Pony Fanfiction Thread

every time I see a fic like this, I get a nice fuzzy feeling because I know that my human music fic spawned an entire(albeit still very small) genre.

Hey, I can concentrate on things. Just not for more than a month or so at a time.

Augh, there's nothing worse than being stuck at work, with no pressings tasks except waiting on word from the client, and not being able to write because I do my initial drafts in open office. Especially because I already know there are things in the chapter that need reworking, so even if I couldn't dedicate too much time to hitting my stride with writing I could chip away at some edits.

Feh. Well, at any rate, the story seems to be well-received so far. Not hugely looked-at, but I knew it was niche, and chapter updates will help with that anyways.

I've run into a bit of a trick with this chapter, though. There are two chapters that will take place at Silver's home, and I know what I want one of the big points of each to be, but I'm not sure of which order.

In one chapter Silver admits that a portion of the reason she's against theater is that the very first play she ever went to see was Phantom of the Opera, when she was very young, and it scared the crud out of her, which kind of soured her opinion on it(And made her fairly embarrassed at future shows). Sweetie figures what she needs, then, is a more positive and happy example of theater, so they go rooting through Silver's parents collection of films and find an old Marx Brothers film. The two watch it while working on part of the ghost-catching plan, bonding over the fact that they both really enjoy it.

I'm actually kind of iffy on this specific plot point. The original reason for Silver not liking it was that she tried to be a in a few plays, but gets stage fright as she doesn't really like being the center of attention, and just got kinda bitter to the experience. In either case, while she's genuinely not overly fond of theater when compared to modern stuff a portion of it is posturing over her embarrassment related to theater; the main plot of that chapter will remain the same.

In the other chapter, their main bonding moment will be listening to Silver's music together, and revealing that Silver really enjoys dancing(which is why her hooves are rougher than Sweetie would have expected). This is the main sticking point, because I can play it in two different ways.

On the one hand, Silver just likes to dance because it's fun and she likes the effort it takes. She's not super good at it - though she's not bad - and she doesn't really care about form, just the energy of it. That suggests she's less concerned with her appearance and less self-absorbed than her friendship with DT would suggest, and allows for a very easy 'friendly' moment where her and Sweetie are just doing stuff together because they don't have much else to do.

On the other side of the coin, though, dancing can obviously have a lot of romantic connotations, especially if Silver and Sweetie are dancing together. It also provides a solid scenario for other romantic gestures - such as Sweetie commenting that Silver looks very pretty with her hair down, Silver getting the chance to be encouraging as she tells Sweetie that she's a better dancer than Sweetie thinks, etc.

Trouble is, the scene I currently have that gives Silver and Sweetie a good reason to be together at the house segues much better into the dancing option than the movie option(As it involves Sweetie pulling Silver out of a musical zone-out session), and the scene doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the second house-chapter.

So basically I have a bunch of individual pieces, all of which I'm confident about in their own right(Well, the music zone-out scene makes a bit of work to not feel weirdly pointless), but I'm not sure which arrangement has maximum effect, as both have flaws and benefits.

This post brought to you by the fact that it's easier for me to think things through if I put my thoughts out in text or speech, but there's noone I can talk to about this stuff

That's one of the odder quirks of fanfiction; who is being shipped is much more important than how the relationship is portrayed. One reason I don't generally read a lot of romance fanfic; I'm more interested in seeing relationship dynamics and realism, not a specific pairing.

The idea of Silver Spoon carrying a grudge over theater for that long despite having been to so many other plays seems a bit contrived. Why should a movie suddenly change her mind when all those other shows did not? It also clashes with the obvious foreshadowing in the first chapter (which is in favor of the "stage fright/embarrassment" version).

What you could do is smush the two scenes together; start with the dancing and make it something high-energy, high-contact, high-improv (like a lindy hop/swing dance). (this would also be a good excuse to explore/build trust ["I promise I won't drop you"] and have Silver be a little less abrasive while teaching). Then they are so fatigued afterwards they sit around watching a movie (perhaps Silver is the one who recommends it to illustrate the mimery and movement style of silent movies?).

