Foreword for A Season Passed

A Season in the Making: Author’s Foreword and Notes

Legend:

Bold, Italicized, Underlined: Main Title

Bold: Key point

Bold, Italicized: TL; DR quotes from key points

Bold, Underlined: Fun Facts

Intro to Foreword

Heya folks! Hayden (aka DeathJovi) here with a Foreword as a blog post. (Forgot that I technically couldn't publish it as it's own chapter without breaking some rules. My bad!) I apologize to the mods for that and once it gets posted I'll tag this to ASP.

Anyway, welcome! This’ll be the first story I’ve posted on FiMFiction, and I’m really looking forward to hearing back from y’all and forming some bonds both with readers and authors alike.

This is not my first attempt at Fan Fiction. I wrote some a long time ago when I was in high school and was absolutely love with the Mass Effect franchise. It’s probably still on DeviantArt somewhere, though I have no idea what it was called nor what it was about. I consider that a good thing, as I wrote it during my true “teenage angst” phase and it probably would make the entirety of my English and Literature class teachers roll into a ball and begin to cry.

Anyway, I should try and stay on topic, as I will attempt to do in all of my Forewords. I’ll keep most of them brief, but I hope to explain fully what I attempted to do with a piece and why I’ve labeled each story in the ways that I have. This is essentially a chance to give the audience a chance to see the way I want to try and get the story across while leaving enough of it up to interpretation. Don’t worry, there will never be any spoilers or key scenes or anything. Consider it a general overview of the tone, setting, and methods of storytelling that I am trying to convey.

Again, and I can’t stress this enough, this is by no means a guide of how to interpret the story. It is left to the audience to try and comprehend any piece of artwork, be it paintings, music, literature, performances, or anything that a human tries to express themselves with. The Forewords I publish are the “Behind the Scenes” extras in a DVD/Blu-Ray cassette that you can NOT experience and still completely enjoy the quality of the work. They are just simply the showing of the tools that are used on the set of the certain work they are attached to.

With this piece, A Season Passed, the key tools are a tone that can shift with the main character’s emotion but remain relatively upbeat, the revealing of information to the audience while keeping the protagonist (as well as other characters for that matter) somewhat in the dark, and the focus on certain information while other tidbits are briefly glossed over to emphasize the flawed viewpoints of certain individuals.

Each of these provide a topic worthy of discussion in this Foreword, and I hope to address each in a manner that is comprehensible as well as thorough.

First: The tone.

You-at least, in this story-are a happy, relatively naïve person. The tone of the story will mostly reflect that. This is something I might be criticized later on for because most people can’t see themselves doing the things that the character of “you” will do nor will they understand why the tone is so light-hearted and upbeat. I can see why people would say that (you cynical bastards), but I hope that I can at least provide somewhat of a reason for it.

Part of the appeal of second person literature is a chance to express yourself and your desires onto the protagonist and hopefully live out your fantasies in the character. Most of the time on this site, however, authors choose not to embrace this sense of the second person. Instead, they allow the readers to step into somewhat of a premade existence of who they can be, a persona to adopt rather than one to convey. Why is this the more popular option for writers? Well, most authors, including myself, cannot predict what every human being who reads our work is like. We can’t sit there and say “Oh, Mark from Wisconsin might choose to go to point A because he has this trait, but Elizabeth from the United Kingdom will go to point B because she’s this kind of person” and hope to get anything done. If we, the authors, took into account every little detail of every one of our readers, we’d most likely either have a Mary Sue or a Bi-Polar Bob. These make neither fascinating writes nor reads, as Mary Sue’s are boring and self-righteous most of the time and Bi-Polar Bob’s react in ways that are either alien or so extreme it makes no sense to the readers. Sometimes, the authors will try to convey the persona to adopt as one of relatively average height, build, looks, and overall personality to try and fit as many people as possible in the case of “YOU” and still have a believability to them. Sometimes it works. In others-and I believe this is true in the case of A Season Passed-the persona needs to have a few tweaks premade to them. Dramatic past, shy or confident attitude, even abilities gained or lost all add up to a character, and it’s a thrill sometimes to fantasize that character is you. You get to fill the role of someone that you’re not, which harkens to a sense of imagination and liberation from the ties of the mortal realm. After all, you can’t try and be a fierce Viking in real life without having the cops called on you or being hunted by Interpol.

