Saddlesoap Opera is a Canadian Brony who loves to write and read fiction of nearly all kinds.
I FINALLY MADE IT, EVERYPONY! 
A good ten years and change after reaching 500 followers, a little bump from participating in the BarCast's finale episode tipped me over the top into four digits. Thanks so much to all the readers who've chosen to keep an eye on my sporadic fic production over the years - expect more of that to come soon...
This is absolutely reprehensible. I never thought I would regret not having a wider social media presence, but here we are. Any of my followers who haunt Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Discords, anywhere ... please spread the word and push for action. Scribbler is a brilliant content creator and a true gem of a person.
NOTE: As in past trips to conventions, I will be wearing distinctive Saddlesoap Opera Cutie Mark t-shirts, with the mark printed front and back, when I attend BronyCon in coming days. Keep an eye out for those drama masks, and feel free to come up and say hello!
Would you be interested in owning a printed-out, bound, hardcopy, dead-tree edition of History Repeats, and/or do you plan to attend the upcoming final BronyCon this summer?
Warm holiday wishes to my fellow Bronies, and special thanks to my fellow writing pals, my loyal readers, and to all those who may be stopping by my page for the first time. May the cold times bring warm good cheer to you all.
Hello, assorted readers and watchers on the world wide intersquish!
I am once more in a responsive mood, and am opening the floor to questions about my views on FiM Characters, Episodes and Settings, and the art and craft of Fic Writing. By all means, ask and I shall strive to answer. : )
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Are you of the opinion that Applejack is a background character?
Whatcha been doing (besides writing) to keep yourself occupied during the longest pony drought yet to hit us?
What do you have to say to an author(me) who is stuck? Any tips?
What's your personal opinion on clop?
How do you work on your stories?
when is the next installment of Pony Psychology coming ?
What made you choose My Little Pony as a platform to write about?
aka; why write about ponies?
The inevitable question, what's your take on all the season 3 developments? (Good Guy Discord, Alicorn Twilight, Wonderbolt Dash)
Have you written anything outside the pony world yet? If not, do you have any plans to?
A serious one this time.
You once mentioned that your army of editors and/or prereaders is quite limited (although it might have changed since then). On the other hoof, the greater the writer, the more they know how important it is to edit and proofread their work before making it available for the masses.
) what keeps you going?
Hence my question: do you do some of of the editing/revising of your writing yourself? If so (which is the actual question
I won't lie here: I'm secretly hoping to hear an advice that I could use myself to force me to start doing my editing or at least make it less of a torture.
You see (with all due respect to writers of your caliber, to whom I can't be compared in the slightest 
), as much as I enjoy the process of writing, I simply despise the moment when the story (regardless of whether it's long or short, or it's just a single chapter) is completed and there comes the time to edit the crap out of it.
), waiting to be edited, proofread and generally made readable.
So, right now I have 4 unedited stories dying of old age somewhere on my disk (or even worse - still on the ancient paper medium
Once again: what kind of advice can you give to a writer who struggles with editing? Any tips (or words from the wise) on how to force myself to do it? What keeps you going?
I mean... You know... If it's not a trademark secret.
If Lex Luthor's real estate scheme from Superman Returns were on the verge of success, and the only way to stop it was to write a crossover RIGHT NOW, what would the crossover be?
What inspired you to write the Pony Psychology series and Secrets and Lies? Or to be more specific what inspired you to deconstruct the Mane 6 psychologically in you stories?
)
Seriously while it was a great story I was kind of shocked at the things Twilight and her friends had to endure.(Even though it made the ending more happier and cheerful.
Are we getting a sequel to "Secrets and Lies" soon? (Unless "History Repeats" is in the same continuity I'm waiting for it to complete before I start reading)
What's your favourite story on fimfic, yours or otherwise?
1017866
Are you of the opinion that Applejack is a background character?
While she might get less overt attention than some of her pals, AJ is still leaps and bounds ahead of any backgrounder. Fanon aside, even speaking characters like Mayor Mare don't come anywhere near to her screentime and number of lines when you look at the show as a whole.
1017878
Whatcha been doing (besides writing) to keep yourself occupied during the longest pony drought yet to hit us?
I have been chatting about writing with some fellow fic-smiths, and catching up on some other shows I let fall by the wayside. Algebraic!
1017908
What do you have to say to an author(me) who is stuck? Any tips?
Don't agonize. Punishing yourself produces minimal progress. Try writing a different scene -- you don't have to write a story "in chronological order". If a different moment inspires you, go there first. And if you have to, get away from the screen and take a walk, watch something goofy or action-packed or otherwise mindless, or do something else that is NON-fic-related. Your brain is not an infinite generator - it needs time to recharge now and then. But always - ALWAYS - keep a way to jot down ideas handy.
1017929
What's your personal opinion on clop?
There has been erotica as long as there has been fiction. As long as it is clearly marked and kept away from the prying eyes of minors, I don't have any strong feelings about it one way or t'other. However, I don't think that adult content absolves one of the expectation of producing competent writing. Whatever you write.. write well.
1017954
How do you work on your stories?
In a word? Intermittently. I get flashes of inspiration and smash out hundreds of words, and then find the tank empty once more. Sometimes I am totally in the zone, sometimes I am just unable to string two words together. BUT, when the writing-bug gets me, I clear away distractions, buckle down, and DO IT. Divided attention is divided in quality as well as quantity.
