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How to: 3 in 1 · 5:14am
o.0.o How To Know the Basic Rules of Posting o.0.o 
Posting a story to fimfiction is a very simple process. Having your story fail approval because you didn’t follow the rules takes some effort on your part in ignoring common sense and the brutally obvious.
To begin with, Internet Common Sense (henceforth known as ICS) dictates that when you access a site and you intend to participate in some way or another, you do a few things, like checking the rules.
The rules which are nicely compiled together in the FAQ.
I have a WHOLE HOW TO about that thing.
Now. Let’s say you click on the FAQ, notice that it has more than two items and you decide that your story does not merit the basic courtesy of checking if it will pass or not, because, you know... it takes so long to read short paragraphs.
Well, thankfully we have something else for that. Just when you create your story, there’s a whole slew of things not to post. In bullet points. Reminding you of things like, “don’t submit guides”. Or, “no new meta-stories are allowed”. Simple things that, had you checked the FAQ, you would have considered before you wrote your 5k word masterpiece which breaks about 5 of the rules.
It’s not difficult. It’s not something you should ignore. It takes you a few minutes and helps you stop seeping out the energy of those unfortunates that have to look at your story (among a hundred others) and discover that it’s the fourth in a row that doesn’t respect the rules.
We WILL fail your story if it doesn’t adhere to the rules. And you can cry about it, you can complain, PM us and re-submit. But, unless you actually changed the story to follow the guidelines, it won’t get posted.
And to be clear: it’s not OUR fault that you cannot be bothered to check what is admissible or not. But it is our responsibility to do our best to ensure the rules are enforced.
Also note the recently added and VERY IMPORTANT rule of what type of stories you shouldn't submit:
Stories with barely any punctuation. We don't judge stories on their content, but stories without a basic level of grammar will be failed.
So do yourself a favor and discover what you cannot do. Check the FAQ before you submit stories. It’s VERY straightforward. That way, when you write a story, you should have no problem getting it posted.
o.0.o How To Deal with Conflicting Categories o.0.o
So, you’ve sent the story and you marked it [Tragedy][Sad]. Or [Adventure][Slice of Life]. Or [Sad][Comedy]. And you get a rejection message that reads more or less: “This is either [Category 1] or [Category 2]; it can’t be both.
And you rage at the injustice. How can Wanderer D, or Alexstraza, or Poultron, or anyone else NOT SEE that an apple and a pear are the exact same thing!?
Well, they aren’t. And I am here to tell you once and for all why. And make sure you read this through before you argue with me about it in the comments with an argument that I already covered.
What most seem to find difficult to grasp is that a story Category is not the same as the little tags that you include in a blogpost. When you see “category” think “genre”.
Definition of GENRE1: a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content
What that means in simple terms is that a category is intended to indicate the overall theme of your story. Can a Tragedy have sad moments before the end? Yes. Yes it can. But, a Tragedy is a specific type of story, and a sad story is not by definition a tragedy.
Not all sad stories are tragedies. A tragedy necessitates a ray of hope in the end for the character to, literally, fail at. There MUST be something that motivates the character and gives them hope, and at the end the TRAGEDY is that they freaking fail at it, through circumstances outside of their control, or, more classically, their own folly.
If you have a story that is sad from beginning to end, you don’t have a tragedy. You have a sob story, otherwise known as “Sad”. IF the whole theme of your story is about dealing with some tragedy that happened at the beginning of it (or before), you DON’T put the Tragedy category on it. The Tragedy was but a moment that started the story. It was a plot device. The trigger. The rest of the story? That’s sad.
Conversely, a sad story can end on a good note, while a tragedy can’t. It can be bitter-sweet. But it can’t be happy.
If you need an extreme example that eeeeveryone knows, take “My Little Dashie”..
It’s NOT really ‘Sad’ category-wise. Why? Because, start: Guy is unhappy. Then: Meets RD and adopts her. Then: They are both happy. End: She gets taken away and he gets to live alone with memories that only he can possess of his time with a magical pony. (If you hadn’t read MLD, now you have.)
Sure, the ending makes you sad if your heart is made of, I dunno, uh, molten chocolate or something. But, it’s a Tragedy because RD is taken away from him and he cannot really do anything about it and therefore their happiness has ended.
If the whole thing had been a sad-fest, Celestia taking RD away would have only be slightly sadder but certainly not a tragedy.
So, repeat after me: I should not use the [Sad] and [Tragedy] categories together. I should NOT use the [Sad] and [Tragedy] categories together. I should not use the [Sad] and [Tragedy] categories together.
Good.
Now, the second one I will tackle is relatively simple and should really not be a problem if you stop to think about what you are doing: [Comedy] and [Sad].
Like I said before, the Category is used to indicate the overall theme of the story. NOT little moments of both. So, if your story is [Sad], yes, it can have some funny moments, but that doesn’t merit the whole story also being considered a comedy. And if your [Comedy] story has a few sad moments, it is still a comedy, not a [Sad] story.
So, repeat after me: I should not use the [Sad] and [Comedy] categories together. I should NOT use the [Sad] and [Comedy] categories together. I should not use the [Sad] and [Comedy] categories together.
And last, but not least, [Adventure] and [Slice of Life]
Now, there are a LOT of arguments about this one. Even more than the thrice-damned [Sad][Tragedy] categories (which you should not use together).
Slice of Life are stories that are mundane in the sense of the status quo of the world. Say, the average episode of MLP. It is a “SLICE OF LIFE” or a “moment in time” if you will. It concentrates on something they do on an average basis. Can this be some sort of adventure? YES! Yes it can be.
There is no doubt whatsoever that our Mane 6 are constantly engaged in a short, small, mundane or relatively local adventure. It can involve magic. It can involve running from a hydra. But, it’s not a [Adventure] category type of adventure.
