A small interview with CyborgSamurai · 9:35pm Sep 1st, 2015

HB: It’s been a while since my last small interview, but the time for questions is now, the time for answers is soon. Ladies and gentlemen, today I bring in the author of The Powers of Harmony.
It is the one and only CyborgSamurai!

Yo.

HB: CyborgSamurai, it is a great pleasure to have this chat. Tell me how you’re feeling.

Not too bad. Mostly relieved that I’ve gotten settled into my new dorm and gotten all the red tape out of the way for Fall semester. Moving is such a bitch!

HB: I recently moved too. Moving is the worst, but I'm glad to hear you're settled in.
Okay, first question I always ask beyond how you are, any origin story behind your name, besides being awesome?

From when I was 13 to 16 years old, I underwent a series of pretty serious operations on my hips in order to correct a deformity caused by a genetic neuropathic degenerative disease called Type 1-A Charcot-Marie-Tooth. In the mix of all of that, two things happened: I had to get both of my hips replaced, and I had to learn how to walk again. Both of these things resulted in a metric shit ton of physical therapy, and I wasn’t all that enthusiastic about it. In order to try and make it more bearable for me, my therapist suggested I start learning the forms and poses of some martial arts to improve my balance, core, and lower body strength. I enjoyed doing this a whole lot more, and I actually kept at it even after I was done with my PT. I can’t actually fight or anything, but I can do some pretty cool looking moves with a sword or a staff, as many of my RL friends can attest to.
So basically what I’m saying is, my penname name is literal.

HB: That is so metal. Big props to you sir. You have my respect.
So tell me, how did you get into MLP:FiM?

One of my best friends got into it, and he introduced me to it in 2011. I wasn’t very happy where I was with my life at that time, and simplicity and innocence of FIM was endearing to me. I took a look further, and found that there were heavy influences from traditional mythology embedded in its lore.
Traditional mythology is like crack to me. From that point on, I was hooked.

HB: Do you have a favorite pony?

Twilight is best pony. This is not up for debate, your argument is invalid.

HB: Do you have a favorite shipping?

SoarinDash, SoarinDash, SoarinDash. I like to think that their competitive natures bounce off of each other and naturally lead to romantic attraction.

HB: Are there any authors (fanfiction or professional) that you look up to?

Holy crap, there are so many. Let’s just stick with fanfiction authors, though, because professional authors aren’t really what I pay attention to these days. I’ve read a lot of stories here on this site while I’ve been recovering, and I’ve found that is such a ridiculous amount talent here. It blows me away that so many people have been inspired by this universe to write so many cool things.
So, in no particular order:
Cold in Gardez, Eakin, Capn_Chryssalid, SS&E, Wanderer D, Zaponator, Dromicosuchus, Rust, CardsLafter, Ponydora Prancypants, SlyWit, Device Heretic, Mr. Unsmiley, Jetfire2012, Hoopy McGee, Thanqol, AestheticB, TnaB, Ivory Piano, Daemon of Decay, Bookplayer, Skywriter, Visiden Visidane, CarcinoGeneticist, Forthwith, The Abyss, RainbowBob, Greenback, Rainedash, AdmiralTigerclaw, Jake the Army Guy, SleeplessBrony, Iceman, PatchworkPoltergeist, Chromosome, Cyanide, Determamfidd, TheGreyPotter, Denim_Blue, Golden Vision, and Ponky.

HB: O.o whoo-whee; that's a lot authors. Moving right along, now that the standard questions are out of the way, let’s talk about one of your stories. You don’t have the extensive library of some authors on the site, but what you do have I’ve liked. You are easily one of the best adventure writers I’ve seen. The Last Crusade was a hit, but we are not here to talk about that today.
No; I want to ask about The Powers of Harmony (TPoH).

Fire away, then.

HB: What inspired you to start writing out this epic adventure?

I remember first getting the idea when I was making the 8-hour drive home for the holidays. I’d just read a bunch of cool adventure fics like Dangerous Business Going Out Your Door, Duties, Eternal, Steadfast Sky, The Immortal Game, and Flight of the Alicorn, and I said to myself I really wanted to do something of my own.
What REALLY got my idea for the superpowers though was the stuff in Dangerous Business, particularly Rarity’s visions and the conversation she has with her future self at the end of the story. I just thought that was so cool, I HAD to do something like that myself.

HB: You explained in your blogs that your concerning health caused you to discontinue TPoH over two years ago. Since then, you wrote The Last Crusade, but in a shocking turn of events, you decided to continue TPoH. What made you decide to revive this story instead of moving on to more new work?

Popular demand, mostly. Well, that, and the annoyance that is the Sunk Cost Fallacy. I feel like I’ve already put so much work into this project that it’d be a pretty huge waste if just ditched it now. I really like TPoH, and no one was more sad to see it potentially cancelled than me. I’m happy for the chance to be able to continue it.

