Author's Quarterly Update: Winter 2021 · 9:38pm Jan 2nd, 2022
Okay slightly not 2021, but the holiday season's been a bit hectic so I'm a touch behind.
That aside, though? Last quarter of 2021 was actually pretty good. (Well, around here I mean. World's still taking a flaming ride down a garbage disposal, but y'all hardly need me to tell you that.) I got some solid work done - not as much as I wanted, but a decent amount. Jinglemas went great, several contests ended well, and a whole bunch of great reading that I'm going to take a month to catch up on. Really? I can't complain.
PUBLISHED (5)
The Power Of Love - This one's a mixed bag. On one hand, I got taken to town on multiple fronts for wasted potential. I set up the basics of an alt-u that people really wanted to see more of and then I didn't go anywhere with it. A lot of readers didn't like that. (Also my favorite new comment is "This is the literary equivalent of edging.") And they're absolutely right! In terms of building a world and fleshing out the setting, it absolutely fell short and I didn't do nearly enough with it. On the other hand? I wrote the story I wanted to. I'm satisfied with that. The setting was window dressing to set up the confrontation - to me, it was nothing more. Probably disappointing for readers, but I can't say I'm not happy with it.
How Not To Seduce A Stallion - I can hardly express how relieved I was when I read the judge's comments on the contest results and saw "It also had a certain amount of courage to tell this sort of story - one-sided love at first sight and overwhelming desire - with two male leads." When I wrote this, the idea was to do exactly that and I had no idea if it would pay off or fall flat. The principle was to take a trope from Hollywood romances that's been played for decades (Guy sees hot girl; guy spends 75% of the movie in pursuit of the girl; girl falls for guy despite the fact that he's acting like a crazy stalker) and turn it on its ear by applying it to two male characters. The trope is wildly unacceptable these days: that kind of behavior is incredibly toxic. So I was pretty concerned that the story would flop because of that underlying problem. That it panned out was extremely relieving. (Needless to say, I'm quite satisfied with the story! Placing in the contest was just a bonus.)
Some Kind Of Hero - Biggest surprise of this one? That people actually knew the song and that drew in audiences. Seriously, I expected one, maybe two people to recognize it. As for the story itself? It just came out of nowhere. Calliope shoved the idea into my head and the entire story came together in less than a day. Despite the slapdash nature of the creation, I'm really happy with the story. It hit just how I wanted to, I enjoyed the writing process, it got an awesome reception from the readers, and it introduced at least a few folks to (what I thought was) an underappreciated genre and artist.
Sharing A Cloud - My proper Jinglemas assignment, this one was a fun challenge. Dealing with background characters, I had to make a lot of it up from whole cloth. But that was fun! Once the idea set in, I got to play with and tinker on the story. Really pleased with how it came out.
Lyra Heartstrings, Holiday Helper - I'll entirely admit: this was not my best work. Part of it was that breezie work gets a bit rushed. I'm not the speed-demon that some writers are, so putting it together requires cutting some corners. But mostly I'm disappointed here because I was asked for a comedy and I got.. well, more of a chuckle-worthy shipfic. I didn't nail nearly as much comedy as I planned to, but ran out of time to rewrite/reformulate. Still, it wasn't bad. Just one of those things that could've been better.
ONGOING (2)
First Hoof Account - On one hand, I'm still excited about this story and think it's going well. On the other... I'm having a lot of trouble. See, my writing tends to come in bursts - I'll do nothing for a month, then write wildly for several weeks once the mood/inspiration strikes me. This makes doing long pieces a little tough, so I future-proof by prewriting several chapters. With my other long works, this is fine - having 4-5 chapters done from the start is great, since that's a third or so of the entire thing. First Hoof Account, I did that - but 4-5 chapters is only 10%-ish of the expected final product. Add to that my (entirely self-imposed) posting schedule and I've spent the last four months constantly feeling like I'm falling behind. I'm still loving this story, but the act of writing has started to feel more like an obligation to meet a deadline than something I do for fun - and that's made the writing suffer. Which delays it more because I have to go back and do heavier rewrites to fix things. I haven't decided what I want to do about the problem right now, but the current setup isn't working for me. I don't want to start short-changing the story just because I feel frustrated by an obligation that's entirely in my own head.
