One more MLAABQ trailer, some general news, and metal slamming into meat · 8:21pm Sep 4th, 2017
I planned on making this blog post a long time ago.
So, some stuff has happened since I published my latest chapter. I was in my first traffic collision among other things. I quit my job, I turned back my circadian (actually, I flapped it the whole way around), and of course I started jotting down notes for my next chapter.
I haven’t worked a lot on my upcoming chapter... and yet, I have. I guess that’s a bit confusing. Let’s take it from the top.
A while back, Snuffy recommended me for a job at the factory where he works, thank you for that. It paid well, but the noise and the chemicals and stuff were kinda poison for the brain. So if you like Snuffy’s stuff, he’s extra worthy of your admiration because he works in a place that turned me into a… that word… a word that describes someone of low capacity for cognitive function. That kind of person.
After two weeks, or was it three? See? Brain still not working. After three weeks I started working night shift. The thing is, this place was 90 kms from where I live. Snuffy offered to let me crash at his place the first few weeks, and I did for a while. After I started working night shift though, he was on vacation, so that wasn’t gonna work then. Neither was it gonna work after that since we were working different shift, and getting a place of my own over there just wasn’t as easy as I had been led to believe. So commuting it was.
I was driving home one morning, thundering down European Route E4, feeling reasonably alert for having worked all night, when a roe deer jumps out in front of the car. I was just about to think the oh-part of ‘oh shit,’ when the front of my car slams square into it. The hood flies up into my windshield and totally blocks my view, except for a narrow slit between the engine block and the hood.
Through the cracked glass and the haze of the smoking radiator I manage to place myself in the last stretch of an on-ramp I was luckily driving next to, halting the car about a meter or two short of driving up the beginning of the railing. You know what the Germans say, das reh springt hoch, das reh springt weit. Bambi flew about five meters sideways and two meters into the air, landing in the ditch separating the north and south bound sides, most likely dead before he hit the ground
It's actually nice to know how you react under pressure. I managed to navigate the car pretty safely under the circumstances, place myself a good distance away from the trucks right behind me, and only took a moment before I press the warning lights, check that all my toes and fingers respond relatively painlessly, and pat myself down for bruises, before stepping out and retrieving the warning triangle from the trunk and start walking back to find a good spot for it, while just feeling tired.
Then there are further tales about my phone being out of battery, the cable not working so that I couldn’t use my powerbank, and a really friendly man stopping and letting me use his phone, staying the whole time while the emergency services comes and checks me and the car over, and then driving me home. That guy was so cool.
It was actually just like in the movies. Pieces of metal and plastic was everywhere, the radiator hissed and spewed vapor, oil and/or battery acid leaked out from under the hood. One thing that the movies obviously don’t portray and which I didn’t know, was that a wrecked car smells, and smells a lot. I mean, it stank, and this was in the great outdoors. I can only imagine how bad the stench would be in testing facility. Bambi looked surprisingly whole too, at least on the outside. He just had a large, bald patch on his side.
So that was exciting, informative, and unpleasant. Overall though I was pretty lucky. Except for a sore, and later stiff, shoulder, which now feels a lot better, I’m okay. It was my mom’s car, which she had been trying to get rid off, and which she wasn’t using, so that’s kinda good. And it was only a roe deer. If it had been a moose, well, there might not have been any more mlaabq.
Speaking of moose. When I had three days left of my contract, I was driving to work after sundown, this time in my parents’ much more fancy and expensive car, I’m barely and inch away from driving into one on a dark road through the forest. I was lucky that I always drove from home in good time. This time I managed to hit the breaks, and I might’ve nudged the hind leg a bit, and even if I didn’t, it certainly felt the wind. There were two of them, and they were calves, but still in the 250 kg class I’d say.
Anyway. I don’t work there anymore. I haven’t written anything because when I did, I had more than four hours of commuting every day. Take into account things like personal hygiene, grocery shopping, some cooking, and taking an extra hour or so to sleep every day because I didn’t want to drive that road more tired than necessary, and I had an average of 90 minutes of leisure time per day.
That’s not the case any more, and now we’re finally getting to the part you want to read about: mlaabq.
I’ve been planning this next part a bit idly for years now, jotting down some notes here and there, thinking about what would be a good structure for an adventure, seeing what pundits have to say about good story structure (still not sure what the ‘point of no return’ and ‘rising action’ actually means though, but they make good pony names).
