The Death of an Author

by Nugget

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Original Character, Slice of Life
Length: 5288

A Meta Story - Pen Name, an author living in Canterlot, is fed up with specific aspects of writing.

It’s hard being an author, and Pen Name has no exception to it. With his stories flopping one-after-another, he begins to feel the pressures of his publishing firm, demanding a change to his stories. However, Pen Name seems to have a problem with such an idea, to point where he begins to complain about the general aspects of writing.

These are his memoirs.

*Note: This story was created to reflect upon common creative dilemmas. The opinions and ideas presented within this story aren't meant to be associated with me, the author. It's all written for the purpose of entertainment and thought. Please enjoy!

Published 2017-07-11 19:10:06 UTC
Last updated 2017-10-09 18:30:44 UTC

Death to a Creative Author

From the personal journal of Pen Name...

Hello.

I’m Pen Name.

I’m an author.

I’m bucking sick of this.

I’m sick of my own effort it seems. I think I'm sick of putting thought and meaning into my narratives (stories). You know? That kind of stuff that likes to make you think about what is going on, to make you question the ideas presented within it. The types of stories, I write, that wish to convey morals and help present actions and abstract ideas while mixing in some interesting action. You know? WHAT I THINK A STORY IS MEANT TO DO!?

...sigh.

I think I need to back myself up here for a moment and start from the beginning.

I have been a professional author for about five years, living in the beautiful and bustling city of Canterlot while working for a local publishing firm that helps distribute my short stories to a large mass of ponies (In other words, an audience). I’ve been on this job for about two years and haven’t seen much movement, or popularly, to cause a spike on the stories I’ve written. In return, it has strained relationship between me, my editor, and the publisher itself since my content isn’t exactly selling well with the general audience.

Then their suggestions and criticisms come in.

They keep telling me over-and-over about how I need to change my stories to fit towards what’s currently popular with the crowd. To which, they say my style of writing isn’t something that a new writer should be presenting until after their audience has been built up. All that interesting writing, thoughtful plots, and deep devotion towards making every action meaningful needs to be “scraped towards the side” while I should be focusing on the audience’s current demand.

In short, they want me to become a trend writer.

They want me to become a writer that only seeks to please the audience with whatever genre is popular now. Sadly, it’s erotica. Why sadly? It’s something I don’t like to write about and to state why is to present my own opinion about it that others might find wrong. So… I guess I will stick with it being not my cup of tea.

Same thing goes with being a trend writer as well.

From the beginning, I always knew that I wanted to write certain stories that stay within the confines of what I like to write and what I know would produce a good plot or narrative. However, as time when on and the more I drove myself into the writing community and my job as well, something seemed to creep into my mind and pressure my morals and stance upon the content I wish to write.

Then as the failures came in with each of my stories flopping one-right-after-the-next, those creeping thoughts were piled on top my job demanding change to content of my stories. Thus, now here I sit on my desk, looking out at the park from my window as I question my own self about what the heck I should do.

Should I keep writing stories I like to write about and feel comfortable presenting or should I give into the pressures of the general audience so my works can sell and gain popularity?

It seems to come down to what truly drive me when it comes to story writing. Why? Why do I write stories in the first place? Why do I want to write stories at all? Why am I so driven and devoted to sitting here for hours on end writing, drafting, editing, and then sending stories off for publishing?

Well, I enjoy it… or at least I use to. I used to enjoy being creative with words, mixing them around to make interesting sentences that piece together to form paragraph. To which, it did help me make engaging narratives that tell the stories I want to address to the reader. However, as time went on and as failures started to pile up with each story that flopped, I think I’ve started to feel like the effort wasn’t worth it anymore. Thus, I believe I’ve burned out, lost the drive and motivation to creative with my stories anymore.

Not to mention the job pressure as well.

So, I say again, I’m sick of my effort, but also not willing to just give up as well. Why do I want to write stories at all? Maybe because I just want to, or maybe because of me wanting fame, or maybe because I ultimately just want my stories to gain some sort of attention. I don't know, and I guess I now don’t seem to care anymore.

