It's also not going to pass FiMFiction screening, since it's under one thousand words.

Not quite up to the standards of /fic/. Allow me...
>Subject field

Should've been the name of the fic.

>Tags

Author is specifically for showcasing an entire author's work, rather than one fic. Single Fic would've been a more appropriate choice.

>Body

Since you're the author, including that bit could be superfluous, but still. You should also have included the synopsis. I know it's redundant to those who followed the link, but not all links will be to FiMFiction. Google Docs is commonly used.…

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Kinda bad form to leave me hanging here, OP.

Locking this thread now. Hopefully you take my advice, though given that you stopped posting entirely like so many other new users who go to /fic/, I have my doubts.

>>107744
>Implying he knows anything about anyone else posting here.

From a standpoint of a writer who hasn't been here more than 5-6 months, I find it odd that this thread somehow got a porn store rep. I've read through most of the stockpile and not a lot of the SFG stories are sexual. But, I guess one word in the name can make people assume anything.


All these assumptions just rustled my jimmies.

Now, back to writing my 'softcore porn' and listening to wubstep.

>>107636

Try this; http://www.fimfiction.net/story/26598/Recipe-for-Romance - It has everything; a convincing protagonist, subtle eroticism, simmering emotion and an appearance by the pinkiest of ponies.

>>107685
This. A thousand times this. A lot of the writers in our little corner of /fic/ including myself do tend to smudge the lines a little though.

Did the next thread get started when I wasn't looking?

>>107593

...

Two kinds of characters interact meaningfully with other characters without ever saying a word: Porn actors whose only function in the whole fucking production is to receive a noisily over-acted blowjob, and Gordon Freeman.

If I'd tried to write that little moment on the cloud without "you" saying a word, it would have been an obviously contrived Gordon Freeman, wouldn't it?

I mean, I want to be the guy who rails against the denouncement of a thing as being categorically bad, but it's beginning to look like there really isn't a way to ever write a full, well-plotted story with a 2nd person main character, huh? Seems to me like it should just be cute little device to be subverted to make a point.

>>107615
Pretty much. Although yours did have more meaning to it at least. I'm willing to admit, mine are pretty much meant for cheap thrills (which is all people really want sometimes).

Third person limited, with a HEAVY emphasis on character thoughts.

However, I've found that this narrative style is kinda restrictive. Now, I'm experimenting a little, and perhaps when I'm done with the next chapter of my novel, my reviewer will trash me for it. But I'm finding that I'm slipping into third person omniscient to describe a scene. However, I make sure what I describe is something the main character would know at the time. Otherwise, I find it tough to slow down the flow if I can only look through that character's eyes and describe the scene a bit.

Who knows. Maybe I am completely and massively wrong in trying this. I don't mean to self promote, but this is what I'm talking about:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HNTzJX2kneMRzSr77Ea8IFLXXObf7qzWYFVeFCcA5lU/edit

You seem well versed in this sort of thing. If you can find time, I'd love to hear an analysis of the first page or so, (which is where I describe the setting despite being in third person limited).

Although I secretly hope that my story will come back being received as a revolutionary piece of art, I know that, in reality, the reviewer is going to find some way to make me feel bad about writing something so horrible. I know that all I can do is try to brace myself and look at it in a way so that I can use the criticism to my advantage.

Last time, however, my reviewer caught me off guard and really knocked the wind out of my sails for a few days. Of course, I've managed to bounce back after that.

How do you guys manage to laugh when a reviewer pans your work? I can't do that. Sure, plenty of reviewers are witty in their reviews, but I've never been able to laugh whenever someone was criticizing my work, especially when I asked for the criticism. Maybe I just have a strange sense of humor. Or maybe you do.

I'm a firm believer in the be-a-total-douche-and-criticize-everything-that-seems-wrong modus operandi for reviewing, and honestly, I get madder when people gloss over stuff and praise a lot than when they go all out and completely eviscerate something i've just put hard work into. A few compliments here and there are nice, I'll admit, but when there's nothing but praise, it's not fun and I begin to get suspicious, and if there's one thing that's suicide for a writer to ground him or herself on, it's a dishonest review.

Ah good day to thee Minjask, tis been but a fortnight since last we conversed but mine fic has been pause due to writer's block and I have not paid any patronage to /fic/ in some time. I shall give you my thoughts while I recess for a moment and figure out why in the hell I am speaking like this.