[Adventure] is reserved for long quests or missions or travels that break the status-quo of their lives. Meaning, it’s not something that would be solved in an average episode. We’re talking two-part episodes, my friends. Like Nightmare Moon’s arrival, which had all the elements of an adventure and takes them away from their normal lives to fight an ancient evil. Or Discord’s escape from his prison, which turns the whole damned world upside down and challenges our Mane 6 with the full force of chaos. I hope by now my point is clear.
Adventure is not something that returns you to the status-quo with a simple “Dear Princess Celestia”. It’s an epic. Or something that literally destroys the concept of a ‘slice of life’ because you cannot tell it in a moment in time. It involves a LOT of time. Or at least something that really breaks the norm.
And don’t try to be cute and say that just because in the middle of it you include a part where the CMCs learn the value of porridge you can add the [Slice of Life] category to it: for the third time, a story category is supposed to represent the overall story. Not little parts of it. And don't even say that it's "equal parts".
So next time that you submit a story and you are indecisive about whether is should be one category or the other, just remember: what you are categorizing is the WHOLE story. Not just its little elements.
o.0.o How to make your military-in-equestria stories make a bit more sense o.0.o
Bitter much, D? Did you not take your pills today? You know, the happy ones?
Don’t start! Who knows what he’ll do? He’s clearly not stable.
You two... I guess it was inevitable that when I was talking about not following the rules or not knowing what category to choose from I would run into the two of you. What is it now?
Nothing.
It’s Obnoxious Writer. He thinks his “Soldier finds himself in Equestria” fic is a masterpiece of storytelling.
Do tell. Well, what’s the premise, OW?
Well, if you must know, it’s about my OC, Private Stephen Jefferson, who has been teleported to Equestria while in the middle of a Special Ops mission where they needed to find where all the secret nazi equipment that is so obviously much more advanced than modern technology was hidden.
I see some problems there already. OW, have you thought about a different Career path? Like, being professional mime?
You are just saying this because–
He cares?
NO! He hates my ideas!
No, he doesn’t!
Yes, I do.
Oh.
OW, it wouldn’t be so bad if you did some research about it. Treat it with some respect even. I mean, a Private in a Special Ops team?
What’s wrong with that?
Well, let’s ask some fellow bronies who happen to be in the armed forces, shall we?
But–
Nothing! This is a little basic research. IF you don’t know about something, look it up. The only one that ends up looking like a fool is you, if you don’t.
I think D’s still touchy about all the stuff at the beginning of the blog.
Shut up, Clueless.
Skylight Swirl So you’d like to write a war story? Well, I’m no acclaimed author, but tales of battle have fascinated us since the first two cavemen hatched a conspiracy theory against the third. In the many thousands of years mankind has roamed this Earth, warfare has been glorified, vilified, intensified and may other adjectives to describe an almost abstract concept that to this very day still attracts awe and horror. Military fiction has cropped up in every country and culture and the Friendship is Magic fandom is no different. We have everything from The Immortal Game, Fallout Equestria, the Conversion Bureau to multitudes of Halo and Warhammer crossovers on FiMFiction as proof of this.
But despite how much we love a good tale of heroism or well-deserved vengeance or even a crusade for both good and evil, most of the attention is on the ‘face’. We see determination, the valor or the utter evil but we never see the wounds wracked upon the body. The fatigue in shaking limbs. The very cost of putting humanity (Ponymanity? Ponydom?) in the refrigerator to harden into leftovers. War is a very real and very disgusting thing.
“There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell."—William Tecumseh Sherman, 11 April 1880.
Yet we hardly see these scars in stories. Men and Women never making it back home. Parents and siblings with suddenly empty nests. Once stable individuals reduced to rampant alcoholism, freaking out at the sound of a moving truck’s reverse siren. These, I feel, are what makes a war more than just a fictional battle. One-man/pony armies killing off hundreds of opponents with little threat is not war. One nation flippantly abandoning all notions of politics and declaring war as if they were declaring what time of day it was is not war. While these ideas work very well for fantastic stories, if you want to write something with a grimly realistic feel to it know that odds are never stacked in your favor, the weather is never on your side and don’t expect fate to play fair.
I know most of you have probably watched this movie already, but I rather like it and I find it to be a good example of what you’d really need as a foundation for a war story as well as easily accessible: Saving Private Ryan.
Like I said, I’m no accomplished author.; I’ve even removed two of my published stories out of shame. But I’d really like to offer what advice I can as well as a plea:
Please don’t ignore even the smallest of details when writing a war story. The soldier with a missing limb? Make a note of him or her. The burning battlefield, village or castle? Spears and broken swords in the bodies of fallen knights? Comment about the smell. It may feel like you’re not doing anyone a favor or even be insulting/disgusting to put so much detail into it. But like I said…
War IS disgusting. And we’ll never stop being disgusting, I’m afraid. The least we can do is, if we choose to in fiction, bring light to light the events that are so often passed over for a “more interesting” story. Never be afraid to write the truth.
-A former soldier of the Army 348th Hospital Unit, Military.
It does seem a bit pretentious to write a story about people that go through hell and not respect that by showing that it can get very painful and, well, real.
Well, yes... I have to give some thought to that.
Have a little more then:
Za Raapini Fall in! Okay, no, really. Fall in. There’s more to writing about the military than lots of explosions and gunfire. There’s more to tactics than explosions and gunfire. There’s also more to the rank structure than most of you let on.
When writing about the military, it is important to remember what the military is. It is not a bunch of gruff, no-nonsense individuals who run around yelling super-patriotic things while blasting the hell out of everything in sight. There’s a plan. There’s a structure involved. It’s also painfully obvious when authors disregard that structure in favor of doing ridiculous things.
