Jan
24th
2013
It's kind of sad really. · 7:59am Jan 24th, 2013
I'd been writing (or attempting to write) a story for a few weeks now. Hm, two or three months at this point, really.
Now that I'm solidifying a single chapter and editing it down to something clear and not too disjointed, I see that where I was taking it in chapters not yet written is going to be a mess.
Not because of my writing, but because of the current ongoing panic about whether or not Twilight is going to be an alicorn or not. And she doesn't even show up in the chapter I've got (nearly) done.
Eh, not like anyone's going to see this anyway, I don't have any followers I know about, yet.
Though I might get some in the future, who get bored enough to read back in a random writer's bloggy thing.
Hi, you!
At the fanfic panel at Canterlot Gardens Patchwork Poltergeist spoke on "When Cannon Fires Into Your Fanfic." You can find the the text of this at the Pony Fiction Vault, or the whole panel can be found on YouTube. Anyway, her advice boils down to "relax." When writing fanfic we are not bound by cannon; while it can be nice to follow it we don't have to if we don't want to and it shouldn't upset our writing.
I have a specific example of how this effects me, though it's not as drastic as "suddenly Twi's an alicorn." A big deal for my OC is she's invented a spell that is essentially Equestrian Power Point. But now we have Trixie casting full on video displays, somewhat overshadowing my girl's little graphic charts. So I have to decide, do I incorporate the cannon ("We are sorry, Miss Greystone, but in light of superior work by other unicorns we cannot consider your spell for publication.") or ignore it ("Congratulations, Miss Greystone, you are the youngest unicorn to have her work published in the National Registry of Spells."). I'll decide based on what makes the more interesting story. And I'm pretty relaxed about that.
746462 In the first place, yikes! I should have noticed that I was already being followed. (I'm amazed, frankly.)
As to the story itself, it's tricky advice to go along with in this case. If I'd gotten the story out already and up to around chapter 4, it wouldn't even be a problem. (It also wouldn't even come up if the hubbub hadn't happened.) My problem is that now it'll look highly contrived and suspicious - in other words, I'm taking too long writing and editing this.
Maybe if I can get it out to that point before the episode itself airs I can still salvage my original plotline with the same characters, but if I cannot (a likely event) and if Alicorn Twilight does happen (I have my doubts, but who knows?) then I'll have to change out Twilight's place in this for someone else.