Pointless Blog/Need To Write My Thoughts Down · 11:26pm Apr 15th, 2013
Yeah, this is my first blog, and what better way to start it then by complaining about the very nature of the world and a common occurrence in it?
Today, several bombs went off during the Boston Marathon that killed 2 people and has left up to one hundred (perhaps more-- I'm expecting the stats to change by the end of the week.) injured. Why am I bringing this up? Truly, I have no idea; something just angered me, one reason being that someone had the intent to injure civilians and innocent people for some obscure reason. I guess you could argue that this happens all over the world everyday (and that far worse events have happened in the past), but my only question is: why? I suppose it's a childish and rhetorical question... after all, we all have a pretty good idea on why it happens. Still, why do most terrorists take out their anger on innocent people? Is there no better alternative to it? Is there ever a time to kill people just to further your own agenda? Sometimes I wish I could just log-off of the World for a minute and take a deep breath, but that's impossible.
Well, thanks for enduring my unprofessional tirade. Next time I'll make sure I have something of significant value to talk about before I interrupt how ever many of you actually follow me ("me" being some random Internet person who you probably couldn't care any less about.) with my sentimental rants.
It's a good thing they got the guys, huh.
They were muslim radicals, the sort that believe the entire world needs to belong to their religion or die. Which is a shame, I forget the name of that particular sect of muslims, but it isn't really important.
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Probably the Shi'ite. It's always shocked me to know that they've strayed so far from what Muhammad wanted. Granted, most Muslims aren't extremists, but it doesn't help when they don't attempt to purge themselves of these people who kill and use their religion as an excuse.
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Yeah, extremists are in all walks of life, it's a shame.
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Humanity's a cycle of greatness and darkness. For every great feat we accomplish, it seems there are people out there who wish to tear it down.
Too true, say are you in the process of writing a story with that intriguing mind of yours?
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Nah, although I'm having all of these weird/interesting ideas.
Unfortunately, I think my best one would be considered offensive or insensitive (and I dislike using anything with religion in it. Too easy to offend someone). Still, I think it'd be a good story to explore the horrors inflicted upon humanity, how Equestria's peaceful society would react to a survivor of it and how someone's broken faith can be restored. I'll just say my idea-- call it bad if you wish (or critique it, even though the following 2 paragraphs are butchered summaries of my idea):
A premise that I wish I could explain all the detail: A Jew who lives in the death camp at Auschwitz is transported to Equestria (how to make that non-cliche is going to take a lot of brain power.) via a cruel Nazi doctor's experiment with the idea of instantaneous transportation (teleportation). The actually plot in my mind is quite a bit different, but that's the over-simplified version.
Sounds cliche and insensitive, right? If I could explain the character's traits and his past 8 months in the camps in a paragraph (all that he's suffered, including his now-broken faith and sister's death) as well as how I plan on executing the sequences and stuff, you might actually be able to see the possibilities.
Really, that hopelessness idea came from a touching quote:
Reading that quote for the umpteenth time, it kinda reminds me of the eternal night idea... hmm...
That sounds like it could be prett chilling, so it's a great premise, the tough part would be making the story interesting afterwards, you'd have to make the interactions etc interesting. There's the person's family or his other worries to consider I guess, but mostly a lot of HiE fics have the problem of a great start and then becoming like every other HiE after two chapters.
Great example is the brony migration, sounds cool, but then the author literally makes up a bunch of nonsense and random fantasy villains for the rest of the story.
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He'll have been blinded in an experiment (let me expand on that). Interestingly enough, I'll make him have some mutual respect from the doctors in the camp (especially the Angel of Death) as the protagonist will be quite skilled in the mathematics and medical sciences (he was a talented/prodigal medical student before the Nazis forced him into the camps. The doctors at the camp learn of this through: INSERT SOME INTERESTING IDEA HERE THAT I HAVE MULTIPLE IDEAS FOR CURRENTLY). As such, Mengele (the Angel of Death I mentioned) offered him a chance to save his sister by giving up his sight (to "blind" his from his ability, as well as see if he could force the protagonist to adapt to use purely his mind instead of paper and a writing object) Unfortunately, Mengele went back on his promise and ends up killing his sister.
What does this merit a wall of text for? It means he won't have his sight when he awakens in Equestria, and will be quite blind to his predicament until I decide to either a) take the easy way out and use magic to fix it, or b) some great idea I don't have yet.
