Informal Interview · 6:59am Apr 30th, 2014
I got a sort of informal interview from someone who wanted writing advice. Here, let me post it up for you all to see, since it relates to Pirene and Them and stuff.
I'm not naming the interviewer, unless he'd like to out himself.
In regards to Them
Though you wrote much of it, you weren't the original creator of Them. How did you end up working on it? The first three chapters were interesting enough, but they were pretty vague. Or was that what lured you to it?
I was around when Chaotic Dreams came up with the idea and I was somewhat disappointed with how he was writing it, but I was resigned. Then he decided to quit pony and I snapped it up like a piranha on his last meal.
Motive and opportunity. Clap me in irons.
What inspired your plot? It was absolutely nuts-- in the best way possible.
A combination of things, including, but not limited to, The Adjustment Bureau, the story of Adam and Eve, the movie Pi, and much of the mythology surrounding dreams in Hindu mythology.
What iterations did that plot go through?
A couple. I always knew that, for example, Rainbow Dash's conflict would grow and encompass the entire universe, because we were dealing with nothing less than the entire universe in the concept. However, there were aspects of it that hadn't solidified.
The other version I was going with was to have Hawa be the literal Eve (indeed, Hawa is Hebrew for Eve), and that stallion be the literal Adam. The flaming sword which turns every which way should be an obvious clue for that.
However, I've always wanted to tell the story of recursive dream spaces rising up to infinity, and Pi provided the needed impetus for that.
How did you create your semi-complex history behind the nature of Equestria and of the thousand dreamers?
A thousand multi-colored petals represents the Crown Chakra, through which (according to the mystical beliefs of certain Eastern cultures, but not me) consciousness flows from the universe and is distributed throughout the other chakras to generate a thinking person. The universe, too, has chakras according to some systems, and so therefore Rainbow Dash is a petal of the Crown Chakra, one of a thousand, and is part of a never-ending cycle.
The idea that the cycle would, and, indeed, must end comes from Buddhism. Buddhism teaches that the wheel of life is suffering and that the only escape from suffering is to end the cycle.
What sort of outline did you use and how did you form it?
I won't say I wing it, exactly, but I have a good feel for staging out acts and scenes and plot points that guides me. I had a course in mind and I followed it - it's all about hitting key points and meeting key characters along the way.
How involved was Chaotic in your continuation of his story? If I might ask, what sort of conversations did you two have?
He was involved, mostly as a sounding board for me. He read all of the chapters before I posted them. We had a lot of conversations hashing out what the world beyond the Door was going to look like, the nature of the Book, and of Them themselves. I ultimately came up with that, but he helped by being there to bounce ideas off of.
What drove you to complete Them?
I had finished Perchance to Dream and I wanted to finish a novel-length story. I also liked the story and wanted to see it done.
What did you aim to do with Them?
Chiefly, to tell a story about identity. Secondly, to tell a story about metaphysics. Thirdly, to sharpen my skills.
Where did you take cues from in your forming of the world? You passed by a science fiction world that was unlike anything I've ever seen before, you brought us through an undead realm and hinted of a once-great civilization. And it all hooked together wonderfully! Each part had a distinct, crucial purpose. HOW did you do that, HOW did you plan that out?
I can actually name my most important sources for both of those, but I think I can take some credit of my own. 
In terms of aesthetics, the undead dream world was based off King's Quest VI and the land of the dead, but only to a point. It was largely based on my understanding of Egyptian mythology and their funerary rites and afterlife. It was meant to be a place of faded, cheated glory, where the dead weep in droves because the world has no place for them.
Also in terms of aesthetics, the science fiction world was based off the Future in Chrono Trigger. However, you're quite right in noticing it possessed a very specific identity and purpose. This was meant to be a world where the consequences of unlimited energy and power coalesce into an unstoppable machine of destruction. This it bears in common with the film Forbidden Planet, where a race of advanced beings discovered how to free themselves from instrumentality and were, overnight, destroyed, though it is again much more than that as well. It's also the world where Hawa attempted a direct intervention, and it shaped her entire outlook on governing the universe because she was directly responsible for that end. Brains in jars preserving the last consciousness of a race in stasis, where true death and release is impossible.
They're both forms of horror - failed experiments, leftovers from Hawa's ill-fated attempts to find a solution to the Wheel of Suffering.
Then, of course, there's the Tabula Rasa they encountered after that. I'll let Alan Wake speak for me, there: it's not a lake, it's an ocean.
In regards to Through the Well of Pirene
As with the former, what drove you to write this story?
I wanted to write a Human in Equestria story that didn't suck. That's the first thought.
