Random Ramblings CLXXXVII · 12:15am May 24th, 2017
IN WHICH I JUST HIT ANOTHER MILESTONE
My sincerest apologies for making a second blogpost within the space of a day. It's something I don't normally like to do, but sometimes it just works out that way. Anyway, I wanted to say two things in particular, and then more "fun" behind-the-scenes info below the jump.
- First off, I made some minor edits to Sasha because I noticed a significant continuity error that I'm legit shocked no one pointed out or noticed; feel free to reread to see if you can find what I changed, as it's actually extremely important to the plot.
- Second off, about half an hour ago, I officially reached 200 followers! Now, even if not all of those followers read all my work (either because they've retired or follow everyone), it's a nice round number to hang my hat on and I'm supremely grateful for it. Would I still be writing stories even if I had no followers? Probably, but it wouldn't be nearly as rewarding. So thank you so much for all your support! Y'all rock. Woo-hoo.
So, I realized that I didn't actually explain any of the references in Sasha. Anyone who's been following me for awhile knows that I love to put references, homages, and shout-outs in my stories. Some readers thought Sunny's new jacket was a reference to Team Fortress 2. While I do love that game and its memes, that similarity is just a coincidence. Sunset's jacket is named in part after a cat I had growing up, but mostly because the name literally just "sounded right". Her former jacket is a more direct reference -- specifically to the seminal 80's film Heathers. If you know anything about the movie, it's very fitting to how Sunset's personality used to be.
Sasha is Sunset's third leather jacket. Her fourth, R******, will be delivered by Rarity in between stories. The chevron jacket she wears from Friendship Games onward will be called… I think I decided on Julie or Julia. Her very first jacket, named Tanya, she outgrew not long after arriving in humanoid-land; that jacket is still hanging in her closet and will become important in a different story arc.
Every girl at the Carousel Boutique except Rarity and the owner (Belladonna Tailor) speaks with a valley-girl accent because they think it's the hip thing and it'll score them a hot guy. I didn't get to delve much into Madame Tailor's character, but I imagine her as a slightly larger middle-aged woman from the old school of fashion who has a lot of pride and means well but didn't realize at the time she hired these college girls that, even if they're decent at their jobs, they all lacked depth of character. Rarity, on the other hand, is probably going to inherit the store. She's the lowest rank on the totem pole and gets treated like crap, but uses that to her advantage -- at 17, she knows more about the store and how it works than anyone except the owner. Madame Tailor would never consider paying the tuition of a girl she felt unworthy.
The continuity error was in how Rarity addresses Sunset. For most of the story, because they're not really friends yet, she's meant to always call her by her full name (Sunset Shimmer), but I missed a couple of instances and felt it was important I go back and fix that, especially since late in the story she explicitly changes her tone and switches to using only the first part of Sunny's name. That's meant as a verbal indicator of her letting her old grudge dissipate and become fond of Sunny. I screwed it up because Sasha was written in between stories where Rarity uses fairly intimate language (even by her standards) to refer to Sunset. She calls a lot of people "dear" and sometimes "darling", but she has to hold herself back from calling Sunny "MY darling" (Rares writes that phrase in her note during the epilogue of Spider Queen but crosses out the "my"; that strikethrough was absolutely intentional on my part). Very little of what I write happens by accident.
Currently, I'm working on both the penultimate and final installments of the Recovery Arc. The former one is currently called "Exes Meet Again", but I'm thinking about calling it "The Rejected" instead, since it deals with Rarity and Flash (and Sunny, who has her own rejection issues going back much longer). I'm not wedded to any title yet though. No timetable on when either will be finished, sorry to say. Two ≥4000-word stories within the space of eight days is highly unusual for me. Normally, it's all I can do to get a story out once a month. I seriously admire the patience of my readers.
Anyway, that's all for now. Peace out!
Congratulations on the milestone you old so-and-so.
I'm glad the arc is getting views, and I think the proposed new title sounds strong.
4544668 - Thanks.
