So, Silent Ponyville 4 may as well be cancelled · 5:36am Jan 2nd, 2020
Silent Ponyville 4 is a strange enigma, in the sense that, I have the entire story planned out in my head, and even have the notes of what I want to have happen, but I haven't touched the story in such a long time. And every time I sit down to try and work on it, my brain fries, I can't get the words out, and I end up moving on to work on something else. And with FiM having officially ended, and me moving on with my own original stories and content, I'm not sure when, if ever, I'm going to have the motivation to go back and finish it.
Back when I started working on Silent Ponyville 4, I had a lot of motivation and inspiration for it, wanting to make it the best Silent Ponyville I had created. Even if it wasn't possible to ever truly recapture the magic of the original first fic, I wanted to be able to match it, and the fact it was a story so closely tied to the original was one of those things that made me feel like I was going to be able to accomplish that. Everything was right, the stars were aligned, and all I had to do was figure out if I wanted to write it as a full Silent Ponyville fic or a spin-off just showing what Octavia did to eventually deserve her own Silent Hill-esque adventure.
But at some point, I lost that inspiration, and its never come back. I think it might have been the fact that I was asked to take my time with it, thus slowing down my momentum with the writing, causing me to just kind of, drop it and never come back to it. And that does make me sad, but not sad or guilty enough where I can go back to the story and just finish it. It's weird, because I've also obviously written other things MLP/EQG since then, and I have several ideas of other stories I could write as well! If only I had the motivation to actually sit down and write...
Drawing is just so much easier. even if theoretically it takes longer. I've always been more of a visual artist, so getting something in text to look the way it does in my head has been one of the hardest things for me to wrap my head around. And that's part of what made drawing so many visuals for Silent Ponyville 4 fun! And I only wish that could have lasted all the way through the proper ending of the story.
So I guess that leaves me in a conundrum of what to do now with Silent Ponyville 4. It feels like I might be letting people down not finishing it, but I know I'm never going to recapture the magic that was Silent Ponyvilel 1 anyway. It's a fic that transcends me and the fandom, and I made it at the start of the fandom. It's so iconic that people to this day tells me that it's what got them into MLP fanfiction, even if they only got into fanfiction recently. It's insane.
I've dabbled before with the idea of letting people finish my fics if they can write well, but that didn't end super well for me last time. So, I guess I could either hand the rest of the fic off to someone else to finish, or just write a final 'synopsis' of what was supposed to happen so people at least get a sense of what was to come. And I could even post whatever small possible ideas I had for Silent Ponyville 5 or 6 even.
A lot of people back in the day asked me to come up with Silent Ponyville style backstories for all of the main 6, and sadly I really never came up with great ideas for all of them, which is why I never did. But what little I did think up would've been the basis for the other fics if I had ever made it that far.
It's 2020 now, a new year, a new decade, and I just felt the need to be honest about the state of affairs for Silent Ponyville 4. I may just cancel it, because I don't think I'm ever going to actually finish it. I posted everything I had finished to hopefully motivate myself to write more, but it did nothing for my motivation. So in the end, I guess I leave this journal to anyone who wanted to know what was up, or how I felt about this story that I used to be so passionate for.
If you got to cancel it then do it. I've loved you Silent Ponyville series since the first story. I've enjoyed experiencing in that world, but if your muse left you it wouldn't be right as a fan of yours to ask you to finish the fourth story if you have no drive to do so . Sure i'll be sad that you won't finish your fourth story but you aren't letting me down. Sometimes stories die it's part of being a creative author/writer/illustrator. Just know if you can't finish it i won't be let down you still have 3 great stories in this universe and you inspired other authors to write Silent Ponyville fanstories. Maybe one of them will take up the mantle of finishing your 4th story. Just be happy in the knowledge of how many people want to write their own varation of Silent Ponyville because YOU inspired them. Relish in that happy knowledge. Maybe sometime in the far off future during Gen 5 of MLP will you be inspired to finish or even rewrite Silent Ponyville 4 or maybe you done that is cool too
Here's a thought, and I'm just spitballin' here so you can take it or leave it: if making visual art is easier for you, why not adapt Silent Ponyville 4 into a "Graphic Novel" of sorts? BUT NOT ONE THAT'S ACTIVELY UPDATING. Nononono! You have enough on your plate between Fate of the Lost Princess and Aria's Archives (links for those who've yet to see them!). Make "Silent Ponyville 4: The Graphic Novel" something that you work on when you need a break from those two. Something that you keep in your back pocket and release, say, whenever a full chapter is ready for public viewing. Something that'll make working on it feel like an actual break from your main and secondary projects. Something extremely personal; far more than it already is.
