Author's Rant for Anon-A-Fix · 4:30am Aug 27th, 2019
IN WHICH I ACTUALLY POSTED IT
After well over a month of procrastination, I've finally, FINALLY posted Anon-A-Fix. But first, have some Babymetal.
I do have a few things to say about this story long-in-the-making after the jump, if you'll follow me.
At this point, I'm just glad to finally have the story out there even if it isn't popular, though the three automatic downvotes within its first minute of being public hurt.
Anon-A-Fix is exactly what it says it is -- my attempt to fix Ted Anderson's plot holes from the original comic. Pretentious of me? Probably. But I also realized it would be a good idea to try and fit the story, which I don't hate, into my own pre-established continuity. I was unable to force it into Sunset's Recovery Arc because the timing on those stories leaves no room for it. So I decided to split the timeline after Sasha and create an alternate universe where things are simultaneously better yet worse for Sunny.
And I FINALLY got to introduce Apple Bloom. Trust me, unless I give up writing or die, this is not the last you'll see of her.
In fact, the reason I even wrote the story out to begin with was because I was working on a post-AAM Apple Bloom story and I got sick of constant flashbacks, so I figured I may as well just novelize the original comic, fix Tedly's plot holes, and take it from there.
When I transferred the story from my Gdocs to this site to clean it up, I ended up adding well over a thousand words and generally polishing most of it. I also spent way too much time figuring out just how Aristeque's calendar works. The month name is based on a real month in the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon calendar, where the "Yule-month" was actually two months combined into one, split by the Winter Solstice. As for the days of the week, I got tired and just made them vaguely Nordic-Germanic sounding.
I hope that with this story I was able to provide more of an image to you of what Canterville and Aristeque looks like in my mind.
Anyway, the main reason it took me so long to publish this story after finishing it was just general depression, a total lack of desire to do anything for about a month.
More recently, my dad is in the hospital again, so I've been AFK for most of the past week going to see him and also stop by his house to check on his dog. Keep in mind he lives (and is being hospitalized) over half an hour away from me, so I've been exhausted, more mentally than physically.
But, I'm set to go to Weird Al's concert this coming Sunday, so I knew I had to get this story out before then, because my September is busy with live concerts plus a "milestone" birthday for myself.
Anyway, I'm sure if I think of something else, I'll put it in my next blog. I'm not dead just yet.
Peace out!
Oh God it's 15 full chapters all at once. I don't know if I can do this. D:
Either way, immensely good job getting this story done. And I hope you enjoy the concert with all your heart. <3 Sorry it's been so exhausting taking care of your dad's dog, and your dad's affairs in general.
I had my first session back to therapy today. It wasn't perfect, but it was good. I wish I'd managed to hit far more raw emotional spots while I was pouring my heart out, but alas. It feels better afterwards when I touch raw nerves until I tear up, cleaning out the old wounds.
Ten. Ten chapters. Fifteen thousand words. I believe I warned you I'd be posting it in its entirety.
Glad your first session went reasonably well.
I agree that the automatic downvotes dos kind of hurt. I figure that the people who do that are just selfish jerks, and the only reason they are downvoting is that there is some plot device or character they don't like. Anon-a-miss is one such genre that is almost guaranteed to get downvotes. Probably why my first attempt at an Anon-a-miss story was intentionally and deliberately as bad as I could make it.
Overall you did a decent job of novelizing the original story. That said there is so little deviation I couldn't tell the difference between yours and the original save in a few spots were new material was added. New material that was never expanded on, and it doesn't really feel like any plot holes needing filling were indeed filled. Everything seems to have happened more or less exactly the same way it did in the comic.
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I actually DID fill plot holes from the original, but it was subtle, mostly based around character motivations, which was the primary issue I felt Anderson's version had. In my opinion, the original Anon-A-Miss had a good foundation but the crossbeams were poor, and that's what I worked on. I never intended Anon-A-Fix to be more than what you see.
Like I've said before, Anon-A-Fix was meant to just be an internal working copy for me to draw from when I posted the follow-up story that ACTUALLY matters, centered around Apple Bloom (which I'm working on now), but I decided drawing quotes from an unpublished story wouldn't be fair to readers, so I reluctantly posted this knowing it wouldn't be well-received, but at least it gives more of a frame of reference once I start getting into Sunset's and AB's heads.
I'm also not sorry for the Trixie chapter, which I do allude to in other EQG-verse stories. This is the only time where it gets explicit.
I do appreciate your constructive criticism, here and on the story itself though.