How not to ship the Mane 6 with each other · 5:39pm Aug 6th, 2012
I've read many fics that attempt to ship two of the Mane 6 together, and I've never found any of them convincing. Here are two simple things you will have to do, or rather not do, if you want to be the first to convince me of your M6-M6 shipping.
1. DON'T SHIP YOUR TWO FAVORITE CHARACTERS TOGETHER
If you ship your two favorite characters, the love driving the relationship is not their love for each other, but your love for each of them. That's not a twosome; it's a threesome - and the dominant partner, who brings them together, is you. And you didn't even write yourself into the story!
Or maybe you did. Maybe you should. Maybe you can be an alicorn! But if you don't want to write an alicorn self-insert clopfic, avoid shipping your two favorite characters together, because it won't work.
2. DON'T RELY ON THE SHOW AS THE BACKSTORY FOR YOUR SHIP
It's okay to start out with Lyra and Bon-Bon already being a pair, because we know nothing about them. If you're shipping anypony we know even as well as Octavia and Vinyl Scratch, you can't do that anymore. The Vinyl Scratch Tapes didn't start with either of them secretly crushing on the other. Just the little we know of their personalities from canon already suggests they would be an odd couple, and we need story leading up to the point where one of them first realizes she likes the other.
The personalities of the Mane 6 were deliberately made very distinct, so that any possible pairing seems unlikely at first. Don't say that Rarity has secretly had a crush on Rainbow. She HASN'T. We've seen her, episode after episode, not having a crush on any of her friends. None of them have a crush on any of the others. If you want them to, you need to start from zero, where neither of them has any inkling of being romantically attracted towards the other.
Take your time letting the characters figure out that they're attracted to each other! Read a romance novel or two. The main characters must hate each other for at least the first 3 chapters (this is probably in the authors' guidelines for Harlequin). A formula romance novel has 3 main climaxes [1], dividing the novel roughly into thirds, the first being when the woman realizes she loves the man, the second being when the man realizes he loves her, and the third being when they solve their problem so they're able to stay together. This structure is over-used in the world of romance novels, but under-used in fan-fiction.
[1] Ha-hah, yes, I know.
Fanfiction, generally speaking, is usually no where near as long as a romance novel. And I realize there are several fics on this site alone that out do most novels in overall word count. But the majority are much shorter, even when very well written. Putting the build up of the romance and the solving of whatever problem keeps the characters apart is hard to do in only a few chapters.
With the majority of fic writers being novice level(with little or no aspiration to be at professional level), they tend to just go for the juiciest final climax.
Even though the first two are usually the best part.
In my fic, I'm trying to work on that build up phase. I'm using Twilight and Luna, who are my favorite characters, but start out at awkward odds with each other.
Addendum to 2:
Unless the ship is Twilestia. Because Twilight having a hidden crush on Celestia is an interpretation that fits nicely with what Season 1 showed of her.
I get your meaning tho. In the aforementioned Raridash, perhaps Rarity could have started to see Dash in a new light when she saved her in Sonic Rainboom, but the fic itself should show how that progresses from a seed to a crush to love.
241754
Heh. Sure. I was only thinking of Mane 6 - Mane 6 ships.
I tend to hold my suspension of disbelief for secret crushes within the mane 6 when it's all in good fun. It's when said secret crush is used for drama that I start raising my eyebrows.
"Oh really? Twilight's secret crush on Applejack is slowly killing her inside because she knows it can never be returned? Well it must be doing a pretty slow job of it 'cause as near as I can tell she's doing alright."
I don't know if I am, except that The AppleDash Project pretty much follows your what-not-to-do list like a blueprint.
If that is exactly the ship fic you hate, I'm not mad or anything. There's enough fic in the world for everyone.
276067
I'm both relieved and chagrined to say that I haven't yet read the AppleDash project.
276076
I totally understand if you avoid it now, but if you ever do peek at it you might be surprised.
It does all of those things, but it's not really your traditional ship fic. It's episodic, with each episode following an episodes of the show. So the story arc thing doesn't really apply, since there's only rarely an ongoing plot other than "Applejack and Rainbow Dash are dating." In the third chapter I lampshade why you never see the relationship in the show, then deal with canon conflicts as part of my story.
And they are two of my top four characters, but. . . I can't speak for you here, but I sort of think what you're seeing there is authors pulling characters OOC in order to make them fit a ship they like, then sugar coating the relationship to fit a happily ever after. There are some ships that practically demand one or both characters be OOC (any Pinkie ship, in my opinion.) It might be hubris, but I'm pretty confidant in my ability to keep Dash and AJ in character, and since the fic is episodic there's no happily ever after. I also get to avoid the dramatic cliches for the most part, which is nice.
Like I said, I understand if you never read it, but I'd be curious what you think now.
I really, really hate how often I see your second rule violated. That said, if such stories actually used events in the show as back story, it probably would be fine. "Don't rely on your made up version of the show for backstory that assumes all kinds of things we didn't see in it" is a lot less pithy, though.