SF Rules Apply · 7:36am Jul 12th, 2015
Since I am at heart a science fiction writer, I suppose this makes sense, but here goes. I approach writing in the MLP universe with the same rules I would writing about aliens in a science fiction novel. A writer wants to depict a story's aliens so that they render in the reader's mind as not human. But how can you do this? How would you write a story from a dolphin's point of view, or more pointedly, from a horse's point of view?
Since we neither understand how dolphins, or horses, or aliens think, nor ever will, putting this on the page is rather difficult. Without speech, there might be images or descriptions of sensations. And this might work. It has worked in SF, but in its purest form, it is quite inaccessible. An author by the name of C.J. Cherryh is exceptionally good at accessible aliens that have their own logic and rules that humans cannot quite comprehend. What she does, and most SF writers in general do, is make their aliens accessible.
Making an alien accessible means telling the alien's story in the alien's point of view, but substituting a human perspective. In computer programming, we might call this a translation layer. You write with near normal human speech and mannerism, but you also write keeping in mind non-human abilities and limitations, then discuss the culture without flinching. Keeping it as safe-for-work as possible, consider a dog as an alien. Could you write a story considering how dogs greet and interact with each other? Yeah, that's what I mean by writing non-flinchingly. Do this right and your reader mentally translates your characters and experiences them as alien.
This is what I'm doing writing in the MLP universe. How amazing is it that unicorns can levitate objects and thereby manipulate things, and how prosaic it must be to them--unless you're an earth pony who has to use a pencil or hammer with your mouth, but then that is unremarkable if you live amongst earth ponies (or pegasi for that matter). Knowing what to explain and what to mention can be hard.
The best advice is to write a story as if you were writing human characters, but bear in mind how your characters aren't human, have different bodies, and live in a culture much different than yours. It is by these rules that I am writing the stories I post on this site.