Ok, maybe the last sentence wasn’t true, otherwise I wouldn’t be typing out these words as I am right now. I believe there is a drive within me to still write and create stories despite what the world says about my work. A sort of bulletproof will that can’t be knocked down even if all the readers out there have their backs against me.

I believe they call it “passion.”

Yet here I am at the crossroads of my passion, standing between wanting to be creative again while the rest of the world seems to demand I change to fulfill my goals. It seems infuriating, a little bit confusing, but overall hard for me to make a choice. I could stay the course I’m on and regain my motivational drive to create and write my own stories, but the expense would be me losing my job while slowly, if at all, gaining or maintaining an audience that might like my unique works.

Meanwhile, on the other hoof, I could change and maintain my job while my audience grows expediently faster than my current rate, but it would cost me my own will write stories that seem genuine to me. Instead of making works I like, I would feel like, even though it wouldn’t be exactly true, a slave to my audience. I must give into their demands, write about what they want to read, and not allow myself to break from the status quo of my stories just because I want to.

So here I am again, standing between a moral dilemma while having no idea where to go. So, in closing, I want to leave you, the reader, with this question; When you are at that moment between giving into the demands of others vs. staying true to yourself, which road would you take in the end?

Author's Note

To the reader,

Thank you for taking a moment to read this story. I invite you to comment and share your thoughts about it in the comments below. However, if you manage to see any grammar errors within the narrative, I ask you to kindly PM me the corrects than comment about them. I will work swiftly to change them.

Thank you! :twilightsmile:

Nugget

Death to the Editor

From the personal journal of Pen Name.

Six months later...

“And Twilgiht spurkel totally maked lovded with Big Mac, and they livded happie ever after.” - The ending to a “creative work” by an unknown author I don’t give two bits about anymore.

I don’t think you can hear my head smacking against the desk in front of me.

I, Pen Name, took a break from my writing to pursue an editorial job within the Canterlot Chronicle, to kind of change-up my duties while remaining on the newspaper’s payroll. It’s steady, for the most part, however I found it to be as stressful as writing itself. It’s not because of the stories themselves, narratives and grammar can be fixed with time, but instead it’s from having to work with their respective authors.

For the record, not every author I work with is horrible, unless they say they are in a joking manner. There are a lot of good writers out there, working hand-and-hand with their editors in a professional or friendly manner. As a team, they find and crack down upon the mistakes written into the story, suggest corrections, determine which correction is applicable, and then move on to the next grammar or narrative problem with no conflicts between each other.

That’s how they should work together.

Then there’s those writers.

They come in many different forms, but I sum them up as bad or they just don’t get it writers. Some of them are noble, acknowledging their problems while attempting to improve upon them, while others can be straight up as stubborn as donkeys, having no ability whatsoever to listen and change the matter around their narratives and grammar. To my surprise, some of those stubborn, bad writers also have egos as well, thinking and declaring their works as the best bucking things since Princess Celestia and Princess Luna themselves.

I’m rolling my eyes right now.

I can’t stand them. Why? It makes my job harder since I’m the most unfortunate pony in the world. It’s my job to tell them their work is close to or as worthless as horse dung, to which I wonder half the time if their rear was where they pulled out the story from to begin with! Harsh? Maybe. However, it’s wasting my time.

I’m not here to overhaul stories, completely rewriting them from the ground up. I’m not here to fix every single paragraph written by a writer. While I assume they depend on me to correct everything for them, somepony needed to remind them it’s not how my job works! I’m not responsible for an author's writing!

Now, I understand our newspaper does have deadlines for stories, to which the due time does strain writers to a specific timeline. I get that. You must collect the references, obtain pieces of inspiration or ideas towards specific elements you want to express within your narrative, type up a plot guideline, and then write the draft! It’s nothing short of time consuming.

