Exactly what it says on the tin: a workshop for writers looking to step up their Twilestia game.

First, let's go over what this thread is and isn't.

It is a place to get advice and tools to help you, as an author, write higher quality Twilestia stories. That means we'll try to feature things like reviews and analyses that highlight important aspects of their relationship and how to capture that essence for your own work or use it to inform your own writing. It's a place to share story ideas and get feedback on what works and what doesn't.

It is not a place to have the group write your story for you. While group members are welcome to volunteer their time and attention to preread a story, this is meant as help, not ghost-writing. As well, we'll shy away from general writing tips, because other resources on the site handle that pretty well. It isn't a place to put down perfectly valid forms of Twilight and Celestia's love. So long as it meets the group's rules, it's welcome here. Having said that, please respect that some topics are uncomfortable to some readers. Warn of sex or gore and do not link to any NSFW material.

This first post is just to outline what the thread will be about. The following post will give a few highlights of what to expect regarding the material we'll feature.

This first post is going to act as something of a work-in-progress guide to all things Twilestia. As things expand, this post will change to reflect new information and guidance. In general, this post will contain important news and links to current discussions, resources, and other material to help make this workshop, well, work for anyone who needs it. I hope you find it useful, and I hope that you can help contribute to making this the premiere destination for Twilestia authors, editors, and readers.

This week’s discussion topic:
What writing exercise has helped you grow the most as a writer?

Common questions: 5291385

Helpful resources for authors and editors: 5291389

Writing and shipping exercises: 5291390

Common Questions

What makes a story featuring Twilight and Celestia a Twilestia story?
At a basic level, this group is about the loving bond they both share. Regardless of whether you ship them romantically, you can’t deny that they have a very close, familiar relationship built over years of mentorship and respect.

It’s not enough to simply have them in your story. It’s about how they interact with each other. It’s about showing the reader that these ponies care very deeply about one another. That care can be in the gentle nudge of a mentor to her student in the right direction. The caring embrace of a mother figure to her charge. The romantic tendencies of two ponies in love. The shoulder of an old friend to cry on in times of need. What matters is the love and friendship they share and how they show that to each other and how you show that to the readers.

Well, my story is solidly Twilestia, but my writing needs some work. Is this the place to find that help?
We won’t try to turn you away, but you may be better off seeking help from one of the many editing or writer’s groups on the site. They’ll have more resources available for you in terms of general writing. Our focus here is on strengthening how you bring out the best Twilestia content you can.

If you’re looking for an editor, check out the Looking for Editor group. If you’re just after some helpful advice to improving your writing in general, check out the School for New Writers group. Both have links to other resources and groups as well. Visit their pages and see if those groups can offer the help you need. If not, we’ll see what we can do to direct you to other resources and make sure we can add it to the list!

I have solid writing fundamentals, but I’m not just not getting this Twilestia thing down. What can I do?
That’s what we’re here for! Post a specific question, bounce some ideas around, check out some other threads and resources we have posted to get an idea of what’s going on. We’ll have some resources and other tools posted down below to hopefully get you on the right track. And again, if you still have questions, go ahead and ask!

I’m an established author/editor/other member of the group. How can I help?
Keep doing what you’re doing! Writing, editing, and reading stories is what keeps this group going and growing! If you’d like to help out in this thread, participate in discussions by offering insight. If you’re an old hand, explain how things have changed and offer ideas that haven’t been visited before. If you’re new to the ship, explain what brought you in and why you’d like to see more of it.

And for those of you so inclined, we’ll need lots of tools available! If you have or know of writing or shipping exercises, let’s work on them. If you like to offer constructive critique or reviews, post or link to them here so we can expand on what works and what doesn’t.

Ultimately, how well this workshop works out is going to depend on all of us feeling like it's worth our time. Contributing when and what you can will help make this a thriving community of authors, editors, and readers coming together to make sure Twilestia stays Bestia.

Helpful Resources for Writers and Editors

If you know of any additions or omissions, feel free to reply to this post with something you feel we could use!

Official Skype Chat

Groups on Fimfiction:
Looking for Editors
School for New Writers

Outside websites to help with writing:
Thesaurus/Reverse Dictionary (for when you know the definition of a word but can’t recall it)
Find words when you only know part of that word
Find rhymes of a word

Useful software
For when you just need to sit down and write without distractions (cross platform writing application; the page asks for an optional tip when downloading)

Writing and Shipping Exercises

If you know of any additions or omissions, feel free to reply to this post with something you feel we could use!

