February Updates and Plans

Hey all! I was writing some work that was (supposedly) professional, but found myself getting too overtaken with outside thoughts. So I’ve decided to hang around here and type up my ideas for what I want to do this month. Unlike many of my past posts, I’m trying to adhere to a stricter schedule, as I’ve found just having a single date guideline tends to leave me procrastinating until the due date. Going forward, I’m going to widen the time limit for my goals to a single week so that I am motivated to actually get it done. I’m going to try and do at least one short story a week, with the occasional accompanying blog post. This seems like a decent enough schedule that isn’t horribly strenuous, but also keeps me working.

Another reason I’m doing this is that I’ve had a sudden burst of creativity and find myself wanting to talk about a lot of different topics related to pony. While many of the topics below will be copy-pasted from prior updates, there will be quite a few new ones as well. Some of them are pretty odd, but that’s all the more reason I want to discuss/write about them. You’ll know which ones I’m talking about when you read them, but let’s leave that for the people curious enough to scroll below.

In terms of personal updates, I’m pretty much where I was two months ago. Not a great place, but not the worst place either. I no longer have that aggravating fast food job, and I do have some decent leads for jobs that I’ve applied to. The art retreat was a good time, though I didn’t get much work done other than that Solomon Kane post I did. But I think it was worth it for letting me get back into the creative mindset 2021 had largely sapped out of me. It’s probably the reason I even managed to get both my Jinglemas story and Gen. 5 Bingo story done. I’m going to keep writing on a schedule to keep that creative drive going, however, as I’ve noticed going for long periods without frequent writing tends to leave me creatively stifled.

Anyways, below are the various goals I’m aiming for in this month and some longer term goals. As I’ve said before, these prompts are just as much as a reminder for me as it is news for you guys, so if they seem repetitive from previous months, that’s because I haven’t completed them yet and this is my way of annoying myself into finishing them. Not all of them will be done by this month, but hopefully I’ll be able to put a little bit of a dent in them.

STORIES TO BE WRITTEN THIS MONTH

• Crackship Story: This one’s going to be for the Crackship Contest due next month. I still haven’t settled on a ship yet, but I’m thinking I’d use Grubber just because he seems like the exact kind of character most authors would avoid for a romance. Still going to brainstorm this one for a bit though.
• Kung Pow: Enter the Hoof: It’s been kind of a running joke throughout these updates that my MLP/Kung Pow: Enter the Fist crossover that’s been sitting incomplete for half a decade will remain incomplete for all time. It’s weird because I’ve written the second chapter and outlined the whole story, I just haven’t actually gotten the nerve to release it into the wild. I’d been hoping to finish it in time for Chinese New Year’s, but that obviously didn’t happen. I’m aiming now for March 1, since that’ll be exactly 4 weeks after Feb. 1. Hopefully I’ll be able to pull through this time.
• Who Crossed Over My Little Pony Contest: Another contest for crossing over classic cartoon characters with MLP, this one’s not due until April, but I figure I’d get mine done this month before my idea was taken. I was initially going to do Popeye, but KnightMysterio already submitted one. It’s not against the rules to submit a story featuring the same character, but I think I’d rather do a character who’s a little more obscure. Here’s hoping nobody else takes my idea in the meantime.
• Solomon Kane Crossover: I’d planned on writing this back in November, but I wanted to wait until I examined all of Kane’s stories in my aforementioned post. Now that I know the kind of stories Kane succeeded in (as well as failed in), I have a good idea for what the crossover could be like. Might not finish it this month, but I’ll at least get it outlined.
• What You Give and What You Take: I didn’t spend a lot of time with Quills and Sofas, partly because their quick writing style just didn’t fit my writing habits. However, in the brief time I spent with them, I wrote this story that won the contest of that week. I really want to polish it up, since the premise was great (Discord vs. his estranged son). I’ll probably aim for finishing it in sometime in March, with the outline at least getting done this month.

SHORT TERM ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS

• Quantify sequel/rewrite possibilities: Given how I’ve been in the fandom now for over ten years, it should come as no surprise that I have plenty of stories that I haven’t posted on this site. I also have lots of stories on this site that I’ve pondered about writing sequels to, but really never came to any firm decision about. So I’ll be sure to list these stories out and see if there is any momentum for me to go forward on any sequels/rewrites.
• Missed Contest Stories: I talked about how there were quite a few contests on this site that I missed in 2020 that I really should’ve been able to contribute to, but didn’t for one reason or another. Sadly, 2021 grew to be included in this ‘missed contests’ period (though I’m trying to put an end to that this year). Much like the sequel/rewrite post, this will be just me going through the contests I bookmarked and seeing if there’s any story ideas worth resurrecting, even if the prizes are not there anymore.
• Codifying Long-Term Series: In the time between my last update and now, I wrote a variety of outlines for stories that I didn't have time to write up. While some of them were obvious one-and-dones that I'll probably whip up later, others were ones that I found had a lot of potential as longer-term series of stories. A few of my discovered ones include the Filthy Rich Leadership Series, the Pony Pulp Series, and the Lightning Loving Series. I'm not going to say exactly what these story concepts will focus on (though their names give their focuses away), but I did want to share them partly to keep them fresh in my mind. This process won't be done until I'm done with the current slate of contest stories and do my story quantification mentioned above, as there are a few stories in my published box that may get lumped into this series organization.

