Finally published something! But it's not TTA.

To my new "Cidershy" watchers, some context. I'm currently working on a fanfiction featuring a slightly upgraded cast in terms of rationality and intellect which deals with the concept of transhumanism in Equestria. Transhumanism is the belief that, should we gain the technology, we should increase our lifespans and intellect. Essentially, the belief is that it is a morally correct thing to surpass our current limitations if the technology is there, to become smarter, stronger, and more long-lived.

There is a wonderful parallel to this in Friendship is Magic. Twilight has become an alicorn, a much more capable pony with eternal lifespan. She comes up with the idea of transforming everypony into one, and thus removing death by aging from the ponies of Equestria. But there are many obstacles in her way, from social objection to technical difficulties, to her own self doubt. The fanfiction I am writing deals with the arguments supporting and detracting from the concept, both logical and emotional. While the fanfiction does not have any arguments chosen for the express purpose of mirroring the human philosophy of transhumanism, the parallels are large enough that they can and will be drawn without my help.

I'm currently calling it TTA, which stands for Transponyism/Transequinism/Alicornism, the three names I'm tossing up for the fic.

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So instead of working on TTA, I had a random one-shot idea at 1 in the morning. I was sufficiently sleep deprived to decide I had to write it right freakin' now. To my surprise, it wasn't bad. I did some editing, got some pre-reader conferencing going, and published it under the name of "Cidershy". And it's actually done pretty damn well: It might have even made the feature box if it was long enough. Good thing is, I published something and it didn't suck. I actually write things now, rather than just claim I'm going to write them. Yay!

Then, I got some help from a skilled writer, called GaryOak here on Fimfiction. We went over "Cidershy", a rather short story, for a total of ninety minutes, as Gary mentioned about a thousand small errors the fic had, many of which I'd have never picked up myself. He's studying creative writing at university, and it turns out they teach you a hell of a lot about the mechanics of story writing.

The end result is that TTA is going to be undergoing substantial revision. I want to read The Elements of Style at least twice before continuing. (One read down!) Once I've done this, I'll go over the story with a fine-toothed comb repeatedly. I'll get Gary to be the first pre-reader, refining the mechanics of the story still further, and then get rationalist pre-readers to poke over the arguments and see how they work or don't work, and how they might be strengthened.

I also will not be waiting for the first four chapters to be completed in order to do this. As soon as Gary's signed off on the first chapter, it's a go. So once I've made the necessary adjustments, I'll be calling for pre-readers on Less Wrong. The pre-readers will see the story one chapter at a time, just like the real readers.

There has been no further words added to the fic since the last blog post, but the fic will be much better thanks to Gary's influence.

Estimated time to publishing: Not even going to give you one. I seriously have no idea, and I've already fallen prey to the planning fallacy on this one before. I'm in no rush: Quality is more important than speed here.