Random Ramblings CCCXCV · 10:11pm Feb 25th, 2020
IN WHICH ALL GOOD (?) THINGS
On Saturday the 22nd, I made a deadline and hit a milestone. Have some Ayami Muto because she's awesome.
Please Read More to hear my final(?) thoughts about burritos.
First I want to start off with an apology for those who felt my final Burritoverse story wasn’t up to my normal standards. I tried my best on it but I’m not sure I succeeded. Those two of you who have kept up with my blogs know I’ve been dealing with a lot of shit (including literal) in my personal life. Despite that, I was absolutely determined to get the final Burrito story out on the 5th anniversary of the first.
At least one reader complained that I continued writing Burrito stories past the original. That fella obviously had no idea that three of the eventual 11 had always been planned.
Okay, not always. Let me explain.
Five years ago, I wrote Sunset Shimmer Buys A Burrito as my first attempt at a more freeform and surreal story compared to my first story on this site - Ponyville Holds An Election - which, although folks are still occasionally reading and enjoying it, is a pretty straightforward narrative. I’ve always loved the crazier stuff. I got into MLP in the first place through Youtube Poop, which should tell y’all something right there.
Anyway, I also wanted to see if I could attract readers, so I tried to come up with the weirdest title I could with about two minutes of prep. Well, it worked. Sunset…Burrito turned out to be a modest hit by this site’s standards and got readers interested in what I could do.
Once I realized I might have a future in horse-words, I immediately knew I had to rewrite that first story from Sonata’s perspective and, of course, have them reconcile, although even I didn’t expect it would take five years real-time.
What basically happened was that, after writing Sonata’s first Burrito story, I felt it wasn’t fair to leave the other Dazzlings out, so I wrote vignettes about Aria and Dagi too. I could have, maybe should have, stopped it there, but by that point I had sort of decided that the Burrito Barn was the literal second nexus of the Universe and was a perfect place from which to world-build.
Also Donald Trump, whom I openly and unapologetically despise, got killed off a bit too early, so I wanted to show his influence in the EQG world even after his death.
Of all the Burrito stories, the ones about the Dazzlings were always the most fun because I LOVE exploring their characters.
That readers expressed happiness that Sonata managed to find a steady job really made my day because I was just as happy for her. Sonata working in the barn just made sense for her character, so naturally I had to write the how and why.
As to why I dedicated the final entry to Moth, well, when he was ripping my writing to shreds a couple years back, he said that he enjoyed the (then) two Burrito stories, saying something along the lines of, “Those burrito stories clearly show you have some writing talent.” He told me I needed to keep my characters grounded — Sunset was horribly OOC in H&L, though that was kind of the point. Ever since then, I’ve tried to focus more on characterization.
After all, good characters will write your plots for you and take you in directions you wouldn’t expect. That’s what I feel like I finally succeeded with in Sunset and Sonata, and probably Aria too in the rewrite of her Burrito story. So even though he was kind of an asshole, my work wouldn’t be nearly as good had Moth not taken the time to give me genuine constructive criticism.
Yes, he also did not like the Aria Burrito story because Trump was just too easy a target. He was right, but I’m still not sorry and never will be. Godspeed, Moth, and thank you.
I’ve said before that every burrito story (including Sonata’s first after I went back and edited it) must contain three things to make it a “true” Burritoverse entry:
- At least one rambling internal monologue
- Music references
- The final line of the story must always be “What?”
There are probably some other commonalities as well, but those are the big ones. And this final story has all three. As far as music, because I had to write this one without easy access to the internet, I was forced to use my backup info-bank (i.e. my brain) which simply doesn’t work as well. So, we got some Elton John, some Feat, maybe Beatles I’m not too sure because I’m writing this post offline too. Weird Al gets a mention.
One of the nice things about fanfic is that I can throw in these music references willy-nilly and not have to pay a penny in royalties (Al wouldn’t care but the others do). With my real work, which I will gladly link once I have something presentable — in the process outing myself, I don’t get that sort of luxury. Everything has to be original to the best of my abilities: no copyright infringement allowed.
Anywho, I’ve written this over the course of two nights without internet because my dad is, in addition to literally dying, also a technological Luddite. There actually IS internet out here, but my laptop doesn’t have a LAN port (my former one from 2008 does - that’s a difference between an old MacBook and the MB.Air I currently use …that now has a busted “r” key forcing me to spend money on a new keyboard, but that’s cool since I could also use this thing if I ever get a tablet, which I may if I ever feel like arting again).
Like I might have said before — I’m not editing this so I have no damn clue what I have and haven’t written — those of y’all who have stuck around for most or all of the five years of the Burritoverse, thank you so much for joining me on this long strange trip. For those who are newer: Lucky you; you get to see the earliest stories re-edited to be less suck, but I’m glad you’re here too.
Thank you. I appreciate everyone who has enjoyed my work and encouraged me since I took the plunge and put my work out there in early 2015. While I’m not in a good place right now, I’m not dead just yet and I still have stories I want to give you, including those unfinished ones in my queue. Please be patient and look forward to them.
Peace out!
Eh. Don't worry about it. Not every story/chapter's going to be grade A material. All you can do is move on. I liked it for what it was. <3
I was really happy Sonata found a steady job too. Of all the Dazzlings she seemed the most "innocent" purely because of her doofiness.
Sorry again, about your father, and I look forward to your next stories! The Sunset/spider one will always be my favorite most likely.