2433725
To be honest, I don't think I could make it work another way. Given the right mood, I can always get a few ideas flowing after the right song, regardless of whether it's related to the idea or not. I guess my only real concern is finding the right time during the week to actually get to writing something. I guess those windows will just open themselves whenever they're available.
Again, thanks for all the advice! I really appreciate it!
Mr Grapefruit, hi, can I have a large essay with extra words, please. No I do not want fries with that

2433250 You raise a good point, and I tend to be the same way. I find I get more thinking about it done if I turn the CD player off on the way to work, otherwise I just lose myself in the album. I guess it could work as a trigger for the relevant track or two, followed by turning the music off again and thinking about the story? That's the only to fix it using that strategy that springs to mind, I'm afraid

2432981
Not a problem. This is all really interesting and sounds pretty useful, so I'm more than happy to read anything you have to say
The only problem I tend to have with using music as an inspiration is that, typically, I can only get to thinking about ideas and stories after listening to a song or album. For me, music needs to be a completely immersive experience, otherwise I tend to get bored with it. I need to experience everything a song or album has to offer in order to really understand it, and what emotions or ideas are presented as a result of that. Insert the whole 'music is a form of art' thing here.
I usually get inspiration after I step back from what I'm listening to and go 'alright, how did that stimulate me emotionally, what does it make me think?'
This is when I might begin to get ideas for characters, and the occasional idea for a setting here and there. But it all takes me a while to get going, and given my obligations as a student, most of the time I simply fail to pick up enough momentum to gather ideas and process them into written work. I guess I just need more practice.
But thank you, for all of this.
Mr Grapefruit, hoping to never run out of watermark sentences to sign off every message he ever writes

2432755 Sorry to dump it all on you unprompted like that, it came out a bit longer than I'd intended

One of the nice things about songs as a link back into stories in particular is that you can easily conjure up the thinking space for planning stuff out when you're doing something otherwise dull, like travelling or doing the washing up. Again, though, that doesn't mean the story has to actually be connected to a song; I have one which takes its title from a song, and also has tiny snippets of the characters overhearing bits of other songs here and there, so I put all the tracks involved in a playlist, and now I think more productively when I'm doing the vacuuming

2432624
Wow, thank you so much for the advice!
It's interesting to learn about your writing processes. I can see some of them even helping me in the future, perhaps when I get a lot more time during the day to think properly about my writing (I like how you mentioned songs as a source of inspiration, too. One of my latest ideas stemmed from a song, and I'm in no doubt that there'll be more).

And not a problem, by the way. I'll be sure to check it out at some point.

Mr Grapefruit, amidst all the excitement, yawning like a jet-lagged businessman

2432608
Not a problem! Just keep doing whatever you're doing, and I promise your stories will just as entertaining as you aspire (if not more). I definitely look forward to reading more of them.
Thanks for the comment!
Mr Grapefruit, mouth like a Chesire cat (but less creepy. Maybe only slightly)

2432601 Thank you very much!

I know exactly what you mean about getting ideas down when you have so many; I have a list of 12 siren stories on my master document, each one with a different ending for them, but only five have actually been started, and only three completed. And that's just the ones about the sirens (who tend to be my focus - the story you read being an exception); I have a big section of other ideas for other scenes I'd like to see, crossover ideas etc. The best siren author out there has a series of blog entries called 'Stories I'll Never Write,' in which he's published all the notes he had (one of which was 34,000 words) to stories he's accepted he'll never have time to get around to writing, what with all the other ones he's already working on and has in the pipeline for future projects.

So I think everyone gets that to some extent I find that if you can picture the characters in the scene in your mind, they almost suggest the dialogue themselves; and if you're able to write that down just as dialogue while you're thinking about it, you can then go back when you have more time and essentially fill in the gaps with internal thoughts and action descriptions. Usually just having the dialogue there I find is enough to put me back in the mindset to write the meat of it (I recently ran the numbers; the dialogue is about 20% of the text for me, but it's probably the most important 20% and acts as a skeleton for the whole thing).