Write to a prompt!
Check out the first post of each collab to get a sense of the rules and how things are conducted. Each collab is slightly different!
Regular collab prompts
NSFW collab prompts
Write in one hour collab prompts

Questions to ask of any ship:
From this thread (worth checking out the referenced blog post, as well)
Why does Twilight love Celestia?
In what ways does Celestia bother Twilight, even though they love each other?
Why does Celestia love Twilight?
In what ways does Twilight bother Celestia, even though they love each other?
What do they like doing together?
What do they fight about?
Providing answers to these questions will help inform the way you write Twilight and Celestia interacting or why they’re pursuing a particular relationship. The focus of this exercise isn’t about listing the positive and negative traits about each character. It’s about how their characters filter those traits and react to them.

You put a lot of work in this thread. My reading comprehension skills are a little rusty, but I'm guessing you're looking for group participation? Specifically in response to :
"What writing exercise has helped you grow the most as a writer?"

I'd have to put out that for me the exercise that has helped the most is actual practice. What I mean by that is writing 1k+ words a day. It doesn't matter what the subject is, but it really helps if it's reviewed by someone else. I actually prefer cold hard and vicious tearing apart of my writings. It's easier for me to learn from, and it's a good exercise for me to drop my ego. I get angry easy, so it is an active effort to disassociate a criticism on my writing from an attack on myself. I figure it's healthy for me as a writer and helps me to accept criticism in more walks of life as well.

Another important thing is to not delete old material, instead reviewing it from time to time. It's important to see where you came from. Sometimes I forget how bad I used to be, and it's helpful to see the improvement. Other times, I see something I used to do very well, and now suck at. It pushes me to get better at it again.

I'm not the best writer, and my Twilestia stories are almost nonexistent (With the notable exception of my first story), but it's one of my favorite pairings to read. What do the rest of y'all do?

5296979
That's exactly what I'm after: this being a place for fellow writers to "talk shop" and the weekly discussion topics are supposed to spark some discussions (duh).

I've said it before, I want to dig up some of the first drafts for Canterlot's Guests. The differences in the first chapter are huge. I probably doubled the size of that chapter with the changes I made. And the differences between how things flowed in Chapter Six and the previous chapters is pretty significant.

For me, though, the best exercises I've done are the prompts. Forcing myself to consider other ideas and write on a deadline (especially an immediate one, like one hour) is a benefit to putting myself in the mindset of "OK, how do I get these characters to interact in the way I them to very quickly?" It's a challenge that makes me consider what I really need to express to get my point across.

Even in general, giving myself deadlines and expectations makes me actually sit down to write and get something done. It just becomes too easy to sit back and say "Oh, it's not published yet, I still have time to work, I'll do a little bit" and then just not do the little bit.

I'm a little different with how I write. I don't do so well with deadlines, but for me I am at my best when my idea, usually a first draft, sits unpublished for a long while. When I do go back and take a look, I find that later down the road I may have come up with new elements to add to what would have otherwise been an overly simplistic story. The idea of "fresh eyes" is something I have in my favor, but also causes my stories to suffer because I wont generally complete them in a timely manner since I like to take extra time and let my ideas simmer. Deadlines just make me feel like everything is wrong with my writing, none of my ideas are good enough, and that people are going to hate what I've come up with.

As for writing exercises, I usually search outside of the mlp fandom when my creativity is low and take prompts from other fandoms I'm also a part of. As a fanfic writer, I've published quite a few stories from a lot of other fandoms over many years now; so if I find myself stuck in a rut, I just take a break from whatever my current project is and start over with something new. Like I said, that factor has always worked in my favor.

On the topic of character interaction, I think I'm also a bit different with how I approach this as well. I'm a natural daydreamer so its easy for me to get lost in the "what ifs" of a situation. In fact, its one of my absolute favorite things to do. "How would Celestia react if so and so does this?" "What would Twilight do if so and so said that?" Just give yourself a "big picture" and watch the characters of your choice play out the scenario in your head, and if you like it, replay it over and over until you're ready to take notes on what they do. And if you don't like it, throw them some obstacles to get them to react the way you want them to. Its really like a game of Sims, where you're ultimately "God" looking down on your characters and manipulating their surroundings to make them dance to your tune. I think a lot of people get so hung up on the interaction that they force the conversation, instead of using the "bigger picture" to let it flow for them. That's what I find helps me the most.

Also I can't get to sleep at night without creating at least one whole new scenario, whichever fandom/ pairing I like, and letting it play out and lull me to sleep. Like I said, I'm a daydreamer. This stuff comes natural to me :)