As to the title of Entry No.10, I like "The Rejected", but it feels a bit too depressing for what the story actually is. It's not a sadfic like NoFS or L&H. It starts out with Rarity talking to Sunset, and Sunset still not getting that the poor girl is in love with her… but then Rarity leaves and has a conversation with Flash (not gotten to that part as of now). The title of course comes from the fact that both were rejected romantically by Sunset, one maliciously and one innocently. No comment on whether or not I'll bring up Flash dating Limestone and thus destroy the multiverse again.
My Recovery stories have always been difficult to tag. Maybe that's why they get views? Because I take a standard idea in an unusual direction, thus defying expectations? Some readers have said it's the "simple heartfelt emotion" of the dialogue.
Or maybe it's just the care I put into each line, even if I screw up sometimes.
Me? I enjoy writing establishing paragraphs; I want the reader to feel the wind, see the leaves, hear the traffic and people, smell the truck exhaust *cough*, and trip over the broken sidewalk, to be able to visualize this neighbourhood and Sunny's apartment even a fraction of how I do. But I can't take it too far because pacing is important.
4544725 Well, whatever you're doing, keep doing it. Even if you'd rather do establishing paragraphs than opening in media res.
No seriously, don't let my stylistic quirks drag you down. And heavens, please, don't let Limestone get in your way either. The arc has long since hooked me (and plenty of others!) and it needs to go its own way and do its own thing.
I think one thing that makes it so compelling is how different but genuine this Sunset is versus the one we see in Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree. Like, she's dealing with some major struggles, but she's doing it in a 100% heartfelt way (to steal your own verbiage). It's hard to see how she becomes the super-Sunset from EQG3&4. But I feel like what she's going through here could get her there.
I want to see how it ends.
And maybe The Rejected is a bit of a depressing sounding title, but I still think it has some punch to it.
4544819 - It's funny you mention that, because Blooming Friendship, a much longer story I'm working on (the Anon-A-Miss one), DOES open in medias res. It also requires so many flashbacks that I decided to just transpose the entirety of that 48-page comic to prose… changing specific aspects of the story so the plot could actually work in my universe; the final product ended up being nearly 13k words. I'm thinking the Trixie chapter (I significantly expanded their one-page confrontation) will be my gift to readers for blogpost 200.
Technically, Reconciliations and Comma Comma open IMR as well. The Burritoverse stories CAN'T because the whole point of those is they're navel-gazing insanity.
Congrats on the 200 followers. I'll admit after rereading the story I didn't notice any changes. If you hadn't told us what you changed I would have thought you hadn't pressed save or something when you updated. Still eagerly awaiting more from the recovery saga!
4545071 - I like the fact that I've created a "saga", even though its total output will be less than 75,000 words (maybe less than 50,000; I haven't counted).
As of now, I've begun writing both of the last two stories. You may have noticed I've been more than willing to talk about the next story but have been mum on the final one except for its title. That's intentional.
After I'm through with Recovery, I'm debating whether I should write a non-canon story where Sunset and Rarity hook up, start updating and releasing the Pinkamena saga (I'll probably require help), write the "last" Burritoverse story, or just move straight on to Blooming Friendship.
4545233 Im a fan of the non-canon SunsetxRarity fic because im a dirty Sunset shipper, but im also really looking forward to the Blooming Friendship fic! I think either one will be well received.
4545985 - As far as these things go, doing fluffy oneshots is much easier than actually moving on to the new arc. Blooming Friendship will be bigger and more involved than anything I've put on this site so far. It required me to "novelize" the entire 48-page EQG: Happy Holidays comic just to have flashback scenes on hand when I need them. At nearly 13,000 words, it's my second-longest unpublished MLP thing after Pinkamena.
I've written drafts of the first three "weeks" so far. I have no idea how many chapters it will have, but it has three jobs it must do all at once: establish a specific character dynamic – you can guess what it is from the title; answer all the questions about Sunset the Recovery Arc raises (they're technically separate continuities but share most of the same headcanon); and set up another story I've almost totally outlined that's been on the back-burner for 18 months.