IDK if that's even possible for you at the moment, but that's the best idea I've come up with for how to go forward with the piece. And if it pans out, maybe you can do the same to the other Silent Ponyville fics you authored and/or had major involvement in. I'm sure it'd get plenty of comic dubs (*coughLostNarratorcough*)!
I have an idea. Maybe something about the story doesn't feel right to you and that's why you're having trouble writing it. It's happened to me before. Outlines are great, but many times that isn't what gets written on the page. I would suggest rethinking your outline and plans. There might be something wrong with them. Your writer's instincts are screaming at you that it isn't right. It's a pain, but you might have to throw out your entire outline.
This is a shame. As much as I like the first two Silent Ponyvilles, I'm sorry to say their writing was atrocious. Knowing that your writing in general has improved a lot over the years, I was really looking forward to seeing it approached with more solid writing experience under your belt.
Still, I understand the reasoning. One can't force awesomeness, no matter how much they might want to.
I get your reasoning. I don't really mind because 3 was a good end to the series.
You hate to see it, but if the drive isn't there than there's nothing you can really do about it. If I may make a selfish request, if you do end up well and truly canceling, could you post the outline? Whenever a story like this dies I'd always liked to have known where it would go, even if its not written out in prose form.
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Your probably on to something here, as I was struggling originally with even what kind of story to make it, so this is probably true. Which, especially if that's the case, unless I get a massive burst of inspiration, I'm probably just gonna move on to my other original works. I even kind of want to like, turn the original Silent Ponyville into an original story to sell in stores one day as well, which I think would be a fun project. Going back to fan content once you've started original content is hard, but not impossible. We'll see what happens.
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Oh for certain. I would, at the very least, let everyone know what was intended to happen. Once I commit to the idea of cancelling the story, I'll post the outline as the final chapter.
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You're a good writer SamRose, but an even better human.
Please no.
If I may if you actually do decide to cancel it (as much as I’ve been enjoying it and gutis reading);
Is that if it ends, to maybe like publish the outline(s) you had planned of what was going to happen? So as even if big fans never get to experience it, we at least get to know how it ends. And maybe have it be that someday somebody else can finish it
Please, just try to write it. I don’t want you to finish it right away, but I would hate it if you cancelled the whole project. And why would stop writing about MLP just because it ended? Maybe take your time and you’ll get motivation someday. I can wait years if that’s what you need to finish it and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one. I just want to have hope it will eventually come out. So please, don’t cancel it, even if it can take really long. I can wait. It really means a lot.
ok, so I had to make a new account just to comment on this, been a long time, yes. I've been a long time fan of your work and the show. I'm also a bit of a writer myself, but I suffer from horrid writer's block when writing my own original stories. I read this passage and I was hoping you'd give me a shot at finishing your silent ponyville 4. Of course, I don't want you to hand it off to some random person in the comment section so if you'd be willing to entertain the notion I'd be more than happy to show you some of my own written pieces.
Oh, yes, and I should mention the reason I came across this is cause I'm on a bit of nostalgia binge, you know with the show having ended, I wanted to go back and see how far we've come
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I mean, it never hurts. Feel free to Note me some examples of your work and I'll give them a peruse. I might be picky though, so don't take it personally if I say no.