Weekend Update 2021-09-18 · 12:52am Sep 19th, 2021
ISO 8601 best date format.
TL;DR
This weekends updates are:
- The Doom That Came For Cloudsdale (Out Now!)
- Twilight's Dollhouse - next chapter
SundaySun-Mon - Ponified Without Consent 2 - next chapter -
SundayMon-Tue - Shattered Prism - Epilogue (out now)
I've only written the first one, I sort of lost track of... something... this week. But I plan to write the other 3 chapters tonight and tomorrow, do a questionable job self-editing, and then post them so people will like me.
* Edit: I'm still working on some updates I planned for this weekend. After posting them, I may need to skip trying to publish updates next weekend to strengthen the outlines to avoid bottlenecks in the future. It's been a bumpy start to writing again, and I have way more things I want to do then I have time to do.
Rainbow Factory Contest
So I came across this Contest and was pleased to find that I'm not the only person who vanished under a rock and came back. AuroraDawn is back and did a fresh edit of their story this year! They're also doing a contest to celebrate 10 years since writing one of the most recognizable pieces of fiction in the fandom: Rainbow Factory (rated M). If you're interested you can enter or go check out the stories from following the contest link in this paragraph.
I enjoyed the Rainbow Factory and I knew when I saw the contest I had to enter. If there's one thing I do well, it's make stupid decisions. If there's a second thing I do well? Clop. But third? You guessed it... Dark, tragedy, and Lovecraft! I decided that the most logical thing to do was ... well, I don't want to spoil it but come on... It's Cthulhu, who else?
Twilight's Dollhouse, Ponified Without Consent 2
I spent some time this week improving the outlines by adding scenes, and otherwise avoiding writing. There's more work to do but I'll try to get the chapters out this weekend. At some point though, I want to really flesh the outlines out so I have smooth sailing and no risk of missing a weekly update. Or maybe weekly updates is a bit ambitious because I've got other plans in the works...
Dash of Humanity 3 Rewrite! Woohoo! (spoilers for the upcoming fic)
So based on the feedback, it seems like a good course of action is to just dive in with a new Dash of Humanity 3. It'll be some combination of Comedy/Adventure, with a little Slice of Life for the Act 1 intro to catch everyone up. It'll involve something I've wanted to do ever since reading Hard Reset.... beat somepony to death with Home Run! Time Loop! I'll leave you to guess which villain it features since I sort of killed the only other being capable of time-based shenanigan's.
The goal is to recapture ze magicks of DoH 1 and the first half of the sequel. Dawn getting to be a smart ass (because time loop), getting to know the mane six / every pony in Ponyville (because time loop), and possibly doing all the Groundhog Day / Stargate SG-1 stuff like golfing through a stargate and driving cars off cliffs... okay so maybe not exactly that but you get the idea.
Anyway, the long and short of it is I think this will be a wonderful way to focus on a single arc: The Dawn/Dash relationship. It'll also allow me to really embody the "comedy" genre that is what people loved about the story. And it'll allow me to throw DoH3: Consequences into a deep dark hole of unfathomable sadness... awaiting a revision or something. Honestly, my first mistake was trying to tackle ten arcs in a single story and the least dark arc was probably the crippling PTSD. And apparently, Dawn didn't get popular for being an emo edgepony. 
p.s. I'll probably have something to proofread in a week or two if anyone wants a sneak peak at the rewrite to tell me if it feels more consistent with the tone of the more popular first two stories.
Shattered Prism Epilogue
Some commenters asked for an epilogue, since I ended without a denouement. That's the five dollar word for closure. When you end without showing how the world changed due to the actions of the protagonist, then you rob an essential part of the story telling from the reader. And in this case, it seems like it'll be easy to give the story a little love with a short epilogue.
Regarding Shock Fiction
I've been wondering lately what to do about some of my stories that could be considered objectively bad or just cringey... usually these fics were written for shock value, like Cupcakes, Sweet Apple Massacre, etc... Now that I'm older I sort of fail to see the merit of such satire. I speak from experience when I say that when you make satire of something long enough, you become indistinguishable from the thing you were trying to mock.
For now I've decided to update the tags (we only had sex/gore back in 2014) and make sure they've got appropriate warnings. One of the things I noticed was how stories like Mistress Do Well, which was written as a sort of abusive shock fic, spawned a mature 6-story Sequel Series by MilesPrower06. He does an amazing job at showing ponies dealing with loss, trauma, and so on unlike myself. So even when I write something that's bad or read for the wrong reasons, good can come out of it. In this case, a nice set of stories about Dash learning to deal with trauma and move on.
The other story I threw some more tags on was the shock fic Sexual Locust, which was written to prove that Solitary Locust was not "abuse porn" but an awesome story that we can only hope gets finished one day. How did I prove that? By writing... you guessed it... the most shocking thing I could imagine. Young Kaidan was naive and full of horrible ways to torture ponies.
Last was Bon Bon's which was, I consider, a successful attempt to out-Cupcakes Cupcakes by inventing a fate far worse than death. These sort of dark edgy stories are awfully cringe, if not wildly successful at being as shocking as possible. And I think removing them would be to deny who I used to be and how much I've improved as an author and a human being.
So while I don't plan to write that kind of fiction again, for people into that sort of thing, you are not at risk of me removing them.
And as always, I won't be writing anything that would break site rules or land myself in legal trouble. Luckily I don't think being a horrible human being to imaginary ponies for fake internet points is against the law, because that was, unfortunately, my thing for a while.
Thank you
Thank you for reading the blog, and a big thanks for just commenting and reading my stuff in the first place.
Sometimes I really wish we could upvote a blog, because I really appreciate the updates and hearing about plans and stuff, but don't have a lot to add of substance.
So at the very least, have this, since it's the best I can do :P
5583866
I can upvote your comment though. Thanks for letting me know you like this style of blog. I was thinking of doing regular weekly updates. Then I can have nice short blogs when I tag a specific story or have a question to ask during the week.
I recall reading Solitary Locust, and I don't think it was abuse porn; it went far, no question, but it kept up the conflict throughout, and you really needed to know if Twilight will be okay. It's honestly the same feeling I get when reading stories like, say, a human ends up in Equestria as a young colt or filly, but nopony believes them.
Also, I just want to say that these blogs are amazing and I can't wait for more story updates and blog updates.
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Thanks, I'll get to work today on some updates. At least the blogs are easy to write and update people.
Solitary Locust is such a great premise and a good tragedy, I've always wondered if Twilight would eventually sort things out and get back to normal, or if she is doomed to forever wander Equestria as an outcast.
5584109
Well, I guess it all depends if Celestia is real or not.
5584153
I need to re-read solitary locust, but each time I start re-reading things it kills my time for writing that week.
5584306
I know the feeling.