There's More That's Out There - Behind the Scenes

Here's a little behind the scenes for my story There's More That's Out There! Hope you enjoy it :)

This story is not only my first My Little Pony-Fanfiction, it is my first real shot at creative writing in general. I’m not sure why I actually started writing this story, but I believe it’s because I needed a creative output next to my very non-creative maths- and physics studies. Since I suck hard at drawing and don’t play instruments or sing (well, I do, but you don’t want to hear me singing^^), I decided to give writing a shot.

The idea to write this story came to my mind after hearing the cut song from My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Friendship Games. The comments section under the EQD-article speculated why this song was cut in the end, especially because the symptoms of Sunset’s “homesickness” were still in the movie but never got a real background and because this version sounded much better that the final version.
I theorised that they cut it because this scene would basically leave no other option than having Sunset’s return to Equestria eventually, but the writers were still unsure about Sunset’s future, so they cut it to continue this storyline in the next movie.
I thought about how Sunset returning to Equestria would affect both the main series Friendship is Magic (FiM) and Equestria Girls (EQG). If Sunset returned to Equestria, the writers couldn’t really include her into FiM because they stated that they didn’t want to introduce EQG-lore into FiM. So I came up with the idea that they could make a spin-off series set in Equestria with Sunset Shimmer as the protagonist: Same setting, same locations and same supportive characters as FiM, but two different and separate storyline. I quote from my comment: “And I really want that spin-off!!! I'll write it myself if they don't make it!” I guess I walked the talk :D

I started forming ideas in my head about how this sequel might look like, and I’ve come up with a few not half-bad ideas so far. The first thing to start this new chapter in Sunset’s life, however, is to end the previous one.
I started scribbling down some ideas for this prelude on 5 October. I think I listened to the cut song about ten times and wrote down Sunset’s lines and her feelings associated to them to write a little profile of her so I knew exactly where she was standing right then. A few days passed, and I continued with the general storyline. In the end, I had two pages of squared paper (front- and back side) filled with notes and drafts and funny diagrams. The basic framework was established very soon, and most character interactions basically came out the way I had originally planned them.

It took me about half a week to write the story. Since I was Ill for two days last week, I had some extra free time to invest into the story.
I tended to have irregular breaks during writing: just booting up my Xbox to play a round of Halo, reading something or watching an episode of a series whenever I was not quite sure on how to proceed the story.
I often listened to music while writing, sometimes, it helped me getting in the right mood so I could relate to the characters better.
I also revised the story a lot during the writing process. Whenever I had an idea on how to improve a previous scene, I finished the current scene and went back to edit the other one.

Some thoughts on the writing process and some changes from the original script:

I had the beginning scene planned out in my head very early. At first, I wanted to elongate it a little, but I settled on this version eventually.
Sunset’s reasons for leaving were obviously heavily based on the cut song. I even took the liberty to take one or two lines directly from the song – it was just a perfect point of attack ;)
For the characters’ reactions, I was really struggling with Pinkie - I had no idea how to write her in this situation. Eventually, I decided to keep her in the background for the most part and give her a Pinkie-esque reaction once the dust had settled (Notice the slightly self-ironic “Pinkie Pie, who was unusually quiet […]” :D). I guess it turned out fine.
During writing, I realised just how awesome the characters are for writing. I could easily let them interact, especially AJ with RD and Flutters with RD. Having well-established characters is a real blessing :D
Something my proof-reader Pipertia noticed is that I used the word “sugarcube” in every sentence AJ spoke, and that was a bit overkill. I cut out some sugarcubes so we don’t get a sugar rush^^
The whole part regarding Twilight was not in my original script. Originally, her reaction was supposed to be similar to RD’s, but with the help of mainly AJ and Flutters, it should have been sorted out comparatively quickly. During writing, I came up with the idea to separate her and Sunny from the rest so they can have some time alone, especially since their relationship is a very special one. I made sure that I let enough background information out so the two girls’ close friendship and their mentor-protégée-relation became apparent. Adding this arc was a pretty good decision as I think this scene turned out pretty well.
Originally, Twilight was supposed to call out “Shut up, Rarity” after Rare tried to calm her down a bit. I experimented how far I could let Twilight go, but eventually decided (after Pip brought this to my attention) that “Shut up” was going a bit too far, especially since no real relationship between Twilight and Rare was established beforehand.
The idea of the scarf as the memento was one of the first thing that came to my mind when developing this story.

This about wraps up what there is to say about the creation process. I hope you enjoyed the story! Will there come more? Probably! I really enjoyed writing this story, and I have paved the road for some really nice stories based on this one. As mentioned above, I already have a few ideas. Besides, I really need a creative activity next to my studies, so stay tuned for more!

Comments

[Feanor]

Looking forward to it!

I definitely think the choice to separate out Twi from the rest was key, as that was perhaps the strongest point in the story for me. The relationship between those two is one of the most intriguing in the franchise, and I like how you handled it.

[Armosk]

I used the word “sugarcube” in every sentence AJ spoke

I know the feeling. Your English is excellent, but something like "countryism" isn't what you're dealing with often, be it now in school, university or on the internet. It's kinda hard to learn it, but you'll get there with time.