What's Up? · 5:21pm Nov 8th, 2014
I'm sorry the next chapter of Though Hell Should Bar the Way is taking so long. It is still in the works, and it is on my "high priority" list. The only excuse I can offer is that I only get a limited amount of time to write, and a lot of the time Fall of Equestria isn't the spot I want to visit in my writing. But, sometimes it is, when I'm in a particularly dramatic mood, so the chapter is coming along, along with plans for future story arcs. I just don't have an ETA right now. (If I had to guess, I'd say "before then end of this month.")
But sometimes things force themselves to the top of that priority list. So this post is partially a warning that a fic jumped ahead of everything else this week and got itself written, and I'll be releasing a one-shot on Monday. But I have not forgotten about Though Hell.
The one-shot is actually based on a recent conversation on PresentPerfect's blog about Sunny Night's Fall of Equestria story. I've pointed out multiple times in various conversations about it that The Riding Pony is not that different from Fall of Equestria, it's just a step removed: Instead of showing a world where mares are cruelly treated sex slaves, it shows Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity fantasizing about a world where earth ponies are cruelly treated sex slaves. This gives the readers and critics a buffer, allowing them to see the kink while knowing, because it's part of the narrative, that this is the fantasy of consenting adult ponies who would never act that way in their every day lives.
The ponies, of course, don't have that buffer. Like kinky humans, they can only trust one another that everyone involved is on the same page about how totally not okay what they're pretending is. So my upcoming one shot, Strong, Proud, Earth Pony Mare, is a (clop-free) sequel to The Riding Pony, looking at what happens when that's called into question, and how the characters deal with the messy business of enjoying a kink based on some really problematic ideas.
Like I said, Strong, Proud, Earth Pony Mare will be out this Monday. I'll be making one more blog post about it then, to tag people who faved The Riding Pony. (I'm not tagging it as a sequel because it's written to stand alone, and because of the drastic content difference between it and the original.) In the mean time, here's a preview:
Oh mai.
~Skeeter The Lurker
*reads synopsis*
Goddammit, O, stop writing AppleDash that I would enjoy reading!!
Take your time. BTW, I'm stuck wirting my own Post-FOE story, can you give me any pointers or advice if you have some?
I do love it when stories take the time to explore the "racial" divide in a mature way, instead of just claiming that "pegasi have much better eyesight" or "Earth ponies are scared of flying", etc..
2582055
So much this. New story looks really interesting, and I'm looking forward to reading it!
Oooh, sounds good.
Yeah, I'm going to read the hell out of that the instant I see it
2582050
My biggest advice to Post-FOE writers is not to let the mares become damsels in distress. Equestria is full of smart, capable mares who at the very least would be just waiting for the chance to act in their own defense. They're also the ones with the most personal stories, and the most to gain and lose. A lot of Post-Fall stories feature some male character swooping in to save the day, which isn't a problem if it was only one or two stories, but when it's most of the stories out there it can start to look like a different kind of misogyny.
The second thing I would advise, but this is only my opinion, would be to make sure you have a story and character arc other than "X decides the caribou are bad, so X kills some caribou." Seriously, just do something with your main character, give him a basic Hero's Journey plot. Otherwise, your fic ends up being what I called "porn for caribou-snuff fetishists." Some people like that, but I don't read it.
If you have a more specific question, feel free to ask. I'll try to answer it if I have time.
2582144
You know, it is kind of like an Applejinx story, I just skipped the 100,000 words in the middle where the characters run around like crazy and have sex with the wrong ponies.
I kid. You know I love your stories, and I would totally write that way if I thought I'd ever finish.
Man, that sounds loaded with drama, feels, and serious business. I can't wait to read it, though I still enjoy Dirty Little Filly and Sex, Lies, and Cowpony Hats more.
I'll be looking forward to the next chapter of Though Hell too. This might sound silly, but do you have any advice for getting into the mindset of writing something in that world? Or perhaps a better question to ask would, how do you stay motivated? How do you keep this from feeling like work, or a job?
