The Year in Review: 2019 · 1:47am Dec 31st, 2019
It's that time of the year again, ain't it? Unlike last year (and the year before last), I'll actually be getting this out before the new year ticks over. In fact, I'll be getting it out a day early, because I have some downtime now and know I won't have any tomorrow. If you've followed me for a while, you know the drill by now: I look back on the stories I wrote this year and add my thoughts to them, as well as commenting on some other things that happened outside of fimfic. Then we close it off with a look at how I stacked up to my goals at the beginning of the year (spoiler: it could have been better). Then, once the new year ticks over, I'll have a Year in Preview blog post for you all to read over. But that's for next year, and that's so far away. For now, though, let's get started with the tolan in the room:
Art by Ruirik
This was the big one, the sequel to my epic sci-fi adventure I started began in 2017. This story was long awaited by its faithful (but judging by its readership numbers, not many else), and I hope I was able to deliver. Two Thousand Miles: The Pain of Yesterday is the second story in the tetrology covering the adventures of a unicorn born on an abandoned colony world as she tries to discover what happened to the homeworld that put her ancestors there centuries ago. Whereas the first story mostly focused on the events surrounding her home valley, the second story took the adventure to other parts of the planet, letting her meet new characters and completely new ways of living. I'm very proud of the world of Auris I've been able to construct over these two stories, and I'm looking forward to the next two to come... whenever they come. With as busy as life has gotten for me this year, it could be a while before story #3 is ready for your viewing pleasure, but I hope it'll be ready for you in 2021. I guess only time will tell.
Source by I. Dunno
This story was plenty different for me: this story was actually a commission, the first I've ever done for this site (and maybe not the last???). I was approached by this dood to go turn the picture he provided for me into a story. Once we worked out the payment plan (and I'd decided I actually had a story to write from this picture), I set to work. What resulted was (in my opinion) an interesting and gritty take on medieval warfare in all of its ugly glory, and a story I'm proud of. I've become somewhat renown since I started writing on this site for my large classical/medieval battles, and this one was a fun one to write to get back to those heydays. Too bad I don't have anything more in a similar vein on my plate... but maybe y'all could just pay me to write something like that. An author's gotta eat too, y'know.
Art by t72b
And here we go from one thing to ANOTHER thing completely different. This was my first attempt at writing something horror-focused, and while I personally feel the results were rather mixed, it was popular enough to get its own reading that is fully voiced and narrated and honestly much better put together than my story. Sparrow9642 put a ton of work and love into his reading of this story, and it really shows in the final product. Definitely go give the reading a listen if you like horror and my stories; it's absolutely superb and better than what you'd get reading the story alone.
Art by some person on google or something
This story marks my first time writing something set in the EqG universe (ostensibly; there's very little there grounding it in that setting as opposed to just humanized). This story was also fully inspired by listening to this song on repeat the entire day before, so it was just an attempt to translate my feelings into words and make it a story about humanized horses. And of course, since I'm a hardcore raridash shipper, I had to put it between Rainbow and Rarity, even if the end was ultimately just some light friendshipping. It's a fluff piece, nothing more, but some people might like that.
Art by raika0306
And then I immediately followed up my first EqG story with my second. After seeing some art featuring sunsagio (or whatever you want to call this ship) and then immediately spending the next two days finding as much of it as I could, I just knew I had to turn it into a story. What resulted was this little 1st person piece featuring Adagio's plans to destroy Sunset Shimmer only to fall head over heels for her in the process. It's cute, it's got Adagio trying to be miss tough girl while falling in love, and most importantly, it's the best EqG character and the best EqG villain featured prominently in it. I might write more of this ship, it's real cute. We'll see if something comes of it in 2020.
Unshaken by Ruirik
Continuing in my trend of doing things I'd never done before, I started writing a Choose Your Own Adventure fic inspired by the events of Red Dead Redemption 2. Unshaken follows the story of an outlaw named Kestrel and her group of misfits as they try to evade the law and escape Equestria with the age of gunslingers and the lawlessness of the southwest coming to an end. The story is partially written by a RNG bot that I feed questions to and guided by end of chapter votes, so not even I know how this story will end. Tag along in 2020 and be a part of shaping this story; it's set to be a good one, if what it's covered so far is anything to go by.
