State of the Scribe: August 2022

Hey pones! Another month has come and gone, and that means another new calendar and some exciting new updates. Let's jump right in.

For a start, last month was the Indiegogo campaign for the printing of my optimalverse anthology, Recursive Iterations. The campaign is over now, though you can still grab that book (or any of my other previous printings) on the campaign page here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/recursive-iterations-hardcover-print/x/20354232 .

Once I get the printing started, every book on the page will be fixed with a limited quantity. Once they're sold, they're gone. I expect delivery for every book in the run (at least to the US) should complete by this month. International shipping can be a little trickier, but hopefully that won't take much longer. Please make sure your addresses are accurate on the campaign if you backed it!

That campaign had 4 people purchase optimalverse short stories, which will be making it to Patreon and then fimfiction in time. I'm on the fence about putting them into Starscribbles, or maybe making a little collection of optimalverse oneshots I can add to whenever I like.

Nothing new in terms of the stories I'm running. Sisters of Willowbrook is escalating towards what I very much hope is a final conclusion. Don't Bug Me is still only just into the second act, so quite a bit more runway on that one. Return to Sender and Tall Tale of Sweet Sauce will both complete next month.

Myths Like Us, the sequel to Mew Like Me showing the lives of those unwillingly transformed into mythical pokemon, continues on my Patreon for everyone to read. Just click this link right here, and you can check out that story, without contributing a dollar. I'd put it here, but it's not about ponies, you know the drill.: https://www.patreon.com/RealStarscribe?filters%5Btag%5D=Myths+Like+Us&sort=published_at

Of the monthly stories, Diplomatic Solution is finishing this month! It joins Frames of War on my "waiting for a cover" pile. I hope to get one done in time to take an open slot formerly occupied by Tall Tale of Sweet Sauce, or perhaps Return to Sender.

Then we have another Minific, this one about a simple prompt: What would happen if Twilight Sparkle became convinced that everyone in Equestria was already dead, and they were living in the afterlife? That story will make it to fimfiction one day, but not this month.

There are several starscribbles planned for the month, previous minifics that are finally being posted. First we have "Heart of gold, a story about two sisters in the era long after Celestia and the Elements are faded into myth, discovering there's more to life than crime. Then there's Opening Move, where Twilight tries to figure out how Rainbow Dash always beats her in chess, no matter how many games they play.

Lastly, there's a new monthly story brewing on the horizon. It doesn't have a name yet, but I can tell you a little bit about it. Ponies on Earth transformation with Kirin, romance, griffins, and probably a lot of fire. Expect to see that one next month, I'm pretty excited about it!

I've also written another sequel to the Fae Flights stories I've posted in months past, because I have a problem and fairies are the best. You'll see that once the editing is done.

Busy month ahead for me. I'm going to be at Gencon through the first week of August, partly for work and partly because it's the most fun I ever have in a year being the biggest of nerds. I've also got the sequel to my 24-hour writing stream planned for the 16-19th, using the revised "24 hours of writing across a few days with room to sleep and eat." I will post a blog when that's over, I'm extremely curious to see how that one turns out.

Technically I won't be able to set a new wordcount record, since it won't actually be over 1 day. But I'm still curious to see if I can beat the old number. My goal for the 24 hours is 30k of writing, a substantial gain over my previous 23,000 record. But these will be well-rested hours, so getting above 1k/hour seems almost inevitable.

After this experiment, I'm not sure what horizons of writing I'd like to push next? My gut says the ultimate achievement would be to accomplish a nanowrimo in a single day, 50k. This would be impossible for me at even my fastest writing speeds, and would require that I completely master dictation to achieve. I have not yet done that.

I have to end each of these this way, because it's still as true as ever--but thanks so much to those who support me on patreon. Even if it's just a few bucks, your small contributions are the only thing keeping me writing pony. Without you, I'd have to be doing board games full time. And maybe I will be doing that one day, or maybe my own books--but at least for now, you're the reason I can hang out in the fandom a little longer.

Long enough to finish all these stories, anyway.

-Starscribe

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I have an active Discord community with tons of other writers. If you want a place to be motivated, or ask questions and chat about stories, or just watch bad movies with us at random times, this is the place: https://discord.gg/DMDrCrG. We also do live-read edits of whole blocks of chapters before they go up, for those who want to binge stuff and hear that last pass before publication.

I now conclude with the usual list of the ongoing Patreon stories. Feel free to read the first chapter for free on my Patreon. If you prefer not to support, just hang on a few months, and they will make their way over to Fimfiction for everyone to read.

Dreamlands: The story of a batpony who ventures into the dreamlands to try and rescue Nightmare Moon from banishment and save her outcast tribe. Read at: https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-story-45878879 . Also has an awesome cover now, but I'm not sharing yet >.>

Diplomatic Solution: Equestria is uplifted into a spacefaring society, not to be received into a perfect utopia, but as the last best hope against a conquering force of magical aliens, who are sweeping across the galaxy. Ponykind doesn't know much about war, but it does know how to make friends. Maybe there's a way to solve things that doesn't need weapons. https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-story-30394496