The world is unfair: volume 1 · 6:41am Nov 30th, 2012
So, yes.
I'm entitled to bitch. I am. Why? Because I'm a writer, and that is just part of the process. That's part of the JOB.
But I think I have a fair case here. Why?
Nothing I write really hits home with the public sphere. I'm pretty well known, at least I hope I am, amongst the critics and editors and few rather BIG members of the community, and that's always very nice and very touching. But I've never resonated with the people, I've never really been able to do anything people can pick up easily. People don't seem to want to give me a chance from the get-go, and that's always been how it is.
Case in point that really boffed me today. I'm not even annoyed or angry by it. Just BEWILDERED.
In August, and something I'd been considering ever since early June, I published a first few chapters of a piece I called Magnet. It was a romantic comedy fic about Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and Dash's trip through her friends to seek advice and put her in a lot of weird situations.
It was something I had never really done before; I tend to write darker items and things like horror and heavy adventure and the like.
So why not, I said. Why not. Let's give it a go. It became one of my better recieved pieces.
But work caught up with me and I had to take a break from writing in general while I dealt with other things in life, like work and work and, oh... right. Work.
So I finally return today with an update, a few months later. Granted, I know I've been away for a while, but I was excited to put something in, finally, after all these months, and I do. So there it sat.
Then out of the corner of my eye I spot, in the 'popular' list, a place where I only DREAM of reaching.
So I'm curious. I click on it.
And it turns out it's a romantic comedy fic about Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. To its credit, it has a better premise than mine; its hook is that they're ACTUALLY 'magnetic', and they are physically stuck together by a spell. I can't fault it for that.
But still, being that the genres and the pairing is so CLOSE, well, let's take a look at these numbers, shall we?
As of the writing of this blog post:
Magnet: 413 views/39 comments/65 favourites/39 thumbs up
Magnetism!: 6966 views/408 comments/1103 favourites/593 thumbs up
What's going on here? What happened? Why is my brain?
Two similar names, two similar concepts, exact same pairing, but stories done a vastly different way, but one packaged in a way that attracts more. I suppose? I don't know.
I think my problem is that people never really stop to consider. They sort of sweep by, thinking, yeah, this is one of the dredge. I like to think I'm better than that. I like to think I try to craft stories that weave around rather than just have 'things that are just there' for the heck of it. I like to think I write slightly better than the common author, most of whom overtake me with stories like 'Twilight gets an erection' or 'Mr. Fenix from Gears of War Visits for Tea and Blows Everybody up with giant Alien Grenades'.
It's things like this that make me wonder if I chose the right hobby or not. Maybe I should back to collecting stamps.
But then again, everyone else's collection will probably be better and have loads of pictures of alien grenades and Twilight penises.
So is this one of those 'the world is unfair why does people hate me blah blah' posts? Yeah, pretty much. Again, can't fault the author of Magnetism. He had a good idea going but the numbers, those numbers, things that are far beyond my reach...
Anyone know how I can get them?
Or more accurately... should I care?
This sounds familiar.