Generally speaking, you should know the rank structure of the military you’re involving in your fic, and you should know the expected duties of each individual at that specific grade. For example, a ‘private’ (E-1) is not going to be part of a Special Forces team. Ever. That simply doesn’t happen. There’s a lot of things in the military that take time, Special Forces being chief among them. They’re not going to want some boot fresh out of training. They’re going to want a guy who’s been around for a while.
This doesn’t apply to just Special Forces, either. A person’s rank will generally be able to tell you about how much he is expected to know and be able to perform. Exceptions do apply, of course, but they’re fairly rare. In general, the lower on the totem pole the individual is, the less he is expected to be able to do inasmuch as it pertains to running the show. This is not to say that he is completely incompetent; rather, that he is young, and therefore inexperienced.
Also, tactics. Tactics, tactics, tactics. Infantry tactics form the heart and soul of what I did, and therefore take a very special place in my life. It causes me physical pain to see how badly some people jack up clearing a room, or going on a patrol, or where the machine gunners get deployed.
I don’t have enough room here to properly explain a lot of things, so I’ll try and keep it brief. Infantry tactics, most notably in the Marine Corps, are based around two things: fire and movement, and fire and maneuver. Sound the same, you say? You couldn’t be more wrong.
Fire and movement is a very basic thing. It involves suppressive fire to keep the enemies heads down while your buddy moves up. Once he’s down, he does what you were just doing. You move, and then you fire. Thus, fire and movement.
Fire and maneuver is a bit more complex. What it entails is laying down a base of fire with one element of your force, to allow other elements time to execute a maneuver on the enemy, be it flanking or a tactical withdrawal. This is done simultaneously, and generally requires a commander who is aware of more things than what color the ground is.
Tl;dr Call of Duty doesn’t work in the real world, and that private who is still digesting his Warrior’s Breakfast isn’t going to be calling the shots any time soon.
What do you think, OW? Wait, what are you doing?
Smashing my laptop!
Why?
I can’t seem to get anything right!
Calm down. The point is not that you should feel pity for yourself, but learn from this. These are all general details that can help you forge a better story. More research helps you write better situations and characters. If you write something completely unrealistic, you lose the respect of your reader. Or at least the discerning ones.
Splash Blue Now wait just a minute! We are NOT going to discuss the military without addressing the age old question of what to do with a drunken sailor!
Life in the Navy is radically different from life in the other branches of the armed services, and trying to apply the same methods of writing you would use for the others just isn't going to work for you. The Navy exists as an odd combination of modern technology and anachronistic traditions that, in many cases, have not been changed in centuries.
The crew of a warship often seems much less like a military unit and more like an extended (and often dysfunctional) family. Rivalries can and do form between the various departments of this extended family, but these rivalries are quickly set aside when it comes to the rivalries that form between ships.
In a sense, this tends to lead sailors to behave a lot less like the stereotypical soldier. To get an idea of what I mean, you could do worse than watch a few episodes of Star Trek from the 1960s. That might sound silly, but a lot of the culture and practices of the US Navy made their way into the original series. Moving along...
The population of a warship will consist primarily of enlisted personnel, with a very small number of officers who are tasked with the overall management of the ship's crew. A modern destroyer, for example, has around 20 officers and 320 enlisted crewmen. Unlike infantry-based military units where paygrade determines how high up on the food chain a soldier is, warship crews tend to be arranged into a more flexible system of workcenters with a workcenter supervisor that may not be the highest ranked sailor in the group. These workcenters are themselves part of a larger division, which is in turn part of an overall department that contributes to the operational readiness of the ship.
On a more macro-scale warships are arranged in groups as well, with ships typically getting smaller as you travel outward from the core. The aircraft carrier always sits at the center of the battlegroup, and it's frequently where the noncombatant support ships can be found as well. Cruisers and destroyers guard these vulnerable vessels, with destroyers often sitting further out than cruisers. Finally, fast-moving frigates at the fringes of the battle group serve as the group's scouts, and submarines...well, you never know where they are or what they're doing.
That might be a bit on the rambly side, but it's naval operations in a nutshell! Hopefully it will help you in your writing.
Huh, you learn something every day.
What, you’re telling me that you didn’t know that?
Of course not. I don’t know much about the military. I did forced service and that was it. It wasn’t the same as being a real soldier. And what I learned was just the tip of the iceberg.
Well then, how do I write a convincing story? Just scrap all I have?
First, you read. You have to have an idea about how a soldier feels. Have you read Cold In Gardez’ blog post, The Suicide Bomber for example? There is a basic rule about writing that a lot of people ignore: To write well, you need to read. And if you want to do justice to those you seem to admire, try to inform yourself.
Especially the stuff that is related to what you want to write, right?
That’s correct, Clueless. So, OW, what are you going to do now?
I- I have some research to do. But, it has nothing to do with your advice!
Of course not.
Wow, D, I thought you would have had some snarky remark or hurtful/sarcastic addendum to throw at him.
Honestly, Clueless, sometimes even I get tired of that.
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Comments ( 193 )
hmmmm. I seeee.
Haven't you already made six other blogs about this?
Yes yes. I fully agree
(now to read
Post read: These always edutain me to no small degree. Besides being a pleasure to read, I always learn something that will will help me when I finally get up and write some more.
Other than that, I come from a Navy family, and so know a HELL of a lot more than I should about Naval organization and warfare.
All those Weber novels didn't do any harm, either...
>>463163
Totally didn't post for first
Mmm yes... You raise a valid addition.
>>463170
Sure Wanderer D!!! I'll make sure to follow that!!!
