Finding Fluttershy · 3:50pm Apr 15th, 2013
Alright. One thing I try to do in my fics is show another side of a character. My oldest fic, Egghead, is probably my one fic that fails to do this very well. While it does bring forward the reverse effect to Twilight getting Dashie into books, it doesn't really accomplish what the Virgin Mare and Pinkie & the Brain accomplished.
I'm not here to give a speech about my writing style, I'm here for help. And I really need it.
Every pony is easy for me to write. And I don't just mean mimic their speaking style from the show, I mean I can put myself in the shoes of a character. I'm probably best with Pinkie Pie, and second with Rainbow Dash, but I can pretty much get past the outer 'coating', if you will, of any character from the show. For instance, I could write something with Pinkie Pie being depressed, or Rainbow Dash crying. I could do that quite easily.
The only character I CAN'T do this for? Fluttershy.
Writing as fluttershy herself is quite simple to me. I have her in both Pinkie & the Brain, and Egghead, so I have experience writing from her voice... I just don't think I can write AS her voice.
I want to make a Flutters fic, but I don't think I'm able to really put Fluttershy in another position. I can make Applejack cheat at something, but for whatever reason, I don't think I could write a fic where Fluttershy yells at an animal, or makes a friend of hers cry.
Can anyone offer some help for getting inside Fluttershy's mind? It's just the way she's written into the show, I can't get passed her exterior... well... shyness.
think about her yelling at the dragon
remember that she will yell at an animal to protect her friends and or to show them to be nice
Well, you could take another look at "Putting Your Hoof Down" and "The Return of Harmony". One bad day could easily make her regress back into "New Fluttershy" mode, or her friends causing an accident that kills/harms a bunch of animals could bring her Discorded mode back to the surface. Even minor things, like her managing to find it in her to haul the balloon fast enough to catch up to Rainbow Dash or staring down the cockatrice in "Stare Master" could be decent examples of her breaking out of her usual character.
Then again, what happens if she takes the idea of being kind too far? What happens if she starts to see how much trouble individuals having freedom causes those individuals, and she gets it in her head that being kind means protecting them from themselves at any cost?
In my mind Fluttershy is amazingly strong in some ways, but also a major worrier. It's also the basic source of her shyness. She's worried about saying or doing the wrong thing. Her poor self esteem makes this even worse, and on top of all that sometimes she doesn't say things simply because decides it might be a bit mean. But she can put all that aside for others and do what needs to be done, but never for her own well being. All of her successes are for one or more of her friends, even New Fluttershy is, which is why she suddenly realizes what she's doing is so wrong because she was trying to be more assertive for them. The only major exception is the gala, but that is because it's been shown numerous times how important a cutie mark is, and feeling she was failing hers got a huge reaction.
A question, what happened to "Egghead" ? It's been ages since the last chapter.