The Castle Canterlot's Future, or... · 1:17pm Nov 3rd, 2015
... How Stories Change.
Good morning my fellow apiarius.
T.C.C. is a story that I really enjoy writing. I feel like I have more freedom with it than normal. Those first five chapters or so were a real blast for me. Then I got distracted...
You see, when I first started, T.C.C. was never supposed to get... deep, I guess is the best word. It was supposed to focus entirely on the palace staff and how they dealt with being the small ponies surrounded by literal goddesses and evils far beyond anything they could hope to stand against. Somewhere around chapter 6 or 7, I forgot this. I let myself get caught up in the larger events and the more 'important' characters. It's gone from a 'Slice of Life' to a political drama, and that's... not terrible.
Here's the issue. I don't necessarily have a great deal of confidence in my ability to weave a good political drama. Maybe I'm just selling myself short (wouldn't be the first time), but maybe I'm not. But to do it right, I will have to spend a lot of time planning out how things happen and figuring out how to properly portray things that I don't honestly know that much about.
On the other hand, I could throw the political stuff to the background and go back to focusing on the small ponies. Unfortunately, I can't guarantee that this will go any better, as I will have to come up with a larger pool of stories that don't necessarily connect to each other or even go anywhere. The characters who would be featured here would be the likes of Festive Dust, May Breeze and Juniper, Quick Quill, the kitchen staff... Cadence, Scribble, and Chronicle would only appear as necessary for these other characters.
Alternatively, I could do both. This would, however, would break the rule of having entirely erroneous bits of story that are just kinda there.
The reason I'm throwing all of this out there is because I can't decide how to proceed. So I'm asking for input from you wonderful folks. Do any of these strike your fancy? Do any of them make you cringe? Do you see some possibility that I've missed?
I look forward to hearing what you think.
Honey Mead
I'd do both. Write one shot SoLs for all your wonderful characters, and write an epic multi-chapter story for the grand political drama. Do both, because both have merit and story value. The big picture might seem epic, and that's compelling and attractive and you're drawn to the obvious excitement. But seemingly little ponies with seemingly little contributions have stories too, and if you want to write their stories I can see the attraction. There are no little stories. There are just stories. Saving the world is a compelling story, of course. But seeing that breakfast is served on time, or that the proper ice sculpture for the banquet is in place before the banquet begins can also be compelling stories. These are important to the characters; if they are important to the author they will be important to the reader as well.
Ultimately, write what you want to write. Listen to the stories, they will tell you what to write.
3517948
I like this guy! You should heed his advice.
And not just because it's what I tried to convey last night, just better said. 
While I do love stories that treat pony politics with some seriousness, I do see how this wasn't originally ment to be a fic about that. I do think the parts that dealt with the the staff handling whatever fallout was caused by the princesses actions were much stronger than anything the princesses themselves did, as we did already know what was going to happen.
In the end, we already know exactly how the story ends from the political POV, so whatever drama gets generated by the temporary government is ultimately going to be resolved as Celestia sees fit, given that the alicorns are absolute rulers of the country and the others defer to her, making the personal lives of those involved in all levels of the crisis more interesting than the crisis itself.
So, I would like you to keep the focus on the more SoL aspects of the story, and use the politics just as a background for the stories of the small ponies.
I'm with Jmac honestly. I love the little insights into the daily pony life, but I also like big political drama stuff. Maybe split the story in half? One as a drabble collection and one as a political piece?
As for underestimating yourself, I'd say you are. I've been really enjoying your stuff thus far and you've plenty of folks around for feedback and advice should you desire it.
Where's the interesting story? Is it in the castle staff's response to all this, or is it in the politics and larger figures' actions resulting from it?
Honestly, as long as you follow some coherent narrative of the fallout it doesn't matter even if you jump between both groups.
It certainly is possible to write entertaining slice of life with politics woven into it. GhostofHeraclitus is a great example, and Georg isn't far behind. If you want to try your hand at doing so in your story, then more power to you.
As to your confidence in your ability to get it right, the only way to learn is by actually trying.
I think JMac said it best.