Vanity Blog: 1

So I've got my piece of a crumb of a grain of a drop of internet "fame" and I want to milk it for all it's worth. As far as blogging goes, I think there's only one real selling point: I won't make any demands. No Patreon to shill, no begging for subscriptions, follows what have you.

Jokes aside, I'm doing this to increase my own engagement to hopefully write more, and maybe even better. It's strange because throughout my day, I'm enamored with my fic (and occasionally with whatever the hell you can call that other thing that used to have that terrible long title) and want to write. Then 5:00 hits and all my ambition seems to be grounded in the worst way. Let's get to some actual thoughts before I chicken out and delete this post.

First, Squirt: his cutie mark was supposed to be being an independent thinker. I thought questioning conventional history would be a good way to show that. However, in real life challenging historical narratives usually means that you either have an agenda to push, or it just puts you in tinfoil hat territory. When he started to ponder if the princesses could be pushing propaganda, it wasn't meant to be an entrenched suspicion. Curiously, I thought that him intertaining such thoughts, even in passing, was supposed to make him seem open-minded. I saw the comments and overcorrected by giving Squirt all the traditional geek hobbies. Stereotyping is a lazy way to write, but I think it sets up a nice parallel to the fillies' interests. Hey, segue:

So what's with the fillies and mahjong anyway? This one's a little simpler. In the same spirit of avoiding stereotypes, it felt like a fun alternative to indulging River's worst fears of girly gossip, crushes and the like. Reach mahjong is something I know a little bit about, and I figure it's okay to put my obscure interests in the story, as long as they stay on the periphery.

So, yeah. Hopefully you were marginally entertained for a minute.