Writer's Workshop: Two Types of Ponies · 3:21am Nov 5th, 2015
Hey, everyone! Let's talk a little bit today about problem-solving. Conflict is the main part of stories, so solving them is naturally very important. But does everyone come at problems the same way? You may surprised to learn that there are basically two main ways people can take on problems. Here to help me are two young ladies, Lily and Holly. Let's do this a la the Dating Game! *Spanish Flea starts playing*
Question 1! Imagine that you were at your job, and there was one person who totally had in for you. Every day, they badger you, insult you, and otherwise make working there the pits. What do you do?
Lily: That's easy. I'd go to HR and get them slammed with a harassment case so quick it'd make their head spin! I imagine they won't be bothering me anymore after that, not with the threat of that happening again hanging over them.
Holly: Don't you know anything about psychology? Here's what I'd do: I'd throw them a big birthday party, do them favors, show them kindness any chance I can get. Warm them up to me, and they won't want to be mean to me anymore!
Lily: Someone's being mean to you, and you want to be nice to them? Are you insane? Won't that just encourage them?
Holly: No, you're the one who's insane. They won't back off; they'll just find more devious ways to get back at you! They still dislike you, after all.
Girls, girls! Neither of you is insane! I'm trying to prove a point. Anyway, question 2. You're going to an interview on the fifth floor, but unfortunately, you're almost late, and the interviewer said he hates it when potential hires show up late. You can rush up the stairs, or you can take the slow elevator. What would you do?
Holly: I'd take the elevator and use the extra riding time to fix my hair, take some deep breaths, and go over potential questions in my head.
Lily: How can you waste time like that? You've got to take the stairs. He said he hated people being late, and I'm not gonna find out what happens if I am!
Holly: But if you rush, you'll mess up your hair, get all exhausted and angry, and forget your answers. What good is being on time if you do a bad job with the interview?
Lily: And what good is all that prep if you get booted out the door because you were late? A bad interview is better than no interview!
All right, settle down. One more question. You're about to start working on a really big paper. What's the best way to get prepared for it?
Lily: I'd create an outline, plan a few drafts, sit down, and get writing.
Holly: No, that won't work. Believe me, I've tried. First thing I have to do is clean my workroom. Make sure the air is circulating right, turn on some mood music, and sort my--
Lily: Are you kidding me? If you want to write a paper, you have to actually work on the paper. You're just yanking my chain at this point, aren't you?
Holly: No, I have to! If I don't, I get distracted. I bet you do, too, and you'll never get the paper done, then.
Lilly: No, I don't! I'm not a moron like you.
Holly: Well, at least I'm not clueless like you!
Calm down, you two. Neither of you is "right."
Lily: I'm pretty sure I'm right and Holly's wrong.
Holly: No, I'm right and you're wrong!
Ugh, they're not listening to me. What do you think? Who's right, and who's wrong? Which one would you do? Your answer could be... very illuminating. I'll explain it all in the next post!
Bonus question: I was a bit sneaky with my character choices. The truth is, one of them was originally going to be male. Which one do you think it was: Lily or Holly?
Lily was the guy.
But yeah, both approaches had their merits, but all-in-all the solution seems to be based on personality and preference.
3521475
All right, but which one would you do?
3521476
Easy - Be nice, Stairs, Clean my room.
Easy. At one time, our company made us sit through a "Differences between male and female employees/bosses" video. This was back in the 90s, so it probably would be burnt at the stake now, but here's the gist of it.
Men kill things. Women dialogue.
Men prefer the direct approach, going right after the problem with both barrels, while women will examine the problem from all angles, come up with a number of approaches, talk about it endlessly, and decide on one after a lot of thought.
Both approaches have merits. The 'male' approach deals with problems quickly, before they can grow into bigger problems. The 'female' approach allows a deep analysis of the issue in search for the perfect solution.
Both approaches have flaws. The 'male' approach can screw up bigtime as the solution may actually make the problem worse, while the 'female' approach may take so long to solve the problem that it mutates into a bigger and possibly unsolvable problem. (Sorry, Madam Captain, but we hit the iceberg five minutes ago.)
Lily is taking the direct approach, therefore is being written as the male character.
3521510
Ah, there you go. I had a feeling this was a pretty well-known stereotype. 3521475 got it right, too. In any case, I'll go more in-depth about this in the next post, but yep, there's a male-coded and a female-coded problem-solving process. To dodge the gender issue, I'll be calling them "Linear" and "Holistic," respectively. (Hence the characters' names.) You can certainly write male characters as female-coded, and vice-versa. Twilight's usually pretty linear, for example. A male character in the show with a holistic thought process... Fancy Pants in "Sweet and Elite," maybe? Wind Ryder?
3521505
Two Holistic and a Linear... interesting. People are certainly different from one problem to another, but if you were a story character, I'd call you inconsistent.
3521527 It's hard enough to *find* male characters in the show, let alone male characters who are faced with problems. I would place most of the pegasi in the 'linear' category, with Celestia being more holistic, and Luna having so little real screen time to make it difficult to tell, but I'm leaning towards linear due to her head-on clash with the Tantabus and Nightmare Night.
Twilight is *both* linear and holistic. She will over-think a problem to death rather than go at it head-on, but when she does, she leaves craters.
Ponyville Tour Guide: And this is Crater Don't Mess With Twilight Sparkle, next to Really Don't Piss Off The Princess gully, and if you look up there on the mountain, you can see the Bad Things Happen When You Aggravate Princess Purplesmart impact crater. Moving right along, we will have the Changeling Impact Splatters photo opportunity, so if you'll get your cameras out and try not to disturb any of the fractured chitin...
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Fair enough. :P Celestia's definitely holistic; only a holistic thinker would convince a shut-in to make friends by pushing her in their general direction and waiting for the fireworks. Luna... yeah, I could see her being linear. In "Luna Eclipsed," she can't figure out how to interact with the ponies because all she can see is the cause-effect of Night Mare Night on her reputation. In "Sleepless in Ponyville," she urges Scootaloo to stop worrying about the balance of forces and directly confront her fear of Rainbow Dash's disapproval. Same, basically, for "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils."
Twilight does do both, yes (probably. I'll have to think about it), but I still think she's more linear-oriented most of the time. She refuses to think outside of her scientific thought process in "Feeling Pinkie Keen," she doesn't really understand the Cutie Mark Crusaders' problem with balancing relationships in "Twilight Time," and realizing the balance of relationships in "Magical Mystery Cure" is a major, difficult revelation for her. She does like to think, sure, but she does so to solve problems via cause and effect, unlike, say, Rarity, who's much more female-coded. Rarity sees details and connects them in ways most wouldn't consider, but that also means she gets caught up in details when she should be focusing on the problem at hand.
But dangit, I'm gonna talk about all of this next time!