NaPoWriMo · 5:52pm Jul 30th, 2012
It's that time again. The NaPoWriMo (write 50,000 words of pony in one month) is what actually resulted in the Substitute Harmony story, so I decided to try it again this year. Hopefully this year I'll actually get credit (was accidentally left out of the thankyou post on EqDaily last year) should I finish, and maybe this will give you guys a sorta sequel to Substitute Harmony (should I ever get it properly edited).
I won't be posting anything super-soon, however, since NaPoWriMo is all about quantity over quality, so whatever I write ~will~ need editing and redoing. The original "NaPoWriMo" Substitute Harmony sucked a great deal more than what you see now.
And who knows, maybe my writing quality will increase, eventually.
I've sorta delayed it this long because I'm so nervous about how my writing goes over with people, if I'll ruin the first story by making crappy follow ups. At any rate, this one will pick up with the Doctor taking Gilda/Derpy/Dinky/Sparkler(G4) on a trip. If you want to make comments about things you'd like to see, feel free.
Hey, I'm happy you're working on it again. Don't worry, quality of NaNo/NaPo entries is frequently lower than the author's when usual... But when it provides motivation for the author to produce at all. Sufficient editing will help, so even if it slows down posting here, that's fine.
You know, I think if you stick close to the tone of Substitute Harmony you won't go wrong with a Doctor Who style fic (comedy, action, the occasional convoluted plot, violence that gets fairly nasty but less graphic than some of the more off-tone parts of Harmony). Since we don't actually know anything about Doctor Whooves (is he even an alien or just an inventor), other than the fact he fulfills the same 'role' as the Doctor, you could probably use Gilda as a way to get the audience some of the backstory involved (she doesn't know him anyway). Though, of course, you'll want to avoid too much exposition. I wouldn't say no to more Derpy/Gilda shipping, but the story being good is more important than pairings.
260056 My favorite Doctor Who villains are the psychological ones with really messed up or creepy powers and that are difficult to defeat with outright violence. Unfortunately, many Who villains are difficult to defeat period, so any of those make it hard to write.
I would treat Doctor Whooves as having basically the same history as the proper Doctor; it's just easier that way. And yeah, Gilda would work as the clueless companion and an excuse to explain things that Derpy/Ditzy would already know. Come to think of it... it might be a good idea to explain some of the more basic things about the Doctor for those that have never seen that series.
260098
Doctor Who has some insanely powerful villains. It also, much as I love the show, has a tendency to rely too much on Deus Ex Machina resolutions (not all the time but compare the way Journey's End ended and the way The Time of Angels ended- first basically said "pushing buttons over here can somehow do anything" and the second said "hey, the artificial gravity which is a well established piece of the show and was a plot point earlier reacts the way you'd think it would to power loss")-- of course the funny thing is I actually like Journey's Ends treatment of the Daleks better than Time of Angels treatment of the Angels.
You're going to have to balance coolness factor/power against your ability to write the protagnosts realistically overcoming them, I suppose. Doctor Who has a long tradition of one shot villains, so you aren't really limited to guys who have appeared in the show and even if you stick to that there are plenty who are less universe crushing than the most memorable foes.