Fan fiction

When I burned out on NaNoWriMo, repulsed by how many unfinished novels I had lurking in my folders and loathe to add any new ones, there was a silver lining! For the time I spent away from NaNo, from 2011 to 2019, roughly turned out to be my fan fiction period. Fan fiction is fiction written by fans of pre-existing work, sometimes adding external elements of changing the tone, typically without consent of the creators and therefore not for profit. It is a type of transformative work!

I have written fan fiction of a children's television show, some video games, and a movie based on storybooks. They are hosted on fanfiction.net, An Archive of Our Own (AO3), DeviantArt, FIMFiction.net, and EquestriaDaily. Here they are, together with thumbnail images, release dates, and notes (in progress!).


MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC

Apple Whine	My first (deliberate) fanfic. A silly story about five ponies having a funny, half-drunken argument at Sweet Apple Acres. Written during Season 1.		Jan. '12	Based on an AIM roleplay I had with EconomistBrony, later head of EquestriaMUCK.
Dreaming of Ponyville	I decided to create a word game in the My Little Pony setting because I was so engrossed in those days.  Immersion seemed truly awesome!  I designed the puzzles and text, and my friend Jamango Jackal implemented and continues to host it because he's so cool!		Feb. '12	The puzzle's general form is taken from a splendid Fool's Errand-style game called System's Twilight!
The Combinatorics Project	An elaborate, multiple worlds shipfic that started as a silly, half-parodic project and got more involved and serious over time.All fifteen possible pairings of the Mane Six are romantically entangled.		Aug. '11 - Aug '13	Its second appendix, "Pinkie Pie's Travelogue," is a contender for the best work I've ever written.
Canterlot Cantata	The season 2 finale inspired me to write this three-part alternate paths exploration.  I was motivated by wondering what would have happened if the characters had been more rational.  As is often the case in cartoons, the result is not always more positive!  But it was certainly interesting.		Oct. '22 - Feb. '23	I somewhat pretentiously called it a "Cantata" because there are artistic connections between the chapters that I found suitable for a mutiple point-of-departure fic.
Cutie Mash	A oneshot I wrote in 24 hours after seeing the FiM Season 3 finale, which wound up being one of my favorite episodes despite (or because of) its whirlwind pace. I decided to write what I imagined the false memories of the main characters to be afetr their cuties marks got swapped.		Feb. '13	EquestriaDaily rejected this piece, and I came to understand why.  It's probably the fanfic I'm least proud of.
Frames of Folly	An over-ambitious attempt to write diagetic commentary (from Twilight and Pinkie) about every episode in the first three seasons. I managed the framing device and commentary for a single episode before realizing this story was never going to be finished. So I let it drop.		Mar. '13 - Sep. '14	Is it really correct to lowercase the 'i' in Friendship is Magic?  Chapter 2 contains a lengthy discussion.
The Pony Who Lived Upstairs	My gosh, I wrote an entire honest-to-goodness My Little Pony novel!  This work is part of the relatively narrow PoE (Pony on Earth) subgenre of MLP fanfic.  I had to research New Jersey and New York for it, which was undoubtedly good practice for maybe writing normal literature someday!		Feb. '14 - Oct. '16	My most commented work ever. I briefly made a profile of the title character and roleplayed with readers as her on FIMFiction in the creator's diary section.

UNDERTALE

Alphys & the Queen	My longest completed novel, and one of the best! This Neutral Ending from Undertale started with a dialogue born of me wondering what the first conversations with staff would be like for a newly installed Queen Toriel, returned from exile, as she tried to get a hold on the reins of power. It became a complicated, beautiful romantic drama with lots of bonus songs. Why is Undertale fandom so often about AUs, anyway? The canonical universe is plenty interesting.		Jan '17 - Oct. '19	This novel had the wonderful side effect of making me two good friends who read and commented on it, and with whom I struck up a fruitful correspondence.
Mushroom Dance	A story about the mushroom guy who tells you whether you're covered in sin. I thought it might be interesting to write a story about a very minor character who was completely stationary. It started fun and kind of artsy. But as the story follows the Genocide ending, it got, as one might predict... dark.		Sep. '21 - Aug. '22	Sadly, I lost a lot of my interest in Undertale while I was about halfway through writing this novella.  I'd been so excited to do something endlessly creative and artsy... and then it was just a story to finish. I tried to finish it with craft and cool ideas, but... maybe you can tell my SOUL wasn't quite in it.

NIGHT IN THE WOODS

Shortest Night	What began as a way of coping with not seeing the Great American Eclipse became a novella-length continuation of the popular 2017 indie game Night in the Woods. The aesthetic and characters seemed to fit the idea of an eclipse road trip; after the trip, though, Mae's unique issues continued to develop.		Aug. '17 - Nov. '17	Includes stories of Adina Astra from the Lost Constellation supplemental game, as well as a bonus crossover chapter with A Short Hike that I wrote for the 2024 eclipse.
Bea Gives Germ Sex Advice	This was a silly story based on a silly Telegram roleplay. It didn't have to be written. But it seemed fun enough to write, so I wrote it. If I shipped anyone in NitW, it'd be Germ and Lori. But I only wrote this one story to that end, so... I don't ship them.  I just did, once, briefly, for enough time to write this.		Feb. '18	I left the door open to write a sequel to this, someday, if I felt inspired.  Guess what?  I haven't yet.

ARASHI NO YORU NI (ONE STORMY NIGHT)

Arashi no Kanata: Beyond the Storm

A far-ranging continuation of the series of Japanese children's books known as "One Stormy Night" by Yuichi Kimura.  It's about a goat and a wolf who unexpectedly make friends.  Like Alphys and the Queen, my original idea was for a short story that expanded first into a novella, and then a novel. And it also has 42 chapters, plus a whimsical bonus chapter.

Sep. '18 - Jul. '19

I had the privilege of having not one, but two people donate art to this series! One of them is still my occasional penpal. ALSO: Apparently after being pressured into writing seven of these books, Kimura was tired of them and said he would never return to the series... but now, soon, more will be coming out!

ANGELS WITH SCALY WINGS

I'm Going to Lose Sebastian

This genre-mashing Japanese visual novel made me feel weird! You're supposed to explore a parallel world, serve as ambassador, save your people from disaster, solve mysteries, unravel absurd time paradoxes, and date dragons. But weirdly, the one dragon I actually felt something for was one that you're not allowed to date. He's a subtle character.

May '18

The only multi-chapter story I ever posted simultaneously. (Admittedly it's just two short chapters.)

PAC-MAN

The Direction of Your Eyes

My first shipfic, I guess! I enjoy writing serious stories within strange creative constraints.  This novelette is a prime example.

Originally wrote in the early aughts; revised and posted Mar. '23 - May '23

I actually did a fair bit of research for this story!  Pac-Man has been in a lot of games, you know.  The purple prose of this story was also influenced, oddly enough, by the fiction of Ayn Rand.

THE STANLEY PARABLE

The Jim Parable

The Stanley Parable is not a work that lends itself easily to fan fiction. After I played the Ultra-Deluxe version and loved it, I asked myself, for the sake of intellectual completeness, what sort of fanfic I could even write about it if I were to write one.  Perhaps to my slight resentment, an answer did in fact take form.  At that point, I essentially shrugged and felt like I had to make it happen.  And I won't say it wasn't at least a little fun.

Jul. '22 - Mar. '23

Contains some unusual features for fan fiction, like a character talking in the Author's Notes and two chapters posted deliberately out of order.

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