1019314
Arggh! Why didn't I think of that! I'll do that tomorrow. Forget about this one scene and go back to it later. I do have the next scene ready to flow.
1017980
When is the next installment of Pony Psychology coming ?
I thought long and hard about continuing the Pony Psychology storyline after Secrets and Lies, but my biggest concern was pushing my luck. I have been IMMENSELY lucky in not getting my fanon jossed in any heavy way by the episodes, and trying to keep that streak going started to feel like tempting fate. As it stand, S1 -> Psych -> S2 -> Secrets makes for a tidy little set. One might consider History Repeats to be the beginning of another dramatic/epic/season-spanning storyline, however, if S4 is kind to it...
1017992
What made you choose My Little Pony as a platform to write about? (aka; why write about ponies?)
I have been a story-writer for as long as I have known how to write, but I had never written fanfic before MLP FiM. I think the simplest reason why is "depth". The Mane Six convinced me there could be something going on in their lives and in their heads that the show didn't or couldn't cover - the child-friendly setting mixed with the unusually deep (for a cartoon) characterization to leave ROOM for fanfic. In addition, I am a sucker for fantasy settings with classical mythology references.
1017995
The inevitable question, what's your take on all the season 3 developments? (Good Guy Discord, Alicorn Twilight, Wonderbolt Dash)
Well, for starters, I think most of those developments are only partial ones.
To me, Discord is less a "Good Guy" than a "Less Evil Guy". He started out as a MONSTER who tossed out Mind Rape and Body Horror like party favours and laughed at total despair. Even a significant amount of personal growth still leaves him a major bastard in my book, and not to be trusted until he does more than "kindly" fix a problem HE CAUSED. "He stopped punching me! He's a good guy!" doesn't fly with me.
Since Word of God says Twi isn't going to ditch her friends and isn't immortal like the Royal Sisters, Alicorn Twilight is really more... Twilight with Wings. Her Princess rank may result in some interesting what-have-you, but I reserve judgment until I see what S4 does with this plotline.
Dash is CLEARLY not a Wonderbolt now. She may have made it through bootcamp or whatever, but since she isn't spending all her time in a spandex jumpsuit, it's pretty clear she's just "on their radar". Of course, that would have been more concrete if Williams had seen fit to actually write an ending for the Academy episode (see my blog post about it).
1018030
Have you written anything outside the pony world yet? If not, do you have any plans to?
I have written about a quarter million words of non-pony fiction, including two successful jabs at National Novel Writing Month. I write as a hobby, and I would love to someday make it into more than that... but then, who wouldn't?
1018059
(truncated to:) Do you do some of the editing/revising of your writing yourself? If so, what keeps you going?
I certainly do a lot of editing on my own, as well as recruiting awesome and hardworking friends to help out. However, the best advice I could offer in this respect is that your story is NOT done when you type The End. Editing is an integral part of the process. You might as well suggest a movie is ready to screen before all the cuts and reshoots and special effects and colour correction and sound and music and and and... see what I mean? As Antoine de Saint-Exupery said: "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
1018286
If Lex Luthor's real estate scheme from Superman Returns were on the verge of success, and the only way to stop it was to write a crossover RIGHT NOW, what would the crossover be?
Adventure Time, Watership Down, or Hellraiser.
1019158
What inspired you to write the Pony Psychology series and Secrets and Lies? Or to be more specific what inspired you to deconstruct the Mane 6 psychologically in you stories?
Fluttershy's rage moment in The Best Night Ever started it all.
She was so furious, so stressed and obsessed and explosive, during that evening, that it suggested to me that she carried immense buried tension and frustration. That, combined with her crippling social anxiety and her painful lack of self-esteem, made me look at the Mane Six from a psychological perspective. (...also, I have an Honours in Social Psychology, so there's that, too)
1019170
Are we getting a sequel to "Secrets and Lies" soon?
As stated above, History Repeats is something of a spiritual successor, while beginning its own plotline. It features the same drama, emotional depth, and large-scale story as the Pony Psychology continuity, and you will see a few nods to my own fanon concepts in there, but it's more like a fresh approach to the same concept.
What's your favourite story on fimfic, yours or otherwise?
I am currently very fond of The Last Human by Patchwork Poltergeist - especially since I helped urge Patchwork to get it started in the first place! - but sadly I just don't have the time to read as much fic as I would like to. There is so much talent on this site, and my daily schedule scarcely allows me time to write my OWN stuff, let alone comfortably browse thousands of other stories. It's a sad state of affairs, but there's little to be done.
As for "otherwise," I am a big fan of the works of Clive Barker, Christopher Moore, Stephen King, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Jeff Lindsay, and Chuck Palahniuk, to name a few.
Secrets and Lies was the first fanfic (mind you, that's fanfic, as in fan fiction in general) I have ever read. I absolutely love your writing style and you were a huge influence in my transition from avid reader to blooming writer. That said, do you find it strange in any way that I consider you a role model?
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...You were a huge influence in my transition from avid reader to blooming writer. That said, do you find it strange in any way that I consider you a role model?
Strange? I don't think so, no. Flattering? Certainly.
Inspiring others to create is a wonderful thing, and no other praise gives me quite the same warm fuzzies as hearing that I have, in some modest way, helped make the world a more creative place. Thank you much!