However, all that work doesn’t add up to an excuse for being lazy with your grammar, sentence or paragraph structure, or ways you present your story. You, the writer, have no right to assume if you just type it out and get it on paper, then however it goes, in terms of grammar, is fine. It isn’t. Please, for my sake, listen to what I’m explaining here.

From all the editors for this newspaper, please save us some sanity by at least doing some proofreading yourself before sending the story to us. It’ll make our lives and jobs easier if we can avoid taking a red inked quill to your work and completely marking it all over like a white wall after a wild foal found their crayons. Instead, we can just focus on correcting simple errors while avoiding drastic changes to any sentences or paragraphs within the narrative.

Sounds easy to do, right?

Well, it’s what we ask anyways. I mean, I still acknowledge the fact that every author isn’t a perfect writer. Nobody in Equestria is a perfect writer. We all have unique styles of writing. I mean, you can take a simple sentence like “Twilight flew to the store” and write it a hundred separate ways. To some, they think “Twilight drifted to the store” is fine, meanwhile others might think “Twilight soared to the store” is a more acceptable sentence to write. In this case, both are grammatically correct and acceptable to use.

Now if we could just explain my last paragraph to those egotistical writers, then I swear my job would be way more bearable. However, my wish for every writer to be humble and understanding won’t ever come true. Those bad writers will continue to exist and demand no change to their work despite the fact it’s my job to make corrections and they aren’t my boss.

A wicked grin just came across my face, accompanied by a small, deep chuckle.

You know? I swear, if one more angry writer comes barreling into my office, screaming their head off about the drastic changes I made to their published story, then I swear should just pull out all their papers they submitted, float it towards their face, and then lite it on fire just so I can watch their, so called, hard work burn. If you are going to treat me like I’m nothing, then I should have every right to treat you and your work the same. Nothing.

Those are the words from my mother, Sweet Notes. I have no right to be treated this way and I expect myself to do the same to others. If you can’t write and I point that out nicely to you, then it’s your fault. If you can’t accept criticism, no matter how nice, harsh, or ridiculous it may sound to you, then it’s your fault as well. If you bite the hoof that is trying to feed you, then I hope you expect it to come back and slap you hard across the face. When it does happen, you better take it and learn from it, otherwise you might see everything else burn and crumble to the ground.

That’s life for you, bad writer.

Death to the Original Author

From the personal journal of Pen Name.

One month later...

Well, I’m mad, again.

You won’t believe what came across my desk this morning, my reaction when I read through it, and what I did after I discovered the truth behind the story. What the writer did was stupid, monumentally dumb, and completely unnecessary, to the point their job was almost terminated on the spot. What did they do, you ask? Well, sit back, grab a cup of coffee, or an energy drink if you really need it, and let me tell you about this wild ride I had today.

It all started after an hour had passed since I got into my office to work. As I sat there, behind my desk, minding my own business with the usual paper-or-two I had to edit, one of the inexperienced staff writers walked into my office, ignored my presence completely with a smug his face, and dropped off an article into my work ben.

That’s strange, and somewhat rude.

What the heck got into him? Did he wake his rear up today and think he’s the best thing since Celestia herself? Or did he just decide to be an egotistical equine today?

I didn’t know, but I decided to go ahead and see, and figure out, what the heck got into him by reading the work he turned in. So, I levitated his paper out of my ben, placed it down on my desk, floated an inked quill towards me, and then began to read his story. It didn’t take me more than two seconds to figure out why he was so proud of himself.

It was a big story, covering, in detail, a possible love affair between an unknown Royal Guard and Princess Luna. To me, it seemed to be well written, with interviews from the Royal Staff, photos, and personal investigations while he was undercover as a janitor within the Canterlot Castle. No wonder he wore a cheeky grin on his face! It seemed, to him, as if he’s about be credited for the biggest story to break Equestria since the return of Princess Luna!

Oh! How I’d laughed at his work!

Did he think I was stupid? Did he think I’m not vigilant with my work? Did he really think he was about to let this story slip past me? Oh, no! Young writer, my friend, you’re seriously one of the stupidest equines I’ve ever known.

