Not entirely dead · 3:03am Dec 15th, 2013
Hello there, I didn't see you come in.
I'd just like to let you know that I'm not entirely dead yet. Life's just been a bit busy lately. I've just purchased a house, and all the bills that go along with it. Utilities, internet, association fee, my immortal soul at 3.2 percent apr, things like that. I'm still in the process of moving, one carload at a time since I'm too cheap to hire a moving company. So I have a huge house, completely empty save for a table full of computers, a sleeping bag in another room, and a record player with several boxes of the greatest hits of the 17 through 19 century in yet another. I'll probably spend a good portion of time tomorrow transporting most of my books to my new pad, it should only be a few hundred pounds. Although, I lack the space to transport my bookshelves, so I guess they'll have to stay in their boxes for a while longer until I can put together my libraries.
Anyway, it is the season for long, gruelling hours with little sleep and mind numbing exacting attention to detail. Nothing like working on a multi-million dollar cluster, having to know everything about everything that makes it run, so that you can fine-tune it to allow a job to run a few cycles faster without breaking it and causing yourself hours if not days of work just to get it back working again. I suppose it's a lot like working with gold bars. Yes, in some ways it's exciting because it's gold, and worth a sum that's enormous by most people's standards. But you quickly realize that it's just a really heavy lump of metal that you have to be careful around and pay particular attention to so you don't hurt yourself with it.
But hey, at least I get paid overtime, and more money's always a great thing. Right?
On to more important matters. My writing has been very sporadic, and I've been going between different projects. In fact I haven't been working on this story for a while, which allowed me to come back to it and realize that the second half was pure and unadulterated garbage. So I'm rewriting large swaths of it, keeping some from the second version, a little from the first version, and throwing some things in from version 3.5.2 to try and tie it all together into what hopefully will be a seemingly seamless story. This is compounded by my complete and utter disorganization in regards to my notebooks. For the past few years, I've been using the same style of notebook for all my writings, and since they only come in five or so colors, I have several of each color, many completely filled, all unmarked. In addition to having many confusing notebooks, I have the tendency to work on multiple stories in the same notebook, sometimes differentiating them by writing from left to right through the notebook for one story, and then from right to left for another. Although I also just skip a few lines and start working on something completely different, often mid-scene. So for instance, I'm trying to pull together threeish versions of this second half, and they're spread amongst four notebooks, and three other stories. The difficulty is further compounded in that for some scenes, I've rewritten them several times, and the latest one isn't necessarily the best. So I have to remember which version I'm working off of, and the awesomely good ideas that I jotted down in the margins of some other page at some other time that pertain to it.
Anyway, as I've said, I'm still working on it, although in a somewhat haphazard manner, so I'm not certain when I'll have this part out and about.
That being said, I've had the first half written for a few months now. While I try to keep my updates in a contained unit, I know it's been a long, long time since I put out any writing at all, so I was wondering if you guys would want me to go ahead and release the first half while I work on the second. It's only about 9k words, while the entire update is up to about 17k at the moment, so I know it will fall well short of the amount you should be receiving for having waited so long.
So, let me know. Do you want the first half early, or are you content to wait for me to post the whole update at once? I must warn you that the first half is entirely from Luna's pov, while the second is from mostly Twilight's, with the final portion of the second half acting as a third act, tying both halves into a more cohesive whole. But, being an avid reader myself, I know how frustrating it can be to go so long without an update from an author, and how I'd be happy with even a few pages. Although, once I've raced through those pages, I immediately demand the rest.
Anyway, let me know.
Hello Mr Not Dead!
I'd say if the first and second bits have different characters for viewpoints, then they should be posted as separate chapters, in which case I'd like some now. That being said, it sounds like you are doing a lot of editing, so it might also be a good idea to keep both parts hidden until you are sure you like them.
Uhhh, I guess I wasn't much help. Have fun in your new house though!
First of all, congratulations on your new house.
Second, I agree with posting-before-me-person, as long as you're still changing things around, it's probably better to post the two halves together to make sure they fit. And, as you said, people are going to demand the next part either way, so just take your time (but not too much).
Smithers, release the hounds! Er, chapters!
Sooner = better, as long as you're OK with the editing of the first half. If it's coherent and essentially standalone POV-wise from the other half, then by all means, throw us an appetizer.
Congratulation on your new House that is a big step. Unti recently when I had to do this myself I would have never imagined the amount of stress and work associated with such a move.
I would be fine with the release of the first half 9K words is more then enough if you think the editing is appropriate and don't worry about lengh, just if possible don't end it on the nastiest of Cliffhangers then again we are at your mercy there.
As the others said congratulations on your new home!
Now as for me I guess you should releasse the first half if you feel it's ready, because really, it's been far too long.
Also, do you found the joy in writing pony again? Or is it still a chore?
Wait, this isn't apart of the array of array of chars! Now how am I supposed to put these updates into perl! </s>
On a more serious note, I agree with the others that as long as this potential chapter is self contained, it would be fine to post it as an update. That being said, you should do whatever you feel confortable with. If you don't think it would be right to post it without the second half, then that's fine.
Also, where did the whole "writing different stories from right-to-left" thing come from? Was picking up a different notebook really that hard?
