The Year in Review: 2020 · 12:18am Jan 2nd, 2021
Wait, it's already the new year? 2020 is over? I wonder how I missed that?
Art by Shinodage
As has become a tradition of mine on this site since I started doing it way back in 2014, it's time that I take a moment of self-indulgence and look back on all that I accomplished (or didn't accomplish...) in the year before stepping into the new one. And though I wasn't able to write this and get it out yesterday, I have a feeling that people will understand what I mean when I say "2020 was a terrible year". It certainly threw off so many of my plans and goals, and I know I'm not alone in that. And while not getting this out yesterday was only a minor setback, I'm still going to pin one last crime on 2020 as it packs its things and heads out the door.
My followers who have been with me for a while know how these blog posts go, but in case you're one of the (few) new followers I picked up this year, here's the deal: we journey back together on the stories I released this year (of which there are not that many), as well as some things that happened outside of fimfic, and then we finish it off with how I completely failed to meet the New Year's Resolutions I set for myself every year. It's a fun little journey if you like to hear some 26yo's thoughts on writing about tiny horses. If not, then you can appreciate the art in the post, I suppose. It's a free country; do what you want.
So, with that out of the way...
Art by, uh... this guy
The Lies We Tell Ourselves was one of those stories where a couple of unrelated things all have the same mood or feeling to them and it all comes together with a burst of inspiration. Around the time I started writing this story, I had recently gotten back into playing the Hearts of Iron IV mod known as Equestria at War (of which you can find the subreddit here; I figure that's the easiest way to provide somebody with all the relevant links should they be interested in learning more), and had finished watching the final season of The Man in the High Castle (which, despite how terrible the final season was, had an amazing scene about soldiers-turned-collaborators that was the crux of the inspiration for this story). Taking those two things and combining them with the backdrop of the alternate timeline in the season 5 finale of MLP where Nightmare Moon successfully returned and took over Equestria created the perfect scenario for this story. I won't spoil the plot progression of the story, as I feel like I did a great job showing how ponies who once thought they were staunchly loyal to a cause try to navigate a world where that cause has failed, and it would be a shame to miss out on seeing how the main characters' thoughts change over time. But I will give you this warning: it doesn't have a happy ending.
Some random underwater city art I found on the google
The Music of The Reef is a story that I've been wanting to tell for a long time, and only now found the right motivation to do so. It must have been 3 or 4 years ago when I first thought up the idea of an underwater metropolis and near-utopia known as The Reef, a massive city where all kinds of sapient aquatic life (and even surface-dwellers using appropriate accommodations) lived in harmony. The Reef itself was massively fun to explore; how do you design a city that exists in three dimensions, with all the trials that come from living life underwater? What does the architecture look like? The engineering? How do the different races populating the city get along? What if the city tolerated sirens, but only to an extent? That last point was the crux of the story, and with Jake The Army Guy's second Horse Words Extravaganza Contest being about exploring the culture of non-pony society, I finally found the push I needed to make it happen. The story follows a siren named Toccata whose life's dream is to sing in Conch Hall, which is The Reef's equivalent of Broadway. Unfortunately, ever since The Dazzlings happened, The Reef has forbade sirens from any singing whatsoever, meaning she will never accomplish that dream, despite her natural talent at it. Of course, things happen in the story that push that conflict into view, but I won't spoil how it gets resolved. I will say, though, that I did place 2nd in the contest with it (with a far better story about sirens taking the grand prize), and I'm proud of that accomplishment. Because as you can see from looking at my stories list... that was the only other story I wrote this year. But there's a reason for that outside of just the general chaos of 2020 throwing things out of whack.
Meme by u/Tinker_Gearwind
While I may have only made and posted two stories on fimfic, I was MASSIVELY involved in another writing project that ate up a huge amount of my time in the spring and summer (and still continues to get a decent chunk of my writing time today). Remember that Equestria at War mod I mentioned earlier? Well, at the beginning of 2020 I applied to the team as a writer, and was accepted to write events and other localization for the mod. I soon found myself as the primary writing force behind an expansion of post-war content for the changelings, crafting a massive story-based expansion alongside an insanely talented programmer who did all sorts of crazy things for this expansion. I wrote over 70k words of events for the expansion, more than tripling the number of events in the Changeling Lands in general, and brought to life a story that I'm pleased to say many people greatly enjoyed. The meme I posted above is a no-context spoilers for the post-war content. If you haven't played it, it won't make much sense, but if you have, then I'm sure you'll appreciate it as much as I have. And with the learning experience I gained from that project, expect my future projects to be even better. Writing for EaW is incredibly fun and a nice change of pace from writing stories, and I expect to do it for a long time to come.