Why am I saying such harsh words? Well, it’s simple. Half the story wasn’t written by him, and nearly two-thirds of it was all made up! So, in short, it wasn’t original, to begin with, and almost none of the words written down were genuinely from him.

You want to know why I know that? Well, again, it’s simple. He stole half of it from an article I wrote two years ago about a royal guard discussing his “love of the job,” tending to the protection of Princess Celestia. What is new writer did was take my story, twist it around, found old guard photos with Princess Luna in them, and then tried to pass it off as an entirely new story.

What a load of bull crap!

Do you think I can’t recognize my own words? Do you think after two years I can’t figure what I wrote from the rest of the stories passing through my desk? To you seriously think I can be so daft as to pass off this story as something you wrote on your own, with your own words?!

Gah! You’re an idiot! You’re an absolute, without a shadow of doubt, idiot!

Who the heck told you it’s ok to plagiarize another pony’s arduous work? I’m sure it wasn’t your mother, nor your father! Oh Celestia! And you have a degree in Journalism?! Yeah! Then I’m sure your professors have never told you it's ok to copy another pony’s work as well! While I’m at it, I might as well count your high, middle, and elementary school teachers as part of the bunch!

I’m certain, no pony has ever told it’s ok to copy another pony’s work and pass it off as your own.

It’s low, sick, and disgusting. It paints you as a lazy, sluggish pony with zero integrity when it comes to original work. Plagiarizing will destroy your reputation, and can kick students out of college if they’re caught in the act, or in this case, kick you, the new writer, out of the job.

That’s right, he got the boot. As soon as the big boss got the word about him copying my work, I saw his flank leaving the office with his stuff packed into a cardboard box. It almost happened in a flash! One moment, he turned in his work, the next, his body walked out the door jobless!

Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t like seeing ponies lose their job because they copied the works of others. If he’d genuinely admitted to his mistakes, said he was sorry while kindly explaining the reasoning behind his actions, then I would have some sympathy for him. Instead, he argued about his work against the boss and me, trying to do everything he could to pass it off as original while he wore a prideful smug on his face.

He’s so bucking proud of plagiarizing!

What a load of horse dung he was! Now, I’m glad he’s gone since I don’t have to smell the stench of his worthless work anymore. Gah! I’m so over him!

So, let this be a lesson to all writers out there, don’t plagiarize! I mean, it’s a simple, direct message! Yet, to me, it seems like it’s never going to register into the heads of all writers out there! It’s never going to stop happening, so is what I’m saying just completely useless at this point? I don’t know, but I’m not going to stop saying it anyway. Never ever copy the works of others, unless you like my hoof pushing and shoving your flank out the door.

Death to the Author's Fluff

From the personal journal of Pen Name.

Two weeks later...

“Fluff - Unnecessary words and phrases used within a narrative” - Pen Name

Let me just ask this question;

Don’t you just hate fluff?

Don’t you just hate it when you’re looking at an sentance, wondering what the buck the author just wrote into their narrative? Don’t you wish they simplified it? You know, cutting down on all the unnecessary words, thus directly telling you, the reader, what they meant to write?

I mean, I think it would make our lives a bit easier! For example, “Twilight Sparkle hastily galloped down the white, stone path, in the direction of the convenient store” could easily be simplified to “Twilight galloped down the gravel road, heading to the store.” Sure it might eliminate some details, but let's assume we already know the basic surroundings within the story. Now, with that fact in mind, wouldn’t the extra details within the sentence be deemed redundant or unnecessary?

You tell me, but I, the writer, am not going to stress over every single detail within a story. I have, well, a story to narrate! Wouldn’t you absolutely hate somebody’s writing if all they ever did was talk about details within their narrative? To which, they never, at any point in the near future of the story, actually getting down to the action or plot within the story itself?

Wouldn’t that just make you bored of the narrative?

It would, to me at least.