>>463193 OH YOU
the first couple times you started making these I thought by OW you were in actual pain from what the two other guys were saying, haha
though i know some authors DON'T read others works to avoid being influenced and still write very good stories, isn't Cardslafter even one of them? not counting research of course.
and wow, that suicide bomber blog post...
Nicely done. Maybe this will clear things up finally?
>>463163 Yes, but hopefully a more direct wording will get it through thicker skulls.
Info absorbed, processed and stored for future references. Thank you.
>>463216 You are fighting a battle you can not win my friend, but I still give you credit for trying.
HOLY...
I so love the blog posts. They're more fun than your stories
I swear, Obnoxious and Clueless are some of my favorite OCs ever. Even when they're stealing the show they're still fascinating and the interactions between them are compelling and original. The harmless fool who wants to learn to do better, and the obnoxious jerk you want to hurl into a brick wall.
I can't help but feel there's some irony in this admiration of mine, that these weird meta-characters for how-to guides can so easily hold top ten spots in my list of "Most likable Original Characters ever." Maybe it's cuz' there's noone for them to steal the spotlight from? Ah well.
As I am close to posting my next story, this blog was helpful. And not because my story is a masterpiece of Slice of Life/Adventure! nononon, certainly not that. Nope. nuh uh... never....
Okay, it's totally that... 
Thanks WD, for another funny and inciteful post!
There still needs to be a Daww tag i think but i do like this blog post
Hooray for more Latias lessons~
Next tell us how to be an adorable featherdragon too!
People must be REALLY stupid when it comes to tagging if WD needs to make so many posts about it. Honestly, it doesn't seem that difficult. As for the military stuff... I dunno, I guess I'm just kind of discerning when it comes to stuff to read, most military fics I have read here are actually written by people in the military or joining it, it does seem like a pretty easy thing for people to screw up though I guess... particularly with all the COD and Battlefield games out there
This is relevant to my story in progress... The military stuff, that is. I'm going for a Star Trek crossover, yeah, but I drew a lot from David Weber's military sci-fi in how I'm dealing with chain of command, etc. I'd like a second opinion or two about how well I've managed to do so (I'll grant that Star Trek is kinda light on the whole 'chain of command' business)
(Also the 'adventure vs slice of life stuff' applies to my second story...)
Off topic question that no one really needs to answer: How do you get your blog box to... uh, NOT fill up your entire user page?
Edit: Scratch that, I JUST figured it out.
>>463234
Everyone's gotta be some tough guy, super soldier on an Special Ops team. Something ALWAYS has to go wrong, and this super 'badass' fella grows accordingly to Equestria because he has a 'sensitive side.'
How many fan-fictions have you read about a direct commission officer?
Gratz to Za, Skylight and the other guy for getting this done! Every little bit helps!
Oh, and I guess you deserve a little merit for making this, WD. Hooray for you, or whatever.
Now this is something that I think tripped me up - Category meaning genre. It never said "genre" in those exact words, so I didn't think genre when picking my tags, and I've ended up with a story that has both a sad and a comedy tag. Because I saw the tags, and while picking them out, my mind read them not as genres, but as themes. It's not a story that's primarily one with sprinklings of another; it's got a lot of both, and both are running themes throughout. And I don't think that the same thing can happen with sad and tragedy, because even reading that as themes instead of genre, they're still mutually exclusive, so I didn't realise this mistake at first.
I guess this means I have a tag to remove, and I thank you for spelling this out, D, as well as apologise for making you have to. But I really have to actually ask you a question here. If categories is explicitly meant to mean story genre in this instance, why isn't it actually called "genre" on the site instead of "category"? Because I think genre is a word with a much clearer meaning. If you just changed the wording a bit, you'd probably have this problem a lot less.
And now I know the difference between sad and Tragedy, Thanks Wanderer!!
...seriously, thanks. I can't believe I read and yet not know the difference between the two.
Excuse me while I bash my head into a wall...
Yay for this post. I've been on the verge of suggesting this needs to be written a few times. Usually after explaining that a Tragedy is not a story with a tragic event in (or before) it, but rather something quite a bit more specific, to someone over the course of several notes.
Should probably have included a section on how to use character tags as well. Like the story type tags, far too many people try to slap on every one they can, rather than just the ones that truly matter to the story.
>>463244
>>463222
I know! I was thinking the same thing! 
>>463216 Have you considered the "SHUT THE FUCK UP AND STUDY" method used on southpark? a more 'violent' measure works most of the time
Well I know about these problems since I have gotten messages from mods saying conflicting categories. So, I didn't know which ones were certain...like the sad comedy one was new to me. I didn't know about it...The adventure Slice of life one makes sense since the two have are entirly different from each other. Well I can see that is better than before and I hope I don't make those same mistakes int he future
I occasionally see "Slice of Life" stories that involve things that would never happen in an average episode. An example of this is any mature story with the "Slice of Life" tag.
I also hate it whenever a story starts with "It was a normal day in Ponyville..." Every day is normal until something out of the ordinary happens.
The third part of this blog was actually incredibly helpful; as I am in the planning stages of actually writing a sort of war story. The other two I pretty much knew, aside from the definition of a Tragedy, that I actually didn't know about.
Thanks once again Wanderer, these never fail to disappoint.
I've always thought that tragedy is only for stories where the main characters of a story dies at the end? =/
Glad that it's kinda cleared in my head now.
And about the Adventure and Slice of Life tags...
Now I am no longer sure if my current fic is Adventure or Slice of Life. :\
But thank you for the post~!
I appreciate the enlightenment! ^^
For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
-Sun Tzu
Gunfire and explosions winning a battle is overrated and overused.
