“Opened Gate” and “Welcome to Greece”

So I’ll be doing blogs after every chapter of Daughters of Poseidon just to put my thought process down. I will not edit this, or try to make it cohesive if it gets out of hand. I write what I write here, end of discussion. Maybe I can learn something from this, maybe you can as well.

The first chapter, “Opened Gate”, starts off the story, like any first chapter. It’s been a couple weeks since I wrote that chapter, so I don’t remember everything that went through my mind. Most of it came down to, “What am I going to write that will become important later in the story.” It’s an introductory chapter, there to get a sense of who these characters are.
Before even starting this story, I knew I wanted to have a group of ponies that never met. That’s why this character choice may seem random. I want to build on these character’s relationships, develop their characters, see how they react in a different environment. Originally, I wanted to throw in one of the Mane 6 as well, but I have a hard time dealing with other people’s fleshed out character. So I prefer to stick with my own.
Obviously, it’s before Diamond Tiara got her cutie mark. I have something fun planned for her. Right now, I chose for her to be nice, making Silver Spoon seem like a bad guy. This story is supposed to fit into canon, so it’s obvious that Diamond Tiara will end up worse than her friend. It’s the story of the tragic hero, like Oedipus.
And yes, there is no pun in Sumerians. That’s intentional.

Not much left to talk about in that chapter without going into spoiler territory. Onto “Welcome to Greece.” This chapter I can talk about a little more, since it deals with the characters more so than plot.
I want to say right off the bat that I wrote the majority of this chapter in a single weekend. Something just clicked with all the characters that made me want to write all that. It’s not where I wanted it to end. If everything went according to plan, the trio would end up in the town and this chapter would release Thursday. Thing took a different turn, which I think is for the better. There’d be pacing issues if I extended this chapter.
On to the characters. The first character to take a life of her own is, believe it or not, the old lady. She’s not a major character, and will only fill minor plot roles in the future, or to get the story moving if I feel stuck. In fact, her entire character is based around the dialogue she gave during her prophecy. The impression she made in my mind is she’s lived a long life and wants to make other lives better, in underhanded ways. So she says, “Screw it, gods, I do what I want!” In short, I like her, and I hope I can use her again.
Now, what I planned to do was to have the trio enter the town right after the old lady. I didn’t do that. Something inside my head told me to put a conversation in to fill the time it would take to travel. Something short, like Lyra saying, “Hey, that old lady irked me.” Instead, it exploded into something else, somewhat literal in Lyra’s case.
I’m glad I wrote this scene. It fleshed out Daring Do and Lyra in ways I haven’t even thought of. Daring Do had her personality fleshed out more than Lyra, while Lyra got more of a general motive. Daring Do displayed some athletics, which I needed to establish soon anyways. The “writer who says little” part of her came up out of nowhere. She’s also naturally protective. She doesn’t even think about stopping Lyra from going overboard. She just does it.
Lyra got a bit of motive, or implied motive. Ponies base their whole lives on cutie marks, a magical symbol that solidifies their destiny. The Greeks believed in destiny as well, thinking that the gods controlled their lives. Lyra does not like this idea. Her rant revealed a little of her history. She worked in an orchestra, but got kicked out because they found someone better. After trying to search for a job, she found the horrible truth that a pony gets her job through her cutie mark. Your cutie mark is practically a resumé in Equestria. Do you have the talent to do this job? No, you have a lyre cutie mark. We need a cutie mark for janitors. And thus, she resents fate.
Diamond Tiara… woo boy. I knew where Lyra’s rant would end once I started righting it. It didn’t flesh out her character as much as the other two, but we gained some knowledge about her that’ll give some insight, and she has a bonding moment with Daring Do. I hinted at Dia’s mom being dead in the previous chapter, but I didn’t outright say it. And of couse Lyra hits that nerve square in the head. Here’s a stranger you never met yelling about her life, and then drags you into it. What impression would that make on a kid? Then Daring Do comes and comforts her. Will that go anywhere?

So, that was a retrospective on both those chapters. If you read through all that, congratulations. You now have a little insight into how these two chapters developed. I’ll make one for each chapter that comes out. If you’re interested in seeing more of these, great! Just hit the follow button and I’ll thank you. If not, that’s fine. I’m still going to write these.