Guppy Love Infoblog and Q&A · 7:00pm Dec 29th, 2019
So! Guppy Love has proven very successful. I dare say I'm proud of the results. I've decided to try something different with it in this, a devoted blog for answering queries and talking about the story in general. I want to start by explaining some background and answering a few questions that I anticipate and which have already been asked. Fair warning: I won't avoid spoilers with this blog, so if you haven't read the story yet and don't want to ruin it for yourself then now is your time to turn away. Topics begin after the break.
No need to dilly-dally, so let's get to the first thing I imagine was on people's minds with that last line:
Sunset Shimmer! Yay! Shimmity Shipping!
Alternatively...
What the heck does this have to do with the rest of the story? It feels gimmicky and I don't approve.
Naiad was the first to bring this up. I had a couple of reasons for that Sunset Shimmer cameo, not all related the fandom.
First, it dawned upon me that Guppy Love is ultimately a story about a failed attempt at a romantic relationship. More to the point, a failed homosexual relationship. I could already imagine the mindless, wild-eyes and frothing lips of the social justice numbskulls screaming about how I was writing a story subliminally about 'proper family values' and homosexuality being evil and whatever. Adding Sunset as Rarity's partner at the end was done almost entirely to cut them off at the curb and avoid their ridiculousness.
Second, I know there are some Sunshim fans out there. Heck, I consider myself one of them. And since this is a human AU, I just knew that there would be some questioning why Sunny hadn't made an appearance. Those people would want to know where she is, even if only in reference. I had already determined when I started the story that Sunset would be a mermaid like Rarity, but there would be no way to reveal that without... well, something like this. So yes, the fact that Sunset was with Rarity at the end, as opposed to literally anybody else or even nobody, was at least partially to sate that crowd and answer the inevitable question.
That being said, when I alter the overall story for original fiction purposes I will probably remove or heavily alter that scene, as it loses a lot of its value when the readers don't recognize who Sunset is and why her appearance matters.
The story's description states that Guppy Love was inspired by the cover art. All true?
Not 100% true, actually, although LooknamTCN's art heavily influenced it and is indeed what spurred me into action. Another influence was a trip I took in early October with my parents to a beach house in Crystal Beach, Texas. It was a delightful weekend getaway, and the image of the beach houses on their thin stilts, the sounds of the ocean, and the whole atmosphere of the beach lent itself to some inspiration. I do so love being on and near the water.
Another major influence gets more personal. Now, we all have fantasies. Ideas and plotlines and mere imaginings that play out in our heads during lax moments. Writers are particularly prone to these sorts of things, or so I've come to believe. For this purpose, I'm particularly referring to romantic fantasies. I've found that mine have developed in a particular direction from my pubescent time dreaming of cute girls throwing themselves at me. My fantasies today are more about... failure. Never getting the girl, never being the hero. They're always about being capable, being willing, but because of some flaw always not achieving the end goal. These fantasies are always about the journey and never the destination.
I can already hear you folks wondering about my mental state and questioning if I'm 'all right'. Rest assured, I'm not staying up at nights imagining myself being a complete failure of a person. I tend to view these things more as... testing grounds for ideas. And it was the testing ground of failure that inspired the ultimate direction of Guppy Love. I find a certain fascination in the concept of loss, perhaps because I'm not as familiar with it as I could be at this stage in my life.
I am, after all, quite the optimistic individual.
Why did you tag this as a romance? It doesn't really seem like one.
Ah, but that's the point. It's not called Guppy Love for no reason. This is a story about a woman who thinks she is in love and sees everything through rose-tinted glasses. It is a romance, but only in one direction. I carefully designed Applejack's interactions so that, if the reader pays enough attention, they can see that Rarity isn't returning her feelings.
But a romance in only one direction is still a romance, and just because a story is a romance doesn't mean the pairing has to end up together.
I wanted to capture that feeling of eager devotion, of clinging happiness. In Applejack, I wanted to demonstrate the blindness that can come with young, unrestricted affection and the pain that arises when the blindfold is ripped off.
Guppy Love came out just a few short weeks after ajvasquezbrony28's The Farmer & The Mermaid. Did that affect your plans with the release of the story?
Not at all. I was, at most, amused that someone else beat me to the general idea, even using the same cover art! But by that point I was mostly finished with the first draft and had promised the cover artist I would send a link to the story when it released. I didn't see any need to break that promise or stop after doing so much work. On the other hand, I did feel a bit of trepidation that ajvasquezbrony28 might think I was stealing their thunder and/or idea, or that the two stories might be unfairly compared to one another.
I haven't read any of The Farmer & The Mermaid, but I'm curious to see where it goes. As such, I have every intention of reading and reviewing it if/when it is completed.
Why only use Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy? Why not the whole gang?
