Inner Strength history · 5:59pm Aug 19th, 2015
You know what sucks? Editing. Sweet Celestia I hate editing. I'm trying to turn the first draft of Inner Strength into it's final story and I'm almost tempted to say 'screw it' and leave it how it is until I'm a better writer. But a huge part of why I'm writing fanfiction is to practice writing since I plan on being a professional writer someday, and part of that is editing a rough draft into a second draft (and then a third and fourth, but Inner Strength shall stop at the second draft since I'm not getting paid for any of the hundreds of hours I've put into this and want to get to the sequel so I can pour hundreds of unpaid hours into that)
So while I should be editing right now, I'm taking a break and reflecting on how far the story's come. I figure 'I'm a huge nerd who likes knowing the development behind things, maybe some one is interested in how this story came to be.' Realistically I doubt that many people do, but whatever 
So anyway, I got the idea for this story when I first started reading a lot of shipfics and noticed nobody really addresses the whole gay thing. Like, I get it. It's a show with like 90% female characters, unless you go with an OC there's just not a lot of options for a male romantic interest, and a lot of people just want to write romance and not deal with heavy issues, or just want to deal with other heavy issues. I'm down with that. I'd get sick of reading about ponies being afraid of coming out and possible negative reactions and all that if everybody, or even most authors addressed the issue. But I never see anyone writing about it. I'm sure somewhere in the almost 200,000 stories on Fimfiction other authors have already addressed this topic, and I just haven't seen them because I've only been around for a bit, but it still stands that I haven't seen any. Sometimes you get a 'But I don't know if she even likes mares' but then she always done and we always get the fluffy romance we came for. But I wanted to be different so I came up with an idea which eventually formed the basis for Inner Strength.
My initial idea was to have Fluttershy come to Twilight asking her for advice on how to win over Rainbow, but not knowing that Twilight secretly was in love with Fluttershy already. This was going to be a part in this big Equestrian soap opera that I still would love to see though I shant actually be writing it myself. I think I wanted Fluttershy and Luna to be dating at some point and they were going to adopt a changeling. It would have been crazy. Anyway, I never really fleshed out too many details and eventually lost interest in the story.
Fast forward a bit and I have an idea for a second story involving Sunset Shimmer. I'd really love to talk more about that idea, but it would involve so many plot spoilers for things coming up. Anyway, I liked this second idea but it wasn't really coming together right, until I added the Twishy romance element and then it just fell into place. I outlined this whole novel in my head (not Inner Strength) and realized that it really needed to be two novels because a complete split in tone halfway through. Then I started to wonder if people would really care about Sunset's role in the story, which was kind of a key part to me. So I decided to add a third book explaining how Sunset came to be in the position she's in during the other two. So now I have a trilogy on my hands, and no idea how to start it. I've written stories my whole life, but never anything this ambitious, never fanfiction, and hadn't written anything for the past four years. So I decided to write about how Twilight and Fluttershy started dating.
Initially I figured there's so many shipfics that already did this I'd just leave it vague and the reader could decide how the relationship began, but I wanted a practice story and remembered my love triangle idea from before. So I changed Fluttershy's initial love interest to Rarity because I like Rarishy better than Flutterdash (I just see them as sisterly) and came up with a four chapter story. The idea was to have chapter one Twilight overhearing Fluttershy and Rainbow's discussion about Rarity, then actually talking to them about it. Chapter two would be Fluttershy asking out Rarity but getting rejected. Chapter three would be Twilight getting advice from Applejack (who was at that point supportive from the beginning). And chapter four would be Twilight asking out Fluttershy, and it would end before their first date. This bears a lot of similarities to the first act, but is rather different then the completed product. When I started writing chapter one I made two significant changes. I added Sunset Shimmer to be Twilight's primary support, freeing up Applejack to give the negative reaction from the story, and while writing the scene with Twilight overhearing the conversation I decided on a whim that it would be better if she just left.
Sometime after writing chapter but before posting it I decided the story needed more to it. I decided I didn't want Applejack to be the primary source of negativity because while I liked the realism of one of their friends not supporting them (at least at first) I didn't want to make AJ the antagonist because it's a show literally about friendship, I'm not about to tear their friendship apart. So I came up with the hate group idea and used that as the basis for act two, meanwhile ArchAngelsWings came up with the story about Fluttershy's past and we decided to create a shared world, so there was no way I wasn't incorporating that into things.
Chapter by chapter this story expanded and got further from my original idea, in some really great ways. For example Amber Glow. I wrote her entirely by accident. Initially she was going to just be a walk on character without a name, just the ticket taker on the train, then I thought 'wouldn't it be great if she asked out Fluttershy in the middle of this big fight' so I made that happen. I had originally planned on making Twilight super insecure about Fluttershy and Rarity, but then with the six month lapse in between chapters six and seven that idea fell apart. Amber gave me a second chance to write about that side of Twilight. Her and Luna becoming kind of a thing was also an accident. They weren't originally going to appear in any chapters together but as I was writing chapter 13 Luna came out of nowhere because she's sneaky like that, and if you can't tell I like to make plans and then not follow them. Then when they were together they still weren't supposed to hook up but I just thought it seemed like something Luna would do. I kind of wing every character interaction which I like to think makes the characters more natural but is possibly just a testament to my poor planning.
