The Writing on the Wall: Postmortem · 7:15pm Aug 20th, 2012
Would you believe "The Writing on the Wall" was inspired by porn?
I refer to John Joseco's "Adventures of Human Daring Do." It was a sort of deliberately silly, modern-day version of a Tijuana bible, ending with the heroine beneath a pile of naked bodies. And as I considered that mass of nubile black-and-white flesh, I thought, "I should write the thematic opposite of this."
Let me be clear: I have nothing against Joseco or his work. This is how Horse Voice pays tribute. It occurred to me, in the interest of cosmic balance, that if the character gets a happy ending (literally, ha ha) in one story, then in another, she should be completely undone, for reasons she never fully understands. In life, sometimes you win it all, and sometimes you die horribly for no good reason.
Of course, I'm sure my listening to this song over and over around that time also had something to do with it.
So, I suppose you're wondering about that reveal.
Early science fiction writers like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells had a simple formula: take the real world, put something weird into it, and see what happens. Here, I've done the opposite, taking a fantastic world and injecting something realistic. Others in the pony fiction scene have done this, though the foreign element is almost always one or more humans (or, in the case of "The Savage Way", a human's digestive system). But I think this formula could be used in other ways. The realistic element doesn't necessarily have to be from outside Equestria.
I say this because I've observed a lack of decent horror stories in this fandom. Take away mashups with existing horror works, "Cupcakes"-style schlock, and Dark stories that aren't scary, and we aren't left with a lot. Bringing in an alien element is a quick and dirty way to excite the innate fear of the unknowable. If you think you can scare people, I say go wild.
One of my objectives with this story was to generate discussion about long-term nuclear waste storage, which I don't think enough people are aware of. Most of my information came from this article, this guide, and this documentary. Some of the sources contradicted each other, and as one of my readers pointed out, may have been wrong. But it did get people talking, and that's what counts.
One more thing. A comment on "The Writing"'s Equestria Daily post suggested Pink Floyd as the inspiration for the title. Actually, it comes from the book of Daniel, chapter 5.
Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall,
near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His
face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees
were knocking.
How fitting—King Belshazzar had about the same reaction as my readers, once the titular Writing was revealed.
So, what's next for Horse Voice? Well, I have something special planned for Nightmare Night. Between research, procrastination, and unexpected interruptions, I hope the next two-odd months will be sufficient. But this space won't be dead in the meantime, as I plan to turn it into a semi-regular column, with non-fictitious, hopefully amusing anecdotes, and perhaps more. Stay tuned.
Until next time, be excellent to each other, and pony on.
With love and sledgehammers,
Horse Voice
Glad I'm following you! You got some great stories and blog posts.