1001 pones, and other stuff · 10:29pm Oct 18th, 2012
Well that fic got approved a bit faster than I thought it would.
The first Chapter of Distance has been published. Reactions are mixed thus far, I hope to win all of you over with subsequent portions of the narrative. It's getting away from me just a bit... I was kind of expecting this to be fairly contained, but actually sitting down and noting down everything I want to happen made me realize I've got a lot of material to cover. It'll probably end up being longer than The Creature that Came to Ponyville. I'd say I'm going to get this one finished in a somewhat more timely manner, but writing about lesbian horses make fools of us all.
I'm already thinking about things I should have done differently, to be honest. Distance is going to be a very odd story. I honestly had no idea how to tag it. There will be jokes, I don't think I can write something that's never funny, but the comedy is largely ancillary. There is action, and I will do my best to portray it properly, but we're not going to see an epic journey of any stripe and what action there is serves largely to add spice to the plot. The focus of the story is going to be on Celestia and Twilight. And it's not going to be all sunshine and rainbows. So I tagged it as sad romance. That doesn't mean I'm going to try and depress everypony. It just means they've got a lot of dark patches to work through. I make no promises in regards to happy endings, or the lack thereof. We're going to have to wait and see.
1001 followers. How does that even happen. I'm kind of super nervous now. Whenever I do anything to this story a thousand people will be alerted to it and invited to come see how badly I'm mangling this idea. Still, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't overwhelmingly cool to know this many people like what I do. I try not to bother with false modesty, I know I'm entertaining, usually on purpose, but there are a lot of REALLY good pony authors out there, most of them post on this site, and you're following me. I mean yeah, you can follow multiple authors at a time, but still, you all like... clicked a link. Because you like me. Thank you.
Writing a sequel to Correspondence is kind of surreal. The original fic is very much a product of its time. I first got into Pony back during the first season, watching all the available episodes in a few days and then gently squeezing out Correspondence during the brief hiatus after Winter Wrap Up. I'd tried writing fanfiction before for other genres, and generally found myself kind of disappointed with my attempts, largely because I was trying to emulate the authors who could scribble out multichapter epics at the drop of a hat. The kind of pony fanfiction that circulated in the early threads on /co/ tended to be much more bite-sized. I liked that, and gaining an appreciation for quick and dirty fanfic made me want to do some of my own. I read a couple of fics and was kind of startled by one that suggested Twilight and Celestia might be in love, which made a lot of sense given their interaction on the show at that point. It ended on somewhat of a down note. Celestia decided they could never be together for various reasons and stuck the parts of them that loved each other into a magic mirror. It was an interesting resolution, but it nagged at me. "Why couldn't they love each other?" I wanted to know. Why shouldn't Celestia have a girlfriend? Why couldn't Twilight fall in love with a Princess? Correspondence pretty much wrote itself after that, and I deliberately avoided addressing the possible answers to any of those questions that could have come between the two characters, because I wanted them to have a happy ending.
And now I'm screwing it all up!
Fact of the matter is... there are reasons why Celestia and Twilight are a questionable ship. There are legitimate objections to the two of them being together. And I want to address those concerns. And to me, two ponies trying to decide if they can be together or not couldn't be anything but a sad story. There's a lot of angst there. Tears need to flow. I also wanted to ask a couple of questions about Celestia herself. About what it means to be that old and that removed from the ponies she lives with. Why does she do what she does, and is it ultimately for the best? That's where the white mask and his friends come in. I'm trying to tie all this together in a way that seems coherent and makes sense. I'm sure you all will let me know whether or not I've succeeded.
I'm not naive enough to hope that everypony will like it, but I hope everypony that reads it will find themselves with something to think about.
tl;dr. Reading a story. Interrupted me.
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Luna_lolface.png
Any good Twilestia story should address the reason why they couldn't end up together, how an immortal should love a mortal. If you can address that then I am content. If someone says they can't be together because of the age gap, I point out then there are only two canon characters that are of equivalent age, one is a sister and the other is a megalomaniac with delusions of godhood. If some points out the the whole immortal/mortal thing, I quote "It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all".
A good romance fic doesn't have the pair love each other at first sight (unless it is a oneshot), a great one has them work at it.
How is 60 thumbs up and 1 thumbs down mixed?
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... wait what? Seriously? *looks* ...huh.
I was just looking at the comments. Seemed like a lot of pones weren't sure what to make of it. And someone posted a gif of Doogie Howser pretending to commit suicide. I figured that meant they didn't like it.
Nice to see that you give the story so much thought, it makes me hope for the best (which is never a good thing with me).
There are just too many poorly written Twilestia stories out there, so aim for the top you crazy guy!
You know that if it doesn't end happily I'm going to have to come after you with a.... something you won't like, right?
Sockamagee, that's a lot of pones!
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Lol, Friendly Uncle is quazzy. I shall now call you Quazzy Uncle.
A few things.
People not knowing what to make of something usually means they haven't passed judgement.
Also, if you want some help I'll be glad to lend a hand. You are one of the people who helped inspire me to write. It's the least I can do.
Edit: I seem to be doing a good job Pre-reading for some other fine fellas/fellets.
What a world we live in where this statement makes sense.
Not a bad thing, just every once in a while I see something that makes me take a step back and a look at the fandom, and laugh myself sick.
Speaking of followers, I realized while reading this blog that I'm not following you yet. This has been remedied. Consider yourself stalked.
You're quite welcome!
Correspondence was one of the first stories I read here on FimFiction, and I thought it was hilariously awesome and a bit touching, and I'm not even that big on shipfics.
I'm looking forward to checking out the sequel, but please don't get too nervous about writing it. The most important thing is that you have fun writing your stories!
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The world we live in is a silly, silly place.
We can't not go there, so it's best to laugh at it.
And even if we could not go where we are, why wouldn't we?
I ,for one, love silly places!
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I know exactly how that feels.
I'm the one who has issues figuring out my identity because of you...
I like happy endings, and I hope you have a happy ending here, but I'm watching out of sheer interest.
I haven't read Distance yet, I confess, but I will soon!
I'm not in a position to give advice or anything, but it does just seem to clear to me that you got popular by a) believing in yourself, b) following your heart, and c) reaching out to people for helpful comments.
So, I guess... keep at it!
Don't be nervous and don't let the little backbiting in your head or on the screen (not the same thing as helpful criticism, of course) get you down.
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I might take you up on that. I've been kind of wanting someone to take a look at some of this stuff before I post it, just to get another perspective. I'll let you know when chapter 2 is legible.
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I hope you can work through those issues eventually. And there will be a happy ending for somepony. Even if Twilight and Celestia don't work things out I'll probably find a way to work in pony makeouts somewhere else. I do enjoy pony makeouts. I wonder what that says about me.
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That helps a lot, actually. Thanks.
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If you have not had any help so far, then I am impressed.
I specialize in character development, word choice, and psychological application (changing the readers mood and mind.)
I am weak on technical writing. (Punctuation, grammar, and such.)