I could usually hear my readers saying, “Oh, come on! Stop talking about Twilight’s stupid castle already! Can we please just move along?!”

Sure! I agree! I don’t want to bog you down with so much exposition that you begin to either skim over what I’m writing or sing a song about what the heck I, the writer, am really doing in the narrative. “It’s an exposition dump! We get it!” you would scream.

…

Yeah, and I hate them too. You know what’s an easy solution to that problem? It’s simple, tie your action into the details. Like I said before, “Twilight galloped down the gravel road, heading to the store,” is a good example of this. It provides an action while also describing the world around her, or in this case, the road.

It keeps the reader’s attention as well. There's action going on, but yet they’re also learning about more details within the world the story encompasses. To me, it’s the perfect way to blend information with exposition.

In the end, it could also cut down on the number of sentences written into the narrative as well. “The blue dresser laid just across the bedroom. Twilight rolled her eyes, getting out of her bed and walking over to it” could be changed to “Twilight rolled her eyes, got off her bed, and strolled to her dresser, located just across her bedroom.”

See! I was able to write two different sentences into one! It’s not that hard!

Gah!

One week later…

My head is on my desk right now.

I know, in an earlier journal entry, that I talked about how much I love to eliminate fluff. I love to get rid of it as much as I possibly can within the narrative of my stories. I hate it to the core! Fluff is like my second worst enemy, right behind poor grammar.

I spend hours, almost days, in my office editing out as much fluff I can from the stories submitted to me. I do, within my certain rights and privileges, everything I can to get rid of unnecessary words, sentences, and phrases within the works I get to handle and edit. I get to, figuratively speaking, go to war with words, killing off or changing around all the futile ones! Ha ha ha!

However, as per my job as well, I get feedback on my editing work. While it’s mostly positive, I can’t help but slam my head against the desk every single time I hear this phrase, “I can tell by your work that you aren’t a native Equestrian speaker. You definitely need to get a native speaker to really help you out with the grammar.”

What the buck is that supposed to mean?

First off, screw you for thinking I’m not a native Equestrian speaker! What kind of criticism is that? Does that mean I can’t speak my own language correctly? As far as I’m aware, I can speak it however I like!

Writing it is another challenge, however.

Like I said, I hate fluff! I hate it when words such as “that,” “those,” “said,” “very,” or “much” are used within a sentence. However, those words are often used when Equestrian is being spoken, not written. So if I was to say and write, “Twilight told me that the mare, in the corner of the room, did the crime,” and then turn around and actually write, “Twilight told me the mare, in the corner of the room, did the crime,” that I’m suddenly not a native speaker anymore?!

Am I making any sense out this? Or have I gone completely nuts here? At this point, I’m starting to think I’ve gone crazy.

Apparently, I’m not a native speaker anymore when I change “Twilight knew that her friend wasn’t up to par with their magic” to “Twilight knew her friend wasn’t up to par with their magic.” Eeyup! One word! One little word, and suddenly they think Equestrian is my second language!

Gah!

Why can’t ponies just tell me these things? I mean, it would make my life much easier to know that one simple change will drastically shift the viewpoint of my writing. But, no! They will continue to say “I’m not a native speaker” before continuing on their merry way. Why should they care? It’s their opinion, so obviously they don’t have the time to explain it. They’re too busy doing other things more important than looking over my work!

Gah!

I need a shot of whiskey right about now.

Death to the Author's Criticism

From the personal journal of Pen Name.

One Month Later…

“This story had to be a fluke! The writer writes way better than this!”

“The story was doing fine until this happened!”

“I can’t believe they made these changes!”

“She’s such a Mary Sue!”

“He’s such a Gary Sue!”

“This is awful!”

Do you hear that? I certainly do. It’s the sound of rears being hurt and ponies complaining about them. Can’t say I’m not use to it by now, but I certainly can say I’ve gotten quite sick of it. To which, I guess I need to say that I love constructive criticism, but also hate unintelligent comments.

