Some Things You May Not Have Known About "WKMH" · 3:15pm Apr 6th, 2015
Hey, so as you all could tell from my last blog post, I didn't exactly have, much time to work with the next update of 'WKMH'. However, I am working hard at it now, and praying to have the first draft finished by this week's end, and spend all of next week, expanding, adding, and deleting all I need to have the next chapter ready. To tide you all over, I figured that since the two year anniversary of me first publishing the story is coming up, that I'd share some interesting facts that you may not have known about me writing this tale and the characters that I'm bringing to life.
1: Inspiration:
Long before I joined the Brony fandom, I was actually getting involved with the LGBTQ rights movement as early as 2008, after seeing a production of The Laramie Project at my High School. Since then, I've always been sickened by the fact that people unreasonably hate others for a reason that's completely harmless and has nothing to do with them personally. I've always hated the fact that people would try to control others lives like that, especially when using fear tactics and spewing hurtful words to keep them afraid from being themselves.
After finishing my first fanfiction in 2012, I was browsing the site one evening to find some inspiration for what my next story would be. I eventually found the original LGBT group on the site and read up on the stories it had. What i found to be very interesting was that not only were these authors capable of writing a serious conflict like homophobia and transphobia into such a happy society like Equestria, but also the overall execution in a lot of those stories; most of them were told from a first-person POV. I wondered what it would have been like to have a story like this, but told from the perspective of someone who is cisgendered, heterosexual, and very close with those within the community. How would they be affected by the issue of homophobia? How would their world change? Why would they want to fight for these rights? I saw that there were no stories like that in the group, so I decided to do some more research and inspiration reading, and thus, my inspiration for When Kindness Met Hatred was born!
2: Originally A Rainbow Dash Story
I don't think anybody knows this, but very early on in the planning stages, I was originally going to write this as a Rainbow Dash story, and make it about her family. The original story I was starting was titled When the Rainbow Turned Gray. I remember writing as much as a very brief prologue that included Rainbow Dash reminiscing in a funeral dress, then speaking to a journalist to tell the story of her brother, via interview.
However, as I tried to think more realistically about the story in character terms, I felt that Rainbow Dash wasn't working out for me. A lot of her emotions and dialogue already felt very forced and out of character. She really wasn't working with me and I felt she wasn't going to be enough of an interesting protagonist to write as. So I deleted what I had and had to start all over again from scratch.
3: Why Fluttershy?
It shouldn't be a shock to anyone following this story—or me in general—that Fluttershy is my favorite character. I originally didn't want to write another story about her so I could expand to other characters in the show. However, the more I thought about what kind of story I wanted to write, I saw that Flutterhsy still didn't have a canon family, I figured she would be very sensitive to the topic itself, and it would really challenge her moreso as a character.
I also see her as being the most maternal and protective character on the show. I think for this reason, she would make an excellent LGBTQ ally. I really couldn't let the possibility of this go and I felt this hungry urge to bring the thought to fruition. And so, I continued to write for her.
4: Mockingbird
I have been asked before what my inspiration for Mockingbird was. While I can honestly say that several of my friends and the people I'm close with are members of the LGBT community, he is not based off of anybody I know. Mockingbird is a complete product of my own imagination.
For his special talent, I originally wanted to give hime something that wouldn't come off as stereotypical. I considered making him an athelete, a scientist, I think even a painter at one point. But as I thought more about it, none of those ideas flowed naturally with me at all. Then during Valentines Day of 2013, I attended an event called "One Billion Rising." It was hosted by a feminist organization on my college campus, and apart of a world wide campaign, to bring attention to the conflict of global violence against women. I became so intrigued by the idea of the protest and how music can be used to bring so many people together and act as such a strong voice to tell a story and really shake the world. And so, I decided to make singing and encouraging others to join as his special talent.
Mockingbird's design is loosely based off of the Northern Mockingbird in North America. To make him less of a stereotype and a bit more dimensional, I kind of gave him a mix of my own personality and tastes, with a lot more sensitivity and having the habit of giving up too easily when feeling threatened or failed. I'm always learning a lot more about him, even as I continue writing out each scene and chapter.
I don't want to give away too much now, but I thought it might be nice for all to know a little about how I developed this little gem in the first place. Would you like to know more? If so, then I hope to make another blogpost about this to go even deeper!
The next update is on the way!
-Dramacolt.
It's always interesting to learn the reasoning behind a story and its characters. I'm looking forward to the rest of this one.