estee

New one-shot story: A Bird In The Dryer...

This is one of the older concepts to reach story form:  I blogged about the issues I was having with birds in my dryer vent in 2014, and then -- nothing happened.  For a very long time.

(What is 'In nine words, summarize Estee's writing?')

But we have some fairly heavy moments coming up in Triptych, and with shadows closing in for one story, I wanted to do something light with another.  And thus the Comedy/Slice Of Life/Everyone combo, with a stor...

New one-shot story: The Night Before Nightmare

This is a one-day story -- literally:  I had the idea this morning, and the 11k result is going up before midnight in my time zone.  It's a holiday story and, because the focus character is Celestia, it's also a story about how some things aren't a holiday for everypony.  

Nightmare Night isn't a good time to be the last survivor.  It's a Bad Day.  And so here we have Celestia on one of the worst -- which means personal character interpretation, which as we all know is...

New one-shot story: Jury Duty II: Jury Harder

Something's been weird with the Patreon link post format.  I wasn't able to get it working at all in September:  that's why everything was composed as text.  Then yesterday, when I posted the Triptych update notification, everything worked normally.  And today, posting a new story -- the link wouldn't take in the top bar.  So back to text.

...it's probably just me.  Well, even if I can't use the link as the post title, I can at least paste it.

Triptych: updated.

Over 7500 on the word count for this one -- and somehow, that isn't the important part.  Getting back on some level of track?  That's a very significant bit.  But for some reason, here's what stands out to me right now:  when you discard deleted ones (me, posting replies from the wrong chapter to give someone a notification), we're about to reach one thousand total comments.

Compared to the discussion traffic on some stories, that's a small amount.  (You can a...

New one-shot story: Drunk Little Ponies

And got it in before October 1st came over the horizon.

This subject was a last-minute decision.  I had originally considered putting up a piece about how Cadance came to be Twilight's foalsitter, titled Something Normal.  That story may still wind up being told -- but it didn't take much examination of the core idea before I realized it could easily be a midrange tale, something which couldn't be written in a day.  I'm not always the best pre-composition judge ...

New one-shot silliness: Fifty Shades Of Toast

Because I was in that kind of mood.  The one where I feel like being completely ridiculous for the sake of being completely ridiculous, abandon continuity (shortly followed by reason), toss all hope for actual character development and Plot out the window, and finally kick the results into the auto-approval line with a battle cry of "Downvote me!"  And in this case, I made a sincere attempt to do so within the Everyone rating -- but given the next-to-...

New one-shot story: A Series Of Egotistical Events

Back on the horse.  

This one wound up running longer than I originally thought it would.  When I originally had the concept, I thought the story could wrap in 9k on the word count.  By the time I hit the midpoint, it was starting to look like 15k.  When I actually reached the conclusion?  Just over 19k.  And because I put the entire thing up as a single submission, with all chapters complete at the time of publication, it counts for one post charge.

Triptych: updated

Make that definitely going to feel this one tomorrow.

It's not the longest chapter:  around 5700 words.  But it's basically a single scene.  It's something which has been building for a long time, and a lot of that ultimately came out.  If I did it right, the intensity is there and when the next chapter arrives, it's not going to be all that much of a step down.  The exact nature of the pressure might change, but the pressure itself will remain.

Update: Tales Of The Canterlot Deportation Agency: Jack

Pushing through it.  Somehow.

(I'm probably going to feel this on Tuesday.)

Two new chapters up on this one, totaling out to a bit over 7k words.  (I'm currently guessing this story may have a few more chapters to go, and if so, the last ones will hopefully be put up in a single batch.)  It takes us through the mandatory part of Origin and as with every story in this rough genre, now that we've wrapped most of that section up, everyone can now head directly for Chaos. &nbs...

New one-shot story: Cart-ography

So it's been a really bad month, and... well, those who follow my blog know why.  

(I also know that everyone's trying to keep me upright while it's going on.  I appreciate that, more than I can readily say.  It's -- a lot of what's keeping me upright.)  

It's pretty much kept me from writing entirely:  time consumption plus emotional exhaustion. &...

