My Twilight Facade's One Year Anniversery! · 10:08pm Oct 26th, 2015
When I first began writing fanfiction, I had this idea for an epic saga that would span the entire My Little Pony series. The events throughout would have built up to a climactic final battle among all the gods to determine the fate of Equestria. I thought it sounded awesome; large battles, apocolyptic showdowns, and entirely too much collateral damage. The series would have lasted twelve books and two inter-equels that would develop some implied romance. In my excitement to write such a saga, I immediately set off and finished writing the first story in three months.
When I first clicked submit, something happened. Something... dark. Anonymous voices started giggling. The lights in my room flashed off, with only my clock blinking with a single word: END. That night, wolves started howling in my urban neighborhood. The household cat, usually very affectionate, had trouble meeting my eyes.
My first story unleashed untold evil into the world. To this day, pale figures leave strange marks on my chest every night. I have to live with the knowledge that my actions have doomed thousands to screaming anguish.
Simply put, the story sucked. It really sucked. It sucked so bad, that the few who read it now have AIDs. It's a failure that I must always carry, and I am truly ashamed to have written it.
But despite the fact that my story brought forth the Prophecy, I didn't give up on writing entirely. I had way too many story ideas in my head to let them all go to waste, so I needed to let some of them loose before my brain fried. I toyed with a story featuring a sorcerer who died every chapter but kept coming back to life from a stock of clones he had in his house. I ditched it because it was rather unwieldy for me. I was going to write a Shadowrun crossover, but I wasn't feeling up to it at the time.
Then, I had a thought: What if I recast Twilight Sparkle as an asshole? That could be pretty funny! I hammered out a quick chapter and forced my brother to read it. He thought it was really funny, and so I felt better about my writing skills. I was content that I could write something good, and I sat on the chapter for a couple of minutes.
Then, as if it were some kind of prank, I released the damn thing with no revisions in the slightest. I don't even know why I did it; I didn't even intend to publish it in the first place. After all, my first story was a big plan, and this thing was farted out to amuse my brother when he got home from work. I had no plans beyond two chapters. If my first story was as big a failure as it was with lots of planning, then this jury-rigged hunk of junk was going to be the thing that got me killed by internet witch hunters.
So imagine my surprise when it got sixteen likes and two dislikes instead. Multiple commenters said how they thought it was funny and was a good start. Imagine that. A story I had no plans or aspirations for was far better received than that other thing. Needless to say, I was excited to continue something that people actually liked.
I released another chapter, and this one doubled my following. So I released another one, then another, and another.
A full year later and here we are. My Twilight Facade has over eight hundred likes, gets about two thousand views per chapter, and is followed by over twelve hundred readers and twenty three hundred bookshelves. I am never short of astonished at how popular this story became. I was only expecting about fifty people, total, to even bother reading the first couple of chapters. It's incredible to think that so many of you decided to give this story a try and found it deserving of a like or a follow. Thanks guys, it's great to have you all on board.
Anyway, there's a lot of things I want to say about My Twilight Facade. The process of writing it, plans, and so forth. You'd think from my earlier description that there isn't much to say, but you'd be surprised. For starters, I wasn't kidding about only having plans for two chapters. That introductory arc was just going to be the entire story before the protagonist returned home, kicked that wizard's ass, and lived a more fulfilling life with the knowledge of friendship. Luckily, by the time I wrote half of chapter two, I realized how much of a waste that would have been. Here I established a world where Twilight Sparkle never met her friends, and some random prick took her place. There's so much one could do with that, so it was quite fortunate at how easy it was to justify an extension to the events of season one.
A benefit to posting chapters as you finish them is that you can get audience feedback on what you need to improve for future chapters. For example, the user Gambit Prawn said how little sense it would make if I immediately went on to do the events of Ticket Master, so from there, I made an outline of season one in an order that I though made sense. Thanks Prawn, I think that served the story well.
My brother is the one in charge of pre-reading the crap I write, hopefully ironing out any mistakes I made. Not all of the mistakes he found had anything to do with my poor use of commas or grammar, either. Sometimes he'd point out things that didn't really sit right in the story. I had a few ideas of jokes that he flat-out argued against. The scene with the diamond dog getting beaten up was completely different and more sadistic. Believe me, he's done a lot to make the story readable. Thanks, bro!
There's also been plenty of people who point out my smaller mistakes. One guy pointed out my incorrect usage of the word "cymbals". Another guy pointed out when I forgot to include an important detail to one of the scenes that just made it confusing. In a way, all of my readers are my editors, and you've all done a little something to help. Either in the way of a view, a favorite, or just pointing out my errors, you guys have done well to keep me in line.
So, creating this story was pretty easy. I based the protagonist after myself, only I idealized my darker impulses. He doesn't go out of his way to make friends, values the individual over society, and doesn't take shit from anybody. Unlike his creator, he has the spontaneous word-choice to influence the people around him, and isn't afraid to use it to provoke others. A logical, skeptical man with few boundaries and a taste for liquor. That liquor thing has got to be the only thing he's got that I don't, though. I hate the stuff.
Twiliclone also shares my interests. Video games, wrestling, roleplaying games, heavy metal; I think he's got good taste.
