Do as I say, not as I do - A brief rant on the topic of repetition

Let me start this post by telling you a bit about myself, which is necessary because I know you didn't read my bio, you lazy!
A bit after the season finale to S1 had aired, I decided to give ponies a try after hatering them for some time and instantly got hooked. Great, right?
So, in a very short time, using de magiks of YouTube, I watched ALL the ponies. That provided me with the problem that I no longer had ponies to watch, so I was sad. I discovered My Little Brony and, some time later, the Pony Fiction Archive. I was amazed at what there was up there. So, within one or two weeks, I can't recall completely, I had read literally every story on the Archive excluding Human in Equestria. Great stuffsies up there. But, one was different.
One out of all of the stories on the Archive had triggered something. I'm quite literate, so, especially with how many fanfics I've read, I have the ability to predict any story's plot with about 95% accuracy (Hit or miss, mostly). That kind of takes some fun out of the reading, but I still enjoy it for the world it creates.
So, I came to that monster. I do believe it is called "Letting Go". You can probably guess how it goes from the title. But I hadn't been able to. Spoilers ahead! For some reason, despite all of the story building up to that, reading about Applejack (once again) discovering Rainbow's death completely took me by surprise. That created a burst of emotion I had kind of repressed before. If this reminds you of the first chapter of Aus, that's because it's a ponified version of my misadventures up to that point. The rest is completely fictional, though.
With that, I came to writing my own fics and I have never regret it up until now.

But that's not really the point of this post. Instead, I want to talk about the topic of repetition in fanfics.
Disclaimer-ish thingy: This is not meant as an insult or affront to anyone and I am well aware of how hard it is to avoid.

You know what I'm talking about. You go into a movie theatre for an action movie and if you're smart, you already know that the good guys will seriously f up around the middle, but then catch themselves and stop the bad guys just in time at the end. It can't run any other way. And it's the same with fanfics, books or games. The good guys are bound to win no matter what happens. Also, the black dude dies first.
While I would seriously welcome it if somebody would point me towards some literature (including fics) or movies where Mr Bad Guy wins (NOT counting fanfics which are mainly about the female main character getting raped violently because she lost), it's not just that. I can tolerate such obligations because they're practically unavoidable, but it's not just that CRIME DOES NOT PAY, but there are only so many plots available, it seems. Allow me to give a few examples.

- Villain comes back to "take revenge", but eventually it is revealed that they're actually in love with the protagonist, who gladly accepts them.
- One of the main characters (Say, one of the Mane 6) gets heavily injured and falls into a coma, with srs sadness from everybody and staying around 24/7 until all hope seems lost and they accept the comatose's death, at which point they wake up as the protagonist has said a final goodbye.
- Group of friends has to go out and stop some evil. Along the way, they encounter heavy obstacles and almost break up, but they keep going. What also happens is that two of them, facing the danger of death, find out they're in love with each other. They pwn bad guy and go home. As seen in The Return of Harmony. Although the Appledash sex scene might have been a product of my imagination.
- One of a group of friends has an unrequited crush on one of the others which they do not dare speak out loud. Because they do not, it threatens to consume them, them and their crush or even some of their surroundings. Just in time, the group does manage to find out what's going on, solve a serious problem the crush has, and avert harm by making sure they can come together, as the crush, two thirds into the story, admits that they, too, are in love with who's loving them.

Admit it, you thought of at least one, if not multiple, stories here. That's the point. Everything seems original, but when you break it down, there's only minor variations to what standard plot that kind of story has if any at all. Once again, if the writing pulls you in and the story as a whole is well executed, there's nothing wrong with that. It just feels stale, like drinking water that turns out to actually be purified jerk. Surely it's water now, but once you realise how many have used those very molecules of fluid before, it just won't lose a certain taste.

Simply put, I'm tired of knowing exactly what will happen before I even clicky on the story. Through that, I enjoy those that manage to genuinely surprise me even more (For instance, Robot Stallion Adventures or however it's called. You'll find it here. Or Splitting aMid the Night, if I wasn't the author of that. If you're reading this, there's a chance SatN is not on FIMfiction yet. It will come up later (TM). Just refer to the Pony Fiction Archive in the meantime.).

So what have you just read? I just want to call out to the writers out there and encourage them to make more stories where you don't know what will happen until you read it. Don't be afraid. Your writing skills will speak for themselves. In fact, I think that the reader will enjoy a story that's positively unique or at least original far more than yet another cookie cutter story with different character names. Do something very few or even nobody did before you! (Like SatN *hint hint*).

Comments

[zel]

I completely agree with you! Also, congratulations on your blog post, good luck in the future!

[Toraka]

1062739 You know, your sarcasm sort of falls flat due to how... "you" you look by going through the trouble of digging through all my posts.

Also, old me. Ha!