Twilight Sparkle vs. The ELA Chapter 2 LIVE! · 7:59pm Jan 19th, 2014
I'd like to thank everyone who's been waiting on this for their varying degrees of patience, and I hope it was worth the wait!
As always, I am indebted to a number of people for this chapter not sucking (and being posted now as opposed to taking another 5 months**). The fantastically patient Lady Grey, who almost always makes time for my ideas, insecurities, and ceaseless struggle to get certain lines just right (despite having a much busier life than I do at the moment), and whose insights into things like pacing and when I'm going overboard have been a force for whatever tightness exists in this 16,000-word chapter; my fandom friends Denim Blue and Lammy for reading the first completed draft, reassuring me that it was indeed funny, and stopping me from embarrassing myself with a number of typos as well as words that had vanished mysteriously out of their sentences; more of my fandom friends, Arcainum, Norse Pony, Obselescence, and Zay-el for their advice on individual segments/jokes I couldn't quite figure out, and mostly for putting up with my CONSTANT whining, groaning, and feelings of inadequacy in various chatrooms. And Taslin, who does not write ponyfic, for a mix of all of the above. You guys are collectively the best, and without your help and friendship I would be suffering a good deal more trepidation about posting this fundamentally silly story. (Also everyone on this list is a pretty slick writer, though some of them don't have much on fimfic or have been working more on other things lately)
I'd also like to just throw out there that I'm open to doing that DVD commentary thing again on this chapter (i.e. pick a passage or scene, I'll describe the writing process for it so far as I remember), because some bits of this have gone through SO many variations that I'm sure there are at least a couple of entertaining stories in there, and possibly writing lessons (or "what not to do"s as an author). Really I'll answer any questions except when the next chapter is coming out those involving spoilers. But y'all probably know I can't help myself responding to comments much of the time, so.
Also, points will be awarded to those who catch the couple of literary references in the chapter because just because.
On an unrelated note, I've been contemplating doing a series of blog posts on writing, because I often find writing advice kind of intimidating or want to say "Well, what about...?" when I read them, and for some reason think that if I wrote one it might not do that to somebody else. They'd mostly be about the sort of issues I'm struggling to get a grip on in my work at the moment, which probably means storytelling technique as opposed to advice on prose writing in particular, but I've not really put much thought in beyond a concept or two that I think fimfic might benefit from. Anyhoo, I may do it anyway, but does that idea excite (or, alternatively, frighten) anyone who reads my blog posts? I'd be curious to hear your thoughts, and if anyone wanted to see me talk about something in particular I'd be open to suggestions.
*Standard disclaimer/PSA (also a minorish spoiler?): Don't make Twilight's mistakes. I mean, ever. But in particular, don't assume someone's body image issues stem from how other people see them, and especially don't assume it's about wanting to attract potential romantic partners. The most important thing is for someone to be comfortable with how they themselves look, and assuming it's about sex plays into a bunch of negative things in Western culture yadda yadda THE MORE YOU KNOW.
**Honestly, I almost embarked on even more edits than I ended up doing to this but finally decided I just had to, as Chaucer would put it:
♫Lat it go
Lat it go
The devel go therwith
Lat it go
Lat it go--♫ *shot*
(But seriously any points for the Wife of Bath/Frozen joke...?)
