I give up · 5:10am Oct 3rd, 2021
I put a lot of work into Verve. I have 92 total chapters. But at this point, I'm not writing anymore. I'm going to finish the last bit of editing, let the story end on chapter 92 - and that'll simply be the ending.
Simply put, the dislike ratio on it is super disheartening right now, for me to churn out another 3-5 chapters to 'fully finish' it. Hardly any views, and I know it's a sequel - but perhaps I should have just combined it with Inertia just to make sure people had a full reading experience. At least then I wouldn't have been disheartened with how it turned out. If anything, it gave Inertia more views, and really... I feel as if Inertia is just a worse reading experience.
Verve is my favorite of the two. Inertia was really just... a crash course for me in writing. I enjoyed writing Verve a thousand times more than Inertia. Yet here we are.
If anything, this just taught me to *never* upload chapter by chapter, because no one gives a buck if it's not finished. And the fact that I can't hold an audience is a sign that I just need to move on. There's no point. I should have just devoted all of this creative energy into a real book to sell; I just feel defeated, because only a few people like Verve. Two of which are my editors, who I thank immeasurably for reassuring me that it's good. Shame it wasn't true.
Thanks for listening to my sad ramble. Life is hard right now. I'm trying to scrounge up what I can to build a new computer - and I have very few outlets for stress relief. Its really hard on me now.
I'll try to post the last of the chapters. But the story is just flopping, and it feels horrible.
Finish it properly and then advertise it again on the groups.
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I don't think that will even help at this point; Inertia is just a blockade that stops people from getting into Verve. I should just move all of the chapters over to Inertia and forget about Verve all together, but I can't do that.
Wait so are you not just editing work you did on another site and uploading it here.
I ask because how else did you write 200K words in one week
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I wrote all of Verve in around 45 days, while also balancing work.
I use Google Docs to write. I have all of the remaining chapters mostly ready, but my main editor wants to go over all of it again just to be sure there isn't too many egregious errors.
I've kinda hit a wall where I've done all of this, and I just... keep getting random people who don't even bother with the first page of the story, and just thumb down because they didn't like the tags. That annoys me beyond belief. I want criticism; it's a good thing. It tells me where I've gone wrong, or I could highlight a misunderstanding.
I just don't have that with the vote system. It feels like I just squandered hundreds of thousands of words over nothing, really.
I'm just going to be brutally honest with you but there are going to be times where you're going to put your heart and soul into something and it's not going to get the results you want. That doesn't mean that it's bad or you did it for nothing. There are tons of reasons for it. Either you didn't advertise it good enough or it's not what's trending on the site itself. Obviously at the moment people are more invested in generation 5 stories because the movie just came out.
This is something I had to come to learn on my time on this site. The first story I wrote, nearly two thousand views now. Another story I wrote has nearly 6,000 views but some of the other stories only have a couple hundreds. I spend a lot of time on those and I am sad that they don't have a lot of views. I wrote a story that I put a lot of thought into and it only got like three hundred views but then for Halloween, I wrote a dumb story within 4 hours and it's has over eight hundred views. But they got views and that's what matters to me. They got some comments which I think is cool. I don't care if a million people or a couple hundred people read my story. I'm just glad that there are people that are reading it and some say that they like my stories.
You shouldn't necessarily based your work on how popular it is. No there's nothing wrong with wanting a story to get tons of views but you shouldn't cut it short if it doesn't get a lot. There are tons of ways to get it more attraction. My advice to you is to focus on what you want to do. If you want to write a story that you want to get tons of views then look at what's trending. Like I said, generation five stories are what's trending right now. So write something with that then it will most likely get more views. But if you want to write a story from the heart then you're going to have to accept that it might be a hit-or-miss. Once again there's nothing wrong with that but you shouldn't cut yourself short just because it doesn't get the results you want. You should always try again.
You also said that you hated the dislike ratio. You only have five dislikes against 35 likes. I think you're fine. It's clear that more people like the story. You shouldn't overthink when it comes to the haters. Of course take the criticism that is constructive but not hate. But you only have five dislikes so I don't think it's a big deal necessarily. It seems that far more people liked it. So don't take it to heart
If you're only reason to write something is to just get views/likes then maybe that's a sign that this isn't exactly the direction you should go for. There is a difference between writing for the popularity and writing from the heart that gets popularity.
Good luck and God Bless
I honestly just haven't had the time to read it yet. That's not your fault its mine. You started posting the chapters on a Monday and I haven't had a day off work to read since then (tho I will probably start today). If its anything like Inertia I know I'm going to enjoy it.
I do hope you finish it just for the sake of the people who really love what you wrote.
~Reggie
Please finish this story. I’m enjoying it very much! Don’t leave me with another unfinished story I became invested in!