Really, I have no damn idea why I just spoke like that, it might be fatigue and too much video games.
But I'd say what gives me the red ass is when someone trashes my story or rates it badly with no reason why like they tend to do to a lot of stories on FimFiction.

>>107448
Truly, country music would be the bane of my existence.

If I could only choose one extreme or the other, I would probably have to side with Group A, and I don't think I'm ashamed to admit that. The entire reason I became a brony was because I loved the characters and world. So yes, if I'm on FimFiction or EqD, I'll give some stuff a fair shake, but I'll naturally gravitate toward comedies starring T.Sparks. It's like, sure, a war story about OC donkeys might be incredibly masterfully written, but why would I lurk on an FIM site for this? If it's not about characters I already enjoy, and not by a fanfic author I already respect, shouldn't I be out there reading professional literature instead? Or, let's be honest, playing video games or some other tomfoolery.

Disclaimer: The following is my own opinion, and mine alone. I love and tolerate everyone to do as they please.

Another example, for me personally, was Romance Reports. I don't partake in any clop material, so it was never on my radar. But it kept getting exalted for how well SleeplessBrony portrayed the main characters, and handled emotion, and just in general is a damn good writer. I figured that, as an lolwriter myself, I was doing myself a disservice by not reading this and trying to learn from it. Figured I'd just man up, get through it, and then return to my happy little SFW Equestria. And indeed, I was able to glean a bit of insight, and appreciated how well he was able to portray Twilight and the Mane 6. That said, I lost count of the number of times I hit Ctrl-W while trying to survive Chapter 2 alone, and to date I still haven't made it to the end.

So no. Technical and literary excellence enhance my enjoyment of a piece, but I want to read for enjoyment first and foremost.

false dichotomy is false

But within that hypothetical, I'd prefer the challenging fics.

Problem is, it would be an awfully tiny universe for me. It's very rare that a plot twist surprises me, for example.

Name: Bob the Cow
Race: Cow
Gender: Celery
Age: He's been alive since the beginning of time itself.
Cutie Mark: A midget beating a dead whale with a sun-burnt ostrich
Special Talent: He can only eat cheese.
Description: Bob is a trans-dimensional-cheese-loving-time-space-continuum-creating-housing-painting-sky-diving omniscient being who simply likes to hang out with his friends. Bob can usually be found at the center of the Milky Way, making sure that the laws of physics are obeyed. He is able to simultaneously exist in multiple points at the same time, and his presence on Earth has been given a unique name: cow. Bob is mad at the Earth for destroying him on a daily basis for food, so he has inflicted many terrors on the Earth, such as: World War II, the Cold War, Jimmy Carter, and Nicki Manaj.
Quote: "The marshmallows ate the supermarket moose" (In reality, this phrase is ancient Glablorkian speak for the secret of the Universe).

>>107321
Nope.
>>107335
Thank you for the abundant lols. My day has been made.

>>107335
best fucking CM ever
>>107344
>Redcap
Memorieeeees
Srsly, I remember really liking this OC. You know how rare that is for me? Really. bloody. rare.

>>107111
Bad ending is best ending.

And yes. I secretly hoped the whole story long she would (spoiler) fall in and out of true love, just as the story (and Luna) set her up to. It was something the plot hinted at, and I was very happy to see it happen in the alternate ending, as it was where I felt the story should have gone.
The whole fic is very 'coming of age' themed. I feel the alternate ending brings much more to that than the real ending.

>>107130

I blew through the whole story before the alternate ending was written, and that was practically my initial introduction to fanfics, so I loved and tolerated the feel-good ending and moved on to the far superior [REDACTED] by Applejinx.

Now that you mention it, that ending did show off how well written the Luna character in that fic is. I was mostly sad about Twilight being so depressed that she needed a vacation from Ponyville, and then she felt alone all over again when she got to Canterlot

>>106973
>>107015
+1
Everyone that has read your story will have his/her own opinion about it. You can't write something that will please everyone. People will find anything to complain about these days, no matter how good the story and it's ending are. Sure, you can listen to your readers' suggestions, but at the end of the day it's up to you to decide what works best for your story. You are the author and not them. And no, I'm not saying to ignore everyone. Constructive criticism about grammar, coherence, etc. is always good.

