A sudden flash of horrifying self awareness.

We're like little girls putting the dolls through scenarios.

Go read any fic that has a long back-and-forth of dialogue with very little action. Imagine that it's being performed by brushables jumping up and down to "talk" in funny voices.

brb soul searching.

Comments

[Duck_Armada]

Awesome.

[nemryn]

I know, right?

Anyway, this is one of the reasons why I don't think sticking strictly to canon is super-important: making up your own stories is exactly what you're supposed to do with these characters, and it's how Lauren Faust got here from G1.

Also, this seems like it could be a good tool for helping break writer's block. If you get stuck, grab some brushables and start acting things out, and see where that takes you.

[Dconstructed Reconstruct]

You just ruined part of me right there Tactical...

[bookplayer]

Been there, done that.

I can promise you my story lines are better now. There's a lot less infidelity than I used to use with my ponies. Someone was always falling in love with their wife's twin sister or something.

Disturbingly, about the same amount of sex.

[TacticalRainboom]

2016034

Are you talking about when you were little?

Did your siblings watch soap operas around you or something?

[bookplayer]

2016044
Yeah, when I was a little girl, about 7 or 8. And I didn't really see soap operas. Actually, thinking about it, I suspect it had a lot to do with Sweet Valley High books, which I started reading around that time.

[Applejinx]

…and? Your point being?

[TacticalRainboom]

2016062
2015903
2016034

I said it because feeling that way has actually made it hard to write dialogue. The slightest slip, and they start to look and sound like that in my mind instead of like professional tier cartoons.

[bookplayer]

2016104
Well, I'll admit that bad dialogue (and characters doing something just for plot device reasons) makes me think of that. Especially when the whole fic is OOC or contrived.

I think the actions are more important than every bit of dialogue being right. If the dialogue gives me the idea, my suspension of disbelief will kick in. But when the story is about something like Rainbow Dash falling in love with someone's self-insert, I start to envision a guy with his pony toys making them talk to each other.

[SoloBrony]

I think perhaps it is more accurate to say that little kids playing with their toys in this fashion are taking their first steps towards what authors do. The fact that these two behaviors lie on a continuum doesn't actually change anything about either of them...

It's like a professional aircraft designer feeling embarrassed because kids design and make model planes. The sudden realization, "I'm just a kid doodling their ideas for cool planes!"

We're basically just larger, more mature kids with more developed skillsets, doing some of the same things we did before in a more highly refined fashion. This should not be cause for alarm.

[TacticalRainboom]

2016216

Interesting to compare our advances to those of someone turning play into something else via technical knowledge. It suggests at least implicitly that what we learn about fiction and how to do it right are "technical skills" in their way.

Anyway, I thought of this because of what I said in my other comment. And also because, like Garnot down there, we sometimes forget about this kind of thing.

Although I gotta say that I think boys do the "dolls talking to each other" thing too. Like Andy in Toy Story.