Here's my issue: the site rules says this in regards to category tagging:
Common sense, right. Here's the thing. Adventure/Slice of Life being mutually exclusive is not common sense. You've made your case for it, and it's your site so you can have whatever rules you want. But if it was common sense this list wouldn't exist. What I'm getting at is, if there are specific category combinations that are an automatic no-no, please list all of them, and don't count on us to guess.
This is coming from someone who read all the rules carefully before submitting, and still got his story rejected because of that tag combination.
Also- as a side note, is there really no other way to handle minor issues like that than to kick the story to the end of the queue? If I had received a PM asking me to change the tag, I would have done it, and then I wouldn't have had to wait for someone else to approve it the next day. Not to mention the fact that it slows down the whole approval process. Another pre-reader had to approve my story a second time, which meant he wasn't using his time approving someone else's story. If this is common occurrence, then just imagine how much the approval queue is being slowed down by it.
So yeah, in summary, please specifically mention Adventure/Slice of Life and any other auto-fail tag combinations in the rules. It'll save everyone a lot of time.
Holy wow. You were just outright mad here. I mean, these posts are always the least bit obnoxious, but this was just blatant about it.
Although, you did teach me what the difference between Sad and Tragedy was...
Thank Celestia.
As for the rest, I feel much wiser. Seriously. Thanks for making valuable information fun to read.
Finally. I was wondering which would come first: a basic-level English rule for FiMFiction, or Half-Life 2: Episode 3.
What about those fics that ticked everything? The story about Rainbow Dash trying to comedicily woo Twilight Sparkle while avenging her dying senile grandmother by going on a an adventure through Middle Equestira, which in turn, educates her about hilarious Elfish's slice of life. She, however, fails the quest in the end ?
Also, in unrelated news, The spec-six goes to Dubai after a sandstorm to find Twilight Sparkle's mentor, Captain Falcon, where bad **** happens.
I'm not going to disagree that tagging something as adventure and slice of life at the same time is always incorrect. I do, however, with there was something inbetween mundane and epic that authors could use when neither really applies. Maybe something like Action? If I ponify Die Hard, is that a dramatic enough departure from the status quo to label an adventure? Because that's really different than, say, a Lord of the Rings type epic adventure.
Maybe you should give the third part its own post, because this definitely deserves WAY more attention than it's going to get buried under semantics.
1 - ... really? C'mon, people. You shouldn't have to be told this.
2 - I disagree strongly with some of your arguments. Pigeon-holing is frustrating and limiting enough as is, you shouldn't force a ThisNotThat attitude instead of a ThisAndThat. Whatever, though. You've obviously put thought into it, which is good enough for me.
3 - All good points, but I do want to say this; don't worry over much about realism if you're not writing a realistic story. If you want what amounts to a COD/FIM crosover style universe, go for it. Keep the over powered and almost invincible heroes, keep the silly tactics, keep the FUCK YEAH! attitude. However, if what you want is more of a ARMA/FIM crossover, keep reality in mind. Not every movie has to be Flags of Our Fathers, the public is well served by a Rambo or two as well.
(Also, Private Ryan was a bad example. I'm not going to debate it here, but my argument would go along the lines of 1) it had a cliched, climactic final battle and 2) it ended halfway through the mission)
I notice you didn't try to cram these vets into Pokeballs. That was probably a wise decision.
>Stories with barely any punctuation. We don't judge stories on their content, but stories without a basic level of grammar will be failed.
[insert five minute bout of maniacal laughter here]
In my defence, Space Marines from Warhammer 40k are hardly conventional soldiers.
And Warhammer 40k is hardly a conventional war-story setting.
Dammit, D! A tragedy can be sad!
>>463234
To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the fanfic-writing public.
Fan fiction is probably the creative endeavor with the lowest treshold of participation, and it shows. There are a lot of intelligent, capable, creative authors who have written excellent and compelling stories; and there's the great majority of us average writers who turn out average, eminently readable stories. And then there are the rest. The people who don't know - and frequently don't care - about things like composition, plotting, canon, keeping characters in character, consistency, punctuation, grammar or spelling.
Fix the rules and you fix the problems~!
Call it "Genre" and not "Category" and this whole problem of yours would disappear~!
And I agree with ilvos01: Have you read Hamlet recently? It's kinda sad throughout the whole thing. The tragedy at the end, his failure and death, is kind of a release, really. Same with Romeo and Juliet: The tragedy is their death, but its not really a tragedy because, strictly speaking, everyone got more than what they wanted. Happy ending, sad story, still labelled "tragedy/comedy" and not "Sad/comedy". Just because you don't like a Category combination doesn't make it invalid. Now, if they were Genres instead of Categories, well, that might be different, but they're not.
>>463335
Silly Dubs, Tragedy is for Shakespere
As much as I hate research, I know that it is necessary... ._.
I usually try to avoid making stories that require more research than I can do in a day xD
This is why I usually stick to writing "Random" crap stories.
Nothing conflicts with randomness (except order which I still use as far as sequential events go).
Well that was new of learning more about military from being a navy child... But now I know more, and now to work on grammer.
>>463431
So can a comedy. However, the overarching theme of the story is one or the other. Having both is like having a meal consist of both spicy chilly and raspberrys. Spicy chilly raspberrys do not sound nice to me.
Hi,
Oops. I have to go pull the 'slice of life' tags off 'Madame Butterfly'.
~Clueless
Yours,
JMH
Okay, cool, you've demonstrated that [Sad] and [Tragedy] are different genres. But you have not demonstrated that they are mutually exclusive. You have not demonstrated that the definition of Tragedy includes 'Must not be Sad'.
>>463301
Nope, doesn't have to be one where the main character dies. He could just lose what he loves and survive it. It is about a downfall, not a death.