My original intention for the story was for it to be only around 30k words in length. As we can see, that didn't happen. Limiting myself to only a few main characters was a means of preventing me from having to do too much. I didn't need a dozen characters to tell the story, and every character added would only serve to make the story longer and make it more difficult to give each character the attention they warranted. So I chose the characters I felt were more valuable to the plot. The rest were only mentioned for the sake of those who would want to know if they're around at all.
When I do the revision to original fiction, I'll likely remove all such references.
You keep mentioning an original fiction revision. What's up with that?
This wasn't originally part of the plan. Yet, as the story grew longer (and I fretted over that fact), I eventually had an epiphany. It is generally observed that for a story to be a 'novel' it needs to be at least 75k words in length. As of now I'm roughly 2/3 of the way there. Why stop?
There were a lot of things I wanted to do to improve upon the story, but held back for length purposes. For example, there was supposed to be a whole chapter detailing Applejack's visit to the mainland and her family, a chapter that got reduced to a few paragraphs of exposition. There was to be a scene near the end better detailing Applejack's appreciation of Fluttershy, who was her primary support throughout the story and needed to be recognized as such. I wanted more scenes showcasing the exact relationship between Rarity and Sweetie, with perhaps a little more of their history revealed. And Applejack's stubborn refusal to acknowledge the truth was originally going to lead to a far more drawn-own climax where Applejack actively sought to stop the mermaids from leaving the island.
All these things were cut or altered significantly. Yet I could easily go in and change that. Heck, the whole of Guppy Love lends itself to an original premise, requiring only a change in character names and descriptions. I want to explore this avenue and make the story the large piece I feel it was meant to be.
And with that, I am going to wrap up. There's a lot more I could say regarding Guppy Love but, alas, only so much time in my day.
But that doesn't mean it's over! If you have any questions about the story, feel free to ask here and I'll be sure to answer in time, provided it hasn't already been answered in some way.
Not a lot of people seem to get this. I've had comments complaining about this sorta thing on my stories before.
Also, is there any chance that the original fiction version would be announced here when completed? If there's a hard copy, I'd like to get one and read it.
5176904
I don't see why not. I'd be rather dumb to publish an original fiction and not tel my only real audience about it.
What made you decide to make Rarity and Sweetie Belle two mermaids who have a sister-like bond and not actual sisters?
5176904 Yeah, I tend to the double-reverse romance where both parties involved have no romantic intentions at the beginning, but grow together. Except for The One Who Got Away in which Gaberdine is unmistakably -- ahem -- hooked at first sight.
As a fellow piscine pony promoter, nice work. I've always said the complexity of the story is related to the cube of the number of characters, so keeping that down helps. Looks like you caught a keeper here. And as inevitable, I have to leave you with the video that was the *first* thing I could see when reading the title.
5176929
Which are both understandable perspectives to take, especially with the former. It's realistic, but also leaves so much room for character development, arguably a bit more than the latter (though, there's plenty amusing in that one too).
Oh, and I caught that fish horse pun on a blog for a story about fish humans. Don't think I didn't.
5176928
That stemmed from my ideas regarding mermaid culture. I had the idea in my head that mermaids would be a nomadic race with little trust for humans, if not an outright fear and paranoia of them. Nor did I want them to have anything resembling a 'mermaid city'. The overarching ideas were intended to justify the mythological status of mermaids (large groups confined to specific locations are more noticeable), and one part of that was having them move around in very isolated units of no more than four at any given time.
The decision to make Rarity and Sweetie not blood-related was both a result of and in service to this concept. It further expanded upon mermaid culture as not putting a premium on family units while also making Rarity's and Sweetie's relationship particularly special by their own standards.
Cool :)
And not at all! ^^’ if anything :) it filled me with drive and motivation to try and make my story the best it can be with the idea I have some friendly competition out there! :D
And definitely dying to hear your thoughts since a lot of where my story may or may not go may of, even if I had already somewhat planned most of the route before evening know I would have completion, but a lot of it I’m interning to go more the directions you didn’t go. Such as have rarity and applejack getting together, have magical transformation elements, be a staying together story, ect. Almost in a way a way to satisfy those who wanted to see that in this story but didn’t ^^’
Still loved this one with all the risk and norm diverging it went it, and I wish you well on your endeavors in 2020!
*laughs nervously in Apropos of the Sinners*
Since this fic includes Sunset Shimmer at the end, isn't this more of an Equestria Girls fic than MLP?
5177727
I honestly fought with myself over that tag, and I'm still not sure which label is more appropriate considering how AU-ey this AU is. In the end, I don't think it matters much.
Would you be opposed to this story getting its own TV Tropes page? It's already on the MLP Shipping Fics recommending page.
5180656
I wouldn't be opposed to any of my stories getting a TVTropes page. In fact, give me a moment to pull out my bucket list...
5294421
Admittedly, the people who would jump to that conclusion are the most insane of the SJW crowd, the members of the group that scream loud enough at enough minor things to make sure they give the rest a bad name.