Initial Title Cringe - Post-production · 6:45pm May 12th, 2016
A long while back, I did a review of shortskirtsandexplosion's out.of.character, a very dark M-rated fic that it still worth the read, squick tolerance notwithstanding. Recently, he's done a reflection on how it came to be, so if you're interested in seeing some backstory, check it out in the link.
Also, if you're interested in seeing some more backstory, specifically about my newest fic, Just The Usual, it's all after the break.
Oh, and to the followers: I have a new slice-of-life post-Newbie Dash fic called Just The Usual. Go give it an eyeball if you haven't, and if you have, head down below the break for some additional thoughts on soapboxing and - surprise - me talking about how I write.
The Editors' Bit
Once again, a special thank you to Ferret, Corejo and Red, who provided useful tweaks and edits that I honestly hadn't thought of, though I've definitely called them out in other peoples' works before. I am ridiculously privileged as far as Fimfic goes to have access to some of the top commentators, who'd read it just because, and I am grateful for it.
The 12 Hours Later Bit
13/5: We hit Featured Box boize.
Definitely not the worst fic to do a first-time featured with.
The 24+ Hours Later Bit
14/5: Just As Usual has climbed up to the top three, after sliding down a notch from top two thanks to Estee's new work (which, knowing Estee, is likely to be a great read). What a surprise - show-like fics do well!
Also, the ratings went up to about 90+ thumbs before the first FB downvote. Well, at least, I assume that's why the downvote's there, 'cos it's in the FB and it's got a hint of being provocatively shallow and there's no angry comments (seriously, free your annoyance, teach me werds).
Tangentially, Fork Everything has a 100% thumbs up rating at 132 likes, 989 views. Wew.
The Context Bit
Aaaand we're doing subtitles now. It's like flavour labels at a froyo place. Don't like caramel, feel free to move on to strawberry or - and we don't judge here - chai.
I really didn't expect to be doing another episode-response type of fic so quickly. Like, as you may have seen from my episode review, I liked it but not enough to be particularly inspired. I could've sworn that if a fic was going to happen, it was going to be about this scene:
because I didn't know how much I wanted TwiShy until I saw this.
You may also be aware that this was a divisive episode. Put simply, we got a real disperse splitting of the like-dislike spectrum this time round. And one of the main criticisms levelled against Newbie Dash was that the cringe humour was too much. Too much, I say! Had to look away!
...except I really liked it. I didn't think it was cringe at all. I put my silly bold proclamation that I thought it was 10/10 as the hook of my review when you're supposed to leave the controversial stuff for later.
There's been a fixfic out there where Rainbow tells Spitfire off. I haven't read it. I don't believe in fixfics unless they're balls to the walls reimagination origins stories (I've linked to my own work enough, I feel, you know what they are), and want to stress that this isn't a fixfic. It's just... post-episode. Just the usual.
The hope was that by recontextualizing it, without the crutches of it being the Wonderbolts episode, it having Wonderbolts at all, and Rainbow Dash feeling bashed like trash with mash for a stashe cos she made a splash and a crash with garbage for her new fash...
...by putting it into a plain ol' slice of life shell, where the M6 we know and love are happy and themselves, I could show that the imitation sequence was truly a great 10/10 moment and you should all love it as much as I do.
Um.
The Meta Bit
I feel that I must mention that I took a lot of inspiration for this from the fallout of PresentPerfect's recent blogs. I mean, PP is a cool guy and all, like really cool was-my-first-EqD-prereader-big-name-fan levels of cool. But some of the arguments happening (that were not really under his control) were just wow. You know how I argued that Rainbow Dash resonates off hype? Yeah, I resonate off third-party hate. Like hate drives me to write, and I'm not even joking. Caughlin was "Screw you Derpy's fine, and you know what let's make her an alicorn because screw you, Pipsqueak was for a write-off but also was "Screw you immigrant children deserve better than being put in a filthy jail, and also Pipsqueak is cool beans". Trust Me was, well... it's not even subtle. And so on. Scald is still my special snowflake though.
Are we really going to write a post-production blog longer than the actual fic? Never stopped me before!
Followers will know that I blog a metric ton. Blogging comes easily to me, way too easily - it's like monologue - and it's sort of an inside joke between me and myself that I write stories just so that I have an excuse to talk about writing on a soapbox and post Patchy.
