Sep
28th
2014
AMA Redux Part 2 v2: Electric Scootaloo · 8:10am Sep 28th, 2014
I have a bad habit of posting semi-coherent blog posts at 4 in the morning, don't I? Anyways, I figure it's been a while since I've fielded questions from the lot of you (over a year, in fact!), so I might as well do it again. Now's your chance to ask me anything, and I mean literally anything, and I'll give you some sort of answer. It might not be the answer you want, but I'll give you one, alright.
I'm gonna get some sleep now. You better have questions for me when I wake up!
Ante Legionem nihil erat, et nihil erit post Legionem
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The 24th Pegasus · 279 views
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First question: In terms of relative size, how big is Hurricane? Is he like, as tall as
Luna, or somewhat shorter?
Second question: How skilled in Hurricane in the art of the sword? From 1-10?
And another, if you like. From 1-10, how proficient is Hurricane in blending his swordplay and Empatha?
Thanks in advance! And keep up the great work! This series is one of the reasons I made an account on this site, it's amazing!
Disclaimer: Still haven't read Summer Lands.
Who are your favorite characters? Either to write or just based on personality.
What inspired you to start the trilogy?
Luna or Celestia?
What is your name?
What is your quest?
What... is your favorite colour?
seriously did you really not expect this to happen?
What inspired your story writing?
How did you get into MLP?
Who is your favorite and least favorite character to write for?
2489997 read it its gettin sooooo goood
2490108
It's on my read list!
2490106
I was gonna go with what is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow....
Ok, my questions....
Favourite works outside of ponydom? (Tv shows, books, games etc)
And the ever-interesting question of how did you join the fandom? I got hooked in through a crossover story with the Dresden Files by Chengar Qordath. First episode I watched was Read it and Weep, and the rest is history.
Why do you hate Typhoon so much?
Seriously, she can't go a few years without being mentally scarred.
2490192 take a day off work or mark a day on the weekend on your calender or something like that, and just find a nice quiet place to sit and read it all.
trust me its worth it.
2490228 So true.
2490194 African or European?
2489953
First answer: Hurricane is above average in height for a pegasus, placing him at 3'7" from hoof to shoulder. By comparison, the average height of a pegasus is 3'4", and Rainbow Dash, for example, is very short (she barely reaches 3'). Luna is well in the 4' range (I think like 4'6"? I've discussed height stuff like this with Loyal, and he has a better grasp over the princesses' supposed heights than I do, admittedly).
Second answer: Hurricane is a 9 in sword use. He isn't the best -- Silver Sword held that honor -- but you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a pony who's better at sword fighting than him.
Third answer: Hurricane is a solid 10 in blending swordplay and empatha; this is why he's known universally as the best soldier who ever lived, period. His sword, the Gladius Procellarum, allows him to manipulate every type of empatha at will, just by swinging it. The combination of his deadly swordplay and his ability to control his empatha means that there is no foe that can stand up to him in combat.
I'm glad I encouraged you to make an account on this site so you can talk with me and so many of the other wonderful authors that reside here! Thank you for you questions and praise, and keep on reading!
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Sounds like you should get right on that. Not like I'm biased or anything
Favorite Character? The mare that I use as my avatar pic. I know, that probably seems shocking with all the terrible things I do to her, but for some reason I absolutely adore Typhoon, to the point where I use Commander Typhoon (or variations) as my name for various things, including Steam and League of Legends. There's just something about her character, her personality, what drives her, etc. that makes her enjoyable to write (and read about, too; LoyalLiar used her POV in the most recent chapter of his own trilogy series [which you should totally read if you haven't already]).
What inspired me to start the trilogy? Whatever mixture of factors and alignment of the planets that ultimately made my start writing A Song of Storms, this thing wouldn't even have come to be were it not for the Hearth's Warming Eve episode. After all, that's where Commander Hurricane comes from, although I decided the pageant's portrayal of him (her? For all we know, canon Hurricane could've been a mare, as the pageant wasn't clear at all, but I had to choose one or the other if I was going to write a story about him/her) was stupid. Also, it was pretty obvious that the pegasi of 'Pegasopolis' (
) had some strong Roman/Greek influences in their culture and society, and I absolutely love ancient history. Given that pegasi are the best race as well, that mixture of elements made a story that I wanted to write about. I wanted to write a story about the pegasus empire in its prime, and a story about how Commander Hurricane came to power. What you got was Of Skies Long Forgotten, the prequel to the story that the pageant tries to tell.
(Side Note: As per my previous blog post, OSLF is getting a rewrite to bring the quality up to snuff with S&S and SL, and to clean up a lot of the niggling mistakes and errors that people have complained about in the comments.)
Luna, although she's second to best princess to me.
Hope that answers your questions!
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2490106
Uh... 24?
I WANNA BE THE VERY BEST
Blue!
Now for the real questions.