The last chapter seems to have made people a bit worried. Worried that there’s gonna be no more slice of life and that the story is gonna get all grimdark now that there’s an adventure going on.
No, it will not get grimdark. And there will be slice of life. If you’re worried about what the next part will contain, take a look behind the spoiler-curtains to see some of the stuff I have planned.
— No character will die, or suffer a death-like fate like petrification and stuff like that.
— There will be a happy ending.
— This happy ending involves Gabe and Armor going back home to standard Equestria, hopefully having grown from their experiences.
— There will be combat, but if you could handle the stuff that happened in chapter 17, you’re probably gonna be fine with what’s gonna happen here as well.
Now, about the slice-of-life thing. Many people say that you cannot have slice of life and adventure in the same story, but I remain unconvinced. I can see how the slice of life and the adventure might not be able to happen at the same time, but not why a story, or even a chapter, can’t contain both at separate times.
This might have something to do with how I’ve never been able to get a clear answer on what exactly slice-of-life is, or even what an adventure is. One description of an adventure is to go out on a journey filled with uncertainty, excitement, and dangers, while some also add ‘with a clear beginning and a clear goal’. In that case, I’ve been on adventures, like when I delivered a band saw that had to get to its destination asap through a blizzard on a crowded freeway, even though it should be slice-of-life since it was just another errand in my day job.
Anyway, I suppose the point of this message is two-fold. I partly want to say that I’m working on the next part, but it might take a bit longer than usual since there is a lot I want to establish in the right way. I took a bit of a break. There’s been a lot of meatspace stuff going on for me lately, and I haven’t been able to just sit down one day and just let the writing happen. It’s not quite a hiatus, but I’ve still put the story aside for a few weeks.
(Actually, what exactly is a hiatus?)
The second point is that I want to write another trailer. Some of you might remember that I wrote one before, just for kicks. This time it’s partly to establish the tone and/or feel of the next part. This stuff might not end up in the finished story, but hopefully it should help people get some idea of the kind of stuff the next part will entail. Obviously, spoiler warnings ahead.
So without further ado, cue trailer music and away we go:
I walked next to my silver haired traveling companion, the village appearing in the distance ahead of us.
“So, have you looked for missing ponies before?” Trixie asked.
“No. Have you?” I countered.
“No.”
Feeling that this wasn’t very encouraging, I angled for a different angle for us to take. “You’ve been on adventures though,” I said. “Don’t you have any idea on how to do this?”
“Not this in particular, no,” she said. “Have you ever been on any adventures?.”
“Eeh. Kinda,” I said, thinking back to my trench coat and hat last seen hanging in Golden Oaks Library on another world. “I was in a short adventure once. It was a very peculiar episode in my life.”
“Well, how would you do this if this was then?” Trixie encouraged.
I bobbed my head. “I don’t know. I’d nestle myself into the local fishing tavern and trawl for rumors:”
We walked in silence for a moment before Trixie answered. “We’re in the middle of the desert, Gabe.”
”Are you sure you’re not a chosen one?” Armor asked me, as we relaxed in the garden with popsicles in out hooves, and wings.
“Pretty sure,” I said, shrugging.
“It’s just that… there’s this big villain whose plans you’re a really important part of, and you’re an orphan,” he said.
“Tha’sh thue,” I said, around the large piece of popsicle that had broken off in my mouth, before swallowing it. “But I wouldn’t read too much into that. Now, if they had passed away under mysterious circumstances or been offed by our current opponent, and I had been raised by an uncle who kept my true identity hidden, then I might see a chosen one scenario. Bonus points if he taught me how to fight, but losing your parents young isn’t special enough.”
Armor bobbed his head, considering this. “Well, alright. You are really special though.”
I turned to him with an overdone smile. “Aaaaw,” I cooed. “You’re plenty special yourself,” I said, and scooted up to him, leaning against his side.
There were so many safety-features I had to go around implementing before I truested myself walking around with this in everyday circumstances, but for now, I was happy with it.
‘And not just because it looks awesome,’ I thought, as I looked at me hoof, pointed towards the veiling.
With a ‘schnick!’-sound, a blade shot out of my hoof.
I grinned. Widely.
It wasn’t quite as strange as I was afraid it would be, navigating through this world. Twilight and her friends were here, but while the ones I was used to were great heroes, according to Luna, the ones here were little more than small time thugs. delinquents, really.
It made sense. The ones I knew accomplished what they did through the power of friendship. The ones here did not really embody any such virtues, and so couldn’t accomplish much.