HB: I'm sure I speak for many of your fans when I say I am happy for the chance to continue reading it. As someone who enjoys world building, I have to say you put a lot of work into that. How long did you spend mapping out the history of your world?

The history took a couple of months to hammer out. I didn’t actually start out wanting to get into creation theory, but the more I worked with the story, the more I realized I kinda had to. I was a good dozen chapters into the story at that point, though, so basically what I had to do was work backwards and create a series of events that explained everything that had gone on.
Needless to say, parts of it were easier to come up with than others. I would often times go out on long walks around the place where I lived just brainstorming ideas, trying come up with how it all fit together and how I could make it as cool as possible.
I also have about 1500 pages of unused text/notes/ideas (and no, that’s not an exaggeration. It’s all in a set of documents in Google Drive, within a folder I call THE DUMP.)

HB: That's... a lot. But if what we got was the best of the ideas, than I think we are eating gourmet. Was there any reason you took so long to introduce the story’s antagonist? Did you feel the proper amount of world building needed to occur first?

Originally, Piro was going to be the main antagonist. However, the farther along I got in the story, the more I realized I didn’t want that to happen. I felt there was more opportunity for him to be a good guy rather than a one-dimensional bad one, so I changed things around a bit
Another part of it was me being too infatuated with all the characters I’d created. I wanted to flesh all of them out as best I could and give them realistic backstories, and while I feel like I accomplished that fairly well, it takes time to do. I was having too much fun with the world I’d created that I kinda forgot that I needed a bad guy, and by the time I got to really digging into it, it was quite a ways into the story.

HB: To be fair, I kinda got into the Zodiac Echoes too. Personal favs go to Piro and Blair. But I digress.
Do recall any chapters or scenes being particularly difficult to write? (Health concerns not withstanding)

-For Chapter 7, I had to do research on weather patterns and meteorology to come up with a suitable task for Rainbow to do. I also had to come up with a proper system for wingpower in relation to the Sonic Rainboom.
-For Chapter 12, I had to do research on bird wings in order to fully explain Fluttershy’s albatross/eagle wings, as well as her predicament for why she couldn’t stay on Hoofalulu.
-For Chapter 13, I had to look up yoga poses.
-For Chapter 14, I had to draw up a map of both Old Canterlot and the tunnels beneath it.
-Chapters 18 and 19 were especially hard, as I had to decide what parts the Echoes would show to Twilight. I cut a ton of stuff out and it still wound up being 30,000 words.
-Chapters 21 and 22 required a lot of reference from D&D 3.5 spellbooks. I had to create spell lists for each character, and then decide which of those spells I wanted them to use in the fight.
-Everything from Chapter 24 on required extensive fleshing out of the history, geography, and population breakdown, and cultures of each country/location visited by the characters.

HB: You recall you difficulties with laser point precision, so you should have no trouble answering this next one. From what I recall, you seemed to have had the story mostly planned out. However, did anything get changed as you wrote the story? Besides Piro's role, of course.

I think any author will tell you that no story outline survives first contact with your muse. You can plan things out all you want, but once you actually start writing the story out, things wind up changing.
So many things have been switched around that I can’t even begin describing it to you. I know that sees like a bit of a copout answer, but seriously, there’s so much that I don’t even know where to start.

HB: Besides keeping things awesome, do you have any goals planned with your story? (Views, likes, chapters, words, etc.)

I’m not all that concerned with views or likes at this point. The story has done quite well already, and I’m very grateful for that. In terms of words, though, I’d like the finished product to be around 600-700k words. That’s what I’m shooting for, at any rate.

HB: Aiming to break the length of Brave New World? Honestly, I think that's reasonable based on what I've seen so far from you. Last question; do you have any words of advice to intrepid new authors out there?

READ. Read a lot and often. It will give you ideas on how you want your own writing to be, and will help inspire your creativity in ways you wouldn’t have thought of.
Also, don’t compare yourself to other authors. You aren’t them, and they aren’t you. You have no idea what their life situations are like, and viewing an author’s finished work is only the equivalent of seeing a minute snapshot of what their creative process is like. Keep yourself challenged, but down get yourself down, either.
You’re you, so concentrate on that first and foremost. Let everyone else be themselves.

HB: I think that is a wise mentally for writing and for life in general. Thank you for your time CyborgSamurai. I look forward to your next chapter and wish you the best in your endeavors.

Thanks. It’s good to be back.

HB: Everybody, go support CyborgSamurai by following him and reading his magnificent stories.
Also, be sure to read The Powers of Harmony. It is an adventure worth your time.
This is Hesitant Brony, signing off.