Dear Princess Celestia,

This week I learned that taking a two-month break from a project and attempting to return to it right after a gruelling stamina challenge is (to the surprise of everyone involved) not a sensible plan. There's an obvious reason for this, but behind it lies one of the more subtle nuances of writing:

I'm pretty confident that everything I've written so far in Plans Change is terribad.

Read More

Dear Princess Luna,

Today I learned the importance of flexibility in one’s character planning. All my life I've been aware of how a character can take on a life of their own and how this can sometimes cause more than a little tension when they begin to do things that you did not even begin to plan for—I once had a character decide, without any real planning on my part, that she was actually a witch, forcing me to invent a whole coven of witches to continue the story!

Read More

Dear Princess Celestia,

I have often worried that, when I finish a writing session, I can find it difficult to sit back down and start again when the time comes for the next session. Today I found a way around that problem that seems to work with reasonable consistency.

Read More

Dear Princess Celestia,

Read More

Dear Princess Luna,

Today I learned that a double-release was literally the worst idea ever.

Read More

In my last blog post, I suggested that today I would be double-posting the next two chapters of Plans Change. As some of the more observant among you may have noticed, only one chapter has been published. What is the meaning of this?

Read More

Today, you might be surprised to note, I'm not writing a letter to any princesses in a blog post. Why? Well, the news I have doesn't really classify as a "writing lesson" and so doesn't really belong in that style; you'll be seeing more posts like this in the upcoming months, I'd imagine.

Read More

Dear Princess Luna,

Today I learned that it's not okay to be late. It's something I've done a lot in my academic life—moving deadlines to suit when I actually feel like working, if only by a few hours, is pretty standard for me. Now I'm setting my own deadlines, I'm beginning to get a sense of how annoying this might be for my tutors.

Read More

Dear Princess Celestia,

I had hoped that I wouldn't have to write this letter. But today, I'm learning that exams are probably more important than fanfiction - and with my first year exams starting in just two days, I probably can't afford to spend the entire day writing chapter five and editing it to the highest possible standard.

Read More

Dear Princess Luna,

Today I learned that there are going to be times in my life when I have a conflict of interests. There will be so many things that I want to do - see friends, play games, get my work done, read a book (to name but a few). I'm not usually very good at dealing with conflict, certainly not internal conflict of this kind. But I think today, I made an important discovery.

Read More

Dear Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,

Seriously, which spelling of your nickname do you actually want us to use?

Yours,
Quill Scratch

P.S. Unless otherwise instructed, I'm sticking with Cadence. It's closer to your actual name.

Dear Princess Luna,

Read More

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned the importance of priorities.

Yesterday I sat some mock exams for my course and, as usual, I hadn't really done any revision. Actually I suspect I'm getting worse at revision as the years go on; revision always used to feel so completely useless that I've simply stopped doing it. I really need to work on that, because yesterday's second exam didn't go so well.

Read More

Dear Princess Luna,

Today I learned that sometimes you have to just take a deep breath and do something, even when it seems like the most frightening thing in the world. I'm a perfectionist, so the idea of releasing something to a community when I'm not 100% satisfied with it is difficult for me - and even when I am, the idea of letting my work be put out into the open, where people might say horrific things about it, is still quite jarring. I don't exactly have a thick skin.

Read More