>>106955
Except maybe it wasn't?

>>106955
> and your jimmies have been rustled.

You think this is jimmy rustled?
Wow. I'd say be prepared for horror. There are some things that could result in that, but this?
This aint it.

>>106989
Hey, any OP with that level of ignorance is either trolling, or actually is that dumb. I thought I'd seen everything when 34k ponies liked a status about some girl whose boyfriend saved her by donating his ovaries, but died in the process. I'm not kidding; they actually bought that.

>>106912
I'm killing them with impunity in the prose right now, but I don't know if I should do the same to the dialog. Should I? I fear that tightening it in the same way as the prose would make it seem like their lines are rehearsed.

>>106914
You don't even have to search and destroy them in the exposition, depending on how you want your style. If you're going for stream-of-consciousness or a very informal narrator, adverbs are fine since the style is supposed to represent someone reciting the story to an audience.
As long as you're not using them to smear descriptions across your story to make it look more impressive, it's not that big of a deal (I think). 99% of your readers won't know that adverbs are a fickle beast, and half of that 1% won't care.
If you take the time to tweak your story to remove them, then al the more power to you, but it's a pretty small thing in the overall scheme.

In short: yes.

>>100769

Hey story thread, I submitted Writing is Hard http://www.fimfiction.net/story/23017/Writing-is-Hard
for consideration to EQD and received the following notes in my rejection notice:
-Capitalization
-Dialogue punctuation (This is a big one. Almost every line of dialogue was punctuated incorrectly)
-Missing end punctuation
-Compound word use
-Comma use

As well as "Lavender Unicorn Syndrome" as a warning against filler description text.

I've already read through this a half dozen times, please pick as many nits as you all are capable of and find every single possible error that I can correct. I've got a solid base here and I think I've got a real shot at making it onto EQD, so I want to be sure my next attempt is as polished as it possibly can be

Just so you know. At present, the event caandelr doesn't show anything not already shown on the home page to the right side bar. In fact, on the right side bar, it is broken out into upcoming God Rock services and upcoming rehearsals whereas here, it is all-in-one without distinguishing between them. http://qkkrvyqfrwu.com gfjjiggboqu [gfjjiggboqu.com] [link=http://epwjcum.com]epwjcum[/link]

>>106894
Story Forge is thataway--->>106451

>>106898
Oh.
That's a thing?

>>106894

It needs more a

Good list. Bookmarked.

>>106660
>Myself being in the camp that Octavia is Pinkie's sister
Finally, I thought I was the only one.

>>106512
My short take: Anything that your story relies on the reader already knowing that isn't a part of the show, is problematic. However, if you introduce such elements yourself within the bounds of the story, so that even someone not familiar with the fanon can understand it, then you are doing great. At that point, it doesn't matter too much if what you are writing its a rehash of other people's work, or your own original idea, since it's supported and explained by your story.

But I'd argue that original is more interesting, even if playing the same game as everyone else is fun and easy.

I think this whole issue is why I don't read a lot of fanfic myself, particularly non-mane-six stories. I don't want my creativity to be stifled by the chains of other peoples' imaginations. :)

>>106660

I concur with your assessment.

Apocrypha, in the ecclesiastic sense, simply refers to one of the texts that dates from the same era as the books of the bible, but do not have a place in the bible.

This term has been subverted by academics to mean anything from authors comments outside the text, to works of lesser historic importance.

The closest term used in this thread is "fanon", and I think I am talking more about fanon than apocrypha in my earlier posts.

That said, I like your interpretation, as it does fit with the academic use of the word. Apocrypha should refer to the creator comments about the show, outside the show itself. Fan-generated and widely accepted back-stories are fanon.
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>>106505
You forgot the big one:

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.

>>106505

I like the very first sentence there, though. "In retrospect, the peace before hell breaks out seems ridiculous." I'd reword it a little if it were me, but it's not, so really, it's the other parts that lose me-- many people think war in Equestria doesn't or can't make sense, so the reader should be eased into it.

And the last line of that little intro just feels cheap, like the opening to a game written by amateurs.

>>106505
>me visarum ubi someone on /fic/ knows and appreciates Tolkein, Orwell, and Doug Adams
If it were physically possible, I would shake your hand through the internet right now.