“Daring Do is awesome! She is totally as cool as Sky Walker!”
I grinned, “I'm not saying she isn't a good character, just that she could use some more character building rather than just running around escaping from enemies and getting the artifact in the end. She is clearly brave and intelligent as well as compassionate like shown in the third book, but she is still somewhat flat as a character.” I explained before I shrugged, “Not saying she needs a long lost love interest or something cliché like that, but something that brings her out of the adventuring heroine stereotype wouldn't hurt.”
Rainbow looked annoyed as she put her sandwich down, “Like what?”
“I don't know. Maybe... a friendly rival.” I finally said, considering it, “somepony she could play off of that wasn't an enemy. Somepony that could actually get the better of her at times.”
The Pegasus seemed to consider that, “...I guess...”
Shaking my head, I lifted my sandwich in my magic and took a bite. Mmm, cheese and tomatoes.
“So what are you writing next?” Rainbow asked before taking a swig of her cider. She had been quite happy when we managed to sneak some from the kitchens.
I better watch that by the way or I might end up getting banned. The chefs had started to look mildly annoyed about it.
It just felt wrong to kick the entire kitchen into gear simply because I wanted a snack and then wait a hour for them to get it just right.
Considering her question, I shrugged again, “I'm not certain. The Jedi series is done. Perhaps something completely different. Maybe... I don't know. Have something of a writer's block at the moment.”
I actually felt like writing something involving a bit more romance. The problem was how much people would read into it. Maybe publish it under a pen name or something. Without the Internet that kind of thing actually did something.
“What does that even mean?”
I grinned at that, “Never tried writing anything, have you?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head, “No way. I'm no egghead.” before her eyes went wide, “Not that you are!”
Raising a eyebrow at that, I took a sip from my own cider, “That's where you are wrong.” I finally said with a grin, “I am a massive nerd.”
“Whaaa!?”
“You don't need to sound so surprised. Rainbow, I spend most of my time reading, writing or trying to think of if character A could take character B in a fight. I have notes and calculations about that kind of stuff. I'm a massive nerd.”
She looked somewhat confused, “But... awesome stories...”
“That have very little to do with being a nerd or not.” I explained, “And all to do with imagination. Anypony can think up stories, the rest is simply practice.”
“Practice?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking dubious, “What is there to practice? You just write, right?”
“That's a good place to start.” I agreed before leaning forward, “Here is a secret all authors know though: The first thing you write is going to completely suck. So is the second, third, forth... and so on and so on.”
Rainbow blinked in surprise, “What?”
“It's true. It's going to be baaaad. So, so very bad. Maybe not the story itself, but the spelling, grammar, structure... so, so absolutely horrible.” I chuckled, “You should read some of my first... actually, no you shouldn't. Your brain might melt from how stupid it was. The trick to getting better is that you get somepony to read it and be honest about it. Listen to what they say you did wrong and then try to do better the next time.”
“Huh. Like my tricks.”
“Tricks?”
She nodded with a grin, “I'm going to be a member of the Wonderbolts! I'm the best flyer in Ponyville!”
“Wonderbolts, huh? Cool, I saw a performance a while ago. They were great... if you are good enough to join that squad, it will likely be me that asks for an autograph in a while.” I said before I grinned as well, “Speaking of which, do you have your book?”
“Huh? Oh! Yeah!”
She scrambled and pulled her book from her bag so I could sign it with a 'All the luck to the future Wonderbolt Captain Rainbow Dash from Blank Page' before I handed it back as the door behind me opened.
“Page, is this where you are?”
Rainbow bowed deeply and I jumped of the couch to trot over, “Good Morning, Luna. Sleep well?” I asked as I gave her a small nuzzle.
“I did. How did the book signing go?” She asked before she smiled, “Greetings on this fine day, Rainbow Dash. There is no need for such formalities.”
“Went good. A couple of hundred turned up... I ran into Twilight and Rainbow here at the end and invited them back to the castle for some dinner.” I explained before I whispered, “I also revealed to Twilight that your sister might appreciate a excuse to avoid her paperwork today. I volunteered to entertain Rainbow.”
Luna smiled and gave my ear a nuzzle, “Sneaky.” she whispered back before walking over to steal my sandwich, “I take it you enjoyed Page's latest book, Rainbow Dash?”
Damn it, Luna! That was my dinner!
The Pegasus still looked somewhat surprised at our casual greeting but she nodded with a grin, “It was pretty damn awesome!”
Luna nodded and put my sandwich back down, but not before stealing half of my tomatoes, “Well said! I still maintain that the second book was the best in the series.”
“Totally!”
Am I getting a sense of a future Daring Doo vs Indiana Jones shipping coming in the near future?
6768485 Wait, he could write Indiana Jones, but I think he'd avoid it, since it would be seen as an attempt at trying to one up A.K. Yearling, and might end up loosing the competition against the Daring Doo books that are already fairly popular.
I love the personal little details; Luna stealing his sandwich (my wife does this all the time), Page talking to RD about writing, and the subtle nudge to push Twilight and Celestia together.
