Oh, WOW do I need an Editor

Ho. Lee. Fleur! I need an editor! A legit one with criticisms, questions, cocaine, and... wait, I'm off-track.

I am not sure why despite my complete lack of writing anything for the past few years that my writing has gotten a lot better. Maybe it's because I've been teaching English to Japanese kids for almost a year and having to reduce so much has affected me? I dunno.

Anyway, went through the first chapter (which again I split into two since it was a bit beefier than I wanted these to be in the 5K range so it's more manageable per chapter) and wow I needed to rewrite basically every description. Don't even get me started on the others. I've been going though those with a fine-toothed comb for probably a combined 20 hours+ over the past few days. Loganberry left a review during my absence of "Forbidden Melodies" that is probably VERY fair, though I haven't gone back to reread that story in a while. I might need to clean it up with the other two stories in the universe if it's accurate criticism.

Part of me is kind of thankful I went dark for so long considering instead of writing much of anything new, I've been cleaning up "finished" chapters for most of the week. At this point, I also worried if I am going too fast with the pacing of the story itself, but I keep reminding myself that the beginning of the story is designed to be a bit of a spoiler spoiler spoiler and at the end of the day, I have other things in my life to contend with other than writing. For example, I've fallen behind on my language studies by devoting a lot of time to rewrites with a fine-toothed comb. It probably isn't sufficient without the help of an editor, but I guarantee they are all better for it so far. Might've been why I was hitting walls five chapters into each long story I attempted to write in the past (Unraveling a Rainbow, The Trying Times of Ahuizotl, and Electro Swing).

I welcome any willing pre-readers to step up to the plate as well, but I could definitely use someone to bring me back down to Equestria if I read something that makes 100% sense to me and 0% sense to anyone else. I'll probably make a formal request on the "Looking for Editors" group page after I can estimate how long I want this thing to be. It's 10K published public words and we're just now at the inciting incident. Good news is that I've done a bit of backend prep work for the next two weeks and I still have 2 chapters left in the drive before the wall I hit.

Now to hope these chapters wouldn't have been cut completely by an editor. I mean, I like them...

Well, self-doubt will only hinder you, so might as well press onward since this fic is by no means flying into people's favorites. I still probably have a good window of repairability before my first impression is made with this thing if it garners any attention. Who knows? I mean, Fleur de Lis fics are pretty rare, especially when you take many liberties with her displayed behavior in the show circa "The Sweet and Elite" with a healthy dollop of artistic inspiration like I have. Top it off with Fancy Pants and Upper Crust, and you have yourself a recipe for something niche as Phar Fignewton.

Still, I told myself that I'd finish writing these stories that have been on my mind for years even if there was no one left on FimFiction to read them, and dammit, I am going to finish what I started for once.