The Enchanted Carousel Re-Start & Open Letter
Hey all!
Most everyone in my Patreon Discord server knows this, but I want to post it here just more generally.
I’m finally getting TEC back into gear, and I’ve decided that, possibly permanently, new chapters will go up on here first, and only on Fimfiction once the next chapter has been posted here.
This probably won’t apply to my other stories, but I’m doing it for TEC because the reality is that Fimfiction and Fimfiction Culture has been incredibly decrimental to my relationship with TELverse.
I had reached a point where I only cared about whether the story was Good and Perfect and if Everyone Liked It and Read It, and it eventually got me to a point where working on this series was just. Agonizing. Painful. Because it Had to be good, so it was just incredibly stressful and there was just too much pressure.
And especially more so because this is the series I most care about, and I could feel my love for it getting overpowered by my need to satisfy everyone else.
Posting it here first, and separating myself from Fimfic, is honestly the only way I can see myself finishing this story at all. I don’t care anymore if it’s Good or Perfect. I don’t. All I want to care about is this story being good enough for Me. Being what I want.
I debated for such a long time if this meant I was a bad author. If this meant that I can’t take criticism, and thus I’m not good, and I’m actually mediocre like I feared I was all along, and the reality is that I don’t care anymore if I am.
I don’t care if I’m good or bad or whatever. I am not changing the world with this story. I’m not saving lives. I don’t want to continue living my life trying to live up to incredibly high standards, whether imposed by myself and/or others.
I don’t want to be Fimfiction Author Monochromatic.
I just want to be Mono, who writes stories because it makes her and other raritwi fans happy.
So this is what I’m going to do from now on! And for anyone who’s willing to go on this journey with me, I’m delighted to have you.
– Mono
Once upon a time, there was a mare who did not believe in fairytales, and a very different mare who did not believe in herself. Their lives intertwined, weaving together a fairytale like no other, filled with chaos and love, friends and enemies, adventures and tragedies. A fairytale they felt would last forever. But it couldn’t.- 2.2 K • Dec 8, '21
- 2.5 K • Dec 8, '21
- 9.0 K • Dec 17, '21
Howdy! I have only just started reading the TEL series, having only recently gotten back into MLP, and I want to say not only have I enjoyed it immensely, I read the whole thing over a couple of days which is fast for me, but it has actually been inspiring to get back into writing fan-fiction myself. I get feeling the pressure of feedback and I hope that this new system lets you write what you want to write and not necessarily what others want to read. I also want to say that for me at least even if you stopped writing tomorrow, your writing has already made an impact on me, with hours of pleasure and joy and sadness. I hope to read TEC as it comes out and enjoy it in real time with everyone else as I never got to for the first two. I hope this hasn’t come off as presumptive but you are an author I enjoy enormously and just wanted to give my two cents.
Hi Awnman!
Thank you for your kind message!
The new system has been wonderful, honestly! It’s been such a short time, but I’ve already felt a massive difference, and from what my patrons tell me, even they can see the difference in me. I’m just excited to write again, which is really nice.
I’m also stoked for you to see TEC written in real time! I’m hoping to have the next chapter out this week or the next, so there’s that to look forward to!!
Thank you Mono, for writing these stories. They make me feel so much better, and I absolutely love reading them.
I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for me. I hope you continue to write stories when you feel like it, and I know they’ll be amazing and awesome.
I love you, Mono <3
Aww, thank you, Isabella ;-; That means a lot! I hope the stories I post moving forward will continue being stuff you like!
Honestly, paradoxically, I’m pretty sure this will make the story better. There’s definitely such a thing as overfitting to expectations. What everyone got hooked on, back before it blew up, was precisely “Mono writing a story because she wanted to and it made her and other raritwi fans happy”. Not Monochromatic, The RCL Con Vote Winner of Greatest Story of Fimfiction, Bigshot Writer Extraordinaire, coming down from High Above to bestow a masterpiece upon us mortals. And, while I’m not a writer, I don’t find it surprising that there would be a mentality shift in the writing process between those two statuses, and hence also a shift in the writing itself.
So dumping all that and returning to a situation much more like what you began with is, I think, very likely to also ensure that that spark that hooked us all back then isn’t lost, or is regained if it was ever lost. When something great comes naturally, trying to artifically strive for perfection can mar that very natural greatness.
So good luck and looking forward to TEC!
Hi anon!
That’s precisely it, yes. You put it really well. Part of the reason I just… stopped writing TEC, and honestly writing in general, in 2021 is because I’d been shifted towards that mentality. I was suffocating myself trying to live up to my own standards.
Ultimately, I think the change has been for good, now that it’s been a few weeks since I’ve transitioned. I won’t lie and say that it’s not rough to accept this change will probably mean the amount of external feedback I get now is not at all what it is on Fimfic, but it also means that now I appreciate my readers here a LOT more. I can see it with comments, actually. On fimfic, seeing that I got a comment would just fill me with stress and anxiety (to the point I just stopped checking them), whereas on here, I always feel super stoked and excited when I get comments! I’ve even managed to go back to replying to everyone, which is something I really missed doing.
I’ve yet to get a negative comment here, but even that I think I’d take better and be receptive to. Because someone who went through the trouble of going through all the steps to comment and read here is someone who actually cares, y’know?
Thank you, also, for this really nice comment! <3
Reading this is just wonderful. I hope you feel liberated and that this site and the move away from fimfic helps you find a healthier and happier headspace.
I’ve been waiting to hop into TEC because there’s no chapter buffer and I tend to binge, but it’s been hard to stay stay. I just freaking love your stories. Same with Sapphire Eyes, but I’m excited to get back into reading. It’s always inspirational (i.e. motivates me to write).
Thank you so much gear! <3
I’ve definitely felt the difference now that I’m here, and I really appreciate you coming here to tell me this ;_;
So does that mean the last chapter will not be posted to FiMFiction?
Since you need another chapter to be posted here first?
Hey!
That’s correct. This chapter will go up on Fimfic once chapter 3 is up here c:
I…. think you should re-read what I said.
oh my GOD lmao
yes… fimfic will be left in an eternal cliffhanger…..