Sunday 19 February 2017

Non, je ne regrette rien...

I know the Hasbro News Splurge Machine has revealed/spoiled about 837 things in the last two days, and we've also had the first significant piece of UK PonyCon 2017 news beyond the fact that it's actually happening, but my thoughts on those things can wait a day or two longer. I've had to delay today's post long enough as it is.

The headline today isn't actually entirely true, but what the hay. And there isn't really a single-word antonym for "regret" (as a noun), is there? Oh well. Here is the promised companion piece to last week's post. This time round, I'll talk about aspects of three of my fics that I do feel happy with. To avoid going over too much old ground, I'm deliberately not choosing either It Doesn't Matter Now or We Who with Songs Beguile, although I do certainly still like both of those.

1. Ever Let the Fancy Roam
This is not one of my best known stories, but it is one I very much like – ending perhaps apart, as it's not the strongest. What gets it into this list is the interaction between Fancy Pants and his butler Silver Cloud: I got a pretty brutal review first up in the comments, but I don't regret writing the dialogue as I did. Actually, that's why this story is here: because I'm very satisfied with the voices I gave both of them. I keep meaning to go back to these two, but apart from one passing mention of SC in Starlight Repeatedly Teleports into Custard, it hasn't happened yet.

2. The Unbearable Lightness of Bucking
For a start, I doubt there's another story on Fimfiction with the (unintentional) prompt "existentialist fruit story". More to the point, though, a wide enough variety of readers have liked this for me to be reasonably confident that it works decently enough as a simple character piece. However, if you know even a little philosophy, you'll quickly realise that I'm not just inventing Neightzsche's thoughts on apple pies or Haydigger's Ruminations on Ontological Discourse. The central mystery is a tad forced, but it couldn't really be otherwise – and it's a story I still like to read for fun. It also made me enjoy writing Applejack more than I used to.

3. Where They Understand You
This is far from being a perfect fic – indeed, I mentioned it briefly at the end of last week's post – and substantial parts of it have been overtaken by canon, especially since "Flutter Brutter" went out. Nevertheless, the basic plot of this story remains my favourite headcanon about how the young Rainbow ended up living in Ponyville, and to show her deepening friendship with the young Fluttershy, as well as 'Shy's commitment to her calling. I like Rainbow explaining why flying down is a bigger thing than flying up. It also has my favourite final line of any fic I've written.

Bubbling under: Silver Buck's tale in To Be the Candle, the premise (if not the writing) of Clouded Minds, the sheer cute cheesiness of The Light that Ignites in the Dark. Also, custard. As before, yell at me if you think I should have chosen something else!

2 comments:

  1. I haven't read the story in question, and it is discouraging to have that be your first feedback on it, but I'd consider the source: someone with no stories and 5 followers. That doesn't make him wrong, of course. Lots of things could factor into that. But you're never going to write a story that everyone likes, and unless multiple people echo the same misgivings, or someone makes a supported persuasive argument of their point, there's no reason you'd have to listen to them. Or unless you asked for their opinion, I guess. This smacks more as the kind of comment someone would leave if you'd asked them to pre-read for you, not someone making a criticism. He's so vague that where would you even start addressing his concerns?

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    1. I didn't mind it all that much – I'd rather have a comment like that than no comment at all. I like to reply to everyone who has something to say about a story I write, and really only outright personal abuse (which I've never had on Fimfiction) would be ignored altogether. Besides, Themaskedferret's comment came along pretty quickly. If the negative comment hadn't been the first comment, I doubt it would have bothered me at all. As it was, there was a little nagging doubt for as long as it was the only one!

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