Armor had it harder. Friendly changelings still wasn’t something he was used to. I have never seen anything so insect-like look so appealing and friendly, and they really liked hugs, which made it hard to be afraid of them.
Still, this alternate Twilight and her friends being nuisances beneath the notice of the law didn’t mean that everyone who was an admirable pony in my Equestria were quite so pathetic here, as I realized when I heard a familiar, deep, and melodic voice behind me, which this time sent shivers down my spine.
“It seems our dimensional guests... have become quite the king’s pests,” she said.
And there you have it. I wrote most of this right of the bat, and it felt good to flex my storyteller-muscles again. I have two ideas for short stories for my short story collection, but after that, I’m gonna try working on mlaabq again now that I finally have some time.
Hope you all enjoyed it 
PS: Oh, I should also note that my internet connection seems stable. Let's hope it stays that way.
You can indeed have slice-of-life in a adventure story but it depends on the story. For example in Jojo Part 3 our heroes have to go on a journey to defeat the villain before a specific deadline so each story that is told in every episode has to work towards moving the story forward in someway either heading to the next location or defeating one of the enemies trying to stop them. In the scenario it's hard to do slice-of-life with out it feeling like filler because our characters have no time to waste so you can't really do a story where nothing is accomplished.
Then you have a story like One Piece where they do have a end goal but no necessarily a deadline so they can do slice-of-life stuff whenever they want but once they get back into a high stakes scenario you expect the story to take things seriously for awhile and only return to more lighthearted slice-of-life stuff when the story allows it.
With slice-of-life stories there is usually no constant high stakes plot hanging out in the background and the characters stay in one location for the most part and it's overall relaxing. Now it can do adventure stories every so often but you're expected to resolve things in one way or another before doing slice-of-life again as a result such story arcs aren't usually that long. So for example you might do a story where Twilight and Rarity take a trip to Manehattan only to get caught up in a gang war with only a week to resolve things obviously there isn't much room for lighter slice-of-life stuff. You can do this and still easily return to the slice-of-life stuff after.
So in an Adventure story you can have slice-of-life but only when appropriate because you are expected to keep the plot moving. So examples on when it can be done would be after resolving a major conflict in a town you might take a moment to let the characters relax a bit before moving on or after a major dramatic battle so the characters and reader can have a moment to decompress.
Basically it's complicated and tricky but generally once you start an Adventure you are expected to focus on that before returning to slice-of-life. Except for when the story allows a break you are expected to keep the story moving. But obviously there are exceptions to everything and I'm sure someone else can think of an example.
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4658499
Okay, that makes sense, and I think I've unconsciously followed the rule about having things moving forward for the most part when I've planned the arc out in my head. It might slow down every now and then though, like in Tolkien's stuff when the characters really are in a hurry, but even though they're good to go, they take several weeks just hanging out at Elrond's house because it's just so chill there
4658504
Yes, and then their heart rates will speed up, and they'll literally grow in places, and then they will have experiences
4658511
Yeah like I said it gets really complicated since there are so many factors to consider. I mean obviously the goal is for Gabe to get home but are there other things that she has accomplish before she gets home like stopping some evil plot for example or is getting home the only thing she is concerned about though obviously things can happen regardless of what the goal starts out as.
Is there a deadline? If so how strict is the deadline, if she has a year then obviously you have alot of room to work with as far as the type of stories you tell are concerned compared to if the time limit was only month. Course if there is no time limit then the journey can take as long as you need it to be as long as the characters don't spend too much time screwing around before moving towards the goal.
Fact is for a proper adventure story no matter what you do slice-of-life stuff will end up taking a back seat and people who came for the slice-of-life will be disappointed. Of course the length of the adventure counts for something as well. That's my main concern, are we stuck with adventure for a few months or a few years? If the story is good I'll be fine either way but it will be hard not to mourn the loss of my favourite chill story XD.
4658531
Favorite chill story? Naaaw, you flatter me
I'll try and keep it entertaining of course. I always do. Also, there's not really any timeframe.
I can see what you mean about the slice of life, but I'm gonna try and not have to too heart pounding all the time like some adventure-stories like to do, and I'll try and include some chill value in this upcoming part as well as excitement.
Look at it like this: While I'm writing an adventure, I have time to think up new slice of life scenarios for later
Ouch, I didn't know they had wild moose in Europe. They are plenty nasty in North America and they can usually walk away from most vehicles hitting them no worse for the wear.
