What We do for Love Commentary · 6:16pm May 28th, 2014
Hey guys, I know this story received it's share, of...mixed reviews, some of which influenced me to change some aspects of the story. But time goes on, and now that I look at it, I think things turned out for the better. But enough about that, how about a little bit of insight into the making of this fic? Oh, and spoilers ahead (but I'm assuming that most of you have already read this story, so you probably don't even need to worry about the spoilers)
The whole idea for this story came to me because I wanted to do a human in Equestria fic, but I wanted to take it a different way. Most stories that I'd read would have the human fall in love with the pony he was living with (or in some cases working for). I wanted to play with that a little, and give the human a bit of an internal struggle. Maybe I could I have played it out a bit more, but I never meant for this to be a long fic, so I decided to just make Sam's hesitation last for about a week before he realized he was in love with Derpy.
Chapter 1
The opening dream sequence where Sam "falls into" Equestria was supposed to show how he came to be in Equestria (minus the giant muffin), and act as a bit of an allusion to the Princess Luna scene later on.
While I don't know much about Dinky (I've never read another fic featuring her, and I don't really know what the fandom's main impression of her is), I had quite a bit of fun writing for her. She's just so cute. I also like the relationship that she has with Sam; the two were pretty much father and daughter before the story even started.
I had a pretty good idea how I wanted to portray Derpy in this story. I wanted to include some things that the fandom loves about her, such as her love of muffins, her clumsiness, and her job delivering mail. I also decided that I wanted to tone her down a bit; I'd written her before in a way that was more like her show self (silly, clumsy, and just generally doesn't know what went wrong), but I didn't want that for this fic, so I made her more "normal."
Whenever I read a HiE fic, I find that some of them have one thing in common; the human ended up in Equestria because Twilight cast a spell that went horribly wrong. Frankly, I don't mind using Twilight as a device for getting the human into Equestria, I just wanted to try something a little different (and something a little "Doctor Who"), so I decided to go with having the two universes collide with each other, sending Sam from one world to the other.
The last scene was originally a lot shorter; when I was planning out, it ended with Sam telling Derpy that they couldn't be together, but I decided to give it a little more, just to show how much it hurt Derpy.
Chapter 2/Chapter 3
I'd always planned for Derpy to just disappear to go to Canterlot, but I wasn't really sure how to handle it. When I first started planning this story last summer, she had taken off without a word, but Luna came to Sam the same night that Derpy went missing to tell him that she was with Celestia and her, then it would have went basically the same direction it did in the current version (albeit with a slightly more angry sounding Luna). Then I decided that I didn't like how that sounded, so I decided to just have her up and leave without any explanation. Most of you will remember that from the first version of the story. But then people started talking about how it didn't make sense that Derpy would just abandon her daughter without a word, and make her think her mother was dead for a week. And I had to agree with them; I'd established Derpy as a good mother who loved her daughter more than anything, and it just didn't make sense for her to leave without an explanation. So I went back and changed it so she sent a letter home explaining where she'd gone, but made the details about why vague. With a few adjustments to chapters three and four, and it worked out just fine. I actually liked the changes better because the first version was too depressing, and I think that that was out of character with the story. Plus no one wants to see a pathetic, depressed little filly. Now I kinda wish that I had changed it before I submitted it to see how that version would have done.
I don't care if it was just a short scene, I loved writing the whole Dinky calling Sam daddy scene.
Luna's scene played out two different ways in my head: the first way, she came to Sam, and she was angry with him for breaking Derpy's heart, then softened as Sam began to warm up to the idea of an interspecies relationship. Then there was the version that I used in the story where they just have a friendly conversation.
Chapter 4
When I originally conceived the idea for this story, Derpy was originally supposed to become an anthro pony, not full human, and Celestia had just cast a spell to change her instead of giving her an amulet. The human part was a last minute change; it could have worked either way, but I decided to go with human. Then I added the bit with the amulet because I wanted Sam to be able to remove it halfway through, and then finish with Derpy as a pony (which changed the ending because the spell was supposed to last until the morning after, and Sam was going to wake up with her in his arms, but as a pony. There was also going to be a bit with Celestia appearing in the bedroom, but I scrapped that very early on).
When planning the end of the story, I thought up two different epilogues: the first would take place some time later with Sam falling ill, passing out, and waking up in a hospital bed in the human world with a little girl sitting on his bed, and a blonde woman sleeping in a chair in the corner who would have been Dinky's and Derpy's respective human world counterparts, and Sam's real family. The reason I scrapped that ending was because it would have made the events of the story (Sam learning to love someone of a different species) pointless.
The second ending would have also taken place a few months later at Sam and Derpy's wedding. Again, I decided to scrap this idea. Mostly it was because of time, but also because I wanted the story to have a more open ending. I'm also glad that I didn't use either epilogues because now I'm open to writing a sequel.
Ahhh, yes, the sequel. That makes, what, three sequels that I need to write now? Not that I'm complaining; I love writing stories.
Alright, well that's it for now. Sorry for the long post. Heck I don't even know if people even read these things, but I have fun doing them, so I'll keep doing them for each story that I write. See you all later.
Woo sequel yay!
I was hesitant to read this story. But i am glad i did in the end. it's an enjoyable story for sure. a sequel would be great with a lil more developed Dinky, obviously now that SAM is daddy to her now. Here's to hoping for a sequel!