Though I would say D is wrong as to MLD being a Tragedy. The final event may be bittersweet, but his adopted daughter is going to a place where she can be herself, with her friends, not have to hide from the world, and truly be happy. What father would not want that? There may be a sense of loss because he won't see her again, but I'm not seeing the Tragedy. It'd actually be more tragic if Dash couldn't return to her friends, if she had to stay with him.
>>463361
I'd say "Die Hard" is adventure, if handled like the movie. Its events are far enough removed from ordinary life and there's a tone in how you tell the story, plus it would just feel wrong for it to be otherwise. Of course, depending on how far you deviated from the movie plot and how you told the story, it could go other ways.
No matter what, there's always going to be grey areas. When does something go from Slice of Life to Adventure? If I have an X story, how much focus must there be on a romance arc before it also qualifies as Romance? Or the reverse; If I tell a story about one date, that's probably romance, but what if I develop a relationship over a day, over two days, over a week? At what point does the Slice of Life tag apply as well? How much of their ordinary lives do I need to cover?
Lots of grey. And that's okay. Make the best informed decision you can. Just don't pick everything you can.
The problem is a lot of people are taking situations that are pretty cut and dry and just doing it wrong. They'd take the "Die Hard" movie idea and not ask whether it should be Adventure or Slice of Life, but slap both on it. Probably Romance as well because he reconnects with his wife over the night. And Comedy because he makes some one-liners. And then random for good measure. And then Tragedy, because none of them could be bothered to read the freaking definition of Tragedy in the FAQ.
Ok, I already knew that the tags should be used for the main focus of the story. (Thanks, common sense
)
But... and I mean A BIG hairy BUTT!
An example;
La-di, la-di-da! Here I am, gonna submit a new story.
Oooh! What should I tag my story? Let's check the mythical FAQ for help.
*Goes to FAQ> What are the Different Categories?*
Hmm... perhaps my story is a sad fic? Let's see.
Ok, fair enough. En example of context, perhaps?
But... I haven't read that one...
Ah, whatever, I'll slap it on my fic, just in case. Onto the next.
Me: Ok, common sense, you've helped me before. I need help again.
Common sense: Your fic is not following the storyline of the canon series, therefore it should have the Alternate Universe tag on it.
Me: Nonono! That tag is for like if the Mane 6 was in OUR world... I think at least... ARGH! Let's check FAQ again.
Me: HA! Told ya so!
Common sense: It is YOU who are wrong, old friend. Your fic is not in the same storyline, or should I say, Universe, as the cannon series. I win.
Me: GRAH! SOOOOO CONFUSED! Let's have the example decide for us!
Me:
*Back to serious*
See what I'm getting at?
Sometimes I'm really having difficulties deciding what tags I should put on my fics. And an FAQ that treats you like this ain't helping the case.
*Prepare the flame shield! Incoming individual oppinion*
I think that part of the FAQ needs some revision.
The category Dragonshy falls under is debatable. I say this because you're wrong, but you're still going to debate about it.
*purposely leaves out the bit about which side is supposedly wrong*
Now go fight amongst yourselves while I watch my cat eat tuna out of a container far too small for her to properly eat out of.
Not arguing your points here, but how would a story with many Slice of Life chapters interrupted by longer Adventure story arcs be categorized?
(also, thank you for describing the Navy like a semi-dysfunctional family)
(and then you throw Naval Aviators into the mix...) 
Y'know, I'm not sure it's actually a good idea cus it'll make everyone and ther grandma bitch to high heavens, but I think it might give you less of a headache in the long run to simply restrict stories to ONE category, that way we get away from the whole "confiting tags" nonsense.
Altough in that case, you might at least want to add a "general" tag for stories that either spans multible genres by its very natue ,such as anthology stories or virtual seasons, or else appeals to an audience other than the main categories. I would suggest adding categories for the most common legitimate double-tags, but I realize that's prolly not possible without WAAAY more headache than it's worth.
I finally got something out of one of these blog posts other than a chuckle or two.
Namely, the reasons to split up Tragedy and Sad. I wouldn't say that it was common sense at all. It's more of a case of once it's properly explained it should make perfect sense. It does, but only after I saw it explained that way.
The rest of it really was common sense though, in my opinion.
I really like the advice for the war/miltary fighting.
War IS hell and people should acknolwedge it.
All I learned from this post is SUBMARINES ARE NINJA BOATS
>>463216
Have you tried getting a spray bottle and spraying them with water?
But what if the story'd main character is Daring Do?
Is it still wrong to put Adventure and Slice of Life together?
I ask this every time you admins make these types of post: Who has gone and made you upset enough to make sure we all understand this lesson?
>>463603 you just assume Daring Do is always adventuringing. Maybe she goes home, has a coffee, takes a break for 8 months, then goes on another adventure. So to answer your question. WANDERER D, GET OVER HERE!
I think that a Tragedy can be sad too, because for example if a character's life has been going wrong at almost every point in the story it is depressing, but when he/she is offered a glimmer of hope to change all their fortune and they succeed only to have their new world smashed by an unforeseen circumstance it is a tragedy for said character.
P.S: D, please don't kill me...
-EpicDiscord-
>>463391
Yeah, good ol' Wanderer D, just completely outright lying in a blog post.
>>463615
I don't think it's any one thing that motivates these posts. Rather, they have to wade through piles of Horrible Things that blatantly ignore simple rules when approving stories. Those stories may never have been submitted if the writer had put even a fraction of the effort it takes to write 1000 words into reading the submission rules. Because of the approval process, the regular users never see them, but there seem to be a lot of them if the frequency of these posts is anything to go by.
>>463603
An Indiana Jones [Adventure] story would have him investigating an ancient temple, with his bullwhip, leather jacket, and fedora. An Indiana Jones [Slice-of-Life] story would have him teaching classes, grading papers, providing advice for museum exhibits, etc, in a tweed jacket with patches on the elbows. The same would go for Daring Do.