Triptych: updated

I'll keep this short:  it's just under 7k on the word count, it is setting a few things up, and the next chapter is going to be vicious.  

So -- four postings for the month, which hopefully gets me closer to resuming a normal rate.  I'll post my semi-delusional July hope-to-writes in my blog sometime after the holiday.  For now, I have to get ready to face a weekend which I really don't want to deal with, and then I have to try and get s...

New continuing (two-shot?) story: Tales Of The Canterlot Deportation Agency: Jack

And the link post function is working again!  Yay!  I can track just how many people aren't going to the story from here on FIMFic's Statistics page!

...that came out wrong.

The current plan is for this one to go up in two big chunks:  one today (three chapters, about 12k on the word count) and one next month, sometime after the 4th (tomorrow is for Triptych and I'm going to lose the weekend to the holiday).  And yes, this means the CDA is at least a ...

New one-shot story: Auk-ward...

The funny thing about this one is that I can almost hear TD's review in advance, and I'm going to agree with what I think it'll be before I ever read it:  this is an equal mix of story and ramble.  (Well, he may not consider it to be [i]equal[/i]...)  It's basically a day-plus spent with Fluttershy and Applejack:  no real pressure, no driving threat -- just two friends who still have a little trouble completely understanding each other.  Add that to a little more explora...

New one-shot story: RariTwi Shipping

This is one of those stories for which the concept first appeared in a blog post and basically got written into a full work for two reasons.

* To clear the mental queue for something else.

* To see if I could break the 300-downvote barrier.

It's about 7k words of me being slightly silly, mostly for the sake of being slightly silly.  To perhaps give people a small smile or two.  And, of course, to collect three hundred downvotes on a single story, bec...

Triptych: updated

And the party begins.

Something over 6k on the word count for this chapter, which -- I admit this freely and of my own will -- is basically an extended introduction consisting of quite a few extended introductions.  But we are here at last and now that we've arrived, we can hang up our coats and wait for someone to start rifling through the pockets.

...that came out wrong.

At any rate, the environment has been (re)set -- had to be done -- and we have officially moved into Act ...

New Continuing (Single-Pledge) Story: Your Alicorn Is In Another Castle

This one's running a little longer than I thought, for word count and writing time alike:  it's been a much-less-than-ideal month.  However, I want to get something out there before May runs out of calendar.  And while I have faint hopes of getting two updates posted between Monday and Tuesday, I'm putting this one here now.  However, as promised in both the post title and Comments section of the story itself, this creation is a one-charge.  Whether the...

24-hour ban from FIMFiction

For having posted a second story (yes, the one below.  Perhaps needless to say, that's now a no-charge) which wasn't connected enough to the show for site standards, added to the verbal slugfest I had with another user a while back.  With no way to write something on the site itself, I'm posting here and on Twitter:  hopefully someone looks.

The ban is supposed to lift in one day, which of course is plenty of time for someone to put the YouTube video on my user page.  *shru...

New one-shot story: Haganai: I Don't Have Many Pony Friends. (Post #1 of (potentially) #2)

I came up with this concept some time ago:  the initial idea is archived in an old blog post.  It's a crossover without the actual meeting:  the characters of one series watching those from another via the expected medium and trying to take lessons from it -- followed, naturally, by horribly getting it wrong.  And I woke up this morning with something approaching an urge to go for it -- so roughly 6500 words later, it's up.

However, I think I may be dancing on the edge of F...

Anchor Foal: updated

Speaking of bringing things up to the very edge of party...

So three slots filled for the month, a chance at four, and pretty much no shot at five.  (I'm so tired right now, I almost put in a word which was very close to 'shot'.)  My best-case scenario right now is to get something done tomorrow and then, after losing the sunlight time on Saturday and Sunday, putting my four total pre-collapse hours into writing.

...well, at least I got to three updates posted.  S...

Triptych: second update.

So at the absolute minimum, I managed to keep that promise:  a double-chapter month.  (This one's in the 9000 to 9800 range on the word count -- I'm still trying to figure out exactly how FIMFic adds things up there.)  

