Author's Quarterly Update: Fall 2020 · 8:41pm Sep 30th, 2020
Three months down the line and things are still rocking along. I'll avoid speaking on non-writing stuff (as I'm mostly trying to distract myself from that), but it's been a great quarter for me in this neck of the woods.
I mean, I figured I'd peaked back in July but nope! I've managed to hit a bunch of high points since then including:
- First (and second!) live readings, both by StraightToThePointStudio.
- My first Seattle's Angels feature.
- Getting three stories in the feature box at the same time.
- First story fan art from Wandering Twilight!
- And my first contest win!
If this keeps up, I might break past Imposter Syndrome eventually.
But y'all didn't come here to watch me stroke my own ego. Let's take a look at the writing list for what's been put out and what's coming up.
PUBLISHED (8)
Cleaved – Got the bonus chapter out. I still think it was stronger without, but I’m happy with the overall end product in both ways and folks seemed to rather like it.
Runic Notation – Winner of the Secrets: A Swapped Roles contest. Very pleased with how it came out – the story was fun to write, even if the various swaps got a bit out of control as I went on. I may revisit the setting later on if another idea takes me. (Also Nitro seems to love it and who am I to argue with that?)
Be All My Sins Forgotten – My obligatory Anon-A-Miss tale, and more SunFlower for Scampy. In retrospect there’s a few points I’d tweak (and plan better – when I wrote the first chapter I actually didn’t have the end frame story in mind, so I had to do a lot of re-editing and I’m certain I missed some tense/perspective changes), but overall? I’d call it a solid 7/10.
Metamorphic – That one really blew up a lot more than I was expecting. It was a sort-of spite fic – I’d originally written it for the Cozy Glow contest. I pounded out the first 1500 words that evening, then the contest runners made a clarification that the prompts provided were mandatory and Metamorphic couldn’t be jiggered to fit any of them without seriously compromising the tale. I soldiered on because like hell was I gonna give up the work. Apparently the end result was a LOT darker (and more controversial!) than I’d intended or expected. Still – I thought it was funny and a good number of other people did as well.
Fire And Lightning – Another one that blew up unexpectedly. It was an impulse fic that I threw together fairly quickly. I wanted to get the idea bug out of my mind and expected it to get a general shrug from the readership. Surprise!
That's Amóre – Probably my weakest this past quarter. I enjoyed writing it and think it came out okay, but it felt a little... TOO slice-of-life-y. Nothing wrong with it, but I don’t think it really had the punch I was hoping for.
Tender Loving Care – Inspired by Noble Thought’s work and probably my favorite of Q3’s pieces. Simple, short and potent. A strong example of what I'm aiming for in most of my writing.
The Grass Is Always Greener – An inspiration flash for FoME’s Ponidox contest. I’d originally decided to avoid a Wallflower one since I already kinda hit that during Imposing Sovereigns II, but when inspiration hits you gotta run with it. It didn’t get the reception I was hoping for, but when most of the complaints are “We want more”? Yeah, I can live with that. (And I am, as related below.)
ONGOING (10k+) (4)
Neither Snow Nor Rain Nor Gloom Of Night - WRITING 15% - Expected Release: early Q4 - A Derpy/Luna buddy comedy as they work at the post office. Running a bit behind as I grew to dislike the original outlined ending, so it's momentarily paused to redo. But aside from that it’s just finishing up the initial chapter pad and then we’re good to go.
Mnemosyne - WRITING 10% - Expected Release: Q1 - SunFlower romance, sequel to Forgotten Relationships. Ready and rolling, though being written a bit slowly to prioritize Gloom Of Night.
Canterlot's Secret Library - OUTLINING - Expected Release: Q2 - Warfic focused on Twilight/Sunburst/Moondancer as civilians in a Canterlot under siege. Currently in a holding pattern to focus on other stuff.
Horse Of The Rising Sun - OUTLINING - Expected Release: Q2 - Tempest Shadow/Starswirl small-scale adventure, based around her broken horn and early Equestrian history. Original idea from PingZing. It's turning out to be longer than originally expected, and is gonna compete with Library for my spring ongoing.
MINISERIES (5-10k) (8)
Cut From The Same Cloth - WRITING 50% - Expected Release: Soon - Coco Pommel self-ponidox drama. For FoME's contest. Had a brief stumble to deal with a logistical roadblock. Should be released soon.