Art by Ruirik
As for my ongoing projects, Unshaken continues to march along at a (semi-) regular pace. My update schedule of updating on Mondays and Fridays has been blown to tatters by 2020 for many reasons, chief among them being me taking up a seasonal position for part-time work in November through December, but I still try to write and update it as I can. Things have just taken an interesting turn in the book at the time of this writing, and I'm as interested as everyone else following it is to see where it goes next. After all, I only write half of the story; random chance and dice rolls write another quarter, along with the votes and directions the readers take between chapters. At any rate, it has been a fun project to work on, and I'm excited to see it continue into the future.
Yeah, you all know what this fucker is. In the terrible year of 2020, this little mass of proteins was the mastermind behind the scenes. There is not a single person on Earth who has access to the Internet or the news who doesn't know what COVID-19 is, and how it completely ruined any and all plans we had this year. Its rampage and reign of terror has forced us into isolation, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and sickened millions more, and has brought about so much pain, suffering, and anxiety that it's difficult to wrap your head around it all. Of course, things only get worse when the advice of science is drowned out by conspiracy theories, deniers, and politicians all screaming their own interpretations into the endless void that is the Internet, and our response to it (especially in America) has been beyond abysmal. But there are multiple vaccines that are beginning to make their way to the public, and hopefully someday soon we can put this mess behind us. I'm not looking forward to when the next plague hits, given what I've seen from people, especially the ignorant masses, throughout 2020. But I hope we can at least enjoy some more good years of getting together with friends and family, while appreciating just how much a global pandemic can upend our lives. Most importantly, I hope that you all and your families have stayed safe and healthy, regardless of your beliefs or political alignment.
And no, I am not going to comment on the election. That is not a can of worms I am opening.
The pandemic has certainly made my life difficult this year. I had to finish the last two terms of my master's program online, but I did manage to do it and earn my Masters of Science in Biomedical Engineering, which means I now get to put MSBE after my name in emails and the like. Unfortunately, the pandemic has also shriveled up the job market, even in biotech and pharma, which means I've been struggling to find employment ever since September. I'm hoping my fortunes will change soon, but you never know. At least I'm in a comfortable enough position where it's not too much of a problem for me yet. But if things continue how they are, my life isn't going to get any easier soon...
At any rate, I hope you all had a happy New Year's Eve and Day, and that you celebrated it responsibly. Instead of hosting a big party with all my friends like I do every year, we all shared a video call over Discord as we played games and watched movies. Hopefully by the time 2021 is ready to head out the door, we'll be able to do all the fun things we've been missing out on while in the death grip of covid. I plan on throwing the biggest and wildest party yet if we can.
And now comes the time for the stats... which aren't exactly impressive, at least on the goal front.
24's END OF THE YEAR STATS:
-Views: 99,382 (2020 = 84,058)
-Total Followers: 995 (912)
-Followers Gained: 83 (89)
-Followers per Day: 0.33 (0.34)
-Follower Rank: 295th (323rd)
-Blog Posts: 9 (18)
-Stories Posted: 2 (9)
-Chapters Posted: 65 (110)
-Words Posted: 109,915 (400,690)
24's 2020 Goals:
[ ] Pass 1000 followers
[2/6] Publish six new stories
[X] Participate in at least one writing contest
[~210,000] Write 366,000 words (1,000 words a day)
[ ] Finish the rough draft of TTM3
Yeah... you're going to hear all about TTM3 in my upcoming Year in Preview: 2021 blog post, whenever I get the time to write it. There are a lot of things that happened with that one. And while I only accomplished one of my goals, I can at least blame most of the failure on the 'rona making time cease all meaning. Maybe next year will be better?
Thank you all for once more humoring my little self-indulgence in my reflections on the awful year of 2020. I hope you all stayed safe and were successful in everything you tried to do, and were able to adjust to the strange situations of the pandemic. I know it's impossible to fully adjust to social distancing and isolation, but it's also pretty hard to adjust to being dead, or ending up with lifelong health problems as a result of covid complications. A little pain now saves a lot of pain later. So let's do our best to stick it out as long as we can, eh? The beginning of 2021 may be a dark winter, but we've got the chance to make the end of 2021 a bright one.
Stay safe, and Happy New Year!
Ante Legionem nihil erat, et nihil erit post Legionem
24
Loved a lot of your stuff, but really looking forward to any news on TTM3. Totally understand it's been a crazy year, but I need more racist ghost grandma in my life.