The Making Of: Only the Daring/What's Next · 4:31am Aug 15th, 2014
Hello dear friends, followers, and lurkers. The time has come and Only the Daring has finally been completed. If you haven't read it yet, then go read it. This post is probably going to have some spoilers in it, and I'd rather not ruin my hard work just because you're getting a little antsy. Plus, (I think) it's one of my best stories, and if you like my stuff you should at least try it out.
Anyway, after so long, I feel like talking about the process that went into making it, and its beginning and all that nonsense. For those of you who want to know, read on after the break. Also I'll be talking about future projects and such, so skip to the bottom if you're curious about that.
Well here it is, my friends. The end of one of the longest things I've ever written is here. It took almost six months, but at the end of it comes one of my personal favorite stories that I've written.
Let's take a trip back. All the way back to March of this year. I was a bright-eyed clop author who was just brimming with ideas, and with Daring Don't breathing life into a new adventurer, I really wanted to do something with her. At the time, I had some strange obsession with Daring Do. I'll admit, she hopped on and off waifu status for a little bit, but the important part was I wanted to write a fic about her. About the time I had just started finishing up Just Experimenting, I had hopes to start a new fic about our adventurous heroine.
If you'll believe it, this fic started out as maybe a 2k one-shot. Here, let me fish out the idea from my list for you:
Daring Do's latest adventure has her stuck in a room looking for some treasure. The key into the next room is to please a bunch of disembodied dicks, or tentacles, or whatever. Hot tentacle rape with Daring Do.
Granted, a variation of this scene did end up in the final cut. But what started out as some quick clopfic turned into this 40k adventure story. How exactly did I manage that? To be honest, I have no idea. I talked to a few friends about it, and someone mentioned a magical dildo, then it escalated into having an entire sex-based civilization, and here we are at last. Even after all that, I didn't expect it to hit 10k. But I'm glad it ended up being as long as it did. It was quite an experience writing it, and part of me is kind of sad to see it end.
The question I'm sure all of you want to ask (or at least, what I want all of you to ask) is: why did it take so long? 40k doesn't take from March until now to write! Well, it doesn't; but at the same time, it kinda does.
When I started writing this back in March, I had plans to finish it before the summer started and have another bigger project in the works. Then finals happened. Then my boss worked my ass to the bone. Then not having any free time happened. If you guys didn't notice, after Just Experimenting, I was pretty much dead until July. So many things got in the way of this fic's writing process. When my laptop died, I had lost a good chunk of this story, and really didn't feel like starting it up again. Then for a while, every time I sat down to write it something would drag me back out, whether it be accidental deletion or just sitting down and wanting to go straight to sleep.
Needless to say, it seemed like the writing gods just did not want this story completed. I struggled to keep up a steady schedule with this story on and off for months. Not to say I haven't been writing, but that I just couldn't keep focused on this one story. If you didn't notice, four other stories have gone up since I posted this one. I have a bad habit of getting really excited about an idea, then moving to another idea before the first one is finished. At any rate, against all odds, here is my first almost-novel-sized, complete story, and I've got to say, I'm actually pretty proud of it.
For all of you who just did not get enough of that story, I actually dug up part of the first draft I had backed up before the great crash of '14. Here is the clumsy first attempt:
Daring Do struck the board with the piece of chalk in her hand several times, making the small clacks against the board echo throughout the quiet lecture hall. She finished her three letter word with a quick underline before turning back to her students.
"Sex," she said professionally, mirroring what she'd just written on the board. A couple of students started snickering, and others perked up at the word, snapping them to attention at the otherwise boring lecture.
Daring Do rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, get it out of the way now."
Daring looked across for anymore chuckling students. Once they were done she turned back and continued writing. "Now, archaeology isn't just old rocks and ancient tombs. As you should know by now, archaeology is about finding the truth." Daring quickly scratched in a couple of ancient symbols that she was about to get to, then turned back to face the class.
"The truth about how cultures before us lived, what they ate, what they valued most..." a slight smile played across her lips. "... and even, how they had sex."
Daring started to walk around her desk, looking across each of her students. "Not every civilization in history was as prude as we were in the Platinum era; in fact, there have been entire cultures centered around fertility and attraction."
“Specifically, the Nabinazzi.” Daring circled a symbol she had drawn earlier on the board.
“While some of you prefer to carve dicks into the desks of my lecture hall, they did it into mountains and created entire temples for the act.”
