7/27/21 Update · 8:46pm Jul 27th, 2021
Hey all,
Coming in with some bad news regarding Gingerbread House of Cards. I'm going to be blunt and honest with everyone, I'm not happy with it so far and I actively dislike writing it at this point. The story isn't coming together how I'd envisioned it would. Everything I write feels like it's damage control and trying to fix the plot and theme that aren't meshing as intended.
On every level, the story is just not working.
At this point, I realize I should never have posted the first chapter when I did. Through editing, I've uncovered the original vision for Gingerbread was flawed and made a conscious decision to veer the story a different way. Unfortunately, this has had the unexpected side effect of making Gingerbread feel directionless, and I'm afraid that's coming through in the writing.
It's genuinely worrying how distressed I am about it. I'm not having fun writing this fanfiction – arguably the worst thing that can happen. I wanted the story to be good, something I could feel a bit proud of. After over 30k words, all I've got are flashes and elements of something I enjoy.
As such, I'm putting Gingerbread House of Cards on hiatus. I refuse to cancel it; I've put too much in to give up on it. But I know I need to take a step back and reevaluate what I need to do to make it something I could be proud of. The plan at this stage is to do a full rewrite (and edit the whole thing before I start posting at all this time) when I'm in a better headspace about Gingerbread.
In the meantime, I don't want to stop writing and have a few ideas I want to work on to help get my confidence back up. Fanfiction is a creative outlet for me, one I sorely needed. Just need to clear my mind on this one.
I'm sorry to anyone who has been interested in the story that it's coming to a sudden halt like this. Getting Gingerbread House of Cards finished has been something I've tried to do in my free time, but it's just coming together, and – as I've said in another blog about this story – I don't want to put out something half-assed. Currently, that's where I feel my motivation is at, and you all deserve something better than that.
Sorry again, and I hope to have something new for you all soon.
I'm really sorry to hear that you've felt unhappy with the direction of the story. I commented on one of the chapters with some criticism about what I felt was working so far and what I felt didn't work to me. While I stand by my comment, I hope that it didn't contribute to your loss of motivation. I was genuinely enjoying the experience!!
I could wax on about the plot and lesson I was rooting for (and I did type up a few paragraphs) but ultimately I decided against it. I like to fantasize about stories, but I do want to read the story this one eventually becomes! I will say, though, that I did like that this story had some rough characters in it though. Between Trixie being a real pain, Applejack being a touch mean and dismissive, Fluttershy being transparently useless (to Trixie), Rarity being a little holier than thou and the mayor struggling with Twilight's probably unintentional power grab, I felt like there was a lot of room for some good, dramatic lessons.
I hope your text project goes well, though and I'll keep an eye on this story in case it makes its own big return someday. Good luck!
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Thank you for the kind words! Hearing that someone was enjoying Gingerbread was really good to hear, even when I was struggling with it.
Don't worry, by the way, my issues with the plot had existed for a while, even before I put up Chapter 3. The best way I could describe it is as if several puzzle pieces came together, but the end result was wrong. Like the pieces were misaligned or misprints. That meant there was a picture coming together, but something was obviously incorrect. I appreciate that you were enjoying Gingerbread, but I’m sorry to say I wasn’t anymore. And I can’t even explain why.