Oh, I didn't even notice this blog post because there wasn't any sort of notification (that's weird?), but seeing this is... disappointing, man. I mean, you've put lots of hard work into this story and I completely fail to understand why you think it's all been for nothing. First of all, NEVER do anything with expectations to become suddenly famous and popular; that's a highway to pain and disappointment upon witnessing the wall of reality. Keep in mind, life is a game, which is not always fair. Life is a highway.
I understand you've had your own expectations and I also completely understand how great you'd feel upon seeing that all that hard work came into dozens of likes, comments, and genuine feedback. But giving up already? Holy shit, I mean you've had one of the best starts on this website like I dunno about others, but I'd for damn sure be happy if my first story landed with a mark of more than 100 likes and even getting on the trending page... but nevermind that, I guess?
Alright, I see that the 'success' of the first story pushed you towards setting up a big goal, which is good. You wrote the sequel in like 45 days (as you mentioned) which is pretty damn impressive. Now, I actually do wonder why your second work 'isn't as nearly popular as the first one'. Was it because all 30 chapters had been released in one single day? Was it because what you wrote isn't trending right now? Was it because the story was bad? Did you enjoy writing it? Have you ever thought about how many people stayed up all night reading your story?
...No. It's definitely not about god damn popularity or what you had chosen to write. No, and oh, by the way, don't listen to that 'you have to write what's popular right now otherwise you gonna SuCk' Ugh, like aren't we all here because we enjoy writing & discussing horse words? Whatever.
If I had to give you reasons why your story isn't blowing off the charts rn, I'd have to explain the theory of possibilism or some other einstein bullshit, so forgive me, but I'm gonna pass on this.
But what I can tell you is that both of your stories (Inertia, which had been a unique and very well-written story, and Verve that followed soon after expanding the world and adding new threats into the mix) were and still are one of my favorites. It's just sort of happened that you managed to get into my very weird taste of stories and that's one of the reasons why I decided to follow you. I know that 100 people saying the same thing would have a bigger impact than one random person, but I can bet the entirety of my movies collection just to prove that it's true.
Let's also revisit the fact that some of the biggest stories on this website didn't even hint at a slight possibility of becoming what they are today while being released (read it as Fallout: Equestria). Plus, I have also a full squadron of stories that became popular over the years, and, even if naively, I still want to see a new chapter released someday.
I'm sorry if any of this did sound kinda offensive or even mean, but I just don't like seeing things like that. I don't want people to give up, because I've been there and I wanted to give up many times, and when I did that you know what followed soon after? Nothing... or in most of the cases the mixed feelings of a failure were much stronger than before. Giving up is easy, going onward makes you feel tired, frustrated, and overall depressed, but; in the end, it actually gets you somewhere. (Proof; being made fun of in the middle school, because of my bad art skill and the fact that my English sucked SO much. I had also zero interests besides playing Minecraft all day long. Nowadays, I'm a professional graphic designer, 2D/3D Animator, character designer, music producer, and voice actor.) Also, pardon me if everything here sounds very wacky but that's mostly because of the very limited time schedule.
Hopefully, you'll give a second of thought to all the things I've stated in this... whatever it is. Would be cool if any of this made any sense after all.
And, yeah, just keep being amazing! Wish you the best in your life & writing journey, no matter if those are horse words or your personal projects
Alright, I'm gonna shut up cause I feel that my brain is gonna shut down at any moment now...
Cheers! ~ty
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Bleh. Really, it's just that like... I've been working non-stop on this, and I kinda hit a wall where I look back on the results, and see... very little in return. I have 0 interest in the new generation. Verve was going to be my last MLP story, anyway - I want to write a >real< book, in its own universe. Using what I've learned from Verve/Inertia.
The story, on my end, is 95% finished - excluding editing. I have to write a few more chapters - I was thinking of adding more clop (I have the third clop written on 92) but I think I'm at my limit for Verve.
I'll come back and add the last few epilogue chapters later on; I'll publish what my editor cleared. After a few more days off, I'm going to write the last... 2-3 chapters, after I clear my mind and destress. I've been under a lot of pressure in real life.
The story WOULD be finished with what I have now. Up to chapter 92 covers the full ending, just none of the post-story stuff, save a few bits here and there.
I kinda want to make my own mature version of My Little Pony, something for Young Adults - not little girls. So around the age group of 12-21 for the main audience, high fantasy adventure using deer in my own lorecrafted landscape - really, a deep dive into a fantasy world that isn't just pure grimdark 'Game of Thrones' that is stupidly popular right now. Like... imagine the Hobbit book, that's the kind of feels I want to write. In fact, a lot of my inspiration came from a dozen sources - but the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings was a main one.