“They ‘erected’, if you will, massive monuments to copulation all over their cities, becoming so obsessed with it, they created legends and myths about ancient magic of disembodied members, sirens, sex ghosts that may or may not have gotten through their more lonely nights.”
Daring smiled when she heard the various giggles as she wrote various facts about the civilization on the board. At least this lecture was somewhat interesting.
Daring Do turned around with a sudden seriousness in her demeanor, causing her students to stop their snickering.
“As silly as it may seem, this civilization ruled over all of the southern basin for hundreds of years. Legend has told that where their armies marched, none dared to stand in their path, and those that did, met with such strange fates that very few records even allude to it.”
“Their empire created something. Something that caused even their greatest enemies to fall to their knees before them, for one reason or another,” Daring turned back around to let her students giggle at the joke, and to write a few numbers onto the board.
“As much as I’m sure you’d love to hear me talk about these sex warriors, that’s all we have time for today. Be sure to read chapters four and five by next period.”
Daring turned back to her students in time to catch a few disappointed glances among the others that were hurrying to pack up their things.
“You are dismissed.” Daring waved them off and sat down at her desk giving her attention to the ancient leather-bound book that laid open on it. Most of the students filed out of the classroom, giggling to each other about the lecture, or sharing other bits of gossip that Daring didn’t particularly care to listen to. Eventually all of the students left the lecture hall, leaving Daring Do by herself. All except for one.
One man, a couple of years older than the rest of the students, remained. His brown hair was spiked back and he wore a wool coat and an easy-going smile.
“Quite a lecture Doctor Yearling. Though, it could have done without all the euphemisms.”
Daring looked up from her book and smirked once she saw who it was. “I find it keeps their attention. Not everyone can be as interested in archeology as you and I, Whooves.”
“Not everyone knows how interesting it can really be, Daring,” the Doctor said with a sly smile, pulling an old piece of parchment out of his messenger bag.
Daring’s eyes lit up as she saw the decrepit paper in his hand. “You found it?!” She shot up out of her chair in eager anticipation for him to unroll it.
“Easy now. I’ve only found where it might be.” Whooves unrolled the map with a dry crinkle, and the smell of the old paper spread to their noses. Daring’s eyes darted back and forth over the map of the eastern continent. Below the desert and across the mountains, the great southern basin lied. The quick brushstrokes that represented the massive trees of the jungle littered the area, accompanied by a large red circle on the west side of it.
Daring looked back up to Whooves, a little frustrated. “This is as close as you could get?”
Doctor Whooves crossed his arms, looking a little offended. “It took me months to find an answer other than ‘The Southern Basin’, Daring. This is as good as we're going to get.”
“Ugh, fine. When can we leave?” Daring asked, getting one last look at the map before sliding it back over to the doctor.
“You don’t want to go now, do you? You barely survived the last run-in with the empire. You know they’re colonizing the basin now, we should wait a couple months until they die down,” Whooves said, trying to reason with her. Part of him knew it was a lost cause, but the memories of past adventures were enough to make him try.
“That’s exactly why we need to go now. What if they find the relic? If those legends are true, then Equestria won’t stand a chance.”
Doctor Whooves raised an eyebrow. “You were never one for fairy tales, Daring Do.”
“I’m willing to risk it. You know how pushy the empire has been,” Daring said, giving the Doctor a stern look. She wasn’t about to bend on this one; she needed to do this now. “Now when is the soonest we can get there?”
Sexual innuendos and six month old writing. Got a good smell to it, doesn't it? I prefer the current introduction, obviously, but I thought that might have been a neat thing to share. Anyway, I think that's enough about Only the Daring. As much as I would love to gush about every little thought or detail that went into it, I'll restrain myself.
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Now, onto more important matters: what happens next. To answer that: I have no idea.
Yeah, I know I said I'd do something with Sunset Shimmer, but I'm so split on so many ideas I'm not sure if I'll actually pick her.
I have one more one-shot with Gilda planned, and then I am completely lost when it comes to what project I want to start on next. I have so many ideas that I'd need to pick them out of a hat at this point just to decide. Just know that this isn't the mark of another hiatus. I will be able to make up my mind at some point. When I finally decide on what to start, I'll let you guys know either by posting the story, or making another blog post. At any rate, I feel like August is going to be a pretty productive month for me writing-wise. Or maybe not.
So stay tuned. Who knows what might happen next.
That introduction was a little too much like Indiana Jones in my opinion. It was good, but it just leaned in that direction to much in my opinion.
I'll be happily waiting for your next idea. If you can't decide on what to do next perhaps you could leave it up to a vote? Voting can be fun... Right?