The second was that I'd had ideas, notions born out of one of my favorite childhood films, The Labyrinth, among others, which spelled out a centaur and a girl and her little sister who destroys everything.
Sometimes, good ideas drive themselves to market.
Mid-story you eventually mentioned the Tree of Harmony, and you appear to have a decent set of plans for it. How did you adjust your plot midstream to do so? (It's preferable if you can answer this without spoilers, but no harm if you're unable to.
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The timing couldn't have been better. I was going to send them to the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters anyway, and the first episode of Season 4 came out while I was still working on the chapters were Daphne first met Twilight Sparkle.
The Tree of Harmony fit my plans even better than I could have hoped, too, because it essentially gave me a rock-solid MacGuffin that explained how the worlds were split into two. I'd already had a way, but this one was much better.
You mentioned that Amelia was originally going to be a silly foil. What made you change her so radically? When did you decide to do so? Who did you first plan to be your antagonist? During what writing stage did you decide to change her role?
Amelia was always going to be the primary antagonist. Nessus was going to be her vehicle to it, but Amelia was always going to be the ultimate threat.
I know very clearly how and why and when - it was while I was conceiving and writing the first chapter. The essential problem was that a child who is either too young or too dim-witted to understand what they're doing is really not a good foil. There's nothing there in terms of character - it's just innocence run amok, which is little better than man vs. nature. Worse, the fact that I was writing a first person story meant that I couldn't give a perspective to such a character without it being completely absurd, or using a third party who wouldn't have been as interesting.
Amelia needed to be a villain. She needed to well and truly be one for this story to work.
The second primary villain, the Morgwyn, grew out of a need to symbolize and galvanize her descent. It is her dark twin, in a way.
As with the former, how did you form this one's mythos? I understand that much of it is derived from real-world religion, but you added quite your own spin on it.
Everything begins with a seed, and the seed of this one was the idea that just over the hill, if you looked hard enough, you could find a thin little trail that took you from one world to another. It's the fundamental premise of fairy tales throughout history.
As it grew, it took on more aspects. The faeries grew up to have a society, their society had a descent from an ancient source. The Equestrians had to come from somewhere, so I recast the people the Greeks thought were the Titans and made them into ancient alicorns. Alicorns became the equine equivalent of divine heroes.
The Bridle, always a part of the story from the beginning, became a tool of oppression, a gift given humanity to let them rise above their neighbors, "and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
Has a rather sinister ring when you consider that all the animals in Equestria are intelligent species.
As with the former, what drove you to write this story?
The story did. Also my desire to publish a proper fantasy novel series.
How did you decide what scenes were just needed? You spent over ten thousand words (I think) describing the reunion between Leit Motif and Daphne and that was perfect. You didn't drag on, you didn't rush through. You mended the wounds between those characters-- but only a bit. Just enough to make them trust each other and want to love each other as best friends again.
Everything I learned about narrative, timing, character, and how these things fit together I learned by watching others do it. I've read dozens of pulp science fiction and fantasy novels and watched hundreds of films. There's a hidden soundtrack to every scene that is a key part of its pacing and timing.
When you're writing, don't fight the rhythm.
Right about here I found that you actually did an interview on this story, and during that answered many of my questions. In light of that, I have a few others.
You mentioned writing a 'lore bible' for the story. How did you do that? I'm not sure if this is presumpous, but could I perhaps see a few paragraphs from it so I can get a feel for what you did?
Distressingly late is what. A lot of elements had to come together for the bible to be viable. I knew I needed to put it down, though, especially as I brought others into the project and as I needed to check up on certain facts of my own. It's also a bit woefully incomplete, so I'll need to refine it, but, here, let me give you a tidbit:
Timeline
Age of Creation
The period following the creation of the world by the titans. The non-divine peoples were at their most childlike, and had no set form, flitting about as curious part-spirit beings. Creation had no set order, either, vacillating between the whims of the titans. Ended in the Titanomachy
Gods are not real entities so much as they are archetypical expressions that people can call upon and unite with to perform tasks of incredible power
True Monsters - There are numerous creatures who exist outside normal laws, such as the Morgwyn and other non-mortal, non-divine creations of the titans. Cyclops, Frost and Fire giants, the Hekatonkhires, so on.
Age of Heroes
The period following the war of the gods. The Titans were bound into the shape of the 9 worlds and Creation was ordered.
The races of the world were settled into their specific forms, but the Gods still lived among them. Heroes are mortals containing a significant portion of divine essence - demigods.
At this point, humankind was still innately magical. In this age, all animals had some amount of intelligence and could speak, though usually just their own language.
All peoples are able to call upon the gods for magical gifts (Sacred Magic) fairly readily, and many wonders are performed
Demigods
Daemons (Mostly spirit, usually heroes who have died or dead people who have gained some fragment of the divine). This includes Nymphs.
