Happy New Year · 2:21pm Dec 31st, 2021
So, 2021 is all but over. What a mess.
I've been doing a summary of the year and plans for the next one for 2-3 years, I think, and it always ended up as my usual depressive breakdown, so I'll keep this one short. I mean, it'll be easy, because all I wrote this year was one story which is "They're EVERYWHERE!". Considering that it was supposed only to be a little bit of episodic mess where I could relax by messing around with changelings, I believe it's safe to say that it got a bit out of hand. Anyway, like everything I wrote, it could use more foresight, editing, burning, burying, and salting the soil of its grave, obviously, but I don't want to just disappear for a year and return with a finished and edited story that might be even worse than something I can slowly refine week by week thanks to interactions with people who enjoy/criticise it. So, with 4 chapters left, unless I split or merge something, I hate to say that the weird, unedited, and messy style I've been improvising with since day one is going to continue.
All in all, though, TE has been a success and enjoyable to write (MOST of the time, but I have no idea how to skip the chapters where "stuff just need to happen to lead to the fun/important stuff" and those are goddamn boring to write), even though there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that it's because of changelings rather than being a particularly well-written story. (I mean, I still think that "Shine of the Silver Sun" and "Happiness Is What You Make Of It" are the two best things I ever wrote and they're kinda dead, but they're far from comedies either.)
And as for the big failure of the year... a few people noticed that I dropped "One Hug Bug" (It couldn't be more than just a few since almost no one has the patience to deal with the entire Imbalanced storyline). I tried to get back to writing it but even as I read it after myself I just couldn't. In the same way, I didn't want to just put it on hiatus to keep the storyline incomplete, so I'm leaving it as a bad ending of Celestia repeating the terrible mistake she made with Void and Scream. That said, if I ever decide to put in the work for the good ending for Blaze it will be with a rather major rewrite. Heh, since Blaze's misery from the start has been the reflection of my own barely stable mental state, I think that putting in the hard work for the good end requires way more from me than just writing it, and I'm not there yet nor might I ever be.
And now that the usual chimera of bad thoughts has reared its ugly head, it's time for a list of plans/objectives/wishful thinking:
1) Finish TE (the obvious one)
2) Figure out the next story. I've been thinking about some options but I haven't decided on anything yet:
-> Something about Gem hosting One and growing up in Canterlot in Crest and Fury's care with 65536 as a friend. (zero idea about any plot, though)
-> A story about Greyscale's life between "Happiness" and the changeling invasion. (got a vague idea about potential plot, but like Happiness it probably would be extremely dark)
-> More messing around with drones, probably with even less drama than TE. (I've got a silly idea or two, but something entirely light-hearted and funny just feels completely antithetical to me)
-> Drop everything and start writing clop. Mwahahahahahaaaa! (Considering I wrote two clop shorts and had zero success, that's not a good idea.)
3) I'd like to work on an actual book, but I know fk all about actual worldbuilding since piggybacking on MLP baseline world is the only thing I've ever done. Plus, since English isn't my native language, I doubt I'd get away with mistakes I must be making now, specifically when I see people misunderstanding what I meant in certain scenes and commenting on it. Plus, my descriptions are godawful. And so on and so on. So probably not this one.
Huh, I made it this time without too much whining.
So, Happy New Year to everyone, thank you for reading and most of all engaging through comments, and here's to hoping that 2022 will be better, at least by a tiny bit.
Cheers!
One Hug Bug vanished from my reading list the day after I finished reading the rest of Imbalanced. Went to sleep with it open and it disappeared in the morning. I thought I was going crazy. I look forward to reading your ending to They're EVERYWHERE, seeing as it was the gateway drug into your stories for me. Happy New Year, and good luck with the next.
Hmmm, personally I love how "One hug bug" turned out, except when in the end POV and events focus has moved from our main little hero to griffins and other characters...
About motives to write - just a funny comment & answer... or not funny but anyway, this brings a crooked smile.
Have a good year, no matter wat )
They're Everywhere has been a fun ride. It's been nice change of pace to Blaze's, Chromach's, and even King Beard's problems.
It's still a shame that we don't get to see what happens in Three's spying mission and with Chromach, but that's not as big of a problem as not being able to bring the sun back. And it really doesn't look like Blaze can get any sort of good ending with what's happened in Legacy of Light. It's probably for the best that you retired One Hug Bug.
I'm happy to hear that Grayscale might be coming back. Happiness Is What You Make Of It is one of my favourite stories of yours, up there with Halls of the Changeling King.
The clop, in my opinion, wasn't that bad. It just didn't get enough traction. It being tied in with the rest of the Imbalanced storyline, meaning that you had to have read a lot of stuff for context probably didn't help. So hey, if you ever wanna master the art of writing clop, go ahead, chase your dreams.
If you do write a real book, please advertise it here. I'd probably buy it. If it's anything like your works here, that'll be money well spent.
I never would have guessed that you weren't a native English speaker. Yeah, there are some small mistakes dotted around your stories, a lot more in your first ones, such as the first Imbalanced novels. But I noticed less and less as I read through the catalog. Nowadays, errors are very rare to see.
As for your descriptions being "godawful" and whatnot, lemme just say that your writing style is the one I want to emulate. I've found myself trying write short, pony related stories just for practice, and I always open up one of your fics to see how you describe scenes or how you write dialogue. After a few minutes of reading, I remember that I'm supposed to be writing and that you've once again sucked me into the story. Please tell me Nameless, how do you do that? Is this some zebra witchcraft? Have you put a spell on your works forcing readers to lose focus on what they're doing and pay attention only to your works?
I've been reading less and less now: about 30 mins to absolutely nothing a day. I used to spend hours on my bed and on my phone reading fanfics downloaded as ebooks. Now, not so much. However, when I check my feed and see that you've published another chapter, I always open it up and read it. Thank you for everything you've done here Nameless. Your stories have helped me through hard times and are a source of joy, if not sometimes frustration, in better ones. I hope you have a happy new year Nameless. And once again, thank you so much.
So, the new year started amazingly as some drunk fk broke my window to the street in the morning and there's obviously nowhere to repair it until Monday, and my modem broke. Good thing I at least have metal bars due to living in a ground floor flat and a phone hotspot. Jeez.
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- I'm fairly sure that the way you described my writing is still a better description than any description I wrote
- Unfortunately, I know the feeling about not having the time to read. I barely manage an hour every few days. It sucks, but we do what little we can and as all drones would agree - that's important.
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I'm glad to hear that was time worth spending.
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- Yeeah, that's one of the things where Three and Thirteen simply don't fit in the larger politics and world problems.
- It IS cheaper than therapy!