I might finally be approaching burnout... · 9:39pm Feb 9th, 2022
On Feathered Hearts. I say that because this latest chapter has been coming a lot slower than the previous ones, and I’m having trouble focusing on it. Perhaps it’s just time for me to set FH aside for a bit after the massive amount of content I’ve generated for it over the past few months—120,000 words between C&C and Eros? I mean, I pretty much wrote an entire novel in a four-month time frame.
Well, so be it. You’ll hopefully get the latest chapter this weekend, but after that, the pace of new chapter releases is going to slow or even stop for a bit to let me recharge. But Feathered Heart’s loss will be Firefly’s and Unleash the Magic’s gain, as I plan to pick up those stories again in place of C&C and Eros. If you’re a reader of Feathered Hearts C&C/Eros but you haven’t checked out my other active stories, then please allow me to plug them.
Firefly
For those of you who haven’t read Firefly, I urge you to. In fact, I will say without any humility it’s the best and most epic war series on Fimfiction, detailing the coming and outbreak of the Great Pony/Griffon War that’s been referenced in Feathered Hearts repeatedly. Getting new readers for it has been a very long and slow slog, unfortunately, doubly so now due to Into the Storm’s long length. But don’t let that scare you. The first book got rave reviews, and the second only lacks them because it’s unfinished.
Into the Storm is actually a magnum opus of three sequential books (two completed with a third in progress) that cover a different phase or campaign of the war, as you’ll see in the story description. But trust me—you won’t ever be bored reading it, and you’ll get to see how well I can write military thrillers and describe battles, even to the point of including some complicated graphics. And yes, I plan to bring that skill to bear eventually in Feathered Hearts.
Unleash the Magic: Midnight Rising and Nightmare Night
As for my two Unleash the Magic works, if you enjoyed the wild and crazy clop of Eros, then you’ll get plenty more of it in both stories of the series. They’re basically a paired set, with Midnight Rising taking place on the human side of the Equestria Girls portal during the events of the Friendship Games movie, and Nightmare Night taking place some months later on Halloween night in Equestria itself. Whereas the main adult theme of Eros is exhibitionism, the theme of Unleash the Magic is corruption. In fact, part of my motivation to resume work on them will be getting to scenes I plan for both involving the Griffon Kingdom’s Hall of Heroes. 
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Have to say, it would be very nice to knock both stories off my plate this year, but that will be a tall order given how much further each has to go. Still, you’ll find plenty of varied clop within them, with something for pretty much every taste. There’s also some interesting history regarding griffons and dragons that’s been mentioned but only barely explored to this point. It will become more of a factor later, and you might even see both Gilda and Fortrakt appear at the ends of both UtM stories.
Before you ask, they do not take place in the same verse as Feathered Hearts, but I like to reference my other works and verses in my stories. I’ve had people tell me they don’t like it when I do that, but in my mind, it helps tie everything together and give readers some reason to check them out.
Anyway...
That’s where things stand as Hearts and Hooves Day approaches. Please understand, I have been very gratified by the response to both C&C and Eros, and I’ve had a massive influx of new readers into both over the past couple months thanks to all the new chapters I’ve released and how well they were received. But after 120k words, I think I need a break from it for a bit and to give my other stories some attention. 
Please check them out if you haven’t already! And don’t worry—I am far from finished with Feathered Hearts!
don't worry take a break man it will do you some good believe i know from experience
It's always good to take some time off from some of the stories you love doing so you don't suffer burnout. I'm doing the same with my own (even though most are still in the creation phase
). It'll do you a lot of good.
Thanks for the info Firesight and all the hard work you've put in recently into the Feathered hearts series. I've gotten excited over each and every one of your recent chapters, since you've started to post on a regular basis just before Christmas of last year, and thoroughly enjoy all the more detailed and new content you've added to the story since the original's permanent hiatus . I wish you a restful break from writing the Feathered hearts series and eagerly await for when you decide to take up the series after your writers break. I'll take a look at the recommended stores you listed above. Thanks again for the hard work and great writing. Cheers!
I believe I speak for a lot of people when I say that your work has been immensely appreciated.
You're easily one of the top writers here on fimfiction. That said, if you need it; take a break.
I'd rather you write slow than not at all.
So get some distance, have yourself a walkabout, recharge and get those creative juices flowing again.
I came in being apprehensive but glad seeing someone take up the torch on Feathered Heart.
I stayed because you not only did it justice but I would argue that you improved upon it.
Bloody marvelous work, chap!
Impressive and something I could never do but I feel compelled to mention Kkat wrote Fallout Equestria (~620,295 words) in about nine months.
I concur. Firefly is basically the swords and spells version of Feathered Heart. The worldbuilding is remarkably deep, the combat is extremely compelling and at a time when FH was abandoned, Firefly was the only thing we bronies had exploring the primordial roots of the Gentlemanverse, Totally worth your time!
Unleash The Magic is a really nice read if EqG is your dig. The thing I find the most interesting about it from a technical perspective is the "peanut gallery" of side characters conversing with the villain and each other while they're being sexually exploited in a very sardonic, sometimes approaching dry, humor. As the name suggests, Unleash The Magic delivers on a number of very high-concept porn scenarios which plays to Firesight's strengths as a clop writer.
Nightmare Night is much more my speed. The characters are all feral and the sex itself is a good mix of high-concept magical hijinks and the sort of low-concept/high-impact carnality that you get from guys like me. Another trick you'll see in my stories that you'll see a lot here is characters bonding emotionally as well as physically. I highly recommend this one to people who like the idea of a well-though out sexual thriller.