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These are related!
I write. Like, that's what I do for fun. It's almost all of what I do for fun-- I don't play video games, I don't watch TV. The other thing I do for fun, actually, is read. But when I think of something I want to read, and it doesn't exist yet, I write. (I should point out that I wasn't like this until my late twenties. I used to read a lot, but I also played table top role playing games, and video games like Oblivion and The Sims that let me tell my own stories... so writing was just a move from those thing to totally telling my own stories.)
So, I never need to be motivated to write, I just need to find what I feel like writing.
Though Hell Should Bar the Way is a kind of story I love writing. Specifically, I love putting characters through hell, putting them in places where there are no right answers and the world seems hopeless. But I love it because in those dark places, every good thing shines brighter. A friendly smile really means something, clothes mean something. When AJ and Dash would have every right and reason to kill Twilight, their mercy and forgiveness mean something, about who they are, about what kind of world they live in, and about (how I see) humanity in general.
Now, for those things to happen, the world has to get really, really dark, so I rarely get the chance to write this kind of story in fanfic. It also means that I can't flinch from the things that make the world dark, because readers would see that. If Twilight doesn't make me want to punch the computer screen when I write her, then it won't mean as much later when AJ and Dash forgive her, So I enjoy writing the dark scenes because they're my contrast-- the darker I can make them, the more fun I can have later.
In more practical suggestions, music has helped a lot with this fic (I'll post my playlist someday if people seem interested.) I'm a fan of musicals, so songs make me think of scenes and characters and story. And one thing that keeps me writing is that I let myself write scenes out of order, even if that means rewriting them later. It gives me something to work towards, helps me remember good lines and ideas, and keeps me from getting frustrated with the whole thing when I'm stuck on a scene I don't want to write.
I hope some of that helps!
2582839
Thank you so much for the reply. A lot of what you brought up is stuff I totally agree with, though unlike you I do have video games to keep me distracted. They're mindless and easy to waste time on.
There's one thing that you say that really sticks out and kind of slaps me in the face:
I utterly suck at doing that. I try, but it feels like writing with my left hand. I know this is what most successful writers do, and I hope to figure it out one day, but damn...
I guess I need to put more effort into that if I ever want to finish what I start.
That cover-art picture
2583390
Okay, well I have some tips on that:
First, it's supposed to be fun. The whole point of writing out of order is that you write what's most vivid and exciting in your head. If that's the next scene, write the next scene. If it's not, just skip ahead and assume you'll get there somehow. If you don't like starting scenes, jump into the action and write the beginning later. I like dialogue, so a lot of my scenes or even whole fics are written as untagged dialogue that I fill in later.
You might never get to the scene you write, or you might never get to it how it's written. I have at least three different versions of the scene where Twilight breaks down. That's fine, because each one was closer to what I needed it to be, and I could take the best parts from the ones I didn't use.
I do keep my out of order scenes in order, and separate from my draft document. For shorter stories I have a doc of notes which includes future scenes in intended order of appearance, outline information, long description of the fic, copies of chats I had with good ideas in them, etc. Then I cut and paste as needed.
For longer stories, there are some cool programs you can use to keep things straight: YWriter is free and bare bones, and Scrivener costs money and is fancy. I use Scrivener, but that's because someone bought it for me. I used YWriter to write my original fiction novel, and it worked just fine.
Both of those let you break things down by chapters and scenes, so you don't end up with one enormous doc you have to scroll through. They also give you separate places for outlines and other notes. Of course, the danger with them is it's easy to spend your time writing location descriptions and outlines and tagging characters and never get around to writing.
Hope something here might help! And if not, don't worry, there are lots of writers who don't write out of order and consider it sloppy or prone to failure (they see "getting to the good stuff" as the carrot that keeps you focused.) There's nothing wrong with either way, this is just how I do it.
Well, in any case, keep up the good work...
"Problematic" seems to be the internet's favourite word these days. Everything fun and interesting seems to be problematic...