Challenges · 3:34pm Jan 16th, 2015

Well, 'The Gift Shop' is published, and it seems to be garnering some pretty positive reception. I'm especially glad for this because it's the first story that I've written where an OC takes such a prominent role. Not even some of my more regular and prominent OC's, like Private Eye have had such an important job, so I'm really glad he came out okay.

A lot of how he behaves is based off of myself: the fear of waking up late (something I used to do regularly), the headrushes (which happen exactly as described), and even the tendency to stick at something, especially when it's annoying. I hope that contributed to him being an interesting character to read.

But aside from challenging myself to having an OC in the driver's seat for a change, I imposed a second challenge upon myself: writing AppleDash with neither of them being shown in the same room. You'd think it's a pretty obvious requirement, but when I think back, some of the best parts of other romance stories have been with the pair apart. I just wanted to drive that to extremes.

But all this got me thinking about challenges. I've always liked the contest entries on the AppleDash group, and even some of the entries that didn't win often won me over and have a place in my favourites list (or at least, I've read them and they should be on my favourites list, I'm just lazy about putting them there). A lot of my stories have been to challenge myself, even if it's in rather subtle ways.

Obvious challenges like the Gift Shop and 'There's a Human in Equestria' aside, I also wrote 'The Fruit Thief' whilst challenging myself to put Pinkie Pie in the story somewhere: I had previously had a really hard time writing her, and I still do.

Not all my stories follow this trend, obviously, but most of them have some challenging aspect to them somewhere. These are often my favourite parts.

So, why do I like challenges so much?

I think it's because, for one, they force me to improve, and have probably forced other writers who do them well to improve too, which almost by default means it would be some of their best work: they've circumvented their own flaws and become better, and show off this 'betterness' in their story.

It's also because challenges force the unusual, or at least, a good challenge does. Subverting stuff often makes tropes and clichés more interesting and more unusual: I tried achieving this with 'There's a Human in Equestria', and I like to think I did quite well. All the AppleDash contest entries (or at least, most of them) do the same thing.

At least, that's how I see it. Pushing against limits is one of the best ways to improve, in my opinion, instead of simply focussing on what you're already good at. I said as early as my arrival to the site that I wanted to write everything, and I still do. I'm greedy for doing different things, and being good at everything. I feel incredibly uncomfortable when I look at something and think to myself: I couldn't do better.

Obviously, I get this feeling a lot, because there's a lot of things I still can't do, which ties into my drinking, but that's a story for another time.

Do you agree with my views on challenges? Is it really one of the more foolproof methods towards self-improvement and innovation? Or is it an unreliable trick? Is it a bit of both, like most things are?

Anyway. I've compiled a list of all the challenges I've done so far (with various degrees of success): if any of you guys want to try them, I can only recommend them (silly of me not to, really... I did do them)

-write a HIE story where the protagonist goes to Equestria after an accident, befriends the main characters and fights evil foes
-write a Pinkie Pie in a non-stupid, non-over the top fourth wall breaking way
-Write a romance story where neither member is shown in the same place at any given time
-write a romance story with a contradictory premise: (ie, phobia)
-write a story with an OC as the 'viewer' of the story
-write a story ana-chronologically
-write a murder mystery where the killer goes free (and if you haven't read that one of mine yet, have fun figuring it out)

Do you have any challenges to yourself you're especially proud of? Don't hesitate to comment with them: if I like them, I'd love to give them a shot at some point myself!

Have a good one!

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