So going into writing the sequel I can't help but wonder; I planned on making this a four chapter thing and it became a novel. Now I'm planning to write a novel and wondering what the hell I'm gonna walk out with. Here's hoping I don't stumble ass first into a 200k word epic.
Anyway, thanks for reading 
I guess I'm off to work on the first new chapter for the second draft. I'll leave something to think about, because I'm an egotistical bastard who wants people to think about my story after they've already read it: In the epilogue Fluttershy has a dream, but never says what it's about. There's enough clues to figure out what it is. Anyone want to take a guess?
You'r mind works in fascinating ways, would love to have a chat over on Skype on day. So i can vent my ideas and vise versa.
One question that i'm a bit curious about, and it is rather important. Out of the 30 different mane 6 ships, why TwiShy? Don't get me wrong TwiShy is my #1 OTP, i just want to here if you have a reason as to why those two in particular. And yes that was one of the points as to why this sory got on to my Masterpiece shelf
~Tobben
The only problem I have with chatting on Skype is that I have somewhat crippling social anxiety
. But on the other hand I'm a sucker for helping people with writing, so maybe some day.
Basically it's because I relate to Twilight in a lot of ways, while ArchAngelsWings relates to Fluttershy. A lot of how I write them is influenced by that, including our respective attitudes towards raising children and how insecure I used to be towards other people being attracted to her.
I actually meant to explain why it's Twishy in the blog itself. Whoops
(First of my writing in english isn't that good so pleas understand all the writing mistakes i make
thanks)
I liked how this story went along. But i wanted to ask if ArchAngelsWings writes the Oubliettes & Ogres story after she finished writing the pre-quell (man i hope this is right) from fluttershy because i this part from Inner Strengh was one of my favorites :D. If she doesn't then it's ok i don't force anybody to write it. ^^
3333655
I told her you asked and she said she'll try to get back to writing soon though 
You know I don't care about your English, seriously it's impressive that you even speak multiple languages so don't worry about it
That'd be really cool and I certainly hope she does. She's still working on the prequel, but hasn't been feeling too great lately
3332923
Oh well you'r not alone in that regard my friend.
Oh that is interesting 90% of the people i ask that question tends to say "I like them together" and then levee it at that. Kinda cool that you got a personal connection with it
~Tobben
3333706
I do also think they work really well together, they make one of the most believable couples in my opinion. Although I don't have a problem with any ship (unless the characters are actually related or it's an adult paired with a kid) I totes prefer similar characters instead of the whole 'opposites attract' thing since it doesn't usually work out well in real life. Then again I consider Sunset and Fluttershy pretty opposite and elmago02 has me all aboard the Sunshyne ship too
So what about you? What made you a fan of best ship?
3333733
) I think this is because i kind of have my own little Twilight and Fluttershy in me since they're personalities is what can describe me the most. And i just loved them ever since.
At first i was part of that 90% i was talking about. Found a story called "Magic of love" and tough it was very good, so i started to explore more TwiShy over time. Then i started writing myself and i did try out to write otter pairings (RariShy, TwiJack) But i just could not get Rarity and AJ down so i tried out TwiShy and the words just wrote them self (not literally i'm no mage
I generally have three roles when it comes to shipping: Don't mess with canon pairings (Big mac and cheerilee, Cadance and Shining armor). Don't ship gods or princesses (Twilight is the only exemption because i got into TwiShy before S3. And lastly don't ship kids with adults (Rarity and Spike being my biggest pet peeve)
~Tobben
3333800
But Spike and Rarity does really bother me. Spike's crush is cute, but Rarity having any kind of feelings for him is creepy. I've seen the argument that it's different because he's a dragon, but if anything that probably makes him age even slower 
Ah yeah, I suppose that's another thing I don't like, ships with Cadence and Shining Armor not being together. I don't really mind Big Mac and Cheerilee not being shipped together since they're not officially a couple, and I'm guessing you don't consider Flashlight a canon ship then
I also don't mind princess ships, as you can probably guess from Luna and Amber in my story
3334015
When it comes to Spike and Rarity pairing i just direct them to Jerry Peet. And Flash Sentry Got a blog about him.
~Tobben
3333733
*sneaks in to this conversation like a boss*
Well to my part i started reading on this site in the year 2013 i think my first fic i've read was well ähm a clop fic about Twilight and Cadence *covers behind a sandbag wall* but then i forgot about this site until sommer 2014 it was i think i started reading about Rainbow Shy first after 3 moths or so i changed to FlutterPie and then after two months i changed to TwiShy. I think the first TwiShy fic i've read was An Expression of Love (but i'm not sure) since then i've only read TwiShy. Why i does like TwiShy so much? Well Fluttershy is my Favorite Pony because i am to 90% like her. I am Shy, I'm (mostly) kind, i like animals etc. And Twilight i don't know i just think she and Fluttershy are perfect for each other. ^^
3334717
Yes, we shall convert all to best ship
I don't know though. Twishy is my favorite ship, but I like a lot of different ships. Sunlight and Sunshyne are favorites of mine these days, because ever since I found Long Road to Friendship I just adore Sunset Shimmer. I also ship AppleDash and long for another good Lunashy story, since Luna's Day Out was fantastic. Beyond that I'm pretty open minded, if a story catches my eye I'll read it even if I don't ship the characters.