Another key aspect that this tweaking allows for is for the author to somewhat predict how the character of “you” interacts with those around him/her. With a premade confident personality, you will more likely to do confident actions and be around confident people and so on and so forth. This already crafted personality allows for emphasis on a person’s actions that the author can exercise control over while still allowing for the reader to retain that sense of they’re the ones in the middle of the action and doing something that the character would do because that’s who they (the character) are and who they (the reader) think they are. This control is essential to any good story telling, as a sloppy plot is one that is unlikely to hold the reader’s interest and is often thrown out as rambling.

That’s why you have an overall happy tone in A Season Passed.

Because I wanted you to be happy to fit the story, and because- in some ways- YOU wanted you to be happy to fit the story.

This persona is one I cooked up on the fly one day thinking about how a truly positive, almost Buddy-from-Elf-esque being would react with being in Equestria and have this sort of coming-of-age topic of biological needs and ways to deal with said needs suddenly thrust on him (no pun intended). There are twists and tonal shifts that occur as the character of you (affectionately nicknamed Sparky; I leave the real naming up to you as that’s the entire point of going second person) go throughout this journey, and I believe they are rightfully done. Things will happen to the character of you that will cause you to react and shift into certain behavior patterns warranted by someone who usually maintains a positive outlook. Will Sparky always be happy? No. But he (or You, rather) will try to be, as that’s the character you are, and that’s the character I believe best fits the story you play a role in.

Second: Information Revealed to the Audience yet Withheld from the Characters

We see this all the time in plays and movies. It’s more of a contextual reveal that allows for the audience to gain knowledge and evoke certain emotions based on said knowledge. In this case, I’m hoping that it provides a bit of humor. Sometimes, it may provide sadness or even a sudden bit of realization.

This is definitely not a be-all-and-end-all method of storytelling. Sometimes, you limit the knowledge the reader has and reveal it later on down the path as the protagonist or narrator finds out. This creates a reward for those who progress in their journey and a possible sense of surprise presented through plot twists (these can, again, be exercised properly or poorly. Looking at you Shamylan). I tried to use a bit of that as well in A Season Passed, as I grew tired of stories that laid out everything before you. Granted much is revealed to the audience that a secondary point of view provides so I am being somewhat of a hypocrite, but I believe I keep it limited enough to fit it in without it feeling as though I’m cheating.

Whatever it may evoke, the events revealed to the audience are set up by the author in a way to provide a dimension of perspective and emotion that the author believes will be effective in telling the story.

I thought it would be a little bit more effective to see what’s going on through other’s days in order to provide a contrasting point of view to the protagonist. Does it work? Eh, you can be the judge of that. I am by no means calling this a literary masterpiece. In fact, I mainly wrote this so I could try out my hand in mature romantic approaches to fantastical relationships (read: smut). The main thing I want the audience to take away from this is a sense of enjoyment and that they read a fulfilling story (possible double entendre. I won’t either deny or confirm), and hopefully I have set up the piece in a way that does so. If not, I dearly apologize and would give you a refund if I owed you money, or if I weren’t already broke myself.

Finally, the focus of information to produce flaws.

I am no pioneer. The backdrop of the lone Human in Equestria has been done time and again, almost to a satirical point (Many authors have in fact done so. They are without a doubt funnier than I could ever hope to be). This is what I like to call “audience foreknowledge”. Many frequenters of this site know the entirety of the drill of how the human gets there, how he get sets up, what it’s like in Equestria, etc. etc.

That’s why I don’t focus on it.

We see the majority of the story through the point of view of “you,” and you have a certain type of personality and, therefore, a certain type of perception. “You” will notice certain things that others don’t, as well as miss things others see that you can’t. The other characters will face the same dilemma. It’s how the audience builds relations with the character of “you” and comes to realize who “you” really are.

By limiting the knowledge of the character to that of their perception, the audience is able to analyze and come to terms with the core of the character and what they (the character) stand for. This builds a relationship between the reader and the fictitious individual that can lead to sympathy, apathy, hatred, lust, attachment, understanding, and much, much more.

