Dictate My Blog topic choices are now open for Patreon $5-and-up sponsors. (And yes, the price is about to increase.) · 2:16pm Mar 26th, 2023
It's that time again. And when it comes to the $5 level, it's the last time -- for a backer level of five dollars, because that's about to go up a little. Inflation strikes deep...
Regardless, the regulars know how this works. The new arrivals may need a quick course.
(Yes, most of this is a straight paste from the last time. I just posted a new Anchor Foal II chapter last night. I'm tired.)
Every so often, I allow any sponsor who's currently pledging for $5 or more per story/update to call in a perk. In this case, it's the ability to tell me just what they want me to blog about, because apparently some people think that's funny. Or a chance to get something which is potentially insightful. Or sadistic.
...mostly sadistic.
Demonstrably sadistic.
Admiral Biscuit, I'm glaring at you.
Regardless, that time is now.
Sponsors have through April 15th to get their topics in. In order to do so, you must be verified as being a sponsor at the $5 level. Should your FIMFic name match your Patreon one, you can just post your chosen topic in the comments below. If it doesn't and you wish to maintain the public separation of ideas, or simply want to make the initial request private, you'll have to PM me. However, once the blog goes up, the person who dictated the topic will be IDed by their FIMFic name.
I had two people adjust their pledge under the critical level this month. However, I'm willing to give each of them a blog choice.
If you're not currently a sponsor and still wish to pick a blog topic, you can pledge at $7 (or more) per story/update by April 15th, and I'll honor your request -- if the pledge stays intact long enough for me to collect at least once. You can find my Patreon page here, while this next link goes to the rules for how pledges work. This also applies if someone who is currently sponsoring for a lower amount increases their pledge to the perk level.
In other words, I'll have to see how the May collection goes, and then your choice will be considered.
And yes, I said seven dollars or more for new arrivals. This is effectively a mini-commission and cost increases in the States hit me too. I'm going to adjust the Patreon tiers. (I did say this might happen during the last round.)
sigh
So it goes.
Additionally, I've got the Galacon convention tip drive going. So you could just bribe me into doing a blog directly. By dropping money into my Ko-Fi jar. A lot of money. Let's say... $100? And yes, you may think that sounds incredibly high when compared to becoming a sponsor, but that's only because it is. Really, I'm just putting this here because the convention drive is still going and maybe I'll get a tip towards the goal today by reminding everyone of that. And said tip doesn't have to be a Benjie. So here's the Ko-Fi tip jar link.
(If you've dropped a significant tip into the jar since the drive started, I am willing to backdate and let you select a topic. I'll just need some form of confirmation to ID you as the tipping party. Telling me the date and amount in PM would do it.)
I reserve the right to reject topics which I find too personal, inappropriate, or potentially spoiler-ridden. Anything which threatens to go over five thousand words on its own is a possible no, but not a guaranteed one. However, trying to make me write a story through the guise of a blog request will not go over well. (To see examples of topics which I have been willing to write about, search my blog archives for the Patreon Blog Takeover entries.) If I feel your chosen topic falls under any of those categories, I'll tell you and ask for another selection.
Once all topics are in, blogs will appear at a rate of one to three per month until all requests are fulfilled.
Commence marching orders.
Good morning, I was wondering if you'd be able or interested in talking about the use of negative space in writing? That is, leaving the point unsaid and letting the scene and/or body language draw (we hope!) the reader into evocative inferences?
It's a part of "show don't tell" that seems to be less understood, and I don't always feel like I have enough experience to entirely get the concept across.
Let's see, more Earth 3 stuff...
There's the bigger scale goings-on. I've always got the impression that the Highfather isn't as dangerous as Darksied, and there's a bunch of JLA-level threats in space that are now champions for good. There is the Green Lantern Corp, but are the other colors willing to work together now? (I've also wondered if the fifth-dimensional imps have an equivalent.)
You already shared the Crime Syndicate, and in so doing the membership for Luthor's eventual team...
Do either Wild or Jack have a long-term plan for Owl Man? Are they just saving what they can? Do they have a split opinion on Brucie?
Whatever you fancy, please and thank you.
So it might be on the borderline of "family friendly" but things can be talked around somewhat but I've been wanting to know for a long while now about how the title "Escort" got used for two very different professions and what sort of regulations there on the type that does not involve teleportation.
That might be two questions but I've missed so many of these blogs can I cash in some tokens from missed opportunities?
If you could take any one episode of Friendship is Magic, keep the base premise, and alter the execution, which would it be, why, and how?
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The real problem is that you've asked this before, and I answered it at that time.
Pick another topic.
(Don't fret. It's been a while.)
Heh, looks like that might actually happen: Lebewohl!
Maybe write an overview of the current state of the fandom. You’re as qualified to understand that as anyone. I’m amazed at how well it’s doing but it must inevitably fade away, right? On the other hoof Dracula, Sherlock, Frankenstein, Brothers Grimm, and other properties from the dawn of mass media are still going strong. Not to mention the thriving Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammad fandoms… Will Hasbro finally get around to crushing us with copyright, or will we be worshiping at the alter of Harmony 2500 years later?