What inspired my story writing? Probably reading too many books when I was but a wee lad, is what gave me the talent and appreciation for a good story so that one day I could write the works you see on this site. Honestly, like any good fandom, I see gaps in canon where I can tell a really awesome story and play with the rules of the world as much as I want, and I decided that I was going to seize that opportunity and write something. Before I even wrote Of Skies Long Forgotten, I looked around fimfiction to see if there was a preexisting story about Hurricane that told the story I wanted to hear; admittedly, if I had actually found one, the chances of me writing A Song of Storms would have slimmed dramatically. But no, there were no good stories about Commander Hurricane on this site, and I saw that as a crime which I took upon myself to rectify. So I started writing OSLF. When I started to see the praise coming in, and especially after I got it featured on Equestria Daily, you all were the force that convinced me I was a talented writer and people actually liked my stories, and that I should keep writing. With your support, I keep writing the stories that you all love to read. So if there's a real hero or heroes to my writing, it's you guys, for encouraging me to keep doing so.
How did I get into MLP? My brother and I decided to sit down and watch it one summer's evening after hearing about it from various friends and online sources for the past 6 months (this was between seasons 2 and 3). After the first few episodes, we were hooked.
Favorite character to write for? Typhoon's enjoyable to write for, just because I love the character. Diadem's another great character to write for; her energy practically writes itself, and in Summer Lands, she's gotten mature enough to use sarcasm as a deadly weapon against poor Clover the Clever.
Least favorite character to write for? Uh... I'm not really sure if I have a least favorite character to write for, because if I don't like the character, I either don't write from their POV, or they end up dead (usually both). That being said, I used to hate writing stuff for Puddinghead in Snow and Shadows, but about halfway through the story I realized how great of a character he can be if you just let him do his own thing independent of what's happening in the story. Thus, he kind of flipped from a hated character to a likable character for me.
Hope that answers your questions!
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2490194
African or European?
Shit somebody else already asked that further down...
My favorite works outside of ponydom? Uh... let's break this down like this:
(seriously they need an insane Twilight emoticon): I don't read as many non-MLP books these days as I used to before getting into the fandom, but the Harry Potter series was great, and so was the Eragon series. Currently, I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo and am absolutely loving it.
BOOKS
TV SHOWS: Game of Thrones (was that really a surprise to any of you?). I know I should read the books, but that's just a time commitment that I don't have, so I'm content to just watch the TV show.
MOVIES: Guardians of the Galaxy is pretty much a given for its awesomeness, but I also liked the TRON movies (both of them, especially the second) and any sort of war movie, especially about World War II.
VIDEO GAMES: Ace Combat. Ace Combat without a doubt. You'd be surprised how much of it I've incorporated into A Song of Storms, from songs from the game to naming the Cirran gods after the fighter squadrons across the games. Their music has fueled many a scene in the trilogy, and it's just all around an awesome game series.
Hope that answers your questions!
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2490228
I don't hate Typhoon! I just do... terrible things to her... because reasons...
But seriously, I don't hate Typhoon, she's actually one of my favorite characters in the trilogy (as evidenced by me using her as my avatar pic). I just like doing bad things to her because I enjoy seeing my heroine overcome these challenges and becoming stronger for it, I suppose.
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2490671
Awesome, thanks! These are things I've been curious about, honestly. Hence the questions.
I kind of figured he'd be a nine or ten in the last one, but realizing he's also a nine in straight up swordwork is impressive!
I have another for you, if I may: Are you excited that canon Hurricane has been confirmed as male in the Journal of the Two Sisters, making your story fit into canon nearly perfectly?
Oh, and by the way, have a moustache, because you reminding me of Silver Sword now has me wanting to cry...again. Deserving of the title of Hero, was he.
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Well that's news to me; I haven't read the Journal of the Two Sisters. I guess at some point I probably should...
2491088
Yeah, it's actually not bad for a kid's book. Decent grammar and vocabulary, I was impressed!
It also confirms a few things about Star Swirl that you might like.
Me again.
Would you mind telling us how you approach writing your stories? To a non-author, I think the hundreds of thousands you've wracked up in your work count is awfully intimidating (but awesome to read!) and I think cripes, that's a lot of effort and dedication right there. Did you intend to get this deep when you started?
Overall, do you plan most of your work out in advance, or do you have a vague blueprint that allows for a lot of free-wheeling and change if inspiration strikes?
Is there any aspects you find yourself paying particular attention to as you write, like dialogue, or setting the scenes descriptively?
How much usually gets chopped or changed when you edit? Is editing a process that is difficult, or looked forward to?
One thing I really admire as well throughout the entire PoL verse is the depth of all the OCs. How are they built? With a lot of pre-planning, or on the fly?
Sorry for the barrage, but I find insight like this quite interesting.