Sunset Slasher - WRITING 0% - Expected Release: October - Sunset Shimmer in a slasher flick. Aimed for a Halloween release. (Duh.)
If You Give A Pony A Time Spell - OUTLINING - Expected Release: Q4 - Mane 6 vignette comedy. The title should explain most of the pitch. Mostly ready to write, provided time and inspiration.
Griffon Guard - OUTLINING - Expected Release: Q1/2 - Gallus-focused post-S9 adventure as he returns to Griffonstone. An old contest leftover that's still got some life in it.
Elements Of Larceny - OUTLINING - Expected Release: Q2/3 - EQG crew in a heist movie. Pushed out a little bit because the interlocking perspectives are going to be a bit complicated to plot.
Flashbang - BRAINSTORMING - Expected Release: Q2/3 - Trixie/Flash Sentry romantic revenge comedy. Initial drawing board stages still - may swap places with Griffon Guard if it starts to catch my muse.
Manic Trixie Dream Girl - BRAINSTORMING - Expected Release: ??? - Trixie/Pinkie Pie romance set in mid-S2. Also still in the initial planning phases. Not sure where I'm going to put this one - I don't want to release it too close to Flashbang to avoid Trixie Overload. (There IS too much of a good thing.)
First Hoof Account - BRAINSTORMING - Expected Release: ??? - Sunset Shimmer/Cadance tragi-romance before the Mirror crossing. Still just a seed, but one I rather like. Probably will come out sooner rather than later.
ONESHOT (<5k) (8)
Dressage - WRITING 100% - Expected Release: ??? - HiE saucy comedy. Balancing between being released immediately and discarding it. I’ve rewritten it several times now – I’m somewhat uncomfortable with the story and I’m unsure if that’s because it’s actually bad or if I’m just being over-sensitive to the saucy part of the comedy. Will probably hang around in the queue for a while longer before I decide.
The Grass Is Always Greener II – WRITING 75% - Expected Release: Soon – SunFlower drama-dey. Follow-up to The Grass Is Always Greener. Proper title still TBD. Started out as a bonus chapter, but the tone/character list fit being a stand-alone short piece instead. Won’t be released until after the contest ends.
Swarm Of Butterflies - WRITING 20% - Expected Release: Soon – Fluttershy/Discord comedy for FoME's contest. Secondary entry. Currently stalled out as it’s run into the problem of “Okay, I have a good setup but now what the hell do I do with it?” May not make the deadline, but if it misses I'll still get it out eventually.
A Lover's Draught - WRITING 30% - Expected Release: Q4/1 - TwiBurst romance with a touch of changelings. Semi-back on track. Keeps falling behind under the weight of contests and larger projects.
Minus One - OUTLINING - Expected Release: Q4/1 - Young Six post-S9 sadfic. Not a lot to say - it's ready, just waiting to be in the right mood to actually write it.
The Good Art - OUTLINING - Expected Release: Q4/1 - Celestia/Discord/OC comedy, mostly set pre-series. Should be getting written soon, it's just been pushed back for contest writing.
How Not To Seduce A Stallion - OUTLINING - Expected Release: Q1/2 - Big Mac/Blueblood romantic comedy. Boils down to "Why should only women get to be disaster lesbians?". Still in the early stages.
Reflected - BRAINSTORMING - Expected Release: Q1/2 - Celestia/Mane 6 SoL/drama, set during the events of the original EQG. Not a lot to say at the moment with this one yet. Still in early concept stages.
UNKNOWN (1)
Live And Let Twi - BRAINSTORMING - Expected Release: ??? - EQG riff on Bond movies. Still super early. Don't know how it's going to develop out at all yet, but the concept (and title) are too appealing to not pursue a bit.
DISCARDED (2)
Omae Wa Mou Ninshin - A Big Mac-centric saucy comedy. Tossing it after doing some brainstorming/outlining and realizing that I don't think I can write this without it being pretty rapey. And I don't do that.
Springing Forward - Attempted EQG finale episode. I’ve looked at this one off and on for a while and it just has no traction. I’ll probably take the parts of it I like out and use them piecemeal elsewhere, but the project as a whole is probably DOA.
As always, everyone: thank you for reading. Hopefully the next three months of work will continue to do so.
Wow, congrats! So glad to hear your writing adventures have be so good! I actually just saved Tender Loving Care to my “read later” shelf, so I’m excited to read.
Hope this quarter turns even better for you!!