Whatcha gonna do, brony, when the WTG gallops wild on you? · 6:47am May 9th, 2015
Hello there, pony peoples! It's not very late here in Southern California, but I'm incredibly wiped like you wouldn't believe. Finals are coming up, I'm dealing with crazy changes at work that are much too long to get into, and three days ago I saw the newest edition of the Writer's Training Grounds on EQD. For the past, oh man, I don't know, three years I've missed out on this sort of thing because I've missed the initial post. Same goes for their National Pony Writing Month and their Artist's Training Grounds. In my book, jumping in late to challenges like that is analogous to hopping the fence at a marathon to run alongside all the real contestants while liberally flipping them the bird. It's like, run when the starting gun fires, you know? So I'd just say "Well, I suppose that's that," and go back to not writing the only fanfic I've ever not worked on. Anyway, I'm gonna talk briefly about this little story!
I picked the third prompt because my ideas for the CMC starting their rodeo were too similar to all their other group ventures into putting on productions, and I just wasn't a big fan of Trouble Shoes. In retrospect, maybe I could have done something with him screwing up a rodeo and narrowly escaping from an angry pitchfork-wielding mob, but I digress. Initially I thought Braeburn could have just been hurt in an accident when preparing for an event. Then I discovered steer wrestling, and that degenerated into researching wrestling, and then I had to throw in actual wrestling jokes and references!
Braeburn became Matburn, the clown Yoink is a reference to the famous clown-themed wrestler Doink (Cracked.com has a brief segment about the dude in this article, or you could probably just Google him), and Braeburn's attacks are puns in themselves. There's a throw called the Flapjack and the sugar hold is a variant on the famous nelson. I wanted to somehow go even farther with this, with Applejack showing up as a parody of Mick Foley's in-ring personality, Cactus Jack. Couldn't work it in, though. Surprisingly, I'm not actually a wrestling fan. But after this, I might just have to watch some WWE the next chance I get.
What did I do wrong? Well, for starters, I should have started so much sooner. Then maybe I wouldn't have been rushed! I'm glad that I can crank out a story so quick, but there's some stuff that goes nowhere. I wanted the CMC to still attempt to get Applejack's permission to join the rodeo, and I didn't get Thunderhooves in at the ending. Part of it was the conflict in deadlines though: the page says "Friday, May 8, by 11:59 EST" (or 8:59 PST), but the submission form says "Thursday, May 9, 11:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time (GDT -8)" (which has the day of the week as yesterday and the date as tomorrow, what the bloody buck). But no, the real issue is about an issue. #29 of the official comic centers around wrestling, so this has kind of already been done, you know? Of course fanfiction is all about taking previously existing stuff and reworking it, and I used the comic's events as an excuse for Applejack's general indifference, but maybe I could've come up with something else.
Suffice it to say I won't be working on Kickin' Flanks for a while until the Writer's Training Ground is finished, but hey, this will be a rad learning experience. Stick around next week, because a new short story is comin' atcha, LIVE TO AN INTERNET NEAR YOU!
