing them, and Fimfiction offers me an outlet to share my passion with others who may, or may not, take something away from my work. It's true to say that if people want to read more simplistic stories with fewer words, or more 'family friendly' plot lines, then you're spoiled for choice on this site. I don't think I'll be changing my writing style now however, especially as the last story is yet to written. Sadly, this may take some time due to work commitments, but let's just hope it doesn't 'Subvert expectations' too much!
In the meantime, If any of my 'niche' audience would like to offer their thoughts on Paul's review, I would be very interested to know your opinion as well.
All the best,
Bluespectre
The stories/chapters are long. But "too long" is quiet subjective. Maybe for a reviewer whos goal is to review as much as possible they are. But for others it might not be. Its true that large stories are at a disadvantage compared to short stories. But thats for people reading them rather then there being an issue with how long big stories are. Most people probably just want a quick and easy thing to read in a short time.
I like both "realistic" and show/family friendly stories. Depends on the setting and mood i suppose. One thing im always fine is the deaths of OC and maybe some not significant show background ponies. For the main characters or such, in a longer story im mostly meh about it since its them that make the show what it is and gives us fond memories.
"Not writing what the fans want to see", what? People who read it read it so see whats going on, if they dont want to see it they dont.
Im probably biased being a huge Celestia fan but i find them to be just fine how they are. True that i have yet to read the Fairlight series, but i have other big stories to read too so will be a while probably. And i dont really care for gramatical errors that much either. A missing letter here or there isnt that bad in my book.
for me as long as story is good, it can't be "to long"
Lets hope then that he wont gonna try to reviwe storys like Fallout Eqestria: Commonwelth (or basicly most of good Fallout storys where chapters are 10-30 k on normal ) Coz he may get stroke when he so long chapters !
Well on this one i need to agree
ye but that is normal when it is an 4th story in series (well im not counting Fairlight storys for this)
Tbh that just how this storry is, for me its not realy a big issue
Ye, and that is a good think
and statments like that are why i realy detest most of "reviewers & critics" opinions about movies, TV shows books and games coz they always know what YOURS readers wanna see right ? anyway i wont gonna ramble about that :P
I dont realy write comments on stuff offen (coz my writen english is kinda bad, and well it is realy hard for me to put my thoughts on paper moust of the time for them to not sound stupid - it acualy took me almoust 2 h to write this ) but im gonna give you my opinion about your storys
So i started "adventure" with your writing , when i sow cover of "Fairlight" and i was like oh that look realy cool ! it took me 3 attempts to read it and i didnt acualy menage to finish it - i throwed it to read later and forgot about it. Few weeks later i sow blood of the foal in recently added or updated (cant realy renember ) and i discovered oh so he wrote few storys oh well lets try to get thru "Fairlight" once again - this time i menage to do it. After i reached point of Fairlight meating Shadow traveling with her and fighting and killing lake serpent (or was it a sea serpent?) i was hooked to it ! I read thru rest of books in next 2 days. After i was done with Fairlight storys i wanted to check other stuff stat you wrote so i read Ice Fall ( i read it befor "when the snow melt") and daaaam ! i loved evry chapter of it ! Then i read thru Where the Sunflowers Grow and i kinda hated last chapter of it. But hey lets go back to topick so All the queen;s Horses - i Love story of Golden Spoon - she totaly deservs her own series ! loved all the characters from this time ! rest of the story - Silver spoon jurney part of vendigo stuck with her it was fine only part of that book that was kinda meh for me was the whole "Nobles and Politic"
ps you know what your stories need moar ?
Shade ! cmn she is adorable also SHE BURP LIGHTING how amazing is that ?!
we need moar of her ok ?