Final thoughts

I understand that this is a lot of reading for what I said I’d hoped would be brief. In many ways, I think Twilight would be proud (though she’d probably offer counter points to everything I said and I would look like a complete idiot.) Nonetheless, if you didn’t understand or disagree with anything I’ve said, I’m truly sorry about that and I’d like to know. I don’t seek to make enemies or prove anything about myself. I’m just a dude with a keyboard, spare time on his hands, and dirty thoughts in his head. I’m no better than any of my readers, and I will never claim to be.

The reason I write is to provide a sense of entertainment and pleasure and perhaps meet some people who can get that out of my work. I hope that you, the reader, will find that in this story, and I wish you nothing but the best and thank you for giving me a chance by taking a look at this. I promise to do my best to not let you down.

With the Sincerest Meaning of Friendship,

Hayden

-DeathJovi

Fun Facts:

• This gave me an excuse to use bullet points.

• Most of my stories are actually inspired by the work of the authors TAW and Crowley. Without them, I doubt I would have even tried to make anything I publish on this site.

o On a side note, I REALLY REALLY miss TAW. I understand why she left, but still. It’s something that genuinely depresses me when I think about it.

• The reason I made the character of you an extrovert and an excitable person can be mainly blamed on all of the shy, reserved “you” fics that I’ve been seeing. While some are excellent works, I thought this might provide a sort of refreshing perspective.

o Incidentally, I am actually planning on making a story involving a shy, reserved character later on. The hypocrite alarms are going crazy right now.

 And to somewhat clarify yet leave enough to be speculated, no, the shy, reserved character in question is NOT Fluttershy. Though she will be featured, that’s not who I am talking about.

• It took me two months to come up with the first chapter. A combination of time management, artistic temperament, fear of rejection, and formatting issues that are still being worked out can be blamed.

o On that note, this story, as well as my other ones, will take time to come out with updates. I like to finely comb over each little detail and make sure I give a quality product to my readers, so I apologize if it seems like I’m taking a long time to pump out a chapter.

 Heh. Combing. The vision of the “Comb the Desert” Scene from Spaceballs is going through my head right now.

• I consider myself a happy person, but NO, the character of you was not based on myself. If I had to pick someone I’m most like, it would probably be the hopeless romantic lead singer.

o Even though I’m not a singer myself. I can hold a tune and can sing fairly well, but I’m no Robert Plant.

 I can make my voice sound a lot like Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and know the lyrics to every one of their songs though.

• Is that a sad thing to be proud of?

o No, it isn’t. The Chilies are effing awesome. Anyone who disagrees can eat their heart out.

 Ooh! That’d probably hurt.

• Another side note: I do talk to myself sometimes and have conversations.

o Hence the above RHCP realization.

• Expect a chapter to be completely butchered in format at the start. I’m unfamiliar with how to make it the way I want, and it will take some time to get used to getting everything in place. Well, just got through with formatting the first chapter. That was extremely tedious. I should hire someone for this.

• I was really not sure whether or not to label this as a comedy. I do attempt to be funny (both in the story and in real life), but I wasn’t sure if any of the jokes would connect or if I would look pretentious in labeling myself a comedian.

o In the end, I decided to tag it as comedy due to its light-hearted nature and not because I decided I’m funny. Still on the fence about that, and probably will be for quite some time.

 I am fun though! Or, at least, I think I’m fun.

• I hope I am.

o Ooh! This thing goes even lower!

 Sweet!

• Alright, I’ll stop.

o No, seriously.

 Ok, last one (no really, the thing won’t let me drag this out any further.)

• This is the final bullet point. I just wanted to throw that in here! Have a smiley face for getting through it all =D

Comments

[Vates Despero]

You-at least, in this story-are a happy, relatively naïve person. The tone of the story will mostly reflect that. This is something I might be criticized later on for because most people can’t see themselves doing the things that the character of “you” will do nor will they understand why the tone is so light-hearted and upbeat. I can see why people would say that (you cynical bastards), but I hope that I can at least provide somewhat of a reason for it.

Oh please, that is the reason half of us cynical bastards pony in the first place! An sad attempt to vicariously recapture the happy naïvity of youth... I am stopping reading this foreword here, this bit has already convinced me to try the story.