Let Me Show You a Barn

Hope everyone's ready for another guest post!  Today we have the inimitable The Descendant (T.D. if you prefer), one of the most prolific authors in the fandom, and author of three different stories which have been reviewed here (including one of my personal favorite fanfics, A Cup of Joe).  Go on down below the break to read what he has to say about that great bugaboo of amateur authors everywhere: show vs. tell.

6-Star Reviews Part 118: An Old Guardspony's Last Duty

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

It occurred to me when looking at a world map this morning that my baseline for determining whether a map is new or not is still the presence or absence of the USSR.  The USSR collapsed over 20 years ago.  It has literally been decades since I reevaluated the way I date maps.  I suppose looking for South Sudan would be one way, but not immediately checking how upper Asia's labeled just doesn't feel right.

Below the break, my review of BuffaloBrony's An Old Guardspony's Last Duty.

6-Star Reviews Part 117: Naked Singularity

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

When it comes to TV shows, I actually don't really mind "Very Special Episodes" in principal.  Sure, there's plenty of bad ones, but there's nothing about tackling a social issue head-on and in a particularly blatant way which precludes quality writing/humor/etc.  What I don't like is being told one thing and then given another.  One Bad Apple was a heavy-handed piece of anti-bullying propaganda, and I resent being promised something else far more than the heavy-handedness itself would have bothered me.  Maybe that's petty of me, but I was irked.

I did dig the ersatz version of The A-Team's theme, though.

Below the break, my review of Cold in Gardez's Naked Singularity

Ignore Any Reports to the Contrary, This Post Always Had a Title. Also, Happy Thanksgiving! Also Also, Guest Post

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!  Yes, even those of you who don't live in countries where it's celebrated--may your Thursday have rocked hard.

I, of course, was doing a lot more turkey-eating and football-watching than fanfic-reading, so today we have another guest column!  Returning for his second guest post is Pascoite, author and reviewer of note.  Pop down below the break to see what he has to say about understanding and respecting the characters you write about, as well as a bit about the appeal of writing MLP fanfics specifically.

Reading as a Social Activity

If you're visiting a fanfiction review blog, the odds are you're something of a reader already.  So, here's something I've been turning over in my head for the last few days re. reading.  Below the break, as always.

6-Star Review Part 116: Tilt

To read the story, click the image or follow this link

A simple suggestion, if I may: I'd like to propose that, henceforth, any author who wants to write a second-person story be required to read this first.  I'd like to think it would result in far fewer trainwrecks cropping up on FIMfiction, but maybe I have too much faith in the ability of those authors to get the joke, or understand how it might apply to their own writing.

After the break, my review of the definitely-not-a-second-person-adventure, Passport-Clean's Tilt.