Why I Didn't Write An 'It's A Wonderful Life' Parody This Christmas. · 12:17am Mar 29th, 2014
It might be a bit late to be writing about Hearth's Warming stories, but it also still snowed a week after Winter Wrap-Up, so let's go with it. The question posed in this blog's title leads to an interesting study in how stories grow and multiply.
I wanted to write something for Christmas, and I was inspired to re-do "It's A Wonderful Life' with Quizzical Greystone in the Jimmy Stewart role. I started to outline it. Unfortunately, it got very dark very fast. I hadn't written Quiz's stories with an eye towards going back and looking at them without Quiz. Take her out of the stories and bad things happened. What happens to Twist in Thweet Geniuth if Quiz isn't there to counter the Grand Chef's machinations? Nothing I wanted to write about. Adventures In Foal Sitting was worse. Imagine the story with Diamond Tiara as the foalsitter instead of Quiz. Better yet, don't. I've come up with several scenarios, none of them pretty. Life turned tragic enough without George Bailey, there was no need to ruin Christmas by taking away Quiz.
I wrote Candy Is Magic instead. I'm glad I did. There were enough ponified versions of 'It's A Wonderful Life' this December (as well as ponified 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas' and 'A Christmas Carol' and 'The Gift of The Magi' etc.).
But I didn't stop thinking about the story. I know how to write it now. Instead of the ponies closest to Quiz, what if I concentrated on three ponies Quiz met before she left Canterlot? These would be lives Quiz effected in little ways, ways she wasn't even aware of, ways that turned out to be quite profound. It would also be fun to take a look at Quiz's early life.
Maybe next Christmas.
While considering this I realized I could change things without the trouble of having Quiz never born; for a 'What If...?' all you need is a turning point and a bad decision. I had two to choose from.
What if Princess Luna never took on Quiz as her student? Well, I couldn't answer that question, because I didn't know anything about Luna's process of picking her first student. That was unacceptable, and once this came to my attention I had to sit down and figure it out. This may someday be a prologue I'll add to Quizzical.
Turning point number two would be Quiz taking that job in the Theoretical Magic Department instead of going to Ponyville to study friendship. What would life as a calculator be like for Quiz? I actually had a pretty good idea how this would go, it just took a little expanding. This grew into a story I call "Do You Believe In Destiny?" which I promise I'll write some day.
So, I started with a story I didn't think I wanted to write, and ended up with ideas for three (four if you count Candy Is Magic). This happens to me a lot. This is part of why I never get anything done.
(On an unrelated note, "The Poetry Of The Layers" staring Quiz and Maud Pie should be out this weekend).
And now even canon's gotten in on the act!
Hey! I liked my "How The Great And Powerful Trixie Stole Hearth's Warming." It was a hoot to write (which is all I really care about, other than thousands of screaming fans writing fawning comments about my greatness... um... No, just ignore that part.)
You can always do it as a dream sequence. "It's a Punderful Life, Quiz" where our hero finds herself talking to Luna in a dream, and finds out that the Dreamscape has a 'What If' setting, but unfortunately it tends to be set on 'Horrible Pun.'
Phew , all those branching out story choices.
The creativity is real.
I can't stop think of Cake Sitting with DT.
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Worse then vicky in fairly odd parents
The idea of what Quiz's life would be like in the theoretical magic department is an interesting one. I wonder if, rather than an It's a Wonderful Life story, that one might work better as an alternate-universe story: have the real Quiz, deeply affected by her friends and experiences, shifts into a reality with a Quiz who never had those friends and experiences. Imagine Quiz trying to convey those values to the alternate Quiz.
Whichever approach (or approaches) you take, I look forward to reading your future stories about the unhypothetical projectile.
And don't forget about Quizzie Greybelle.