There's been a ton of work done on this series, so a mental break and reset makes sense. I've really enjoyed the Feathered Hearts chapters though!
I'm certaily looking forward to new chapters for Unleash the Magic and Firefly.
Have a good pause! Such things are important!
I cannot echo enough praise for Firefly. That piece is just 10/10, not only for it's meaningful characters but also for it's well thought out battles. The tone is well set and the action fierce!
Keep up the excellent work!
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Appreciated, thanks. I find I still want to write about griffons, even clop about griffons, but in different contexts now. Those contexts are Firefly and Unleash the Magic.
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Thank you!
I’ve enjoyed seeing all your comments on the stories, too. And you’ll get one more chapter before I head off to work on other things for a bit.
Appreciated again! I look forward to hearing what you think of them.
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Thanks.
I love hearing that, believe me.
Will do. I hope to stimulate them with other stories for a bit. And given the griffon action involved now or later in the stories, attract Feathered Hearts readers to them.
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You’re very welcome, sir. I chose to take up the mantle because I didn’t want to see such a wonderful story everybody loved go unfinished, and despite the fact it’s all but consumed me at times, I don’t regret it. I knew I could do it justice, and to this point, I truly believe I have.
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Yeah, believe me, I know full well there are other authors out there even more prolific than me.
*Maybe* I could do that if I didn’t have a day job and worked on a story morning, noon, and night, but I already know that doesn’t work for me at all. I work best in bursts, and trying to force myself to write without breaks for other outlets or exercise just results in poorer quality work and more importantly, me not enjoying it.
Well-put. Appreciate the plug!
I think that most people either really like EqG or don’t like it at all. My view is that after a slightly shaky start, it gave us a couple cool new characters (Sunset and Sci-Twi) and a couple very good movies. Some of the episodes you can find on YouTube were also quite good as well.
They do indeed. That’s part of what’s made it so enjoyable for me to write. And the banter as all this is going on is what was missing from the original version. I really wanted to showcase the Shadowbolt girl’s personalities, and that they weren’t undone or even made repentant (well, excepting Lemon Zest later) by what was happening to them. That school turns out to have been a pretty toxic place, though.
But if you’d like some additional interest, I’ll try to bring the Ibex into later chapters for you. I’ve introduced them, so I think I need to start using them in sex scenes as well!
I truly believe that some of the best clop scenes I’ve ever written have come out of that story. What’s my favorite? Hard to say, but I think you’d agree that the big Luna chapter near the end is up there. I know it wasn’t your thing, but I really enjoyed writing the Peregrine Pascal chapters as well.
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And I’m glad! I’ve immensely enjoyed writing them as well, for the most part. My enormous production on both stories is evidence enough of that!
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I know you are! I’ll try to get at least one new chapter to UtM out before the end of the month. Firefly might take a little longer since it’s got a new battle scene upcoming, as those tend to take more work.
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You said it!
Thanks for the plug! I look forward to hearing your feedback on future prereads of its chapters.
Thanks! And thanks for the chat over Discord last night. It was very much appreciated.
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And to be perfectly fair, there is a difference between writing recontextualized events within Fallout in a pony setting and having to build your own story from the ground up with only the most tattered and frayed connection to the parent IP imaginable. It's the difference between crossing a river in 2022 by automobile and George Washington crossing the Delaware in 1776. One is fairly straightforward while the other carries with it some serious risks.
Kkat writing Fallout Equestria was like me writing Snow Cave 10 years later. There was innovation in the sense that characters needed to be fleshed out but a lot of the infrastructure itself already existed and could be referenced at any time by someone with sufficient knowledge of either Fallout in KKat's case and the Setsudou (Snow Cave) hentai doujin in mine.
If neither I nor Kkat felt compelled to write our respective stories, someone else would have, full stop. If you hadn't decided to write any of the stories mentioned here - or I never wrote, say, Dibs on My Sister - these stories would be deleted from the universe because no one would exist to tell the tale.
if you need a brack then tack one because if you fill lick you need to put some thang and forces it will be not as good if jest came to you SO TAKE A BRACK.
PS
to all who have not read Before the Storm: The Rise of Firefly and into-the-storm-the-flight-of-firefly]Into the Storm: The Flight of Firefly
you definably need to.
Take as long as you want man, you've already caused a hellva lot of good reviving this series. Thank you, and enjoy your rest.
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It’s true, but in fairness, I did have the original Feathered Heart to work from and could borrow from it as needed. The earlier chapters in particular are just heavy edits of the originals. But the later ones? They use only bits and pieces of it.
And now I have 10 years of lore to draw upon from not just the show (which I use very selectively), from all the stories we’ve worked on together and the new races/headcanon we’ve invented. This story is the product of ten years in the fandom and getting that much better in my writing. I couldn’t have done it any better than DEL back then, and I would never have come up with the idea anyway.
Thank you, sir. And this is why I decided to pick it up even with all my other writing projects--if I didn’t do it, nobody else would, and between my ability to write both lore-driven military thrillers and outright clop, there’s nobody more qualified for the job of writing this than me. May the fandom and I survive to see it finished, because I would consider it a massive accomplishment, one worthy of releasing an actual book or three of.
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I will do so. Thank you!
Appreciate the plug!
Give them a read, folks. You won’t be disappointed.
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Thanks for the kind words! I really helps to know how much my efforts are appreciated.