New Story Ideas · 5:18pm Mar 29th, 2015
Okay so Rise From The Ashes is cancelled, it's most likely for the best, but I haven't given up on writing stories!
I've got two new ideas for short stories, all of them are around, maybe, three chapters? However I'm a little conflicted to wonder if I would be attempting to tackle an epic story again and most likely fail miserably.
So here are the ideas that seem to have my greatest interest of doing but hesitant to start.
1. A stingy worker in a mine in a town that is an isolate part of Equestria gets trapped in the mind when the entrance collapses when raiders attempt to take over the mine for its ores. She gets trapped with another miner and slowly begins to open up and realize it takes a trip through hell to realize whats wrong with you.
2. A young rich colt gets traumatized when him and his parents went out of the house and a restaurant they were going to catches on fire, resulting in the parents death. Now the colt is too afraid to step outside and barricades himself inside his own house. His butler goes out to seek help to try to snap the colt out of his trauma.
3. In an anthro world, a stallion's son gets a near fatal disease and the family is unable to pay the fund to get any proper medication. However a member of a gang seeing his pain, offers him a chance to do a heist with a gang to get the money that he needs. He reluctantly agrees and this event pushes his humanity to his limits as he tries to remind himself this is all for his son.
Should I risk any of them?
1) This sounds like a perfect setup to have villainous Diamond Dogs. This is one that strikes me as very hard to get 'right' in a short story format, so it's not one I'd recommend. You'd have to establish the characters and their relationship (if any), grow their relationship in such a way as to make her opening up believable, find a way to clarify what is actually wrong while keeping it in the context of the story, all built around their attempt to escape and explaining what happened to the Diamond Dogs while showing clear and believable knowledge in how mines actually work.
So yeah, wouldn't suggest this one.
2) You're going to have a hard time explaining how a fire in a restaurant makes this guy refuse to leave the house. What is he afraid of, that the flames are going to rise up right there on the street for no reason whatsoever? You're really going to have to clarify his thinking to make it work. That said, this one has good potential to function as a short story, so if you can pull it off I think it would work well.
3) Let me set the disclaimer that I cannot under any circumstances except clop support the use of anthro in a story. It serves no purpose whatsoever. If you want to use it, fine, but it's always – always – better to either go pony or full human (preferably EqG human).
That said, this one has the most potential of the lot for a one shot if you limit it directly to the heist and build around that scene. The concept is simple and has no major drawbacks in implementation.
So yeah, I vote #3.
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1) Perhaps I'll try it when I'm a bit more experienced/
2) Well I was trying to find a more traumatizing experience, but I was having difficulty so I just went with a fire. So far I think maybe an incident with a mugger or...? Gah, my brain is not working with me for getting ideas out of my head. You got any ideas for traumatizing experience?
3) Hm... maybe I should just go full pony. Then again, if I tried human it would be easier but I would have difficulty trying to make Equestria into a human universe. Perhaps this one might be the best to try.
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2) Clearly you haven't read my material if you're asking a question like that. I can think of plenty, but it is of course something we want confined t the world of Equestria. Magic-related accidents come to mind, or a mistake by a weather pony. You want something very general, something that can happen at any time without warning, something that tells an impressionable colt "don't go outside, you'll get killed." Accidents are preferable over criminal action, unless you actually want to include an anxiety towards others as well. Carriage accidents, flying mishaps, even a very sudden onset of some kind of illness brought about by something they encountered. As long as it's outdoors.
3) Why would it be difficult to put humanized concepts in a pony world? In case you haven't noticed, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is practically made from this. There is absolutely nothing to get in your way. What, you think they don't have banks and getaway carriages in Equestria?
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2) Sounds like a good basis to start at. Thanks a lot!
3) ...Perhaps I'm just stupid.