Between reading and reviewing entries for the latest writeoff, I managed to get another set of stories reviewed for you folks as well, mostly courtesy of the Royal Guard’s queue. I go into a fair bit of detail about prose in the review for To Drown a Butterfly, as well as talk a bit about meter in poetry in my review of Happy Hearts Warming, so there’s a few things which are a bit different in today’s reviews.

Today’s stories:

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Unbeknownst to me, BronyWriter has long been a member of the Royal Guard. Yesterday, he jumped back in in a major way, and began reading stories left and right. I had to join in, as did a number of other folks, and between the lot of us we managed to process a whopping 15 stories in a single day, and put at least one decision (a consensus of at least two votes in the same direction are necessary to approve or disapprove of a story) on a bunch more.

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One other interesting aspect of the Royal Guard queue is that it encourages me to read stories I’d been putting off reading; if a story I’ve been putting off reading ends up on the list, I’ll frequently end up checking it out to see what I’ve been missing. A number of today’s stories came up in this very way.

Today’s stories:

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As with yesterday’s Read It Later reviews, four of the five stories in this set came from Scribblefest. As was the case yesterday, please note that my opinion on these stories is not the final word for that contest; we are merely in the preliminary round of judging, and three judges read each of these stories. I am but one of nine judges involved in this, so… yeah.

Anyway! Onto the reviews!

Today’s stories:

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Reviews, reviews, who’s got the reviews?

TD, apparently.

In an attempt to simultaneously get something done, clear out the Royal Guard queue a bit, and to procrastinate, I’ve got five more stories read and reviewed for you folks.

Today’s stories:

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Scribblefest judging is winding down, and I’m working on getting the last few stories judged. Expect some more review posts early next week on the rest of the stories, but I’ll be getting all the rest of them read and judged this evening.

Reminder to those who are participating - I'm but one judge of nine, so my opinions are not the final word on these stories.

Today’s stories:

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The funny thing about procrastination is that sometimes it ends up wrapping back around into productivity.

It’d be nice if I could be productive in the directions that I aimed, but at least I’m getting something done.

Today includes a few stories from the RCL, as well as a couple stories that I previously read that didn’t quite merit a recommendation, along with a final story – one that I’ve put off reading since the Outside Insight contest all the way back in 2014.

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Today’s set of reviews is courtesy of Scribblefest and (in one case) the Royal Guard. I haven’t written reviews for every story I’ve read for Scribblefest, but I ended up writing reviews for several of them; note that if you are a Scribblefest competitor, my word on your story is not the final word. We’re presently doing the prelim-round judging, wherein three judges read each entry and nominate them for a category, and I am but one of nine judges involved.

Anyway, onto the reviews!

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My goal for this week is to get at least one set of Read it Now Reviews done, one set of Read It Later Reviews done, one new story posted, one piece of original fiction sent off to a publisher, and one video game to be played.

So far, I’m at one for five.

Today’s stories:

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I’ve been spending far too much time playing video games that aren’t actually all that fun, and far too little time reading pony fanfiction. So today, for at least a few hours, I decided to change that.

Today’s stories:

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This about sums up how I’ve been feeling these last few days:

Today’s stories:

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Procrastination on writing creates a surprising amount of motivation to review stories.

Today’s stories:

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Decided to try and be useful and get some stuff done.

Did a bunch more reviews, and rewrote chapter six of Mistletrapped.

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I always feel as though I waste far too much of my time on frivolous things – primarily, watching the news. I think, this weekend, I will try to avoid the news – try to avoid stupid, frivolous, wasteful things, and actually try and do things that make me feel good in the long term, instead of fritter away my time.

We’ll see if I can succeed.

Today’s stories:

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Apologies for my laxity in posting this week; I spent a great deal of time twisting myself in knots over what to work on next, and thus ended up not accomplishing much of anything until yesterday, when I simply decided to go ahead with whatever struck me next.

Consequently, I polished up and published a writeoff story:

As He Lay Dying
by Titanium Dragon

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They say that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

In the end, though, I generally find it more like rolling a rock down a hill – once you get started, it is a lot easier to keep going.

Today’s stories:

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Sometimes I feel like the journey of a thousand miles doesn’t start so much with a single step as with rolling a rock over the top of a hill; it is hard to get it to the top of the hill, but it starts getting easier to push it once you get over the crest and it really gets rolling down the other side.

It would certainly explain a thing or two about me.

Today’s stories:

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There are some writers who have little universes of their own. A writer who writes a bunch of stories in the same continuity. This can lead to a lot of fun, as we can see hints of future stories in past ones, and vice-versa, and there’s a sort of interwoven tapestry between them. From Ghost of Heraclitus’s Civil Service stories, to Skywriter’s Cadance of Cloudsdale cycle, to Estee’s Tryptich verse, there’s a lot of fun to be had in these stories.

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Two days of reviews in a row? When was the last time that happened?

Today’s stories:

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I was going to devote this post to stories about Dragon Lord Torch, in honor of me writing a story about him, as well as an excuse to populate my new group with stories about him.

I then learned that there are four stories on FIMFiction which appear to be about Dragon Lord Torch, or at least feature him heavily.

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