Princess Trixie and My Thoughts on a Sequel · 3:52am Apr 1st, 2016
So, Monday night, I came up with an idea for a new quick fic. Tuesday morning, I hashed together 3,000 words, coming up with a few humourous extra lines, including the ending, and submit it after the very briefest of editing. It gets a good number of Likes, like 60 or 70, and I figure that'll be the end of it by the time I go to bed. I wake up to find the thing's made the Featured Box with 10 new comments or so. At time of writing of this blog, Princess Trixie has 58 comments besides my own, and 398 Likes vs 12 Likes, 2,566 views and was on 683 Bookshelves.
Great whickering stallions you guys!
I'm honestly happy for the surprise success of the story, and glad to see lots of people got a kick out of it, both for the main plot point and the last two lines. Saying that, I'm mildly surprised, since when it comes to the stories I've written that I would have thought had a chance of getting in the Featured Box, Princess Trixie would not have been my first choice. It would've been fourth or fifth on that list. Heck, it's not even my first 'Trixie has a surprising origin' story. I guess I got lucky with the zeitgeist of the day for FiMFiction readers and just the right plot twist and lead-in to tickle all you guys' fancy.
Still, it's very nice to see something of mine on the Featured Box, and I've had a great number of new Followers. There's also been a noticable bleedover effect to my other stories resulting in extra views over the last few days. So, hello to all of you who have Followed me in the last few days!
Now, I've been asked about the potential for a sequel.
The short answer is: Maybe.
The long answer is this: any time I write something, it might be from the genesis of a single idea, but I've come up with a lot of crap that will ferment in my head over time as minor supporting ideas. Sometimes they'll pop up as a single line, other times these minor ideas completely change the direction of the story such as Prince Blueblood's presence. Sometimes they don't work in one story, but I'll hang onto them for future use for another fic. This is actually what occurred with the non-confrontation between Rarity and Blueblood - in 'Sweet and Elite' they christen a new airship together, as in they're the only ones standing on the raised podium and all the other ponies are down on the ground. I had originally thought about using it elsewhere and tossed it, but I made good use of it here to keep the word length down since I didn't have to write Rarity and Blueblood getting in a snit at one another for several hundred words. Sometimes I get an idea and can write it out fairly quick, as happened with Princess Trixie. Sometimes it can take weeks or even months for all the ideas and plot points to connect in my head, and even still in the course of writing elements unexpectedly pop up that I hadn't predicted, even with extensive planning.
The other issue comes down to the precise genre of any potential sequel. I could feasibly go either way with Slice of Life or Adventure. With Slice of Life, I could show Trixie's time growing up in Canterlot after being dragged back home, probably with diabetes-inducing fluff with Marble Pie coming and doting on Trixie as a big sister figure, and showing the insane-but-plausible relationship between Blueblood and A.K. Yearling. On an Adventure story, the (possibly extended) Royal Family could go on archaeological expeditions, since finding magical artifacts is clearly in the blood.
Lastly, I adore Trixie as a character. 6 of my stories involve her as the main character, with one more featuring her as the secondary antagonist and one is a clopfic which I won't count. However, right now I'm writing a full-sized adventure fic involving her, and I wouldn't really care to be writing two separate large-ish Trixie fics at a time. Short fics are good, potentially novel-sized entities not so much.
Now, saying that, I have been asked privately by one person, and have given my blessing to do so as well. If anybody else wishes to, you may write your own sequel. I don't have a problem with that. Just the sheer novelty of DaringBlue or whatever you'd call that ship could probably carry a fic on its own.
But yeah, I'm still stoked at the success of Princess Trixie, so I hope y'all seeing this blog post continue to read more of my work in the future. I have many, many one-shot ideas in additions to the ones I've already written (and some are detailed in past blog posts, a few of which have already even been written). I won't actually know which idea of mine I'll do next, but the main one I'm contemplating is a ponified version of Isaac Asimov's The Last Question with a pony-specific twist. I adore TLQ, as I read it with an optimistic existentialist perspective.
EDIT: Or I may end up writing some clop since I've only written one so far. RariMac or DiamondGlimmer both sound good
Anyways, that's it for this blog post, though you're free to ask any questions you might have re: this blog post or the Princess Trixie story.
Please, link to those inspired stories as soon as you hear of them!
Also, I vote RariMac, for clopshot.
I'll take on the challenge to do a sequel fic, with your consent of course
3840278 yes, go ahead
3840223 I'm thinking a take-off from Filli Vanilli is best, because day-amn, Big Mac is boss in that episode.
3840223 well, you got your wish at least with the RariMac clop