That New Story I Wrote and a Thought about Characters Leading Themselves · 5:35am Jul 1st, 2014
I was going to post the next installment of my “Read It Later” series thing, but I haven’t gotten around to reading much of anything this past week. So instead, along with the typical quasi-news tidbits, lemme take the time to discuss this little thing I kicked out the door on Friday:
The first thing Time could remember was his brother, Disregard. Because Disregard couldn't remember anything before Time and Time had no recollection of what things were like before then, they came to the conclusion that Disregard must have been the oldest. They were both satisfied with this, and then they left to go and watch the world grow.
As things progressed, they became distanced, but they still try to keep in touch. Sometimes, they wonder what it'd be like to be each other.
So if you haven’t read that story yet, obvious spoilers ahead. You can probably just skip past all this stuff that’s next to the end.
For anyone who’s been paying attention these past three weeks unlike myself, the good sir Obselescene hosted a contest with some pretty neat prizes. It’s since closed its doors for entries, so leave it me to have waited until five hours before then to fart out my entry. I wrote pretty much nonstop with little to no distractions for three and half hours, and only bothered to give it an editing sweep after I’d already submitted it.
The idea for the story came to me about a week before, and while I may have swindled the title from this wonderful song, the core of the story shares almost no semblance and plays with a very simple, long-lived idea that’s pretty much existed with this fandom since it’s been churning out alicorn OCs. It’s the thought that, if Princess Celestia controls the sun and Princess Luna the moon, then are there other alicorns out there that control other fundamental processes of the world, such as the currents of the oceans or the directions of the wind?
I liked that Celestia and Luna are sisters and their respective domains are complementary to each other, and I wanted to mirror that to some extent. For that I had to find two natural processes that were mutually related, and I quickly realized that the only ones I could come up with were physical. So then I asked myself to find some that weren't, and the first thing to came to mind was memory; remembering and forgetting to be specific. I coincidentally happened to be listening to that song at the time, and so came Time and Disregard. Since the traits I’d be attributing to them weren’t exactly physical in nature, I went and made sure the characters weren’t physical as well. The closest thing I can think of them as being are ghosts, and in the story I hoped that came across well enough.
Nonetheless, they still have an influence on the world, one that’s mostly passive but can still be expressed physically. Because one of Obs’ contest’s prompts—in addition to using an alicorn OC—was to have an OC fall in love with a canon character of significance, I went with Celestia, at first because they’re all alicorns. But when I applied memory to the concept, I came up with a reason for Celestia’s and to a lesser extent Luna’s immortality (having to use Tragedy, of course), and ran with it.
A boy, did the characters run with it.
As I said previously, this story was written pretty quickly. It might have been rushed to a degree, but I did have a plan and for some reason, it didn't exactly manifest the way I wanted it to. There’s a whole segment of a dialogue and perhaps another scene missing that I didn’t get in, and even though I believe I had the time to write it, I just couldn’t. Because of the big conversation that erupts in the final scene between Time and Disregard, there was no room for it. I let the characters be themselves and lost myself in their dialogue, and they ended up having an entirely different conversation than the one I had in mind and even alluded to elements of since the beginning.
I found this weird after writing the scene because I realized I’d just written what I hadn’t intended, and yet it worked just as well if not better. This isn’t like something where an editor tells you to hack off hundreds of words you really love, but the characters didn’t let me get to those words in the first place. It’s something that hasn’t happened to me before, and I’m still a little mystified as to how I should handle it.
I guess I have a question then for anyone reading this: Have you ever had a similar experience when writing, where your characters end up overriding what you had planned for them and steer the story in a different direction? If so, did you stick to what you wanted, give in to what your characters turned to, or find some sort of compromise between the two?
Really, had I the proper amount of time to mull over it and sort things out, I could probably sneak what I wanted in there and the story would probably be fifty times better than it is now. There’s nothing stopping me from doing so now, but for the sake of the contest, I’m going to hold off until after it’s finished before fiddling with it.
With that out of the way, it’s time for some quasi-news.
First off is the recent minific writeoff, and it’s ended by now. I didn’t get the proper brain compatibility to contribute this time around to the actual writing, but I did end up contributing some reviews.
Someone by the handle of WB ended up winning this one, with a great story that ends up taking full advantage of the short word limit. It was incredibly simple and didn’t try to do anything more than it needed, and I loved every bit it of it. Seriously, it was my favorite of the bunch. After that in second place was Pascoite with his incredible story, Where the Heart Is. I’m very much surprised to see this story do what it did in so little words, which if anything is a testament to the author’s talent. At under 750 words—like all the stories here—it’s definitely worth burning the few minutes it takes to read.
In third came Chris who isn’t horizon and he wrote a lovely piece of poetry that I more or less said I’d dig deeper into at some point. Even with its flaws, I still had a fun time reading it. I’d also like to honorably mention presentperfect’s entry, Lagan. It’s a little piece of absurd comedy starring Trixie and Twilight, and I’m shocked alexmagnet didn’t write it it’s just plain silly. I loved it, and if you’ve got extra minutes to burn (you’re reading blog this, aren’t you?) then go give this story a read.
I also did some proofreading recently for a pal named Hap, and he wrote a story called 20% Sweetier. It’s a body swap story and the first chapter is already published. It’s a silly, lighthearted little thing where Rainbow Dash and Sweetie Belle end up, well, switching bodies. I can’t say where the story’s heading as I don’t really know myself, but it’s promising to go silly directions. Have I mentioned this story is silly?
And that concludes this episode of things. I’ll have more reviews next time, and here’s a silly picture before you go.
Csquared, I found your soulmate, wherever you are.
Twilight Sharkle?
That picture is amazing. And have so many stories added to my read later list thanks to this contest, yours included. I hope I can find time to make my way through them all. I had 112 read later stories before the deadline, and as of today, I have 131.
Beautiful stuff
I always love hearing what goes through your head when you write.
2248190 *Hums and stuffs her almost 4 digit read later list under the bed.*
2248372
How about your unread chapter number? I was close to 900 before I started reading. I'm now at almost exactly 800. Just got to finish some more chapters of Moonlight.
2248374
1244
2248536
Ahh, my brother! You must spend more time reading New fics than keeping up with the ones you already faved. Well, maybe. That's how I ended up with so many unread chapters.
2248548
I am making an attempt by dropping some of my unread fics into my RiL and plowing through them.
I cackled madly when I saw your review. :D
2248374 in terms of favourites? 54 currently, though I have the fimfic bug where it sometimes overinflates the number, but at least 30 I suspect.
>mentioning me while I was dead
tru wuv