Some Tips For Writing Fluttershy · 1:17am Jul 1st, 2014
for those of you following me, I'm sure you know by now that the character I write for the most is Fluttershy. With her being amongst my favorite in the cast, I find her character to be very deep and a great creative outlet for stories. However, I notice a lot that some people struggle with Fluttershy when trying to write for her—whether it be fanfiction or even the show staff themselves. Well, based off of some of my own experiences, I would like to offer you some tips on writing best pony, and what I always keep in mind to make her the best portrayal possible:
1. Empathize with her
When writing for any character, it is very important to find a way to feel the emotions that they endure. We know that Fluttershy is a very emotional character in general, but how can we connect with her? Especially if we have never felt what she felt? Well, for this I would like to give some acting advice:
In the basic form of modern day acting, known as the Stanislavski Method, actors are required to research and dissect a character from the inside out. This means we have to really get inside their heads and understand the specific emotions that they feel at every moment of the script. When we try to connect with these characters, we place ourselves in their shoes with emotional memories and the "Magic IF". Emotional memories are highly emotional moments from our lives that we never forget. Is the character experiencing something that you once went through? If so, how exactly did you feel? Be sure to fully invest and let all control of emotion go. The "Magic IF" requires a lot more imagination; this is specifically used for moments that we are alien to. To try and empathize, we use our minds to picture what it would be like IF we were in that situation, and apply it to the performance.
These techniques require a lot of imagining, emotional investment and commitment, but it helps develop a connection with a character. This rule may also very well apply to writing.
2. Get to know her
Are you sure you really know everything about Fluttershy? It's very important to try and pay very close attention to her backstory, mannerisms, quirks and other habits. What's her favorite food? What are her hobbies? Her favorite time of year? Why does she fear such and such? Why Angel is her most cherished animal? ETC. it is also very important to try and keep her characterization consistent with the flowing cannon of the show. This can easily be accomplished by re-watching some episodes that reveal a little more about her and expanding on your own imagination. Or, you can also peruse through her Wiki page for more specific facts that are easily missed. The more knowledge you have about Fluttershy, the better.
3. Get a better understanding of fears
Have you noticed when you watched Fluttershy's fear centered episodes that there's a lot of hallucinating, panic attacks and hysterical crying? Well, what I admire about FIM is that the staff does their research to keep Fluttershy's performances natural and dramatic. Notice on a lot of comedy shows or other silly cartoons how fear is always done so over-the-top, and the victim always serves as a punchline for a cheap joke. Fear may be funny to an audience, but it doesn't help us understand how complex it is, or that we should feel sorry for the people that unfortunately have them.
There are several psychology websites and blogs that discuss the common fears in depth, even going into detail about each one. You can learn a lot about the most common symptoms, roots and best ways to approaching phobias. Fluttershy has many fears, so life is very tough for her. If you're writing about one of her many phobias, it is better safe than sorry to do your homework so she can appear as a character to feel for rather than a caricature; you'll be more likely to receive more positive responses and praise with the former.
4. Get in touch with your feminine side
Along with Rarity, I think we can all agree that Fluttershy is the most feminine character on the show. In order to write Fluttershy properly in character, it is important to become familiar with the most common traits that shape femininity: Gentleness, compassion, love, sweetness, demureness, calmness, passiveness, peacefulness, sensitivity, empathy, nurturance, tolerance, and caring—to name a few. This does not mean you can write her as a weak character, however.
One of the things that I love about Fluttershy is that she is very feminine, but she proves that she isn't any less strong than her friends. We have seen numerous times how her strength for defending others has emerged when her friends or animals are being mistreated. We've seen her acts of love and kindness mold Discord into a good, but still chaotic, character. Her willingness to help others and make personal sacrifices are acts that she basically does every day of her life; she is very far from selfish or self-centered. All the strong things we've seen her do was out of caring and love; those are the most common feminine traits known. She does a lot of really amazing things from simply being who she is. Fluttershy proves that femininity is not equal to weakness.
