End of The Road · 12:22am Oct 11th, 2019
I will be stopping all pony-based commissions and writing by December 31st.
I've said this before, in different ways, but I'm serious this time, even though I have a bit of a boy who cried wolf going against me. But I'm pulling out all the stops these time.
Previously, I allowed extensions into the new year to try and finish up, but not this time.
If it's not done by the 31st, it's not going to be done at all.
This means that all of the 'future' commissions I put in green text on my queue aren't going to be done. Putting them on there to begin with was a mistake - I thought it'd be useful to keep track of commissions clients made me aware they wanted, and that I was willing towards, but looking at that huge wall of text just stressed me over the volume of work.
The commissions and stories I aim to finish include
Her Way With Words (3 chapters)
Leatherbound Shadows (3 chapters)
Twilight's Inverted Perverted Adventure (1 chapter)
Moonlight Scales: Sidewinders (1 Chapter)
Tempest Expansion Story (1 Chapter, Not Finished)
This means most everything else will not happen.
Buying The Farm is in awkward spot, as the client last told me they had other things on the mind.
The client for Room 71 also identified explicitly they had lost interested in that story.
There was a spiritual successor to Roll of Fate planned, the first chapter of which was paid for, but I'm going to refund that.
Additionally, if you've paid a down payment or advance on a story that's not listed under the "will still be finished" banner, PM with the details and I'll give you a full refund.
I apologize if this is of distress, but it shouldn't really be a surprise since I express this desire every year, but I intend to be ruthless with myself about it now.
One of the only things keeping me at it was that I was still getting decent money from the commissions, but they just take so much time away from my personal projects, and I recently crunched some numbers and found doing a part-time job on the weekends would actually earn me more money than most of my commissions do. What I would like to do is raise the prices again, but that wouldn't be fair to the consumers, and I'm honestly considered not opening commissions again at all, or making it exclusive to Patrons, or something. But the bottom line is that I find Patreon much more enjoyable to work with and will be refocusing my efforts there.
That's a hard deadline, too. I would certainly like to grace the world with the ending of Her Way With Words, as it's a good story, people like it, and I enjoy it - but if 2020 comes knocking on the door and we're still on chapter 9, the lot of ya are SOL.
I was talking to someone and they said it was hard to write a story in which you aren't emotionally invested. And I am just not emotionally invested in these characters anymore. Doing any of these things is a slog to fight against my own disinterest and detachment.
I again apologize if this means a commission you wanted can no longer happen, but I have to do what's best for me.
I'm going to miss you updated material.
Can you promise that even if you do stop, don'y pull a Buster Knutt and not delete all your stories from the site?
we'll miss you, hope for your future tasks.
It's certainly a bummer that you'll soon give up on doing MLP stories but I still greatly enjoy your other stories on Archive of our own. I just seriously hope we see Her Way with Words properly concluded, it has become my favorite story from you and I love rereading the currently done chapters whilst waiting for new ones
5135204
Agreed, we love to read these gems.
Do what's best for you. You will be missed here, but if you're unhappy, you need to do what's best.
The fact that the client for room 71 lost interest makes me sad
Unfortunate, but thank you for the heads up.
5135204
Oh, yes, I can promise that.
I hate it when people do that. Like, just because you're not happy with the darn thing anymore, doesn't mean other people aren't.
5135325
Muses are fickle creatures. What can you do?
5135257
Glad to hear it, and I do intend to keep writing on A03. I also hope that I can finish Her Way With Words properly, because, if I may be allowed toot my own horn, I think the ending I have in mind is pretty great.
5135417
The fact that you aren't pulling your stories makes me very happy
5135417
I can't wait to see that inevitably sexy finale. I really wish there were more stories that used the concept of hypnotic kisses, you've shown how amazing it can be.
To be honest I think the ending to Her Way With Words is just one huge hypno orgy with the Dazzlings at the end lmao
That's unfortunate, but your reasoning is totally understandable. Thank you very much for everything you've written over the years!
You're one of my favourite writers so it's a shame but I completely understand. You shouldn't force yourself to do it just because. I just hope Her Way with Words gets finished because that's one of my favourite Fan Fics