The History of Gumball2

I recently read a blog written by someone I follow. PresentPerfect created "What Did You Do Before Ponies? #1: The PCA": a blog (or possibly a series of blogs) that talks about the person's history before becoming a brony. Reading this blog made me think about my own roots and how I got to where I am today. So that's what I'm going to do.

Well, what am I waiting for?

Although I'm still a long way to becoming a great writer, this is not my first time writing fanfiction (as you may have noticed by reading my short description on my profile). My experience goes back several years spanning three websites (including this one).

My true start was on August 24, 2011. I had been a fan of The Amazing World of Gumball since its premiere in May of that year. Aside from seeing every episode, I was a regular visitor to the wiki-- although I did not have an account and remained anonymous.

On the aforementioned date, I was going through the wiki and I stumbled upon a blog. I clicked on it and I discovered a link on the blog. Me, being my curious self, decided to click on it and let it take me wherever. It's destination was Gumbapedia Fanon Wiki: a site that was devoted to writing TAWOG fanfiction. At the time, it was small (there were only 12 articles), young (it was founded on August 2, only three weeks before), and the content wasn't very good (although I didn't notice or care at the time). I devoured the stories that existed at the time and I was fascinated at the idea of "extra" episodes that were made by people like me.

Instinctively, I wanted to write an episode myself. But what would it be about?

I thought about it for the whole of several minutes before it hit me. I recalled a family vacation I went on just the month before to Washington D.C., Six Flags Great Adventure, and New York City. Although I enjoyed all portions of the trip, Six Flags was by far the most interesting for writing a story (in my mind). I imagined all my favorite characters going on a wacky cross-country trip followed by a chaotic day at the theme park. It was perfect.

Although I still did not own an account, I was still able to create an article as a "Wikia contributor". And boy was I ever quick to write. Within, my first "masterpiece" was completed: The Field Trip. Lame, nonsensical, confusing, rushed, and everything wrong all squeezed into a ten-chapter story. I dare you to read it.

After that, I wrote a series of other stories that were similar in quality. Although I won't provide links, you can dig for these on the wiki (I'm sure you'll find them). But I consider this to be a primitive stage in my fanfic career. Most of my fics literally read out like a Wikipedia synopsis rather than an actual story, although they did evolve (to a small degree) in my time on the wiki.

I was there for much of the wiki's initial growth and became one of the site's most notable writers. Alongside me at the top were two other users: MissingNo. and Darwin 3288765.

As the wiki was getting bigger, however, I was finding it harder to accept credit for my work. This was because there were more anonymous "Wikia contributors" coming to the site. I realized that I had to create an actual account in order to solidify my identity. And I did so on November 20, 2011. I originally wanted the username "The Wiki Master", however that was already taken. I was tuck.

Looking around a bit, I decided to go to the profile of GumballFan2, the wiki founder. This user had left the wiki about a month after I came along and had basically moved on. It was then that I decided to alter that name to get "Gumball2". I submitted the title and thus became my official name.

With a clear face, I created two things that December. One of them was a fic entitled Survivor Gumball Island. This was intended to be a script-fic series that placed the TAWOG characters as well as pre-established OCs into a Survivor-like competition. Although it was never completed and paled in quality to subsequent works, I consider it to be the best thing I wrote on the wiki.

The other thing I did was create an event called the Gumball Awards. This program was intended to honor the greatest works on the site from its inception until December 2011. Although participation wasn't large (given the small size of the wiki), it was appreciated by those that did. I planned to do the same thing in June 2012, but such a ceremony never came to fruition.

As 2011 became a thing of the past, my interest in Gumbapedia Fanon Wiki declined. In 2012, I didn't write as many fics and I slowly lost interest. It was part of the reason why Survivor Gumball Island was never completed.

The final blow came on June 28, 2012 when I discovered FanFiction.Net. The discovery of this site was similar to that of Gumbapedia Fanon Wiki. I was on Youtube going through South Park stuff when I saw a video entitled "The Day Stan Slipped Away". I clicked on it and saw the video. The video itself was nothing special, however the description led to a fanfic on Fanfiction.Net with the same title. I read it and I personally enjoyed it (at the time) and decided to delve into more fics like it. What followed were several sleepless nights in early summer (although I fell asleep on the following mornings). Although I remember feeling really good on those nights, my body could never go through them again (the closet I got in recent times was 3 AM).