Let me explain. A piece of criticism is, in the simplest term, helpful. It’s something you can learn, grow, and better yourself from. In its nature, you can understand its constructive point of view, take the remark with a humble attitude, and then work hard to apply it towards all creative projects you’re currently working on. Thus, in the end, whatever you were doing before would come out better than what it previously was.

That’s good and constructive criticism.

On the other hoof, a comment is something completely unnecessary, words meant to spew out hate or distaste for the writing itself. A comment, or shall I say a hateful remark, can often hurt the writer to the point where they’re enraged, frustrated, or violent towards what was said or written to them. Comments and snarky remarks usually don’t serve any greater purpose for a writer who is wanting to improve.

Yet, we, or shall I say I, still hear those words daily.

“Is Equestrian your second language?”

I know. I’ve already written down my remarks concerning this type of comment in another journal entry prior to this one, but it’s a comment that’s still used to this day. I’ve tried to avoid it by doing what I could to never hear those words again, but they’re still tossed around in the writing world and in our offices as well.

Just the other day, I overheard one of our editors shooting down a new writer for their work. The young mare in question wrote an article with grammar “Only a foreigner with one class of Equestrian” could make. It was harsh and true, I’ll admit, but something completely unhelpful to her. How was she supposed to know their grammar isn’t the greatest? Is their effort to improve worth something to the editor? Heck, why did she even get hired in the first place when her writing wasn’t up to par? Was she a fluke?

I had so many questions.

Well, as I investigated the aftermath of the event, I ran into the writer in our own Writer’s Pit at the office. She was from Saddle Arabia, Sandra Jawhara, and spoke with a thick, arab accent. Her personality was sweet and charming, but her work was another story. As it was blatantly pointed out to her, Sandra wasn’t the greatest at writing for a reason which I didn’t see coming.

Due to her limited knowledge with the Equestrian language, she had to spend half of her time translating her words from Arabic. Armed with a multilingual dictionary on her desk, Sandra would have it open while levitating her quill a few inches from the paper. Once she found the word she was looking for, the mare would then write it down. Then, after a few more letters were inked into the paper, she would stop and search through the dictionary once more. This cycle continued to repeat itself a few more times until she finally had written down an entire paragraph.

It took her thirty minutes to write a paragraph with seven sentences!

If it wasn't obvious before, it was obvious now. That mare needed some help with her writing, not a slap to the face for her inability to correctly construct her sentences properly! Also, this mare was on a tight deadline, therefore she had no time to rewrite her work and make it look like something decent!

It was plain to see that she needed two things. The first thing she needed was more time to work out her issues with grammar and the Equestrian language. I already asked the Chief to extend her deadlines, giving her more time to work on her stories while I suggested her second need.

Sandra needed to work under the supervision of an editor. Since I took the liberty to suggest the idea of somepony working with her, it ended up with me sitting right next to her while she wrote. This practice with me and her developed into something special for us, when we could work on our writing and editing at the same time. As she wrote down her sentences, I would almost immediately, and politely, suggest changes to her grammar in order for them to flow or sound better when read out loud. She seemed to almost thank me after every session we had, to which I would chuckle and say something along the lines of it being a pleasure to work with such a beautiful mare as her.

That somehow got her to blush every time.

After about a few weeks rolled by, Sandra's writing vastly improved due to how close we worked with each other. It went from broken Equestrian to what we expect out of our writer’s when they turn in their work. I couldn’t be any prouder of her accomplishment, to which it seemed to put a spring into her hoofsteps. She now had a sort of glow to her, beaming confidence and pride towards her new abilities to write and make it look good.

She came a long way.

Every now and then, Sandra would thank me for the time I took to work with her. With a smile, I stayed humble about it while saying “You’re welcome” and “I’m always here to help.” Then one day, the mare asked me about what I do after work. She wanted to know if we could hang out and talk about non-work related subject over a cup of coffee. I was first surprised by this offer, but I then accepted it with grace.

Looks like I have a date.