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...what?
I haven't looked in a few days. What?
*looks*
What?
{Tennant}WHAT?{/1014}
ETA: I have identified what happened, given thanks, and offered the mainly-responsible party a blog topic.
Regardless, WHAT?
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So, what you’re saying is the current state of pony fandom might be surprisingly robust?
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I think I've forgotten what I asked and whether it ever got answered.
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Ask me something new. Like what I want for dinner.
Or, y'know, something else.
Like breakfast.
I get a little silly when I'm this tired.
Sorry.
If I missed one, I'll try to make up for it.
I personally would be delighted to read about Estee's own take on the phrase 'the use of negative space in writing,' but I haven't paid for it.
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In one Terry Pratchett's Disc World novels the Seamstresses Guild had sort of the same problem. They got a few customers each month that wanted someone to actually SEW things & wound up having to hire someone to do that sort of thing.
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Fortunately I have!
Just never got around to thinking of a proper topic.
I have sent my blog request as a DM on Patreon.
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... Yeah, I have no memory of this even though I replied to it. I'll need to reread it I guess.
And think of something else... .
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I've had a story idea* about a mare who is a licensed Escort as well as a licensed Escort and yes they are two different things. I'm not sure how much I'd play on the idea of someone coming to get one of her services though the office of the other but I did have a bit of a joke in that she's got two offices next to each other and both waiting rooms lead in to the same meeting area for clients.
*I have a lot of story ideas... .
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For whatever it's worth, this sounds hilarious to me. please give it a shot sometime.
I'm not sure if my topics were any good the last few times, it's been a while since I wrote them. But dumb question, does paying $5 twice a month on patreon technically put me in the $10 category? Probably not I'd think? But idk.
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The tiers are per-post, so no.
...yes, it's weird. That's just how Patreon works.
Somewhere out in the world is a sketch artist who only has $2 sponsors, but charges per post and puts up two hundred pieces a month...
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I was thinking more for like the rules for your blog personally and not like offical patreon. But yeah, I appreciate the breakdown. Makes sense.
Double-checked my account on the app, and fixed my rate per month. I forgot I had changed it and changed it back.
OK, so, other idea, maybe too big of one but we'll see. It's a hypothetical thought exercise of a sort.
So, right after the events of Triptych, before any other stories or events take place other than the group getting back home and settled in after their journey. They've all met her and learned about Twilight's ascension or apotheosis or however you want to call it. They understand that non-alicorns can become alicorns. Then one day the rest of the main six wake up as alicorns.
Maybe not all at once, maybe not even all in the same version of their world but what I really want to know is what one thing, from each new set of magical abilities, do each of AJ, Dash, Rarity, Shy, and Pinkie find the easiest and what do they find the hardest and why.
For example in case my wording is poor: What does AJ find easy about now having unicorn magic and what does she find easy about having pegasus magic and what does she find difficult about having unicorn magic and what does she find difficult about having pegasus magic.
For the sake of the thought experiment they all gain horns and wings if they are missing them and don't have to wait for such things to grow in.
Oh boy! Rubs hooves together
We know from canon that Mayor Mare dyes her mane, we can infer from canon that Fluttershy wears tail extensions (or else is embarrassed by a picture of her butt/tail), we know that Rarity wears fake eyelashes. There's fan speculation that they paint their hooves to match their coats (I seem to recall in G5 many of the ponies have hooves that are not the same color as their coats, which could be more natural or a different fashion sense for the modern pony era).
The fact that the Foal Free Press made such a big deal out of the hair dye and the tail extensions suggests that to a foal, at least, the idea of changing one's mane color or tail length is worthy of public humiliation--and maybe it is. Or maybe lots of ponies dye their fur, dye their manes, extend their tails, etc.
What's your take on this? Is it more commonplace than the Foal Free Press thinks, or is that really the exception, is that ponies trying to hide or cover who they really are?
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You might be right about Mayor Mare and Rarity, but I agree with Estee about Fluttershy. From Anchor Foal chapter one:
There seems to be a lot of oral tradition in the 'verse. From legends of earth pony booster drugs to ponies going missing in the Between, there's plenty of world building happening. Author's choice, but could you elaborate on how one of those traditions would have started and how you came up with it as a piece of world building? (Even if just in the almost bullet point way Celestia told Fancy Pants about the origins of Nightmare Night.)
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Like I said, I don't know if she does or doesn't, just that the Foal Free Press suggested she did, which if nothing else implies that tail extensions are a thing that ponies are familiar with (and they do exist for IRL equines).
Whether they're meant to appeal to ponies who are vain, or to ponies who have lost their tail-hair due to some calamity, or ponies who keep their tails cropped short for some reason (pulling wagons, diving suits, etc.) that sometimes want to show off a fuller tail . . . well, I'm interested in the speculation. I have some of my own ideas, but I'm curious how Estee would spin it.