House Of Lies - ...oh lord, I forgot a story. I set this one down back in the spring of 2020 because I didn't like the direction it was going and I forgot it. I only remembered when someone dropped a comment on it two weeks ago and now I'm incredibly embarrassed that it slipped my mind for so long. I have to finish it. I feel terrible.
ACTIVE (4)
The Good Art - WRITING 10% - Celestia/OC comedy. Stalled out in light of other projects, partially because I need a bit more content in the plan to have the pacing work. Still chipping away at it, though.
Dream A Little Dream - WRITING 10% - Rarity/Luna drama. An idea that's been on a low simmer for a while with me. I'm still trying to find the right way to push forward with it: I know the story I want to tell but it hasn't quite clicked yet. Hopefully soon.
Some Kind Of Hero 2 - WRITING 5% - CMC space adventure. Some Kind Of Hero was an unexpected write, and this follows suit. About a day after I posted up the first, Calliope just started whispering in my ear about a follow-up. To be fair, 'The Crusaders do a space adventure' is a pretty nice hook so I don't mind. This one is in a weird spot because I have zero idea what I'm doing with it or where it's going, but I've already started writing because I know the first chapter. Nothing past that, though.
Yojimbo-Anjou - OUTLINING - Pear Butter-focused action piece. This was originally something for Nailah's contest back in summer. I discarded it because it came out unsatisfactory and I wasn't able to revise it into something good. But Bike's been pestering me to try again, so I've put it back on the docket for now. Maybe this time it'll gel.
ON DECK (3)
Mnemosyne - OUTLINING - SunFlower romance. I think I've got the angle I want on this one now, I just need to find the time to write it.
Griffon Guard - BRAINSTORMING - Gallus post-S9 adventure. Mostly just sitting in limbo until I feel the need to write an adventure as a change of pace.
If You Give A Pony A Time Spell - WRITING 10% - Mane6+extras comedy. A fun short-ish one, but it's in line behind several other stories I want to do first.
BACKBURNER (6)
Neither Snow Nor Rain Nor Gloom Of Night - WRITING 10% - Luna/Derpy buddy comedy. No change from last time.
Canterlot's Secret Library - OUTLINING - Twilight/Sunburst/Moondancer war fic. May drop this one. I like the base idea, but I don't know if I've got the chops for it and at this point I won't even start on it until 2023.
Flashbang - OUTLINING - Trixie/Flash Sentry rom-com. The story most likely to move up the priority list. Still not quite ready to write it, but it's a solid idea and everybody I've told about it really likes it.
Serenity - WRITING 20% - AppleDash romance. Partially written; saving it for a rainy day.
A Bridge Over Troubled Waters - BRAINSTORMING - Tempest/Starswirl/OC adventure. Still in the initial stages. Won't be even attempting this one until after First Hoof Account finishes.
COLT - ??? - ScratchTavia romance. Also might be dumping this one. The author who's work I wanted to pick up from hasn't responded but has been around and I'm not going to step in without the OK.
DISCARDED (3)
Sunset Slasher - I said "Okay, I've been trying to complete this one for Halloween for three years. If I don't manage to finish it this time, I'm dumping it." I not only did I not finish it, I got basically zero work done on it. So into the trash it goes. I still like the base idea of Anon-A-Miss turning Sunset into the killer in a slasher flick, but after missing the target date three years running? It's time to throw in the towel.
Beyond The Edge Of The Map - My G5 Bingo entry. And it's complete! And it's trash. I just could not make it work effectively, and I'm not going to publish garbage. Even after help from other authors, it just didn't pan out. This one's a real frustration, particularly after the work I put into it. But when the choice is to publish trash or publish nothing, I'll take nothing.
Kiss And Tell - This was going to be a cute little romance bit involving crossed stars, a drunken kiss between Moondancer and Lyra, and a very irate Bon-Bon. But after getting the initial part down and outlining it? I realized that I was literally writing My Diamonds Leave With You, but with different characters doing more or less the same things. Which... damn it. I could write it, but I'm disappointed in myself for almost ripping off a friend.
P L E A S E
See, I never really forget what I'm writing, but that's only because I usually write one thing at a time. The fact I have two incomplete stories at the moment is an oddity.