But I'd be remiss to the character if I didn't mention his anger. I love writing his emotional breakdowns. His insults and raging behavior are a source of great amusement for me. Every time he calls someone a "bitch-twister", I feel proud of myself for coming up with another perfectly sculpted insult for the given scenario. It's unfortunate that I doubt I'll be needing to write much more of it in the future. I've kinda run out of reasons to get him angry. We'll see, though.
The introductory scenario was kind of made up on the spot. At the time of release, the LOHAV stories were still hitting it big and being created with stunning regularity. The one thing most of them had in common was the mysterious vendor who sold magic artifacts. From what I can gather, most of those stories played the vendor straight; not giving him a name or even making the protagonist question him very much. Inspired by all this yet wanting to do something different, I made a stereotypical wizard at a flea market. He sold magic stuff too, but he tried to sell magic stuff to a guy who hates wizards. I personally find great pride with the insults I wrote there. From there it was just events where Twiliclone starts doing his thing in Equestria.
Writing the story is an uncanny experience. You know I really don't know what I'm going to do for a chapter once I begin writing? I have the most basic of plans at the start, but I just lose myself once I start writing and adding details. Remember that scene where Twiliclone is having lunch with the other Element Bearers? I was just going to have that be a brief, funny scene where everyone plays each other off for a few jokes before the chapter ends. But some of that evil I unleashed with my first story must have affected me more than I thought, because I decided it was far past time for me to start hurting my character. So I introduced a little drama that I would touch upon as the story progressed.
This also doubles as an example of when some detail I decide to add becomes inexplicably important. Now that Twiliclone starts dealing with the issues of his friends, he starts to earn their trust and ends up trusting them a little more. I decided that he would do this with everyone until it culminates into a big reveal, but it was not to be. I remembered Zecora, and I figured she would be great for scaring the protagonist back into his hole. From just the interactions at the lunch scene, I planned all this. It wrote itself, really.
So whenever I write a new chapter, it's interesting to note that most of the things I write were made up as I went. Most of the things are cosmetic, but I also add a few details for jokes or foreshadowing. I've been foreshadowing a side-plot for a little bit, but it's been hidden beneath layers of redirection and humor, so I can't blame anyone for saying that there's none. But don't worry, the subtlety will wear off in time. In fact, it'll get pretty obvious.
Now that I think back on it, My Twilight Facade does a great job of mirroring my time as a brony. A curiosity gets Twiliclone's attention and sends him to a world where he quickly falls for the local customs and message of friendship. Over time, he becomes more accepting of his surroundings and is willing to try a few new things. We are quite the same, only my "curiosity" was Pony Thread Simulator rather than some magic flowers at a market. There is one more way that he's been changing like me, and I've been building up to it, but that'll be a surprise for later. Needless to say, I've been accidentally writing about how I grew into the pony fan I am today.
So I've established that I honestly have no idea what I've been doing, but does that mean I don't know what I will be doing? No. I have a plan now. While I could joke about how the last plan I made released a swarm of toxic angel-eating locusts into the world, I actually have confidence in this one. Not willing to spoil anything, I still have quite a way to go before the end. I still have too many possibilities to explore with this concept, too many jokes, and Twiliclone hasn't suffered enough. I promised hot tubs and chaos all the way back in chapter two, and I'll be damned if I rush either of those things out.
I think that about does it. I really only wanted to admit that this story was never meant for release and I've been scrambling to keep it afloat since. I mean, writing My Twilight Facade has been a very time-consuming hobby that borders on obsession, but I still enjoy getting them written. I sort of know what I'm doing now, so all I can do is hope that my plan hasn't accounted for something I'm missing. I also hope that it doesn't turn everybody off the story. If worse comes to worst, always remember that this is a comedy. Not everything will be silly or optimistic, but you can bet that I'll be doing my best to keep things on the up and up.
Yeah, I think that's it. Thanks for reading my story and reading this rambling blog. It's been a good year, yet I'm hoping for one that's even better. See you next time, where Twiliclone will do something stupid!
tl;dr congratulations
most lazy yet heartfelt congratulations there is
Well, so former human Twilight becoming more like the real Twi over time is accidental?
Hurray! Congrats man.
It's been a good good year...
I know how you feel. One of my own stories has been far more successful then I ever imagine it would be.
ANd Twiliclone is what draws me to this.
Congratulations man! And thank you for dedicating your time to create such awesome content for us!
Aw man, this is awesome. I have a problem with my stories where I come up with a great plot, but I can never figure out what to do next. Like you, I have a basic idea of a chapter going in to it, but things change as I write it. I really need to write more Teaching Lies as it was very inspired by this story. I just wanted to have fun writing random fun moments in the form of a plot. But I have to not have the plot similar to your as I want to prevent spoilers when your plot enevitably gets revealed before mine. Good luck on the story!
Plus, consider this: One or two more chapters and this story will be longer than the combined length of the first two Harry Potter books.
3499699 Whoa, really? Suck it, Rowling!
3498790 I dunno, we'll see!
The magical part about writing is when you don't have a grand plan but instead have just a vague idea. A single 15 or less words question makes one heck of a much better idea for a story than a long sprawling rant of things.
I am pretty sure I heard somewhere that J.K.R's idea for Harry Potter started as "What if there really is wizards?" As you all know, wether you like it or hate it, Harry Potter is one of the most popular book & movie series ever.
hmm reading how it is based off yourself I can grudgingly accept parts that seem stereotypical, such as him being bi when there are other valid reasons for why he could just not want to fuck a pony