Looking ahead · 1:22am Oct 10th, 2013
When I wrote my first story, it was because an idea had gotten into my head, and I wanted to get it out.
Now that I've written a handful of stories (and my current one in progress is entering the final stretch) I'm at a bit of a writer's crossroads. I suppose this is fairly commonplace for newer writers. You have a few ideas that all come at you at once, then after those are done...what next?
I've dabbled with the idea of trying to write a story for each of the major genre tags. I've done Slice of Life, Comedy, and Adventure. But which to try next?
My first thought was romance.
To ship, or not to ship, that is the question:
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Forums,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of comments,
etc. (with apologies to Shakespeare)
I can't see myself writing clop...like...ever. Romance, possibly, and I have a premise in mind, should I decide to flesh it out. It's not an Equestria Girls story and that's my stronger suit I think. But perhaps writing another pony-based story would pan out.
Crossover doesn't feel comfortable either. I'm not a fan of crossover stories, so why try to write one just to say I did? I'd probably pick something insane like Rainbow Dash, Eternal Champion, and her search for Tanelorn (bonus points if you know the reference) and that couldn't turn out well.
Dark? Sad? Tragedy?
These are some of the very things that My Little Pony and Equestria Girls are my escape from in the story of our daily lives. Would I be comfortable writing a story that takes the characters that bring me such smiles and put them into such a situation? (though I pondered if the CMC Adventure story was getting too dark...)
That said, I do want to keep writing and try and expand my comfort zones. Perhaps the answer is to write some unpublished works in those less comfortable genres to see how that feels. It would be nice if we could write a story that would only get published to followers.
Ah well, there's no rush. I've still got a story to finish before I have to face the "What's Next?" question eye to eye. And if anyone reads and wants to toss in their two bits, be my guest.
Don't forget that you can combine genres to create something that expands your comfort zone even while remaining partially within it. A dark comedy, a tragic adventure, a sad slice of life, these are all options.
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Excellent points, I'll keep that in mind
Write down anything you've got. Any little thing that pops into your head, no matter how little, write it down. At the end of the week, day, or even hour, look at what you've got. Compare them, combine them, get opinions from others, and look up sources and references. Take something that happened today, yesterday, tomorrow, a week from now, and think to yourself, "Who does this remind me of?"
Step away from your mainstream - What characters do you know least about? What's something you'd never write about in a million years?
Test and retest. And have a fun time doing it!
1408250
I understand the difficulty. I went through the same thing when I wrote up Tied Wings and Strained Leaders
1505486
At this point, I'm still mired in my current CMC story. I want to bring it to a proper conclusion, because it's due for that. I just don't want the end to seem contrived.
Once I get done with that, I do have two other stories in mind already, one is a (should be short) comedy involving the CMC and the Mane Six. The other is going to be my first stab at a Romance/shipping story, set in the Equestria Girls universe. Time will tell which one I work on first. :)