Well, I've just sent the first half, what I'm dubbing side A to the editors, while I continue to labor upon side B. To be honest, I feel side A is the better of the two, and I was hoping that the strength of it would allow for side B to be less than stellar, but I suppose it will now have to stand on its own strength. Hopefully it won't be a disappointment.
1608228
Unfortunately the editing process is never finished when it comes to my writing, so if I were to not post until I was sure I liked something, I'd never post anything. Oh well. They say that you're always getting better so long as you're not happy with your writing and work to make it better. Hopefully this holds true for me as well.
1608478
The die is cast. I'll just have to work my magic to make sure that side B fits with side A, at least well enough that most people don't notice the bondo holding them together.
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I hope you're body's ready for this update. I know mine isn't.
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Thanks, honestly, purchasing the house wasn't all that bad. It's just all the little things you have to worry about, like turning on the water, getting electricity, getting the internets, buying beds, etc.
1610127
To be honest, my feelings regarding writing pony are mixed. I find myself easily distracted by shiny things on the internet during the few non-sleep, non-work related hours allotted to me. However, when I do write, I often find myself lost in the thing that I'm writing, which is great. However, when it comes to this story, or any story that I've already partially released, I feel an added pressure with each chapter, since I don't want to write something sub-par compared to the earlier ones, disappointing the readers. So I grow uncertain of myself and my writing, which makes it unpleasant at times for me.
1612097
Sorry, forgot to throw in my # before starting all this. Just throw in a regex to comment this last post out and you should still be able to throw this through a for loop.
As far as the bass akward manner in which I write, if I remember correctly, it stems from a time when I had only one notebook available to me, and I was too lazy to go to the store. But I wanted to work on two stories at once. So, I wrote one from the front of the notebook, and the other from the back, burning my candle at both ends if you will. During this process, as I said, I've also begun to skip around to different stories, and occasionally, I forget whether I'm writing forward to back, or back to front, so the text goes one way for a couple of pages, then abruptly jump ahead or backward several pages depending on how you look at it. I actually have begun to put goto statements at the top of some of my pages.
Thanks to you all for wishing me well on the purchase of a house. It's a new and interesting chapter of my life. I'm afraid that I'm a bit of a social recluse, so I've yet to meet my neighbours, though I've been squatting in my house for a few weeks now. From what I've seen though, I believe I'm the only single person in the neighborhood. It looks as if everyone else is married with children.
I find it fun to theorize about the family that lived here before me. There were four of them. A husband and wife with two children. I believe they were a boy and a girl, with the sister being the elder. I base this off the forgotten hair scrunchie in the upstairs bathroom, combined with the multitude of pinpricks in the walls of one of the upstairs bedrooms, leading me to believe that she had a collage of posters covering her walls. I probably won't fill them in since I'll be making that room my principle library, so the walls will be obscured by bookshelves.
The other bedroom is more worn, with a couple of stains from juice, and the outlets show wear and tear that remind me of my room when I was a young boy. This leads me to believe that it too once belonged to a little brother. I'm thinking that this will be my master bedroom. I don't need much space for a bed that I'll only visit a few hours a night and a closet that contains room for a dozen or so business casual outfits. If it wasn't a young boy, it was perhaps a younger sister less decorative than her elder sibling.
Downstairs I find forgotten magnets on the refrigerator for mwr. The father was a military man. In this area, likely either air force or army. The nearest naval base is a few hours away. The fact that the magnets are from the army post mean little since the airbase is too small to warrant a bx or commissary of their own. My sister is an army wife, so I imagine that the mother here is similar to her and countless others. Likely only working part time, if she works outside the house at all, likely spending most of her time cleaning and taking care of the family. To afford this house he either was senior enlisted, or a mid-level officer. A mis-delivered letter reveals he went to college, so probably an officer then. Likely a captain, perhaps a major. The house and neighborhood are beyond the means of a lieutenant, especially with a family, and below the standards of a colonel, even a short one, unless he had a much larger family. They probably were reassigned, possibly across the country, possibly across the world. I hope they're doing well.
1612843 Hey, no complaints here, if I get to read more sooner, I'm perfectly alright with that.
Also, that's quite some insight on your precursors. A hobby of yours?
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I wouldn't call it a hobby per se. Just something I've come to do a naturally. My father is a great fan of Sherlock Holmes, and when I was a young impressionable lad, we would watch the series that Jeremy Brett starred in. Needless to say, I was rather impressed with Holmes' deductive reasoning, and made a concious effort to pay more attention to the details around me, and draw educated guesses from them with varying degrees of success. Now a days, it's no longer a concious effort. I actually find myself paying little if any attention to someone speaking to me, instead focusing on certain aspects, like how long it's been since they've shaved, how fresh their clothes are, how worn or polished their shoes are, if they smell of cigarette smoke, how they speak, rather than what they say, etc. I then come up with various scenarios about why they do the things they do. It's always fun when I'm right.
Of course reading back through that, it sounds kind of weird. Oh well, I guess I'm a weird guy. Maybe this attention to random details is why a few people have praised my stories for the vivid descriptions and details.
Anyway, hopefully the mini-update will be out by next weekish. In the meantime, my sister just sent me a chest of lebkuchen from Nuremburg, so I'm going to spend some quality time with it.
1622590 Well, there you go. It makes for a good thinking exercise, and it might come in handy if you're trapped with a bunch of people in a mansion on a small island during a storm, and someone winds up dead.
Have fun with your Lebkuchen.