Behind-the-page: A Study of Smart & Social · 3:50pm Feb 6th, 2023
Hiya, lovely peeps!
February 2023 has barely started and I already wrote seven blogs and one 3k-word story! I am on fire, baby!
Alright, so welcome to today’s story:A Study of Smart & Social
(Long title, I know. Longest one I have, actually.)
In case the context wasn’t clear from the long description, in the story, Twilight is sitting down with her friends and Spike in her and Sunset’s shared tent the night of the Gala at Camp Everfree. She’s finally accepted the magic of friendship inside her heart and now, she feels comfortable enough sharing personal details about her life. Which she had done not before.
The story idea had been sitting in my head for so long and I’m really proud of the final result.
Credit goes where credit is due, the story format is inspired ’The Rise and Fall of Sunset Shimmer’, which is Chapter 26 of Albi’s Long Road to Friendship. I initially wanted only Sunset to be the audience, but then I thought it would make more sense to have all the girls be the audience.
The cover art has got be one of the pieces I’m most proud of. It was inspired by the title cards of the first season of Equestria Girls: Better Together. It depicts Twilight’s glasses, her geode, that one pen we often see in the show, Spike’s muddy paw prints and the pin that Dean Cadence wears on her outfit. The words are my own handwriting. My art has really improved and you can see that you compare those two versions of the geodes.
According to you, which one is clearer? More detailed? More accurate to the show’s image?
I’m getting sidetracked. Anywho.
Most of the story was written on the tiny screen of my phone on a Google Doc, so if you spot any mistakes, do let me know.
I had a lot of trouble coming up with that title. My first thought was The Ace, as Twilight is an ace. But that sounded more like a superhero title. So then I thought The Life of a Young Genius, but it was too long. And it didn’t have a nice ring to it. The current title mixes the two recurring themes of the fic - ‘smart’ because that’s what Twilight is and ‘social’ because that’s what Twilight wants to be. I chose the word ‘study’ because of scientific studies, which I’m pretty sure Twilight does a lot of.
A Study of Smart & Social was initially written as a single chapter in my upcoming story, but I wanted to give it a chance to shine on its own. (I do have something special planned for this June, though, so stick around for that.)
A big, giant thanks to my editor Trellia! This is my first time getting an editor and they were amazing! They pointed out all of the typos I had (and there were many) and pointed out my narrative issues, with the flow, pacing, dialogue and such. It was honestly great fun to read all their comments and their thoughts as they read through the story. I really needed a second pair of eyes here and Trellia was honestly a life-saver.
Read my story. Leave some feedback. Tell your friends.
But seriously, though. Please say something in that comment section. I need to know how I’m doing.
Thank you for writing this! Ans thank you also for writing that story. As I said on the comments, that was quite the emotional work!
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And thank you for reading it!
But seriously, though. Please say something in that comment section. I need to know how I’m doing.
Ha, I know how you feel
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Yup. Iʼm always on the hunt for feedback and comments. Thank you for yours!