On July 3, I created my FanFiction.Net account with the same username. I really wanted to create something "epic", however I realized that I had to fix my style in order for that to work. Luckily, reading those fics has given me a good idea of the law of the land.

For an actual story, I wasn't exactly sure what it was going to be about. I knew what I wanted, however: to have Stan go through as much pain and suffering as possible. I know that sounds awful, but H/C was by far my favorite genre at the time (and still is).

I then got the basic idea-- the catalyst for the conflict. I started writing and then I just continued. Unfortunately, my writing on this site led me to leave Gumbapedia Fanon Wiki. I posted an official retirement announcement on July 17, 2012.

It took nearly two years to write, but I had my first novel, My Best Friend Warning: Contains mature content

My Best Friend is probably one of the largest turning points in my fanfiction career. It vastly changed the way I view storytelling and writing in general. I think a big reason for this is because it took a long time to write, and I was literally changing as a person during its creation. I think the biggest thing it taught me is that not all forms of H/C and tragedy are good. Just having your "hurt" character getting raped or committing suicide doesn't automatically make the story compelling or good. In fact, it can sometimes make your story nonsensical or worse, make your protagonist unlikable. My taste when it comes to H/C has become more refined in the two years it took to write this novel, both from a reader and creator perspective. I now realize that the "hurt" character has to be likable in order for the audience to care when they're put through torment. I also learned that I have to make the actual torment reasonable and not gratuitous.

I think the other big change I underwent is my view on shipping. Before I went onto FanFiction.Net, shipping was something completely alien to me. Most of the shipping on Gumbapedia Fanon Wiki was either with characters that had chemistry in canon or with OCs that were heterosexual. But then I was suddenly bombarded with countless gay and lesbian couples getting it on (some of which made absolutely no sense).

In my early FanFiction.Net days, I was relegated to the South Park archive, and I grew fond of several popular ships-- particularly Stan/Kyle and Stan/Wendy. Amongst the many fics I read, it was inevitable that I would run into these ships more often than not. And I really liked the two ships I just mentioned. In fact, My Best Friend is a Stan/Kyle ship fic.

However as time went on, my favor towards shipping itself started to weaken. Now I don't mean to offend people that do shipping, but the idea started to make less sense. I saw stories that shipped characters that had no chemistry whatsoever, stories that flat out state that friendship is never good enough, stories where everyone is gay despite the even distribution of boys and girls. All these stories seemed to exist for no other purpose than to have two characters of the same gender f***. And it got pretty annoying. So annoying, in fact, that it continually got longer to post new chapters of the story.

I should probably state, though, that this was merely my opinion in the past. Nowadays, my feelings toward shipping have cooled back down. Although I will probably never write a ship fic again, I do enjoy some MLP shipping. I'm not going to pretend that those ship fics in my favorites don't exist.

But I digress. My Best Friend is a pretty bad story in my opinion (I dare you to read it). There are times where I can't believe that it exists, but I will never delete it because it is a reminder of my progress. Also, there are some people that like it despite its absurdity.

The latter half of my FanFiction.Net career was focused on the Total Drama archive. Total Drama is a show I have seen since its American release in 2008. FanFiction.Net has somewhat allowed me to extend my involvement with the show's fandom. The major thing I noticed there was the plethora of "Submit Your Own OC" competitions where you would "audition" as an OC that gets to be in a Total Drama-style competition. I decided to submit several OCs to various stories, although none of these stories ever finished. I then decided to start my own, entitled Total Drama Survivor.

Although it is currently a work in progress, I have a very clear plan for it. I hope to use it as a way to make statements about the quality of entertainment and the definition of true art.

It was also through this that I met a very good friend: a fellow user named DaleJr.88. If you also have an account on FanFiction.Net, you should really check him out.

The FanFiction.Net era in my career is still going on, however it has been somewhat pushed to the side with my introduction to this place, FimFiction.Net. I officially became a brony in March 2014, however I cannot pinpoint an exact date. I got an account here, and here I am today.

I guess I'll see you next time I decide to make a blog.