Heroes (Mostly flesh, either born or made (exposure to divine power, claiming of divine principles, or other tasks)
Sacred Magic
A process by which anyone could access some measure of divine/spiritual power by appealing to supernatural forces. It could be invested in people and things
And for general questions in regards to writing .. er .. in general
You dig into the heads of your characters. Through that you make them into real people. How do you do that? I see a plot, then I see people to act it out. I develop those people, but to the extent that the plot requires and no more. How do I know these people and make them more than tools to be used to drive a point or plot? How do I know them so well to write their voices, to know their intimate thoughts and how they see the world in a way that's not my own? I think this could be the grand issue behind my writing, behind my plotting. I have a story that I need to tell, but I tell it and nothing more, and as a consequence it works but it's not alive.
I might blame my roleplaying days, but it's more than that. It's more than just my watching others do it, too.
I think the first step to becoming a really good writer is to live each character's life. Every person has a beginning - both their nature and their context and time are set there - and they all have key events that shape them. They all have desires, wants, and needs. They all come to an end, somewhere, or else, as in Them, find a way to continue on but end for the sake of narrative.
Forgetting any portion of that, letting any character's actions be tied to a cliche outside of their own experience, is what makes a character fall flat.
You mentioned that it's crucial to find a good editor. How does one go about that? Are there Fimfic groups to be a part of, or does one politely pester authors that they've seen to be good?
I lucked out, especially with a story of my size. There are some groups on Fimfic but I'm not current with them.
How do I plan? This is different for every author, and my asking you for a definitive way really doesn't work. However, I'll do it anyways and provide some context. I'm been plotting out a scifi ponyfic. I know how it ends, I know what methods drive the plot, I have an idea of what might the middle may look like. I've written very rough, very small essays on mechanics and historical events that my story needs to float. But I still have nothing more than a grouping of ideas that I could reduce to statements, likely less than ten. Oh, and I've decided that it shall feature Rainbow Dash, because I want to mess with her mind, her element, and make a statement about modern society and its tendency to blindly follow.
I plan by tying together key scenes in my head and then altering those scenes when I get to them if they don't make sense. It's like a string of television sets showing different events, and you know generally when and where those events are but not all of the details that go between them. Filling that out is a combination of determination and discovery - I am no Michaelangelo, but I understand very well what he meant when he looked at a block of marble and said that he could see an elephant within it.
Stories plan themselves out, I'm just conducting them.
This is my first 'serious', long story, and I don't know how to go about planning it. I'm making stuff up as I go along, and as I go along I read exceptionally helpful blog entries from other writers. They help, but I still feel clueless and somewhat overwelmed. I am a planner and a slight perfectionist, and I need to know how everything works out before I feel comfortable with writing. I know that's terrible-- just during the course of planning I've discarded and come up with many great ideas and iterations. How many more am I losing by waiting before I really get into my work?
I had several years of ill-formed stories that all had part of the right elements but didn't quite achieve what was necessary to escape mediocrity.
Your first ideas are going to suck. It's a depressing truth. I'm at a point where I can say that the ideas I come up with are at least worthy of polishing.
How will you know, though? Be honest with yourself. Understand your limitations as a person, and continue to grow. If someone says you're wrong, you need to address that, in direct proportion to the weight of their advice.
Study history, economics, psychology, mythology, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology, physics, mathematics, biology, medicine, and more - if you can say that you know a little bit of everything, then you're excellently positioned as a writer. When you're able to compare aspects of your writing and plot not just to other films and books, but to real events and scenarios, you can say that you're writing something that's more than just based on your own personal biases.
Be a critic before you're a writer. Understand flaws in plot, character, and setting. Don't just be a contrarian, and don't be a slave either - understand what can be suspended safely and why.
Most importantly, though, you need to keep your readers entertained. Thankfully, this is easier than it sounds - people find narratives inherently interesting, so long as they are told in a way that flows smoothly and sensibly. People will forgive all manner of errors with the right impetus.
And that's all I have to say!
Good stuff :) I always get excited when I see a new chapter of Pirene up.
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I hope to see it on your list of top favorites some day!
Hah! Thanks
Man, we're getting distressingly close to the end, too..
Nice interview, thanks for sharing!
What you said about the characters? I wonder if what I wrote down about them in the second chapter of my main fic is why I have so many faves right now and I'm kind of glad I posted it before things got uber strict in fimfiction.
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...do you mean the one about slavery that I will not read?
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...Yes... since it's more about escaping from that and such. You don't need to read it, I'm just saying that my improvement on the characters must've helped me out a lot.