I generally find characters experiencing art/entertainment together to be a very boring, difficult-to-write experience. Doubly so in prose, which can't reference or show the experience easily, and so the character's interpretations and reactions become even more in focus. By making the movie-watching the falling action of a different scene, it will make that less of an issue. It won't have to carry an entire scene and risk reader boredom.

Why not use Google Docs?

Actually, an even more pressing question: Why don't you use LibreOffice? That's where all the original developers of OpenOffice migrated to when everything got all...screwy a few years ago.

Yeah, that's a fair point. The current way I'm working it(Or, well, will be working it) is that Silver Spoon confiding in Sweetie with her embarrassing secret, and the movie works as a moment of relaxation to end off the chapter while Silver mulls over it. As far as she's concerned, Sweetie Belle has every reason to take the information and mock her for it, and the fact that she doesn't is what makes Silver start to warm up to her. The movie itself is less important than the fact that Sweetie is just trying to help Silver get over something, and being genuinely nice. Also, though its not abundantly important in this interpretation of it, Vaudeville-style theater is extremely different from regular theater, being much more casual and humorously-inclined, rather than 'ponies talking weird and being too full of themselves'.

You're definitely right about the Stage Fright version being more in line with the first chapter, and probably stronger in general. It leads into a possible good ending - my idea for how Silver eventually made things up to Sweetie involved putting on a bit of a performance(And idea that probably needs a bit of work in and of itself, but I've got time). If she mentioned her stage fright before it makes the moment stronger from Sweetie's perspective, since Silver had to work through one of her own issues to do it. Makes it seem more genuine.

The tradeoff is that it's more difficult to work in - there's plenty of reasons why Silver being afraid the Phantom of the Opera might come up, less so why her stagefright might come up. There's also the fact that, if Silver confided in being frightened of the Phantom, it gives Sweetie motivation to be extra brave in protecting Silver in the next chapter. That would happen regardless, of course, but it's another factor to draw on in pulling them closer together.

It might be possible to combine the two: Silver was in a kids theater group and they put on a kind of kiddy version of the play with Silver as Christine, but she got too into it and scared by the Phantom. Since then she's had trouble with stage acting as she's embarrassed by the memory.

I do use Docs for the editing passes, but I just prefer being able to keep a 'hard' copy of the file on my own computer. Also I should switch over to Libre, yeah, but Open Office serves me well enough that I don't have much motivation to make the change.

edited 30th May '15 4:34:25 PM by kegisak

You don't use Google Docs Offline?

Nnnno? I wasn't aware there was a way to.

Oh. Well, in Google Drive, go to the settings in the top-right corner and click "Download Drive".

There might be some more steps after that, I don't remember. I'm pretty sure it only works with Chrome, though. Either way, once it's all set up you can edit offline, and when you reconnect everything syncs up.

I love it when I come across a fic I know is going to be bad, and there is a user comment or two that sums up the problems perfectly. I can just upvote it and carry on.

@kegisak: If the entire starting point for the discussion is strategizing for their next encounter with the phantom, then you could start with them being afraid of the phantom and his lair. Then segue into the idea of fear in general and then stage fright. That might also make a good character moment for Sweetie Belle; she admits she is afraid of the phantom, but also explains that she can't let that fear stop her from protecting her sister. Could even have her reference one of the countless "Courage is not absence of fear" quotes and mean it. Silver then dismissing it (outwardly) as idealistic nonsense but taking it to heart and referencing it later would fit her character

Might take a few tries to come up with an organic progression, but that's true of any line of conversation.

edited 31st May '15 2:54:52 AM by CleverPun

Why upvote? And any specifically that that's happened for lately? I feel like I could save myself some trouble by doing that.

Hmmm... I kinda like that, actually. The bit I'm currently working on has Silver and Sweetie discussing the potential benefits of iron - specifically that Silver buterl mentioned he once knew a fellow who claimed a ghost had passed him by while he was carrying iron, but they're not sure if the ghost didn't see him, or was repelled by the iron. So they're discussing the merits of using it to hide themselves vs. using it as a weapon. Silver could suggest that stealth would be most beneficial, because they could run away if needed(Which, in addition to fitting with her fear of the deeper rooms, also makes sense because she doesn't want to actually confront the Phantom and risk catching Diamond). Sweetie could then reject the idea of running because, as frightened as she is, as you said she needs to protect her sister.

