Author Update (and Story Recommendations) 2/12/2021 · 3:01am Feb 13th, 2021
Recently, I hit a personal record for most horsewords written over a course a week. It might be hard to believe, because I haven't published anything other than the speedwrite compilation, but I've been getting a lot of words on pages lately. Despite this, it may be a while before I get another story out.
The one-shot I've been spending the most time on is something I've now scrapped. It was an OC-as-main-character fic anyway, so I doubt many people will be disappointed to be depraved of it. I spent a lot of time working on it. It's not wasted time, as I did improve as a writer, but from a reader's perspective it means that I don't have much to show for all my work. That story is where the second largest amount of my writing time has been going.
The first has been to speedwrites. I've got eleven stories written for Quills and Sofas, and a few of them are even good. Due to the nature of the competition a lot of them don't wind up being worth publishing, but it is helping me practice, which is nice.
There is one writing rule that I will not break under any circumstances, which is, "Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that they will not feel the time was wasted." Maybe I'm too hard on myself, but I'd rather be that than rush stuff out that isn't any good.
I hoped to have another story up by now, but it's just not in the cards. Fortunately, there are so many other great stories up on this site that you can spend your time on. Let me highlight a few that I've had the honor of prereading.
Partner by Bicyclette is a great mature (not that kind) interaction between Applejack and Rainbow Dash. This is a writer who has a real knack for painting a picture with words. The prose here is amazing. When you're done, you should check out some of their other stories. I have yet to read a Bicyclette story I've disliked.
Soulless Mechanical Sounds is an intense argument between Lyra and Bon Bon that really gripped me. It does a great job capturing raw emotions. My feedback on the story wasn't even useful. I just said "This is great," and applezombi still credited me in the description despite the fact I didn't provide any useful criticism.
You should also look at Princess Celestia and Princess Luna Are Caught Attempting to Steal From A Bakery, which is a delightful comedy that AuroraDawn stuck in his speedwrite anthology. It'll probably languish in obscurity, which is a shame, because it won first place in the contest for a reason. I think it would have been popular if he had expanded it to 1,000 words and published it as its own story. Of course, I'm also guilty of not expanding a speedwrite and just sticking it in an anthology, so I'm in a glass house over here.
I hope you consider reading these. Again, sorry for the lack of stories. I'll shift my writing focus to something that I will actually finish.
Have a great day!
Thanks for the highlight! Will definitely give that applezombi LyraBon a look. Good luck with your writing, and I hope the process is worthwhile whether it results in something published or not.
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I definitely am getting better at writing, at the very least. Hopefully, the next one I get out will be better for all this practice.
Thanks for letting me help with such a great story! Keep on keeping on!