Scattered Thoughts No One Will See

Why is it that thoughts had in a shower tend to stay in the shower?

I ask a lot of questions I don't expect real answers to. Mostly to myself.

Knighty appears to have lifted his four-thousand-word minimum requirement for getting a story featured. I suppose this makes my goal of four thousand words every week and a half unnecessary, not that I've made any headway towards reaching it...

So I'm working (if I can call it that) on a story. It's about... I'm not sure what it's about, really. There's an OC who sells bubble tea, or boba tea, or pearl milk tea, whichever you choose to call it. There's Big Macintosh. They talk, and nothing really happens.

I was thinking about how to make this a story. I've said time and time again that it's possible to have plot without conflict, something I've been told couldn't be done nearly every--no, actually every time I've brought it up. If I had more than one follower (sorry, Shiek), I'd almost be sure that someone in the comments would tell me just that.

But no, I think plot without conflict is still plot. It just makes writing the story a lot harder. Conflict's pretty easy to set up and move forward with. There's a problem, we gotta solve it. Simple enough. But what if there isn't conflict? Not to say that everything is happy and sunshines and life is perfect for everyone forever. I don't think that'd be easily done without going into some kind of Brave-New-World-esque dystopia. Let's say there's no conflict, like no cataclysmic armageddon that needs to stopped, no ancient evil hellbent on taking over the world, no romantic, one-sided tension between Rainbow Dash and Twilight--just ponies living their day to day lives. More Slice of Life type stuff.

I don't think tagging a story Slice of Life gives a writer carte blanche to write something where nothing happens, but nothing happening isn't a bad thing in and of itself. But what makes this not boring?

In my opinion, it's consequence. Somewhere between the beginning and end of the story, something changed. Maybe a revelation to a character, a new insight, a change, a strike of emotion. Maybe the same thing, but for the reader instead. A difference. A consequence. Something the reader takes away from the story, something more than an "Oh, that happened." A "So what," so to speak.

I don't think a plot needs conflict to reach a "So what" moment. I'd say if you can put a "So what" moment into a story about Applejack going shopping where there's no tragic cart accident or slapstick something or other, that makes you a great writer.

I guess I shouldn't call them moments; saying that makes it sound like there's a conclusion to be reached. I don't think that's necessarily true, as there are times that the journey is more important than the destination, if there is one at all.

And back to my story about an OC and Big Macintosh. I want them to be key components of the story, but I don't really want them to be important. So how do I get them to move the story forward?

Like I said, I'm asking myself questions here because I don't actually have answers. This blog post isn't actually meant to be read. I'm thinking aloud, kind of.

If there's no conflict between the two, or if there's no conflict between them and their circumstances, how do I move the story forward?

For now, I'm thinking character motive. As Vonnegut said in his second-or-something rule, all characters should want something, even if it is as simple as a glass of water. So Big Macintosh will want something, and this tea-selling OC will want something. I'm going to try and see how they'll interact without actually moving towards what they want--I'm thinking simply wanting something will be enough. I dunno, we'll see.

And if you've gotten this far in some nameless not-yet-writer's second blogpost, congratuations, and I'm sorry for wasting your time.

Expect it some time in the next month or so.

Edit: In retrospect, this was a story idea that I don't have the capacity to pull off. I'll be throwing whatever stories up whenever.