4658563
Oh not in all of Europe, but there's plenty of them here. And they very pointedly do not shrug off a car crashing into them. They often survive the immediate crash, but they pretty much always break their legs, and most people just don't have the expertise or the tools with them to put them out of their misery properly.
All assuming that the person driving into them are in a condition to do anything. That's hundreds of kilos centered right at the passenger cupola of the car when you hit a grown moose. Which is one of the reasons we prefer sturdy cars around here.
Holy crab, 90 km away? How'd you even get that job? That's like, a whole other town away. That's "moving for a job" distance. Props to you for making it work, but goddamn.
...
On a completely unrelated note, que is not a word in english. There's queue (as in a line for something) and cue (as in a stage direction), but no que. Sorry for being pedantic, but I see this mistake a lot and I like you too much to want to let you keep making it.
4658548
It is! I'm going through it for the third time now and it's still a hell of a lot of fun.
4658854
Like I said, Snuffy got it for me.
Several, actually.
Yeah, I was led to believe that there were a lot of cheap, small apartments available where I could live while working there for a few months, but there wasn't. Oh well. At least I survived the whole thing.
Naaw, E-smoochies
I guess didn't notice the little red line under the word. It was late when i wrote this
4659077
Ooooh, warm fuzzies!
Thank you, and your schampoo-story made me laugh
I'll try and keep it coming
I've always thought the difference between adventure and slice of life is just the focal point of the story and what the reader wants to see. I remember some writing advice I think applies very well to adventure: "Is this the most interesting time in your character's lives? If not why aren't you writing about that?". The focus is mainly on the plot moving forward whereas in slice of life there doesn't necessarily have to be a plot at all. The focal point is the characters themselves and giving them time and space to be themselves.
These don't have to be separate but the problem lies in what the reader is there for and how exactly you tie them together.
That's always been my take at least.
4659291
Oh I can think of many reasons why one might not do that.
I agree with you on the point about why people are reading and what one offers them. I'll disagree with you on plot though, unless one of us has confused plot with story. This is my take on it:
Story = what happens: A princess is locked in a tower by a dark knight, but is rescued by a farm boy, a wise wizard, and a band of thieves with hearts of gold.
Plot = how it happens. A mighty battleship overtakes a smaller ship, and the dark lord Darth Vader captures Princess Leia as he is looking for the stolen plans of the dreaded Death Star. She manages to send two servants to find the powerful warrior and mystic Obi-Wan Kenobi, who is hiding as a hermit, etc. We all know what happens next.
The story is essential, but uninteresting in itself. It's the support struts that you build the actual house on. It's a very brief description about what happens, and what archetypes our main characters are. The plot, on the other hand, is the interesting stuff. It's how it happens. It's what emotions that characters feel in different situations, why sword fights happens, who wins, and why.
The two are closely connected, but I think that in slice of life, the story can take long breaks, and only let the plot do its thing. Two characters hanging out by a beach, thinking about unimportant things and just chilling in a way that doesn't drive a story forward would be a slice of life scene. If it's an adventure, they have (or rather, should, because there are no real rules in art) be moving the plot forward, like walking towards Mordor with the ring.
Tarantino, who has always done his own thing, of course ignores all of this. Jules and Vince just sit in the car on their way to a job, talking about how weird Europe is, and it's a really iconic scene. It doesn't move the story forward, it's just fun to watch. It kinda establishes character, but the movie would've made just as much sense if they had been talking about the weather, or if they'd been talking during a shootout, or if the scene never happened at all.
So you see why adventure and slice of life just becomes more and more blurry the more I think about it.
4659361
Your descriptions of story and plot are right I think but your response has made me question the usage of the word plot though. I've always used plot and story as loose synonyms in a sentence. Specifically with the phrase moving it forward, which I think you've done as well.
"be moving the plot forward,"
"It doesn't move the story forward"
I'm not sure if these have a different context or english is just silly as usual. At any rate it sounds like you sure know what your talking about, I'm looking forward to what you have planned.
4659476
Oh yeah, I also mix the terms up all the time. Pretty much everyone does. I try not to, but people use the terms interchangeably, and then i don't stop and think when I use the words and I get confused
Thanks for the vote of confidence. It's not really arcane knowledge though, it's all just about analyzing stories, both good and bad, and listen to storytelling pundits with a critical mindset, and then try and keep as much of that as possible in mind when you're writing. Perhaps also trying to make up original things from time to time