That being said, try to open you caring and softer side. Be kind to the people in your life and let yourself be emotional when the timing is natural. It takes work, but if you can truly feel feminine on the inside, you will have a very surprising connection with Fluttershy and the undying strengths that many women carry.
5. Try hearing her voice in your head
This is really more dialogue focused than anything. A key aspect to characterization is to make sure their lines actually sound like them in the text. This is an area that I personally struggle with from time to time, so i hope to give at least some pointers here.
Be sure to have a good memory of what Fluttershy sounds like, and the type of vocabulary she uses. Really pay attention to her speech patterns and habits while watching the show. While trying to rite a line for her, play her voice in your head and see if your words match her tone. If they sound like nothing she would ever say, then you you found something you need to work on.
6. Make sure you actually Have A Good Reason why you want to write her in your story
I've seen many stories on the site that are about horrible things happening to Fluttershy for little to no good reason at all. If you want to write about something bad happening to her, be sure the story has an actual message, or that it's well-written enough to actually get the audience to feel emotional. If you write Fluttershy into a story that's in the style of "Cupcakes" (Painfully torturing and killing a character, simply because the author doesn't like them), then expect a very negative response from her fans.
Fluttershy is not just one of those characters you can easily abuse. Which brings me to my next point.
7. Love her
I'm not saying be infatuated with the pegasus. But when you write for a character like Fluttershy, you should be doing it because you care about her. There's many people who say that there's nothing that can be done with Flutterhsy, but your creative mind tells you differently. When we write fanfiction, we are showing all of our love and appreciation for the fictional characters who speak to us in our own lives. Be sure to give Fluttershy the story she deserves every time, and you will be glad that you did.
8. Make her suffer
In contrast with #7, it is important for every story, no matter who stars, to have conflict. There needs to be a crisis, sticky situation or impending consequence that would give Flutterhsy a mountain she has to climb. That being said, this conflict would have a greater affect if it made Fluttershy's life a living hell. When you do this, it helps the audience to feel sorry for her and they end up rooting for her to win. You can never have an epic hero of a tale, if you don't throw them the rocks to slow them down.
9. Find your niche with her
Simple, what do you think you can write Fluttershy for? Comedy? Drama? Adventure? Romance? Do you see her as a leading lady, or a supporting player? Do you think she would make a great hero, villain, or anti-hero? Do you want to tell a personal tale through her, or expand on her background? Or both?
For basically any story, it's very important for an author to understand their comfort zones with certain characters. But where you see Fluttershy fall into the world of literature is all up to your brain to decide.
10. Keep trying
Keep in mind that Fluttershy will always be a hard character to get perfectly. All of my stories, so far, have been about her and I'm still finding flaws in my own portrayals of her character. Practice always makes perfect, and the only way to improve with Fluttershy is to write more about her.
I hope you enjoyed reading these tips and found at least some of them helpful. Please be sure to leave a comment, telling me what you thought.
-Dramacolt
This was very informative, I'll keep this blog on reference when trying to write her. I think my niche with writing her is Friend shipping. (In the case of A Friend to All) though in my current fic (and a possible future one.) I'm trying to write her human self as still a somewhat shy individual, but due to re uniting with her friends, she's breaking out of her shell a bit.
This was informative and nicely done, and I bet this could be helpful to a lot of people.
What I especially like is that this set of basic "rules" won't just help you with Fluttershy, but with practically all characters with just a little bit of tweaking, making this a good tool to use and come back to. As a bit of personal advice, sort of going along with hearing her voice inside your head, I think that having some sort of key word or sentence to say to get into the character could be helpful. Like, whenever I move from a character like Rainbow to Fluttershy, I say something like "Oh no, I wouldn't want to be a burden," or some other line that she says fairly often in her voice before moving on.
2249156 Whenever I get stuck with her, I try to watch a clip from an episode that has a certain tone that I'm going for. Or I can just think "Yay" and it should point me in the right direction.