I plan on having him discuss ethics and the nature of his religion (something he no longer believe exists due to what he's suffered through) with Celestia, Luna, and Twilight as it will make for insightful (hopefully. It all depends on how good of a writer I am) dialogue and make the reader think. A Luna-Protagonist chat will be interesting, considering how she was corrupted by Nightmare Moon at a point in her life. I'd like to create a well-done scene in which she realizes what true hopelessness is, and what real evil is capable of.
...Hmm....
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Seems like you have the drive and the material, you should put it down. :D
Imo magic shoul just gradually fix his sight, I like the idea that the reason equestria has no magical healing or disease is because it does it quick enough on its own.
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That's where I meet my brick wall in the form of fear.
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Bah, join the collab writer's group, if nothing else we'll all give it a look and help you out. If you have skype add me as a contact, we use it primarily as how we chat.
Merlos The Mad, with spaces!
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I tend to suffer from Brick-wall Syndrome there, also known as being a wuss. xD
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moralcompassblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/stephen-fry-on-being-offended.jpg
Who cares if someone is offended, they don't have to read it.
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Not to, you know, butt in on a fifteen week old conversation, buuuttt...
I think having characters discuss philosophy and ideas is actually kind of boring and not so great story telling (could be wrong here); rather, I think a story makes us think the most when it presents an idea, which is woven into the events and characters themselves. Like, instead of having characters talking about whether vigilantism is good or bad, and perhaps coming to the conclusion that it's bad, you have a story where a group of vigilantes do everything in their power to be a force for good, but end up failing, and making things worse, thus showing the reader that, see, vigilantism is bad.
Whenever you want to make a reader think, just tossing ideas out there won't really do the job, I don't think. You have to work them into the story. Think about the books or fanfics or movies that really moved you or spoke to you or made you think. Was it because the characters had an in depth, thoughtful discussion, or was it more from the series of events and the characters' actions and feelings which all worked together to make some kind of point, or produce an overall feeling in you, or an impression about life?
Anyway, I'm still learning how to do this, because it sure as heck ain't easy to understand, let alone do.
So yeah. Woo hoo writing!
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Heh, this is a rather old idea (although one I still plan on doing if I ever figure it all out; currently have a more recent and tangible idea that I've actually written a whopping *prepare yourself* 260 words for. Guess you have to start somewhere?) and very basic, although I must say I agree with you. I mainly wanted the character to assuage some of Luna's personal problems such as the guilt of being Nightmare Moon (something the ponies see as evil) but then having her realize that she never really was evil at all, but just misguided in her actions and used (some of the MLP comics talked about some dark shadow-creatures that fed off of her jealousy and guided her to make the mistakes she did.) whereas a truly evil figure is X or Y (was trying to think of a very good idea that would stick with the reader instead of the obvious answer.) while doing what you just said (some underlying theme that would come out at the end). Sorry for the lack of cohesiveness in this response (multi-tasking atm), I'll try and respond a lot better if you have any more questions. (yeahhhh, that plot is really cliche. I should feel bad.)
Very good comment you have there, I must say.
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Don't feel bad! If anything, feel good; do you know how many people out there have cliche plots and have no clue about it? If you can recognize that something is cliche then that's great, because it means you can do something about it.
And honestly I don't think it's that cliche--it's hard to tell, in fact, since there isn't that much to go on. And that's okay! Don't worry about apologizing for not making your description cohesive--don't be embarrassed. It doesn't make you look bad, at least not in my eyes. For one thing, I'm in the exact same place with many of my ideas. Go to my user page and you'll notice I haven't published a single story here yet. I have lots of plans, but they're all in the works. So don't put yourself down man, we're all at different levels.
Anyway, you could certainly have him assuage luna's guilt, and that would probably be something that happens over a longer period of time. Like, lots of talks, as well as other kinds of general interaction and whatnot.
Heck to the yeah you gotta start somewhere! Who cares if it's only 260 words? That's 260 more than zero. Keep going with it! And I'm curious, what's it about anyway??
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The observations of One destined to watch, but cursed to not be able to do anything, lest He be punished for his transgressions. Somewhat cryptic? Yes. Necessary to understand it? Yes.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13d2SUBWW-p94e-2deukGDPcmH-j0OiB9kqKE1i5VKnA/edit?usp=sharing
That is what I have so far, and I'll let you see if you can figure out what it'll be about. Seriously, I want to see if it's too coherent and obvious at the start, or if it causes the reader to become curious or instantly lose interest.
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Awesome, I'll give it a read!
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Try not to over-think it. Makes the story even more depressing, lol.