Going Up · 6:40am Dec 6th, 2012
I've just posted a new story: Going Up. You should go read it... unless you already have. Which is very possible, because this story's already been available to the public for half a month.
You see, I wrote it for the Hearth's Warming Care Package, an event where fanfic writers were to write stories for Kiki, a young girl struggling with brain cancer who just happens to be a fan of My Little Pony. Well, it's not often that you're given such an unambiguously good reason to write fanfiction, so I jumped at the chance. Besides, there were prizes! The winning story would get illustrated, and the runners-up would get commissioned cover art! Good deeds AND prizes, how could I resist?
When I submitted the story, I honestly thought it had no chance of winning. The challenge was to write a story for Kiki, after all, and she's seven years old. My story is full of wordplay, punnery, and lovely big words, and I didn't expect that the judges would consider it terribly appropriate for the challenge for those reasons. "Don't worry about how you place, Chris," I told myself, "You wrote the kind of story that you would have enjoyed having read to you when you were in second grade. Maybe Kiki will like it, maybe she won't, and maybe it will be too advanced for her, but the important thing is you wrote something. Kiki will have all the entries sent to her, anyway. If she hates it, then she can just never read it again, and no harm done. And if by some chance she does love it, it won't matter whether it was one of the winners or not."
Then, a funny thing happened: when the public voting round came, several people did reviews or comments on the stories they read. And the majority of them said that Going Up was their favorite story of the bunch. I definitely hadn't expected that, but let no man say I'm without ego. I started to feel much more positive about what I'd written, and even entertained the notion that I might get one of those top places after all, as the eight finalists were sent off to the judges.
Well, they disabused me of any such delusions with a vengeance. I came in sixth out of those eight, with two of the nine judges deeming mine the worst story in the group. Ah well, that's what I expected going in, and if they marked it down for audience appropriateness, then I can't say I think it's an unfair decision on their part. There were several other very good stories submitted, and I'm just happy that Kiki's going to get a boatload of quality fanfiction sent her way (if you want to see some of those other fanfics, by the way, you can check them out here).
So, that's the story of this story. I did a little bit of cleaning up on it after the event, and now here it is on FIMFiction. An irreverent but sincere bit of friendshipping; what better with which to follow up Letters from a Senior to a Junior Changeling? Anyway, please read and comment, and I hope you enjoy.
Going Up is whimsical as shit, and that's why I loved it. :D (Well, and I love DerpyTop friendshipping.)
I was rather disappointed that you finished just one spot above me, given that I was one of those who said this was their favorite story (it was). That said, it looks like you and I both went into and came out of that contest with the right attitude. So I think we're both winners. And Kiki's a winner. And that's what's important. :)
I was very glad to be able to read and judge all of these stories. I was very proud that the fandom would do these things for a sick little girl... and am very pleased that you did.
579988
Kiki is indeed a winner, and the rest is details. By the way, I liked your story (even if it would have been better without the Cutie Mark bit at the end). Nice work.
581189
Thanks for being a judge, TD, and I'm glad you're glad!
584319
The cutie mark bit will doubtless go away, should I ever decide to revise it.
Yeah, the judging wasn't the best. Spoke to the organizer himself; he chose judges based on popularity, not skill. Fourteen-plus were scheduled, just nine showed up. Only one gave any sort of feedback that had been promised in the press release (three sentences for the winner).
I'm currently working on tidying up my own entry for posting. Planning on expanding a few scenes and, best of all, found an illustrator who's willing to work gratis! It'll be too late for the print run, but that's what E-mail was made for, eh? I've always found that the best Christmas presents were the ones that arrived after the actual holiday.
If you're not against free advertising, I might drop a link to your entry in the story, too; you deserve the views (and praise). I feel kinda guilty knowing a dumb little story written under a pen name that I will never divulge has gotten more views then something like Letters from a Senior to a Junior Changeling (which I absolutely loved, being a fan of dark-ish stories).
595456
Don't feel bad about your "dumb little story," assuming it's as unremarkable as you seem to think it, being popular. Fame is a fickle thing, and I've never been much good at self-promotion in any case (which makes the continued popularity of my review blog even more incomprehensible, at least to me). If you'd like to include a link to my entry, by all means go ahead, and thanks for the complements! I know you aren't the sort to hand them out like candy on Halloween, so I appreciate what you're saying..
595658
I will admit, it's because I've marketed it hard. Put it into a bunch of groups, personally thanked each person that favourited it or watched me (making sure to include a hyhperlink to the story each time, of course) and also recommended they look at my other story. It works quite well; despite being a few months old at this point I'm still getting a steady stream of views and a new favourite every odd day.
I'm the guy that puts the razor blades in the apples.
Another thing I'm curious about, I didn't see Purloined Pony in your gallery. Too much work making a new chapter and linking all of them again, eh?