Art by SJArt117
When the Rainbow Roadtrip special came out and we were introduced to the pogo-horse wonder named Kerfuffle, I knew I had to write a story about her. I Remember Red is that story. This story has a melancholy feel to it, as I can only imagine that living in such a sepia world could make anypony, even happy ponies like Kerfuffle, feel down in the dumps and depressed. I certainly touched on some themes of depression in this story, and though I've never personally experienced clinical depression, I hope I did it justice for those people who do struggle with it everyday. I also experimented a little with color in the story; some people feel it's unnecessary, but I feel it adds a little something to this black and white world that Kerfuffle lives in (and we read through).
Art by MarinaVermilion
This is another stupid story I had to write when I saw the art for the first time. All Wrapped Up is a silly/dumb short romance piece for one of my A-Tier ships, LDxRD, which I've written a story for before. I always felt that Lightning Dust and Rainbow Dash had a lot more story potential between them, and her return later in the show's life didn't really do either much justice, so I have to turn to fanfic to get my fix. Expect more stories of this ship in the future; I just don't have any ideas for them right now, but I'm sure I will later.
Art by some schmuck on google, again
This story was a long time coming. I have had the (mis)fortune to meet two very serious and unrepentant tab hoarders in my time on various discord servers, and I knew I had to write something to show them the error of their ways. Rainbow Dash is a Tab Hoarder patiently and passionately extols the virtues of keeping a tab-light internet browser and disparages the sins of having a browser cluttered with dozens if not hundreds of unused tabs YOU WILL NEVER USE AGAIN. Seriously, if you're reading this now and your number of tabs is 3-digits long, get some help. You're never going to use all those tabs you still have open. Close them when you're done, and lead a happy and clutter-free life. You'll thank me for it later. If you don't take my advice, Starlight will kill you. That's just how these things go.
And that's all the stories I wrote this year! Phew, that was a lot. When I sat down to write this tonight, I didn't think I'd written so many. I can only hope I got all my links right in the process. And as for things happening outside of fimfic? Well, I went to the last Bronycon, and that was pretty fucking lit. Then I got a job working for a family company, and that's eaten up a lot of my time toward the end of this year. That will probably continue eating up my time for the foreseeable future, but I hope to keep being productive and keep showing you all the wonderful ideas I've yet to put to paper. That'll be for 2020 to figure out; now it's on to seeing my end of the year numbers and how my 2019 resolutions worked out!
I also may or may not have created an alt to write some things less than family-friendly, but I'll leave it up to you all to find it and the weird shit I've put on that.
24's END OF THE YEAR STATS:
-Views: 84,058 (2019 = 67,745)
-Total Followers: 912 (823)
-Followers Gained: 89 (151)
-Followers per Day: 0.34 (0.36)
-Follower Rank: 323rd (350th)
-Blog Posts: 18 (18)
-Stories Posted: 9 (3)
-Chapters Posted: 110 (203)
-Words Posted: 400,690 (362,917)
24's 2019 Goals:
[X] Publish all of TTM2
[X] Release and update another multi-chapter story
[9/5] Publish five new stories
[ ] Participate in three writing events or contests
[ ] Pass 1000 followers
[ ] Be on a panel at Bronycon
Mixed feelings on the goal front. I completed two goals and overachieved on a third, but fell short of the other three. I was really hoping to break 1000 followers this year, but I didn't get any huge home run hits this year to boost my follower count up a bunch. Oh well, there's always next year! At the rate I'm going, I should easily be able to crack 1000 in the coming year, so long as I keep writing. And that's exactly what I intend to do.
Thank you all for sticking with me throughout 2019, and I hope your year was as productive (if not more so) than mine. And with that, I have to get some rest and prepare for a bangin' party this New Year's Eve. May your last day of 2019 treat you well, and may 2020 treat you even better!
Ante Leigonem nihil erat, et nihil erit post Legionem
24
Looks like you had a pretty decent year on here man, you might not have hit every goal but you still got a good number of them, and that's not half-bad at all! If anything it lets you adjust and set goals for next year with better accuracy.
Also I spy that little comment on seeing more LDxRD - I've become a touch more partial to Lightning Dust x Rolling Thunder recently but LDxRD is unquestionably good, so count me down as a future viewer for any of that
I think I found your alt. Love the bio. Lol
Awwww, but I love having over 200 tabs
give us the smuts we wants the smuts