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Alright, let's take this one question at a time:
Story writing for me is a five step process. Every story starts the same way: with an idea. I come up with ideas usually when I'm trying to get to sleep, and a fair number of them wither and die within a week of being conceived. That's helpful because it means I'm not going to waste my time writing a story that I have no interest in pursuing. The ones that do stick around for weeks, months, and keep bothering me when I'm trying to go to bed and keep coming up with new ideas, however, are the stories that I will write.
That being said, I have plans for two non-PoL stories to be released after I'm finished with Summer Lands and possibly the OSLF rewrite that I've been wanting to write for a long time now. One of those two stories already has the first chapter written, but upon further examination, I'm probably going to scrap that chapter and start over.
The next step is making an outline. I consider myself too organized to let a story wander along its own path until it gets to the point where I don't know what to do with it. All of the ASoS stories are loosely outlined before I start writing them, and although they can drastically change in detail from what I've written, the general progression and important plot points are the same. On the other hand, A Rainbow of a Different Color was very, very loosely outlined, and wasn't outlined with the kind of detail that I hold the ASoS stories to, and as such, I've had difficulties these last few chapters figuring out exactly where I'm going to go with the story. I did manage to get it back on track now; it's simply a matter of finishing it up.
After I make the outline, I start writing the story. I use a quota system to ensure that I'm always making progress on a story of some kind. So long as I have the time, I try to sit down on the computer and write 1k words a day, and sometimes 2k if I can manage it. It helps so that I keep writing even when I'm lacking inspiration, and usually by 500 words in I have the inspiration I need to keep chugging along.
The fourth step (and the most painful step) is editing. After I write a chapter, I put it on gdocs for my editors to look at and make me feel bad about and comment the shit out of it until they've picked out every little thing that's wrong with it. I fix those edits and let them have a second look; usually by then there's only a few things that need to be cleaned up. It always feels good when your editors tell you that the chapter's good to go.
The final step is the easiest, although it can be daunting for new authors: publish. Since I'm already established with my own fan base (you guys!), the fifth step is hardly a big deal to me anymore. It's simply releasing my finished product for you all to enjoy. As a new author, however, putting your work up on the site to be judged by the people who read these stories can be intimidating. My word of advice: just do it. If it flops, it flops, and if it does well, then awesome! Just don't let fear hold you back from posting something; after all, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take (or lose 100% of the thumbs-ups on the stories you don't post).
I briefly alluded to this in my previous answer, but yes, I do try to plan out what I can in advance. It's never more than getting a real sense of the direction my story's going to go in, as things can change rather quickly once I actually start writing. Ultimately, though, my stories take on their own sense of direction, and I am but the servant that lets them tell their tale. Thus I try to make sure that I can adapt to the plot suddenly going in a different direction, all the while maintaining my grip on where the plot needs to go to finish the story.
I try my best to make sure that my descriptions of the setting are perfect and intact; having a strong base setting lets the reader imagine what I'm trying to tell them and helps them gloss over little mistakes. I also try to make my dialogue believable, but I do tend to get too formal in my writing (which I've gotten railed against a few times by my editing staff). My biggest point of focus, however, is word choice. I absolutely do not want to use the same word too many times in consecutive sentences and paragraphs, and I do a pretty good job on making sure that I use variety in my writing. Good writing should have varied sentences and not be too reliant on the same words; we have thousands and thousands of words in the English language for a reason.
As for fight scenes, which I think I should mention because I've been told (repeatedly) that I'm exceptionally good at writing them; they just write themselves, in all honesty. I pick a song to fuel the fight (usually something Ace Combat related), arrange my characters, establish the setting, and let them go at it. I've said this a few times, but honestly, this is one part of my writing process that truly writes itself.
Usually not a whole lot. I very, very rarely scrap something I've written and try again the next day before putting it in gdocs. I think that's because I spend so much time thinking about what I want to write before I actually write that I know precisely what I want to say when I take to the keyboard (unlike poor Ruirik, who will spend an entire week rewriting a paragraph because he can't into words, the poor bastard
). The only time I scrap a scene is if I'm explicitly told by my editors that it needs to be rewritten. Apart from that, most of what you see is what was originally written, sans a few pieces added or deleted by the editing staff so it reads better.
I can't speak for Loyal, but as for myself, they're usually created on the fly. I need a character to fit a role, I create a character to fit the role and spend time fleshing them out. Done and done. If you create a character with a memorable personality and put them in a stressful (or, oppositely, a relaxing) situation, they'll more or less write themselves. Then it's just a matter of spending time with that character until they've been developed and memorable to the audience.
For example, Diadem was an on the fly character. She did not exist in the prewrite for Snow and Shadows. I only came up with her character as I was introducing her. And lo and behold, I gave her a purpose, paired her with Clover and Platinum, and she fleshed herself out for me and for you guys. She was such an enjoyable character that I brought her back in Summer Lands to boot, where we can see her develop even more.
Hope that answers your (many) questions!
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