>>463626 I see, but there's always that 1 submission that sends someone over the edge and forces our admins to make sure we all understand what the rules are saying or how to do something. I just want to know what that final tipping point was.
>>463317 It's strange, my story was tagged "Adventure" and "Slice of Life", and it passed without a problem.
There really seem to be conflicting opinions on that topic...
>>463652 What if the story features both?
I feel like "of course not" was pretty sarcastic...
This is really good! Most of it is clearly just angryfaec over people being retarded, but the military stuff is really useful(if a bit specialized) for... just so many fics.
1)
Please put a spoiler tag, I know most people should realize it's going to be a spoiler, but a) Everyone is dumb sooner or later, and b) it's a late night post so that chance of someone derping goes up.2) As for the conflicting categories. I disagree. I know that means nothing to anyone but I hope that people at least consider that when a reader looks at a story and expects... well I'll respect Wanderer D by not giving specifics. If a reader expects a fic that is labeled category X and the fic was also really close to category Y you can get disappointed readers, or readers who would have liked to have known in advance. This can be greatly remedied by notes. But now the author has to compensate for a limit in the site and it draws away from the whole experience (yes the effect is minor but it is still there and noticeable for some of us.)
Some stories are defiantly outliers, and don't really fall in the rules. A story within a story can fall into this category. I myself had this problem and asked a RL friend and a pre-reader as well as another contact. Everyone was mixed as to whether category x or Y applied better after my story was rejected. In the end I could not come up with an appropriate answer and responded with a question for the individual who informed me it was turned down as to what they thought.
I didn't get a response
So I just submitted it with what I thought since the 4 of us were in a tie in the middle with 2 leaning X and 2 leaning Y.
It was very frustrating and basically wasted 5 hours of my time for an unsatisfactory result. And yes I waited longer than that for a response from the fimfiction volunteer.
EDIT: Also, I once read somewhere that if you have a logical and sound reason that an additional tag should be created we could PM somepony, who would that be?
I ask because I really like letter format stories (stories told as letter between ponies.) I would like to be able to search for them and it could fit into it's own category since it is both a unique form, the style can differ from other stories, and the content is slightly different. The downside I see is the limited amount of stories that would fall under this potential category.
The content would, however, almost have to have an accompanying tag. It wouldn't need to, but almost all stories would since the focus of the story would not be just letters.
Also, stories written in a diary could fall under this category.
Well, now that I have given it some thought, I have a few tags to rearrange. Excuse me for a moment...
>>463506, >>463431 >>463459 I explicitly said that a Tragedy can have sad moments. Just not the two tags together.
Also, Ravenscroft, Hamlet is about revenge and the consequence of his madness which is what creates the tragedy. Romeo and Juliet has many, many funny moments, action, drama and it's about young love. The tragedy is in the miscommunication that, had it not happened, would have allowed them to live together. Instead, one thinks the other is truly dead, and both take their own lives: Tragedy.
>>463528 Adventure.
>>463621 Read the above.
>>463677 When you get 30 stories and about half of them completely ignore the rules, sometimes you have to not give a damn.
>>463685 When you buy a Horror book, and you get a romance subplot... does that make the story any less? Or when you read Sci-Fi and it has a dramatic ending, is it not anymore a Sci-fi book? And yet, they both fall into single categories.
I would argue the validity of a Sad/Comedy story. I wouldn't say that it would be easy to pull off, but I would argue its validity. If a story were to inspire laughter, but that laughter itself were to be bitter, and ultimately you feel bad when you laugh at the jokes.
Like a story about some ugly sap who makes up for his ugliness by telling jokes and being a clown, and everybody around him loves him when he's telling his jokes, but ultimately once the joke is over in a minute or two, everybody gravitates away from him. His moments of friendship and levity are strong and powerful, but ultimately never last more than a moment and you and he both know this. So you laugh at the jokes, but you know in the back of your head that they are truly meaningless. Like a Nihilistic Comedy.
I dunno, I'm rambling. I'm just saying, I think it would be possible. It's like Cyrano deBergerac, if you've ever read/seen that, though I think that might fit more under your definition of Tragedy than it does Sad, but it's the same basic principle.
Oh dear...
I would suggest that tragedy is the betrayal of what romance novelists call 'emotional justice'. It's got nothing to do with presence or absence of sadness, death, loss- the reason MLD is essentially a tragedy is that the emotional justice and 'transcendence' of the conclusion is a total handwave, shallow as hell. Fact is, the whole story builds up the final hurt and then the 'oh but it's okay really' is pathetically weak, an empty gesture. So it's a tragedy because the end is NOT 'fair', it's cruel.
>>463522
This is how I interpret alternate universe:
Things like Night's favoured child or other fiction that alters things from the show. The point where, so far, things deviated in that story is that Nightmare Moon won instead of Celestia 1000 years ago, from that point onward it became alternate universe. The fanfictions that, for example make Nightmare Moon, defeat the mane 6 in the pilot episodes are also examples of this. It runs with the cannon to a certain points than twists the scenes in a what if scenario, that is alternate universe. Furthermore works where the characters are born human and live on Earth are also AU, as they completely deviate from the canon fact that the ponies are Equestrian. A fanfic where Fluttershy avoided having to go with the group in DragonShy and the consequences that follow that deviation from the show is a alternate universe fic. The fanfic where Rainbow Dash is the Student of Celestia instead of Twilight is another example.
