Story signal boost: Plum Jam · 9:39pm May 2nd, 2021
This isn't the sort of story I would normally read or direct attention towards. For starters, it's very much part of the Friendship Is Optimal contest, and I haven't really associated with FiO all that much. I've read the original, and... that's about it.
Additionally, I found the writing style somewhat rough in parts (but YMMV), and I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending. Time skips can be awkward, and the plot seems to actively notice the end approaching. It's the sort of work which might have needed one more editing pass before posting. This is a story with edges, and I can't be sure all of them were meant to be present.
So why am I blogging this?
Because I'm still thinking about it.
The word I want here is evocative. Something about portions of the imagery stuck with me. The author's voice isn't perfect, but the author has a voice. There's a dreamlike quality to some of the text: the disconnect found when you know there's something strange about a situation, but you're not sure why you're supposed to do anything about it. You're just... here. Isn't that enough?
The text isn't perfect. The pacing could have potentially been tweaked. But this is a first-time publication, and... I'm still thinking about it. And what I think, as much as anything else, is that this is someone who has the potential to get better. They're already starting from a higher baseline than most of what flooded the New column today. Maybe they just need some incentive in the form of attention. A few people telling them it's okay to keep going. And incidentally, the cover art? Is perfect.
So.
Maybe we can get this one to Story #2.
For the record: I did have a contest entry idea, and I didn't write it because the format is banned. It would have been a list story, and the title alone tells you why.
Patch Notes.
I really think it’s a shame that FimFiction doesn’t allow list stories, interviews, scripts, instruction manuals, etc.
5511129
Sadly, those rules are there because of people who couldn't resist pushing the boundary of "What counts as a story on this site?" too far, or who didn't want to go through the effort of writing actual fiction and just lazily pasted in chat logs instead.
Afaict, the mods will interpret the rules quite generously as long as what you've written is an actual story. I wrote a story in the form of a computer log file interspersed with tweets, which is definitely pushing the boundaries of some of those rules, but I had no trouble at all with it because it was clearly telling a story.
So I think, if Estee had written Patch Notes as a story in formatted epistolary, it would have been fine.
Interesting; thanks. Well, I'll -- [sees the length] Oog. Well, I'll put it on a list, at least. If it was shorter, I'd likely try to get through it today, but with everything else I already have a queue and how little time I have left... well, hopefully whether or not I end up getting to it eventually, it attracts some good attention from someone with your blog post, so again, thanks. :)
It feels a lot like your own Bitter/Sweet, the individual craftspony being wrapped up in the business side of things and then trying to bring back the joy. There is also larger implications implied as well in both, with CelestAI in this fic and your Luna in yours. It did remind me of your own writing style as well, if only for the familiar lack of proper names used.