It might also help tying stories to songs - there are some songs that remind me of stories I'm planning/working on, and so listening to them is an easy way to get back into the mindset of the story, and thus focus on one story in particular when there are so many vying for attention (they certainly don't need to be songfics for that idea to work, I've found).

I also have the reverse problem, if it helps: I get distracted by wanting to write, read and socialise on this site when I'm meant to be doing guitar things

Thanks for saying you'd be interested in reading more, that's kind of you If you're musically-inclined then my latest one does go into quite some detail discussing the music of FIM, but it's completely different in tone to any of my other stories, and is stars the Equestria Girls characters, so I certainly can't say you'd be likely to enjoy it just on the basis of liking the Chrylestia one

Thank you for the follow too

2432598
Gee, colour my face all red why don't you
Yeah, your story was a delightful read. It was very meticulously put together, with the kind of attention to detail one can more than admire. I also loved how you tackled the ideas presented about each character's motivations, as well as putting their ideals and beliefs up on display. Truly a fantastic read.
I would love to write in a style similar to yours. If only my mind wasn't an absolute clisterf[BUY SOME APPLES]ck, and I could get ideas down onto paper, I could actually get somewhere.
Oh well, these things take time, it seems.
Thanks for the comment! I look forward to reading more of your stories in the future!
Mr Grapefruit, currently sitting in bed, eyelids waning perilously downwards

Hiya, thanks for the fave

I too have read and enjoyed several of the stories on that list

And, referring to your latest blog entry, guitar isn't the worst excuse not to be writing, not by any means!

2174557 Thanks! Looking forward to having you there!

2174545
Well, if you do, I look forward to it! Good luck with any new stories!

2174534 Anyway I might consider a sequel in the future but not right now.

2171863
Fair enough.

2174517 I can inform you personally about it but generally speaking all the things about changeling history are shrouded purposely in mystery not for the audience but for the changelings themselves as well. Remember they don't need to know what happened there exactly because there will be consequences. And besides I didn't want ti to drag on.

2174515
Oh, okay then. I didn't read that bit that deeply enough, it seems
Still, considering that is part of the changeling history, I would've liked to read more of it, or at least with deeper, more complex detail in your story.
Nevertheless, thank you for your story!

2174466 The myth itself was meant to explain how it all happened rather than reinforce her ideology. Btw the badlands didn't "blow up". It's like this... the MIasma is like a creeping infection, like the "creep" in the zerg, or the undead in World of Warcraft. It was beneath the ground and it was affecting the surface. Metis simply stopped it from going further. She didn't "blow up the badlands" but rather collapsed the exit behind her.

2171863
I certainly do!

For one, I loved the whole psychological aspect of the story. It throws out an interesting version of Chrysalis' point of view out there, one that I certainly enjoyed reading about. The ending, in particular, is very good, as it leaves plenty of room for the reader's imagination to play. My favourite bit, however, was the argument about what their ideals are really worth. Chrysalis' cynical perspective was well thought out and surprisingly honest, while Twilight provided a great positive argument at the end. My only (slightly) negative thought about it concerns the whole 'myth' of the kind-hearted changeling that nuked the Badlands into existence. It was interesting in itself, but wasn't really that important in proving Chrysalis' point. If it were more drawn out and better elaborated on, it may have made the moral of that myth more relevant. Still, it wasn't bad. In fact, there is no part of your story that was bad at all!

I've read a fair few brilliant stories on this site. Some are as great as to compel the reader to think, not just about the whole premise of the story, but about things that are indirectly linked. Your story is certainly one of them (hence it ending up in my favourites shelf!)

Keep up the good work!

P.S. I'm so sorry for not replying sooner. It's a bit difficult to keep up with FiMFiction when it's buried within about 24 other tabs of YouTube random articles I'm reading.

Thanks for faving Friendship Lost! Do you have any feedback for me?

2104349
I'm glad that I could help you.

2103922 Just keep doing what you're doing.
And I know I've mentioned it before, but thank you so much again for helping me out when I began using the site