A Bicyclette Blog Series II - PaulAsaran Review of "Long-Distance" · 9:17am January 1st
blog
well it’s technically 2024 now! but it's still 2023 Dec 31 somewhere and i am not letting myself sleep until i post this blog so here we go!
firstly (only-ly), i am proud to announce that i have received my very first Why Haven't You Read These Yet? from PaulAsaran for my story Long-Distance! it was originally written for Scampy's SunFlower Shipping Contest where it placed fourth, but as it was literally my first contest entry ever, all i could think about after submitting it was just how rushed it was, and i even ended up pulling it for more than a year in anticipation of a rewrite effort that i never managed to muster up.
but i just reread it and, uh, it rules? there are some formatting errors that i might go back and fix later, but as a story it holds up so much better than what i imagined in my head. i really love this story! the introductory chapter that starts off in a normal world before one odd detail is plucked and unraveled to reveal the premise of the setting, the Canterlot High School worldbuilding that i thought was so cool and clever in “Foundation”, and the classic Bicyclette ending of the final chapter, all such great stuff in my personal opinion. years ago, when i started writing, i told myself that it was to write the exact stories that i would love to read but no one else was writing. and with the passage of time eroding away at my link to my own past self, that is finally true! entropy is magic!
and of course, as always, i beg of you to join the Café Hay Discord server if you are into that kind of thing because i need more people to talk about the food they eat and the pony writing they do and post pictures of ponies
contests
still no active ones at the moment, with the M/M Shipping Contest III still in judging. i do have a results deadline in mind but it feels a bit funny to announce the planned deadline so soon before the planned deadline. might as well just release the results when they are done, right?
writing
as it turns out, being out of practice writing means that i am very bad at judging how long it takes to write a story, and just how much energy it takes to write for hours. but progress is being made! one out of the four gift fics is finished and submitted, weighing in at nearly 4kw, though sadly that is the very one that i am not planning to publish in its current state. as for the other three, ideas have finally been nailed down that i am very excited for. they will be late presents, but hopefully not too late.
reading
since my reading this week is mostly the M/M Shipping Contest III, i cannot talk about it here. so my favorite of the week is drawn from the few fics i ended up reading for my project to read stories that are unfairly treated by the algorithm.
of these, i would have to say my favorite is:
it is very short, but i loved the well-observed characterizations of Rockhoof and Stygian, and definitely believe in the ship now.
outro
here’s to a good 2024 for us all!
Have a happy new year and more good pony tales to tell!
Long Distance is still my favorite story by you, I think, and I'm so glad it's back and posted as a story. I was excited for a rewrite, but only because I didn't know how it could improve and was curious how you could make my favorite fic better.
Very awesome that Paul rated it "Why haven't you read these yet" - I often just peruse that bookshelf to find stories to read, and I imagine if other people do that they might find this fic too.
5761972
thank you so much for recommending the review to him! and as always, it touches me greatly that you loved it so much. rereading it just now, i am doubting my previous doubts about it, and wonder if a rewrite would have actually made it worse instead of improving it. there is a missing chapter that was originally intended to be there, featuring Rainbow Dash, that was also supposed to go into how the children that were growing up into a world that wouldn't exist in their adulthood were doing near the end
Happy new year! Let's hope 2024 is a good year for all of us, both in everyday life and in the pony fandom!