Writer's Lament

[Kendrick]

So I did a submission of my only fan fic to EQD. I just got the rejection email. I can't say that, in and of itself, is surprising. I was not going to be shocked if it wasn't deemed good enough to be featured. What I do find disheartening is that it got rejected without even being read. It was flagged "due to issues with capitalization, comma use, and sentence fragments."

Now don't get me wrong, I know that my grammar isn't perfect, but I did just finish a college Comp. 2 course where I had to write a research paper as well as another college course where I had to write 10K+ words worth of essays. I got a solid "A" in both. Considering an entire page of the Comp. 2 syllabus was dedicated to proper grammar and punctuation, I take that as an indication that I am doing something correct when I write.

And that's the heart of the problem for writers. (I'm also writing a couple of not pony related books.) I have complained to my wife that I wish I had some artistic ability so that I could make *something* of beauty.

She brings up my writing, but writing is not equal with other arts.

It is a lot harder to even get your art seen if you write than it is if you draw/paint/sculpt. People will look at a picture without much prompting, but try to get them to read a story you are writing, much less an entire book.

OK, I'll stop now. This could reasonably get moved to "Venting" but I am sure that I am not the only aspiring author here that gets frustrated by pouring time, effort, and a ton of creative energy into things and then not being able to get anypony to even look at them.

[Han Valen]

I feel you, bro. Yesterday was one of those days, actually. I just had a foul mood as I looked at the pathetic views of my stories on FiMFic.net

What annoyed most was, I actually DID have a story which was fairly popular - over a hundred likes and comments - but it was one of those where I didn't pour any heart and soul into it. In fact, it was a thoughtless, low-brow comedy crossover. Just one I did on a whim, to kill time and be silly. Well, I decided to delete it out of spite yesterday. No one's noticed it's gone, unsurprisingly. I didn't expect to get any complaints over such a dumb story, despite its initial popularity; which pales in comparison to many other stories on that sight. Still, I did indulge myself in the five-minutes of fame when it was on the 'Featured Box' of the site for around 24 hours or so.

But all the other stories in which I put in my best effort, especially the world-building ones... nothing.

Seems like everyone on that site would rather read HiE fics and lesbian shipping cliches. Combine that with blood, gore, Cupcakes and Fallout: Equestria - you've got a feature-box premiere of recycled, overused blandness that everyone seems to eat up. I mean, the second largest Group on the site is the Clop Fic one. Personally, I think that says allot about the user base and their teenage obsessions. But I may be being a bit too presumptuous. After all, it's those people that tend to stand-out the most and overshadow the relatively normal fans. Anyway, I get the occasional comment, or +fave, and that can be uplifting by a tad. And I still, for the most part, write for myself. Despite the frustrations I share with you and many other authors, I don't quit on stories I still enjoy writing. There's always going to be a couple of faithful followers that discover it, so I don't sweat it too much

[Kendrick]

I've noticed that most of FiMFiction falls into the Grimdark, clopping, or self insertion stories.

There doesn't seem to be near as many "normal" stories from Equestria.

[Han Valen]

Even though I've got quite a few ideas for Dark stories, a whole 'book' series actually, I tend to stay away from other Dark stories and just look for normal and/or comedic ones ones, like you said.

And good God, the self-insertion ones... if there's a story with an image from the pony generator as the 'cover art', then it's bound to be a self-insertion fic. They're almost like warning signs for FiMfic