Clearing Up Some Confusion About Just Girls Talking · 1:47am Oct 11th, 2015
So apparently, this part of the story description:
Whether they're pony or human, girls have one thing in common:
They talk.
Was not sufficient enough to avert reader confusion about a certain aspect of this story.
By no means was this ever intended to be an Equestria Girls ONLY story. That's WHY the description references ponies. I had assumed that the readers would infer, both from the description and from chapter context, that some chapters would be set in Equestria rather than CHS.
I do apologize to those readers who were confused by the latest chapter, or who somehow didn't understand from the story description that pony chapters were implied.
I have added one line to the story description to, hopefully, clear up any future confusion. I will not be abiding by any suggestions of changing chapter titles to more explicitly point out which universe is in play (such as changing 'Girls' to 'Mares'; it's a stylistic choice).
Again, I apologize for any confusion.
Thanks for clearing that up, and my apologies again for missing that myself.
I think its an issue of your cover picture. People often look at a cover picture and then read the title and then read the story but skip the description.
3459923 Yeah, I'm planning to replace the cover image soonish, I've just had other priorities lately. Besides, not reading the description at all is no excuse.
Does that mean I can feel clever because I immediately got the hint after the first mention of the word "mane"?
I recommend more getting good at describing two literal different universes actually differently and less implying your readers are stupid.
In my defense, after three straight chapters set in the EG world, I was convinced that the "Whether they're pony or human" part was just an appealing way to write that, so I didn't read too much into it until today's chapter. Sorry for what I may have contributed to this massive confusion.
3459942 I read the description, but ponies are inferred automatically on an MLP site while Equestria Girls isn't. I took this to mean "hey, all those slice of life stories the main series has? Equestria girls gets them too."
I'd think "Fluttershy's irises shrank to pinpricks, and her muzzle crinkled cutely in surprise," would give it away.
I thought that bit of the description was referring to Sunset and Princess Twilight.
It'd be nice if chapter titles - or author's notes - gave some indication at the start of which world it was in.
3459986 Literally the second sentence of the chapter in contention states "mane".
"Mane" is not a word people use to refer to other people's hair. Not unless you're talking about a glam rock star or an 80s hairdo.
Then the third sentence immediately mentions Discord, who has not appeared in any way, shape, or form, in the EG series, much less started a relationship with anyone.
The fourth sentence, like 3460024 says, describes someone's muzzle.
With the multiple references to the pony universe scattered throughout the rest of the chapter, it's not like it obscured which universe it was set on.
3460097
Yeah, completely obvious, because the ponyisms are totally something that people even still consciously notice after reading more than like three stories or so. Seriously, is there actually anyone here who doesn't just translate that as "hair" without even thinking about it anymore? If that's the best thing the author can come up with to differentiate voice and descriptions for magical pony land and pastel barbie doll world, they're not trying hard enough.
Read a couple of paragraphs, got mildly confused, scrolled up and saw the description, said "Huh, oh ok." Wasn't that big of a deal.
3459960 Well, it does mean you know how to read.
3459986 Gonna be blunt: If you didn't figure it out from the context...
3460028 Or, you know, readers could actually figure it out from readily supplied context. Reading is supposed to be a mental endeavor.
I started the chapter, read a couple of lines, thought "Oh, so this chapter is about their pony counterparts. Cool." and read on. Like, when you realize it, just go with it. A little bit of confusion is not the end of the world :3
3461169
I did, but I don't like the smarmy attitude you have about it. If you did a bad enough job of it that you actually needed to post a blog just to correct the misunderstanding, then maybe you shouldn't go blame the readers for your own mistake.
3461679 Or maybe I made no mistake and the readers simply misunderstood.
3461861
Misunderstandings always involve two people: the one receiving the message wrong and the one who made it easy to misunderstand in the first place. Feel free to keep telling yourself that, but then also expect to keep running into this reaction.