New Comedy! · 2:09am Nov 24th, 2015
Hey folks,
I did something different for the most recent Writeoff: I wrote a comedy. It did not win. But that's okay! Because I think it's still a pretty awesome story.
A funny thing happens when I'm writing for a competition – rather than writing the comedies that made me horse-famous in the first place (exhibit A and exhibit B), I write moody, dark and introspective character pieces designed to critically examine some aspect of our humanity. These stories tend to do very well in the competition, but are rarely among my most popular stories afterward (with one major exception).
But, dammit, sometimes I just want to write a funny story. So here goes.
It's a week after Nightmare Night, and the dead have risen. Zombies, ghosts and skeletons walk Ponyville's streets. It would be pretty terrifying, except for the fact that they're so nice. Also, they don't seem to realize they're dead.
But not everypony is happy with their new undead neighbors. Rainbow Dash is freaking out, Twilight Sparkle is on trial for murdering a skeleton, and Rarity conspires against her ghostly business partner. Will our heroes be able to keep up in a world where busy ponies don't have time to let death slow them down?
And, oh my god, is that not the cutest image?
Finally, if you’ve got some time, one of the fandom’s wonderful voice’s has been doing a few readings of my work. Check out KwirkyJ’s readings of two of my stories: Babel and The Lotus Eaters, from my collection of short stories. Kwirky's an awesome dude, and I want to thank him again for making these possible!
Ok, I'm cleared out of the feature box. It's all yours.
Edit: Told 'ya.
Nuuuu! I just got to the feature box for the first time! GTFO!!!
No, seriously, this was a great piece in the Writeoff, and I congratulate you on getting it featured!
I'm just a peasant and what is this?
Oh, hey! I reckon (at least) one of those readings was the Dream A Little Dream Of Me contest prize, right? If so, I'm particularly chuffed I could help make that happen, because those are both some excellent stories for readings.
All actual credit to KwirkyJ, of course, it's just cool to see.
I always think of you as 'that guy who wrote the Wind Thief' and, as you say, your contest entries have been rather serious, so it's odd to think of you originally becoming famous for comedies. But now that you mention it, I'd almost forgotten you wrote some great humorous pieces like "The Cutie Mark Conspiracy" and "What We Wanted to Do". You're a versatile author and I look forward to reading your latest.
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It was The Lotus Eaters! Babel was just a bonus I scored from him.
Source, please.Nevermind, I found it.
This raises an interesting question about "popular for the masses" vs. "popular for the critics". Writing has to be about more than just hitting the feature box, especially given some of the bizarre shit that hits the feature box.
Nips/McSweezy's (sfw) ponies are the cutest.
3565602 Ah, but if you find the intersection of those two sets, you can write *wonderfull* things.
(I'm still looking)