The world seems to be trying to fight me on updates:  I'm now struggling against a cold, and lost some additional time to vehicle transmission investigation.  (All now well.)  But I managed to get the two chapters up.  A new section f...

Triptych: updated

About 7k on this chapter -- although I've recently been told that FIMFic's method of word counting doesn't necessary produce the true number, and now I'm a little worried about that.  Still, it's a decent size for a fresh portion, and I still intend to put up at least one more chapter on it before April runs out.   (For that matter, before the 29th:  I know I'm losing the last weekend to other things.)  

Because of various issues (medical/dental, mostly), I've...

New one-shot story: Three Hundred And Sixty Degrees Of Saturation

And we close what's very much turned out to be Rarity Month on a final comedy piece -- one which clocked in at 11k on the word count.  As such, I'm also (re)declaring this as Verbiage For The Buck Month, and ask that no one expect this kind of word composition total at the end of April.  Because I'm tired.  And also, April is one day shorter than March.  So, you know, there's that.  Did I mention I was tired?

So just to say it again (because I'm tired and ne...

New one-shot story: Barnyard Barge-Ins

So does anyone happen to remember yesterday, when I said we were probably looking at two short pieces for the rest of the month, and they might average out at 5k in word count?

Click that link.

...yeah.

So if the final one for March is short?  That's why.   And yes, this officially means that in order to make up for the new story flood of this month, April will be a double-update month for Triptych, which may actually suit the story's flow a...

New one-shot story: Cut, Color, Carat, Clarity

So for starters:  I'm going to try and do two more things before March runs out:  these will potentially be story updates.  (However, if it winds up as one or two new short pieces, then I promise here and now that April will be a double-update month for Triptych.)  

And for secondary:  whatever goes up, it's probably going to be shorter.  This piece is four chapters and just under 20k on the total word count.  I think I've been providing Verb...

New one-shot: Every time a pegasus flaps their wings, a kitten DIES

It's really not the sort of thing I could stretch out into a series.

I struggled with this one in two ways.  The first was the style:  I originally thought to render it as a meta-referential story along the lines of a certain Sherman Tank appearance, and ultimately rejected that idea in favor of treating it Dead Seriously.  As serious as millions of dead kittens, which is probably not the best way to measure seriousness.  

The second was the tags...

New one-shot story: Tricks Of The Trade Show

This is a Rarity focus story, set in the days before the Boutique, with what might be a slightly surprising guest star -- somepony I left out of the cast icons on purpose.  It's also another AU division point because in canon, that pony is not supposed to be there.  

I would normally say more, but I just wrote more than 18k words, in just about a straight shot, during one day.  And as such, I'm going to bed right after I see the story hit the New column.  I just ...

Triptych: update.

As promised, to close out the month.  It wound up coming it at about 6500 words:  not one of the longer chapters, but it was at a natural break point -- and if I'd pushed to the next scene, I would have gone beyond, and then a little more beyond, and then it would have been March.

This chapter just about finishes that particular (rather long) day in Trotter's Falls:  there's a little bit more evening and a dream portion to do when we get back -- but after that, we'll be on the d...

New one-shot story: Haunted Hayride

About 9700 words on this one, which is just about all I want to say about it -- with the exception of one thing.

I swear this was meant to be a light romp when I first thought of it.  

*sigh*

Where we wind up isn't always where we think we'll go...

New one-shot story: The Bounce Test

Four chapters, nearly 26k on the word count and, because I promised it in my blog, one post charge for all of it.  Consider this to be like Goosed or Sick Little Ponies:  every so often, I try to provide a little extra value/verbiage per pledge.  

Now, what this does mean is that I'm on the tired side after a three-day run.  As such, the next story will be one I hadn't originally intended to be next:  a short comedy...

Anchor Foal: updated

A touch over 7700 words on this one, which brings us to the point of a time skip.  Things are being set up in this chapter, and we'll have to skip over a few days to reach the first of them.  It's not in anyone's best interests for me to use Fleur's first week in Ponyville as a day-by-day breakdown -- so it's time for a little compression before moving to the next stage of our disaster-in-progress.

And what's that next stage going to be?  Well, in the last chapter, Fl...