Some Words From The Staff: Fan Fiction

Pretend Dash is rolling in fanfics.

Today I'm going to talk to you all about fan fiction. More specifically, this is directed at our fiction readers and our fiction writers that submit stuff to us. If this isn't your thing, you can skip this.

If you're going to read it, though, please read it all the way through before commenting



The ponies who run this blog love fan fiction. Two of its authors, myself included, started out as fiction writers before we were hired on to help run it. We love writing it, and we love reading it. If we could post fics all day, we would.

That said, I'm not going to sugar-coat this too much. We want to only post the best fiction we can find. We don't have time for anything else- literally. To give everypony the spotlight that they deserve, we try to post these things an hour apart, along with other content. Sometimes we don't even do that. Sometimes it's faster. That is incredibly quick by most blog standards. One of the reasons that we're as selective as we are is to keep things under control.

If you’re worried about the volume and whether or not to send a piece in to us, you shouldn’t be. Sometimes we come across a brilliant piece of work and we’ll move things to post it, because it deserves the attention. It happens all the time. We get impressed by a story and drool over it and give it a prime-time spot.

This also does not mean that if your fic isn't brilliant and new and exciting, we don't want it. We have an army of pre-readers for a reason, and they're all committed to giving good feedback on a work. If they're giving you feedback, it means that the story they just read is worthy of being on the site, but it needs a little work or some minor revisions. In the case where a story is not appropriate for the site, because of content or otherwise, they'll tell you that too. They don't trash fics behind your back. They're authors, too. They know what this process is like, and they're all volunteers doing their best to make sure that you're writing the best stuff possible. Constructive criticism is what they strive for, and I think they do a damn good job.

What I'm trying to say is: if your fic gets rejected, it's for a reason. And we always provide a reason. We will never just tell you 'no'. Do we like rejecting fics? Do we like telling you that what you wrote isn't ready for prime-time? Of course not. We hate it. Never assume otherwise.

Does substandard stuff slip through from time to time? Yes. The pre-readers have more than thirty stories in review at any one time, and sometimes a sleepy review isn't the best one. This is never on purpose. Ponies make mistakes- and then they're sent to the moon. Well, no, not really.

What it boils down to is, again, selectivity. If we posted every single fic we received, we wouldn't have time for anything else. It would be fics all the time, all day, every day. That's how much we get daily. It's a flood of letters. You ponies are full of words.

What we maintain is a spotlight, not a library. Other sites fill this void far better than we could. What I can guarantee you is that if you write good fiction, it will get on this blog.

Unless you're me. I had to bribe Seth to get my stories up, because they're awful.

Remember that we love you guys. We built this site for you all. All of our content comes from you. We want to make you happy, and we try our best to do so. Sometimes that means making some decisions from time to time that not everypony agrees with. Just keep in mind we're doing this for you.

Okay, you can comment now.