Friday, February 24, 2012

Here, Have Some Stuff to Read Over the Weekend

Turns out I don't have a review ready for today.  Sorry.  There are three reasons for that, but I'll start with the most obvious one: Creeping Darkness is really freaking long.  However, if you need your pony fanfic fix and don't know where else to turn, I've got a few suggestions.  And wouldn't you know it, they just so happen to be related to my reasons for not having a review post today!  Look below the break for more.

If you've got an idle half-hour to burn:  The main reason I got such a late start on Creeping Darkness is because I burned through my meager buffer of posts writing something for the February Write-Off.  And once I finished that, I could hardly help but go look at a few of the other entries that had been submitted, could I?

I always love seeing what different authors do when given the same writing prompt.  People are able to come up with such radically different ideas based on the same impetus, and to see that kind of divergent thinking is a lot of fun (for me, at least).  All the stories are 10k words or less, and they're presented in head-to-head format (two stories are pulled up at random, and you're asked to vote for the best), so the setup really makes itself accessible to folks without a lot of free time who still want to get in on some pony fanfic-comparing goodness.

I should mention that the gaps in quality are absolutely massive.  I only looked over a few entries, but one of the ones I saw would probably have been a 5-star fic on Equestria Daily.  Others were so aneurysm-inducing that I was unable to finish, even with my masochistic desire to give the story a "fair shake" egging me on.  Still, for anyone looking to read a few shorts, it's a lot of fun.

Check it out here.  You need a FiMFiction account to vote, but anyone can view the stories.

If you've got nothing to do this weekend:  The other thing that kept me from my reviewing was the Wednesday afternoon I spent proofing and reviewing the last chapters of Drakmire's Lacuna.  If you haven't been following this story, feel free to jump in and give it a look now that it's complete!  At over 120k words it's not what anyone would call a quick read, but I highly recommend it to lovers of the [adventure] tag.  Having spent so much time editing it, I admit I'm not exactly an impartial third party at this point.  Nevertheless, I'll offer a few thoughts with that caveat.

This was the author's first bit of ponyfiction, and it's been amazing to see how much he's grown as a writer from start to finish.  The first chapters were often excessively obtuse and tended to go wandering off on irrelevant tangents, but as the story progressed Drakmire steadily improved (which ought to be a given, but it always amazes me how many authors seem unwilling or unable to learn from experience).  His ability to blend goofy and sometimes risque humor with a serious overall tone, coupled with the very organic development of his characters, has really impressed me.

And although I suppose it's not really relevant to potential readers, I was equally impressed by how willing he was to receive criticism.  Not many authors thank you after you tell them that the end of their story reads like the script from a SyFy original movie (I'm quite satisfied with the ending of the finished product, before you ask).

Check it out here.  For anyone looking for an epic-length story to fill a few days, you could do much, much worse than this.

Now excuse me while I go try to get some 6-star reviewing done.  Regular posts are back Monday!

18 comments:

  1. Here's to hoping my fic for the February Write Off was one of the former kinds of story you mentioned. Though, at the very least, I know it's not aneurysm-inducing. XD

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  2. Aw man, and I was really looking forward to that Creeping Darkness review too!

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    1. Just hold tight a few more days, I'll get it out Monday! Cross my heart etc.

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    2. Huzzah! Come 11:59 I'm going to be here constantly hitting that refresh button. :D

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  3. *blushes* That is far more than I deserve. Honest. But thank you again for your time and dedication in helping me with that! It was a great way to learn so much, even if I felt like I had bitten off more than I could chew more than once.

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    1. Just getting into Lacuna now...

      Wanted to say that I am SO glad someone else hasn't assumed that Luna & Celestia actually need to sleep!

      ...it's the small things. :)

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  4. Oh man, I'm up against you in the writeoff? D: My poor fic!

    And screw giving a story fair shakes. There's 240 entries, I read until I can't stand it no more and then figure out which one I hate less. There's only been one I've found so far that I truly, genuinely enjoyed, but I also don't think I've even read 10% of what's there yet.

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    1. I haven't even bothered doing any voting myself for that same reason. Save for one fic that I enjoyed enough to get through; I did throw that one a vote.

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    2. I wouldn't worry too much about your story getting overshadowed by mine--I finally came across mine while reading this afternoon, and what little rating/commenting there is seems to be pretty negative. Oh well, I knew going in that I wasn't likely to do well (I chose a fairly inaccessible style for my fic).

      As for the voting, I eventually decided that I wouldn't bother reading anything that had more than a half-dozen sp/tech/grammatical errors in the first couple of paragraphs. Depressingly enough, that's made things go a LOT quicker.

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    3. Yeah, that kind of thing really has made it go faster. And I have yet to find my story, although I've found one twice!

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  5. I'm pretty sure I ran into your fic. Are you planning on posting it when the contest is over?

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    1. Well, now that the voting's over I suppose there's no harm in revealing that mine was The Fall of Discord. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who thought it'd be a good idea to write an alliterative epic for the competition, so if that's the one you had pegged as mine, good guess!

      As for what I'm going to do with it... well, I'm not going to do anything at all until I've taken the time to clean up some of the lines. Other than that, I don't know--EqD doesn't take poetry as far as I know, so I'll probably just let it stay over on FiMfic.

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    2. EQD actually does take poetry (if "Pony for Christmas" is any indication). It would just need to past the word count and the pre-reader standards.

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  6. Bah, it doesn't want to seem to do a proper reply, but yeah, I could tell that one was yours. It was really good, if not very accessible. Mine was a story call "The Best of the Best Fliers Exhibition", I don't suppose you saw that one?

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    1. Good timing--I was just checking the blog before heading off to bed. I came across yours today, in fact. I don't remember all the details, since it was one of a dozen or so I took in this afternoon, but I thought it was one of the better ones I'd seen.

      Of course, I was just happy to see a story with decent grammar, something resembling a plot, and that didn't involve the murder or incineration on anypony, but I still enjoyed reading it.

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    2. I saw that one, I think it was one of the last six I read in the final hour of voting.

      ...I don't actually remember it, though. ._.

      I definitely didn't see Chris's.

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  7. Hey, thanks! The editing could have been better in places, but it was written last minute. I'm going through the story again to make it as perfect as possible, then I'm submitting it to EqD. If you're willing, I'd love to hear you give a more thorough examination of it. I'd give you the google docs link early too, if you'd like.

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    1. Sure! Send a link to my e-mail, and I'd be happy to look it over and offer my two bits. I'll warn you right now though, I may not be able to get to it in a timely manner--prior commitments and all that.

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