Keep it coming!
Nag stole mah sammich!
That have very little to do with being a nerd or not
That has very
I second that!
All my yes!
Yep, so true, I never got to publishing my story on this website because I kept on rewriting my rewrites that has been rewriten so many times.
And I'm still stuck on 3 chapters because as I keep improving through practice the more shit my story looks to myself. I rewrote my first chapter a month ago and decided to return to it, and what I saw was shit on my screen
*flash back 1 month ago*
This is gold, I put a lot of effort into this
*now*
What is this.... What happened to it...? I... I wrote this....?
Yep, so this is what it's like to be a beginner author trying to improve
6785331
I read somewhere "That an artist is only going to be truly satisfied with three percent of their work. The rest is seen as a constant work in progress, even when it is finished."
Not sure if that's exactly what is said though, somewhere along those lines.
And i also got the same vibe from my old work. I just think 'what the heck is this crap' and wince hard when i look at my old work from two or three years ago.
6792868
Actually i'd say the rest is seen as anger, disappointment, and frustration. At least for people who use paint, pen, or colored pencils. Digital artist's have it easy in ways i wish i did. They fuck up on a finger 150 times? No biggy, that's what the undo button is for. Pen and pencil? One fuck up and that hand will forever look like it was mauled by a bear trap. Paint? One fuck up can ruin the entire thing. Makes me kinda sad to know that digital art will always look better than my pencil art, it will always look fresh as the day it was made. And the potential for eyes, I will never be able to match that on paper. That being said, i am proud to be able to draw as good as i can, especially when i see adults who suck at drawing (my old cursive teacher could do stick figures an ovoids, but that was about it).
Aahhh, the pains we artists get to suffer.
6872386
Yeah, but the only way to alleviate that anger, disappointment and frustration is to keep working that art
6792868
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
―not actually Leonardo da Vinci, apparently, but still a great quote
God fucking damn it! I can't figure it out!!! How did Boba Fett and Jabba translate into anything that works!?!?! Aaaaauuuurrrghhghhghghgh!!!
6872386
When ever I try to draw something, ten minutes later I look at it again and I think: "What the hell is that?"
6872386 You know what's harder? Black pen. That's fun to fuck up with.
still not sure if I could manage to write good in english with my bad understanding for some grammar stuff, and sadly I haven't tried to do something like that for a long time, which mostly makes me feel like I wouldn't get pretty good at it anyway anymore.
7459430 *flashbacks*
To be honest, they aren't that bad in hindsight, but at the time, and for a much younger mind, it was practically the end of the world.
Man, that writing talk takes me back to the first work of fiction I remember writing... in third grade, I wrote a series about a dragon whose body parts spontaneously fell off and so he got robotic replacements. And it was very, very bad.
Interesting that Page actually thought about the media before just leaving- dodged a bullet there.
As someone who has written several dozen trashed stories, I can agree with Blank Page's writing advice. My most recent (ongoing) attempt seems to be the best (and everyone I've had alpha/beta read the first two chapters love it so far), but it won't even be released until I'm sure I'll finish it, since I have problems with procrastinating things until I lose interest.
To be fair, this might be my best attempt because it's set in a pre-established world (mlp) that I have insane amounts of knowledge on...
Huh. Okay. Maybe I should post my shit stories I wrote in my own time instead of not showing them.... Good writing advice....
How you get so big eating food of this kind?
8638849
You should do that.
Unlike me who cannot handle the embarrassment.
8699438
Ironic that she took his 'dinner'. Yoda did the same thing when he met Luke. Coincidence?
Should totally pick Cadance's shipping web for some material.
Twiliy x Tia =
RD the nerdy athlet
Nerdgasm complete
Can't argue with her there.
Its true, after 5 years my stories still need improvement. Unfortunately german and english are quite different in writing rules...
Sooo... I wonder if Celestia plays the long game, the many sequels make it feel like it.
11634358
Oh I know that to well, especially when it comes to capitalazing. Though, for some fucked up reason it's easier for me to write in englisch then in german. Especially when it comes to ponies, to many things that have no good translation, or none at all.
Power levels are bullshit... The Author will let win who they want to win. That said... making it interesting and captivating is more important than the victory in itself in many stories I read.
The reason there was no romance or friendly rival to play her character against was that her stories were semiautobiographical. Of course, this was well before Rainbow found out that A. K. Yearling was Daring Do, and Page wouldn't have any understanding why there wasn't such, either.
OTOH, Dr. Caballeron and Ahuizotl were her not-so-friendly rivals, so there is that.
11894172
Not really. A shit-writer could have an inexperienced crook outthink and outfight Batman and Superman simply because... and you'll get a crap story as a result.
But to believably sell the story, a better writer would have a logical reason to either up the crook's power level (including raw strength and/or intellect powers), or severely knock down the heroes' levels, or both--at least until Clark and Bruce can figure out how to overcome the crook's advantage--again, with a logical basis for that development.