Upvote the comment, downvote the story.

It actually happened today with that fic Blissey linked above. I saw it in the featured box and the comments by Regidar and Magello saved me the effort of lambasting it.

That could work. It sounds like a lot of steps, but obviously how the conversation is written would make that less of an issue. Conversations need to sound organic, but they also need to be reasonably structured and not too meandering

oh thank god, they're actually starting to list them as "displaced stories" right upfront now.

oh damnit, and I just noticed that there's three of those damned fics in the popular stories list right now...

that entire genre is one of the reasons I wish fimfiction had tag spoilering like on derpibooru

edited 31st May '15 4:58:45 AM by Blissey1

I finally cleaned up my Favorites bookshelf. Sorted everything into a few broad genre shelves, and removed a few stories that I don't like anymore, or that I only ever favorited because the "Tracking" bookshelf hadn't been invented yet. Feels really good.

Most authors who write that crap are actually inconsistent about tagging and describing it. Case in point; several of the ones in the popular box right now don't have crossover tags, but the dalek one does. They're also littered across like five different groups. Makes downvoting them all much harder.

Speaking of crappy wish fulfillment; someone already pointed out the similarity to author appeal wish fulfillment in G1 with Megan. While doing a Wiki Walk, I realize that Dungeons & Dragons is cut from the same exact mold.

No wonder so many people like writing this junk; even professional entertainment uses the same pandering traps.

edited 31st May '15 2:40:54 PM by CleverPun

"Hard to Classify"... sounds about right.

Or, maybe it's so prevalent for a good reason, and just harmless fun, which you can just ignore if it's not something you like, rather then needing to denigrate and belittle anyone who doesn't have your own refined, perfect tastes.

My god, it's like a sunrise. Or more like...

what's an ironic version of a sunrise? The sun uppercutting the planet?

@Clever: Vicarious experience is the reason that like, 90% of entertainment exists. Lumping that all under "crappy wish fulfillment" is really an exaggeration. Yeah, some people take it too far, but wanting to use media as a way to experience something that's impossible in reality is a major aspect of why fiction exists in the first place. Wish fulfillment itself is only a negative element when an author overloads the story with so much Author Appeal that it results in other issues with the story.

edited 31st May '15 3:29:38 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Terrible plot bunny: Comedy/Random — Sometime before the events of Magic Duel, Trixie goes to a crossroads and attempts to sell her soul. The not-pony who shows up doesn't offer her a very good deal; depreciation and all that.

So, working on chapter 35 of The Book of Friendship again. Edited the scene between Scroll and Trigger Mark to make it so that Scroll doesn't like like quite as much of a jackass. Still a bit of a jackass, but I had to keep lines like:

and

edited 31st May '15 4:10:22 PM by Pannic

It may fall under the same umbrella as the cliches discussed above, but it feels nice to be tracking a popular and regularly updating fic from the very beginning for, like, the first time ever.

I think I'm having second thoughts again on my King Arthur fic. Not in that "This is stupid why am I writing this", more of how to do the final arc. At first I was going to use Discord, then I thought "Wait, he'd break it since he can do basically anything" then I thought Tirek and thought "Well he could just absorb magic, since that's his thing". I may just do some kind of rogue, mad alicorn. There's a unicorn I make mention of in one chapter called the Shattered, who went insane when his horn was broken. Maybe he somehow became an alicorn. *shrug*

Well, this new draft is another one of those ones that's rougher than usual, but it really does need to get at least a content review sooner rather than later. I also managed to get more than 2000 words done for it (even though I'm effectively out of double-writing territory, so it's technically less overall writing, but shhhhh), so I'm happy about that.

I can definitely see a possibly epic background there where that unicorn seeks alicornhood to restore his/her lost horn and possibly crossed some lines along the way. I would recommend against treating that choice so flippantly, though. Go hard on that background before you swap to using an OC villain as your biggest bad.

edited 1st Jun '15 1:02:11 AM by KuroiTsubasaTenshi