I'm going to refine my magic system and start writing my own novel soon. I think I know what I want to do, but the scope is frankly massive. I'll use a lot of what I have here, change some names, make my own world map (I excel at world building/map making, but on this chromebook - I have no examples to give x.x') and see about scrounging up some test readers. For now, I just have soup for brains.
Thank you, all of you, for poking me with encouragement. I'm a tired pony. The creative well is a bit dry at the moment, but I'll keep uploading and catch up to what I have written.
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Whatever you do is your own choice. I hope you do well with your own novel. I think that's cool you're interested in writing original work. But you should still be prepared that even then you might not get the results you want. Don't get discouraged and always keep pushing forward. But if a fanfiction that don't get as many views that you want is wearing you down then I'm not sure how you're going to react to if your book doesn't do as well as you want. What I'm trying to say be careful and good luck. Just remember why you want to write
Before I get too far in to this post, i want to say that I've really enjoyed your adventures of Arin so far. I also believe that you've done a good job of writing this story up to this point, and I would be quite sad to miss out on the post-battle chapters. Of course, no one can make you write so if you don't want to write those chapters I understand.
I can also understand how you feel about the likes and dislikes. I've posted two stories here on FimFiction, and neither got much traction. It's incredibly discouraging when you put your heart and soul into a story, and it seems like no one cares. I had to learn two hard lessons about FimFiction's Likes system:
1. Many people will read and enjoy your story, but will NOT click on the 'like' button. Look at your story's Statistics and check out Views to get a better idea of how many people are reading your story. Right now, you have over 4300 story views.
2. Some people will click 'dislike' if your story doesn't fit in perfectly with their internal fantasies.
We all want people to like what we write, but to be honest you have to write what people like to get those likes. So if your goal was simply to get likes, you're writing the wrong stories. From what I've seen here on FimFiction, if your story isn't primarily clop and/or doesn't primarily feature one or more of the Mane 6 then you won't get a ton of likes. There are always exceptions, of course. In your case your main character is Arin, who may not be human but he's close enough. Human in Equestria stories aren't as popular as I'd like them to be (I enjoy them immensely), so that will cost you likes.
What we writers usually mean when we say 'I want more likes', we mean 'I want people to like the stories that I want to write.' And that can be hit or miss depending on the story and our writing skills. My writing skills obviously aren't good enough to get a lot of likes, so I can't give you any useful suggestions there. But I can point out a few things that I noticed in both Inertia and Verve, things that I can see but I also have trouble writing.
If you're not writing known characters like the Mane 6, you need to get your readers to emotionally invest in your main character(s). If they don't care, they won't read. In Inertia, it was easy to care about Arin because he was a poor soul and was abused for most of his life. So it's easy for the reader to have sympathy for him and care about what happens to him. The subsequent assassination attempt was a great reason to bring Arin along on all of those adventures, and his near-death at the end was heartbreaking - even though an experienced reader would know that the 'death' of the main character means they're going to be resurrected with new abilities.
However, in Verve there is none of that. Arin has already Ascended and essentially has super powers that he earned in Inertia. He has grown as a character, but he's strong so the reader no longer has sympathy for him. The reader will read Verve because they like how Arin has grown and want to read about his further adventures, but that's primarily due to Inertia's storytelling. In exchange, you as the writer need to put Arin and his companions through challenging and perhaps perilous adventures. And you have! But not, at the same time. Here's the issue I see - the writing doesn't make the peril feel terribly perilous.
The trip to rescue Umbra was described as a journey that the characters might not survive, but they had to do it. The danger of Nightmare Moon was worse than the danger of the journey. But looking back at those chapters, the emotional feel was more like a long walk in the woods rather then fighting for their lives.
For example, the first encounters with the spiders should have been terrifying. But the only real emotional buildup I got was Tempest's fear of spiders, and that came and went quickly. The fight scenes was written well IMO, but in between the fights there should have been more emotional buildup. Like I said, I'm not good at writing that part myself. I can see it's missing, but I don't know how you can fix it.
I am in no way saying that your writing is junk. I am enjoying your writing and overall I feel you've done a good job. But you're missing some of the emotional 'punch' that can captivate a reader and really draw them in.
Honestly I haven't gotten around to reading this story yet but it seems very interesting. I do understand hitting an end point when it comes to writing within a certain genre though. Hell knows I still need to finish most of my stories and I haven't remotely had the energy to. I only managed to build my own PC last year.
All the best though. I'll make sure to get around to reading it soon. I'll shoot you a follow.
Verve looked interesting, so I started reading Inertia so I can get into it.
I finally finished Inertia and I am now going to start Equestria Handyman. Then move back to the fourth book of Austraeoh and will finally return to Verve.