However a fanfic can add to canon and not be AU. If nothing in canon is contradicted, it is not AU. For example, the immortal game has war, battles, dark scenes, and puts the mane 6 through a lot of things not seen in canon, as well as introduced evil parents for Celestia and Luna, yet is not AU. It did not contradict canon when it was created, and took aims to preserve canon, like editing Luna's speech to be more archaic after Luna eclipsed aired. If it had been started today it would be called AU because it doesn't have Cadance and Shinning Armor, but by the time they and their relation to the main characters were announced, it was to late to turn back. The Immortal Game added so many darker elements, but because it did not contradict canon it is not AU. If for example Celestia and Luna's parents had already been shown (which they haven't yet to date) and they were different than the ones used in the Immortal Game or if it was made when the season 2 finale was already, it would be AU. It added elements to the world but did nothing to contradict what was already there.
If one can work in a crossover with a reason for the other characters to enter equestria or vice versa it is not alternate universe unless elements of canon were broken. Same for human in Equestria.
So to sum it up very simply, if a fanfic contradicts the show canon directly then it is AU. Things can be added to the mythos of the world without contradicting canon, that is not AU.
These are my thoughts anyway, however as I am not a mod that does not mean I am correct.
Edit: Though yes, I think that the description of the Alternate Universe on the FAQ could use some work.
edit 2: made a sentence more clear.
>>463685
The word you are looking for is 'epistolary'. An epistolary story is told through reading letters from characters to each other (or to someone else).
>>463738 So it was just pure luck on my side that it passed, and it wouldn't have under normal circumstances?
>>463339 The mods don't run FiMFic, Gaben does.
Or maybe he is one of the mods?
>>463738
There are some cases I would disagree. When you buy a horror book where there is an almost equally strong romance plot, I would like to know in advance. If it's just the guy gets the girl in the end then the story will focus on completely different aspects. But when the plots are close it matters.
It's also not about the story being less. It's about knowing what you’re getting. A Sci-Fi with a dramatic ending would be like Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, which I like. A space drama, such as the newer Battle Star Galactica, is significantly different, and happens to be something that I do not like. The reason I like one and not the other is largely how the story plays out and what the focus is on.
It's not about single category, or a nice neat box to put something in. It's about the reader knowing what they are getting, and being able to find what they are looking for. Both of which are significant aspects of the use of categories.
However I do recognize that the line can be very fine. And it is simpler to have a rule that everyone abides by with no exceptions. I accept this. It bothers me on rare occasion as a writer, and on rare occasion as a reader. But I think I would at least be bothered as often if the rule did not exists. Largely because enough people, including exceptional writers in some cases, can fail to understand how the system works. And that will always be the case.
So in the end, I agree with how you do things on FimFiction in this matter. I just like to get conversations out there in the hope of sparking a solution for the remaining problems. I also have a pet peeve with people disregarding the valid points of others, simply because overall their solution is better.
>> V-pony Adventure.
Good, I did that correct at least.
>>463671 I'd say the first two are straight cumulative: He's seen too much of it, and he needed a blatant explanation now.
The third would've likely had a specific trigger though
>>463758 That would be a sad story. Again, it's not that you can't have both Comedy and Sad moments in a story, but the overall theme is what is categorized. From your example, it would be a sad, or even a tragedy story, since ultimately, the clown cannot do anything to change how he is perceived.
>>463772 If it was passed with the conflicting tags, yeah. However, basically you only would need to choose one and it would have been approved later.
>>463767
Sweet Celestia of Equestria
'
Thank you dear sir, or madam.
Your profile pic also matches giving a good answer perfectly.
Also... Damnit. It won't let me follow you right now.
>>463786 It's also what the summaries are for. Sadly, few use them correctly.
It is amazing how every day you say the same thing that no one seems to get.
Now I'm not going to be too high horsey 
because I used to make the same mistakes. However I think that the people trying to argue the whole 'tragedy can be sad too' argument have to really ask why they care. The whole idea of the tags is to both give a general idea of what your story is about to the reader and allow for easier searching. Ideally (and again I have been guilty of this before and may be guilty of it now) your story should have the fewest tags that is possible to convey to the potential reader what your story is mainly about. You should only use the tags that depict the majority of your story, not one tag for every occurrence of something in your story. By that logic you could argue that you could use every single tag.
>>463801
Ehhhh... I'm still on the fence about it, but whatever. Not even really aiming to make a story like that anytime soon so it's sorta a moot point.
>>463806
They also have a tendency to get cut off at the wrong moment, which can cause both hilarious moments, and very annoying misunderstandings.
And again, then the author has to compensate for a slight weakness in the site, which can be bothersome.
>>463762
Ok, so. If I understand things correctly;
If something Canonized gets altered, it's AU? (Key elements only, like if Fluttershy did or did not go with the rest of the Mane 6 in Dragonshy)
If something Canonized gets something uncanonozed added, it's NOT AU? (Like Pinkie Pie's schizophrenic side in Cupcakes)
DO correct me if I'm wrong. That frickin' AU tag confused me the very first time I saw it... (Along with the Slice-of-Life tag
)
I wanna say thank you. As a Prospective new fimfic author with a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head, this article should help me sort out what tag should go where. ...
Now I just have to finish a story...
For some reason it always amuses me when you have to make one of these. I do give my symapthies but still.
I absolutely love how this particular blog post made me suddenly feel like one of the most incompetent writers ever.
I also got a question: how come we see non-tagged stories popping up every now and then?
It makes me sad that you have to explain stuff about catagories...
Oh, yesssss...
Thank you, Wanderer D! I'm working on a military fic as we speak; while I have been doing research, every little bit helps!
>>463910 Well, most likely it's oversight. We do have to go through dozens of stories in short periods of time, and sometimes we might rush things. That more our mistake than anything. Although sometimes people submit things, then modify them afterwards.
>>463738 Ah, ok thanks
Also, OW is actually learning!? This is new. Can't say I don't approve though.