READING AND REVIEW GOALS

• Read and discuss Jinglemas stories: I've participated in the Jinglemas contest for the past four years. Yet in all my time, I haven't read a good deal of the Jinglemas stories each year by other authors, and I feel a little bad about that. So this February and March, while the winter season is still going on, my hope is to read the full breadth of the stories written by my fellow contestants, and write-up individual blog posts for each year listing the ones I find most exemplary. I've no doubt it will be difficult (the combined story count for my participating four years is over 300) and will probably spill over into April, but I really want to see what others have done, as well as get into the Christmas spirit.
• Read and Review Jingleclop and Summer Sin Celebration Stories: On the switch side of the wholesome Christmas stories I’ve written for Jinglemas, I’ve also dipped into writing some, shall we say, more risqué works for their clop contest counterparts. These will be easier to read since they are much fewer in number (I think 2019 only had 12 stories actually published on the site despite having 40-50 contestants), so I’ll probably read them simultaneously with the other Jinglemas stories. Expect these reviews to come before the Jinglemas ones (no pun intended).
• Read and Review Ponyfeather Publishing Stories: One of my chief flaws is that I tend to put a lot of stories in my READ LATER folder, even when I hear from many people how good the story is. Along with cleaning out my folders, I also want to read the stories put out by Ponyfeather Publishing, a group headed by professional cool guy RBDash47 that specializes in premier MLP fanfic publishing. I remembered The Best Night Ever on Groundhog’s Day (since it too is based on Groundhog’s Day the movie), and when I looked for it, I found out that it was actually in the Ponyfeather Collection as well. Thus, I decided to merely expand my reading to all of the contents of the Publishing House, since I’m never one to turn down a good story. I’m going to try and finish Best Night Ever this month, and we’ll see what happens from March onward.
• Read and Discuss Season 10 Bingo and Filly Anon Contests: These were the other two contests I participated in 2020, but never got to read a lot of the other stories. I figured I would do the Season 10 Bingo stories and the Filly Anon stories once I'm done with the Jinglemas stories. That means these probably won't be done until April or May.
• Read and Review the Generation Five Bingo Contests: This is one I’m not going to do for a while, as the contest hasn’t been fully judged yet and I always prefer waiting until the judging results are in. Not to mention all the Jinglemas stories I want to read are going to weigh me down for a while. This is mostly just here to remind me to read them when the final results are in and to see if I agree with the results.

BLOG POSTS OF MAXIMUM IMPORTANCE

• BamHoofYah! Restoration Project: I’m going to do a longer blog post for this, but I’ve been really pining to restore the BamHoofYah PMV that was premiered at BronyCon 2013 and which seems to have been largely forgotten by the fandom. I thought it was a great project and actually enjoyed it more than Ponies the Anthology 3 that premiered that same year. Anyway, I’m hoping to restore the PMV to the Internet, along with other goals I’ll go into more detail about sometime soon (probably by Friday).
• Year of the MLP Movie: One of my personal quirks is that I'm one of five people in this fandom that actually likes the 2017 MLP movie, and indeed I feel that its quality has been overlooked. For its fifth year anniversary this year, I hope to do a series of stories over the year, concluding in a video essay explaining the brilliance of the movie on October 6 (the day of the movie's release). There may come a lot of other things during this process, but I want to find a way to celebrate the movie's importance and quality in a way that will be unique. Again, expect this one probably within a week or two.
• Video Essay for MLP: A New Generation: The new MLP movie on Netflix provoked a reaction in me and I feel I should convey my feelings on it. I feel like I’m one of only five people who disliked it, and I want to explain why in a way that doesn’t insult those who liked it. I thought about doing it in a long-form essay a la DannyJ, but I feel like a video essay would be more effective. I'd actually hoped to finish the essay before I write the Gen 5 Bingo story, just so my story could address the problems I had with the movie, but it's clear that didn’t happen. Going to try and have this ready in late-March, but that’s pretty optimistic with the rest of this workload. April is probably more realistic.
• Filthy Rich is the Best MLP Character Blog: The title says it all. But seriously, I want to write a long and descriptive blog about why Filthy Rich is the best character in MLP and why he deserves more love. Not going to put a rough date on this, since I want to go through every piece of media he appeared in and build up my arguments. For now, let’s say March or April.
• Why Garble’s Reformation Sucks: Again, most of you can probably guess what this one’s about by the title. Garble was a dragon who often antagonized Spike throughout the show before he was “reformed” in Season 9, and personally, I thought this was the worst reformation in the show. This post will basically be me ranting about how Garble was better as a villain and how he should’ve grown more nefarious as time went on. Don’t expect this one until maybe late March or April.
• Artistic Analysis of Skitter’s Age Regression Art: No, you’re not having a stroke; that’s the actual title. Basically, there’s an artist named Skitter who did a lot of transformation art that involved age regression for canon and OC characters. I noticed some interesting elements to these pics and how Skitter’s style evolved as they went on, so I really wanted to write an analysis of these artworks and explain how their progression showed an intriguing change in Skitter’s artistic mindset. This one’s actually going to be pretty in-depth, so I’m not putting a firm date on this one either. Maybe late March or early April.

So yeah, a lot of stuff on my plate. Not expecting to get it all done, but I am hoping to get a good portion done by Feb. 28. Here’s hoping February will be very productive for me, both in the fandom and in life.

Good night, and good luck!