Expression Through Literary Work

You know, a lot of ideas I have for stories fall by the wayside. Some because they're not a good idea when I start writing them, some because I feel I'm not doing it justice; and some because I can't write crossover without feeling that if someone else has done it, I'm no longer original. Of course, nothing is original, but it doesn't change that feeling.

Some stories, however, are born of, and ended because of, taking aspects of my own feelings when emotions run high. There's nothing wrong with injecting a little real-life feeling into a story; that's what a lot of writing is, a form of expression via fiction. This isn't to say I can't write an emotional fic without drawing from real-life - I wrote "Sans Amour", and I'd say that's emotional - but one could still make the point of drawing on real emotions. We all feel that crushing feeling of not knowing whether we'll be satisfied in life if we aren't already, or we all have that existential crisis. The difference is that I take that feeling, I wait until it subsides so I can feel such emotion clearly, then I applied it to a situation the character would be in (and adjust them a little for fan-fic purposes). In the case of Sans Amour, that was Rainbow Dash's lack of romance.

Recently I've wanted to find a way of expressing myself through literary work. I run a few ideas in my head of the core emotion I feel, and then a way to apply it to a pony based scenario. For example, say I felt inadequate in something I do. I could take that concept and apply it to, say, Soarin. He feels inadequate because even though he's a Wonderbolt, Dash can fly faster and better than he can. Team would support him, but deep down he'd know that Dash did what he does, but better. From there I could even dip a little into the "What we do best is engraved onto us" argument, because Cutie Marks literally state what you're good at. So if somepony does it better than you, do you become redundant? That's the thing Soarin would go through in his head, with the rest of the team and other characters in general. Maybe I'd even make it like an actual episode, with a moral and everything at the end.

The problem is that I've no clue how well a story like that would work. I don't really grasp emotions well (most of the things in Sans Amour where physical reactions to emotion), and I've no clue how it'd be received. Would people call a self-insert because I borrowed real life emotions I feel, or would people sympathise more because everybody has those feelings sometimes (as I said, nothing is original)?

That story was an example, not something I've been through (recently). But if I chose to try and write a story like that, would building off my own emotion and using the story as an expressive work of fiction make it better or worse? Do I need the subjectivity of what I felt to make the emotions more accurate? I'm curious to hear your thoughts in the comments (or through PMs, if you're shy).

Side Note: That example was an example of a story, not one I have in the works or anything; though if someone says I should write that story, I might do so. There would be a pie-binge scene. Or you can take the concept for yourself, I don't mind.

Anyways, that's just my thoughts on the whole "expression" thing. As I said, I'd like to hear your own!

Other than that, happy Nightmare Night everypony!
- Virtual Words