The fics I've enjoyed doing the most have always had that "screw you" mentality. Not "screw you reader" because I love my readers to bits, but "screw you... something". Would it catch you off-guard now if I said I was an Eminem fan? Or if Kendrick Lamar was my boy?
In an interview with some author in a book called Writing For Profit, she said something about how:
the greatest work is made from the most painfully honest moments
[heavy paraphrasing] and all. That stuck with me. It helped to explain a lot of bestsellers, why novels about WWII did so well, why journeys of cross-cultural self-discovery were the face of lit in 2012-present.
Writing has an art side and a craft side. The craft side can be exercised to produce equally fine things; again, Scald was my attempt at proof of concept, and because it exists, completed, it is. But the art side is expressive and is what we dream about when we dream of writing, and it just so happens that I don't often have dreams of my own. No, I only have tossing fits from radioactive zones, and that makes me write happy classic episode-like SoL fics.
I didn't even realize it: this is the first M6 fic I've done. This is the first episode-like fic I've done. I praise successes of both these accounts as a Seattle's Angel because they're hard to pull off from a critic's standpoint, and here it is, I made a thing. It's like... it's like making a croquembouche because you were hungry for pastry cream.
I mean, yeah, it's tons of fun for me, but someone has to point out how silly it is.
Point being, seeing all those people get unreasonably (emphasis) mad made me want to get them even madder (except you, Red, we cool) by doing the most innocuous replay of their most hated moment.
As Ferret pointed out when I told her this [paraphrase]: "This isn't the fic to start fires with". And she's right. It's the fic to override opinions with.
Except... no, not really, innit? What is it is an episodic SoL, easily digestible and difficult to dislike (huehue), without any of that psycho intention behind it. Sometimes, you have to kill the author for his own good.
The References Bit
The original title for this was Cringe, because y'know, that whole feeding-off-hate thing. Changing it was Ferret's suggestion, which goes to show that editors are very important in the publishing process. Because it really is a much better title. You shouldn't have to face an aggressive tone unless you walked into it willingly, and hey, you're here...
Why, yes, dear reader, that is a Masterchef Australia 2016 reference. Pinkie's honey caramel is an actual part of an actual recipe, and Miles is a contestant who won an apron (thus qualifying him into the top 24) by recreating this dish.
"Boom-boom" is a silly term for doing a poo, if that wasn't obvious from Rainbow's protest a few lines after. Adventure Time had an episode about it, and the setup just landed in my lap.
Rarity's distraction acts to show that it's really not a big deal. One possible ending I had thought of was Twilight saying, "Cool", and then Rarity bringing up that little thing where she and Fluttershy held hooves for a while. Just to show that cute shipping > cringe
Rainbow's AJ accent is written heavier than AJ's own (I - Ah, more contractions) to show exaggeration, leading into Twilight's scene. And why would Rainbow go so readily into it, after being so reluctant? Because (to me) she resonates off that. She sees ponies laughing, she like, she do more. Rainbow gives ponies what they want.
"Raygill" and "Beerboom" are butchered-up names: James Gillray was a famous caricaturist, and Max Beerbohm is one of the first names to show up in the WIkipedia article on caricatures. *shrug* The "series of articles" refers to Beerbohm's actual articles - he never published a full paper, per se, but a set of columns in a magazine.
Yeah, double entendre, Flutters is the only one who picks up on it and reacts, I want my blushing Fluttershy dammit so sue me.
Yeah, Moral Time is a bit ham-handed.
Of course there's the Would It Matter? reference which I kept in because it was too good to throw away. Sorry Ferret.
Conclusion
This is a thing.
Also, because I've been doing a series of things, why not group them together? I'm still thinking about what to call it. Episodeverse? Epiverse? Periodicals? If this season continues to be filled with potential for B-side stories, might as well embrace the running theme. There's already four of them including this one. That's enough to fill a collection.
Let me know what you think in the comments, I read 'em all.
Thank you for reading, fav'ing, liking, commenting, the whole shebang. Much appreciated. Stay tuned, stay awesome.
I absolutely get that "screw you via story" mentality. A lot of my writings (pony and non-pony) are born out of some strong emotional reaction (positive or negative) to something. Case and point. That's doubly true for romance; nothing inspires me to write one of my favorite ships like seeing someone rag on it, or seeing too much of an alternative ship that I find unsavory.
I forgive you.