New Group: Hopeful · 8:27pm May 24th, 2016
I just posted "The Gathering", another one of those stories (like "Elpis", "Big Mac Reads Something Purple", "The Mailmare", "Moments", "Friends, With Occasional Magic", and the forthcoming "Anonymous Dreams") that go to a sad place but end on a hopeful or happy note. There's no way to tag that on fimfiction, because we don't have a "Hopeful" tag.
But now we have a Hopeful group. It is for stories that should have the "Hopeful" tag.
I think a story is hopeful if it:
- is about a pony with a problem who doesn't completely solve that problem, but finds a way to deal with not solving the problem, or
- is about a pony with a problem who doesn't completely solve that problem, but finds a reason to keeps trying, or
- is about a pony who solves a problem, and looks ahead to a future where even better things happen as a result
I think this means that the story has given hope or comfort to someone who was in a dark place, or that it ends looking forward to better things happening.
(I don't know why the banner tiles. It's not a very good banner anyway. I don't know why I thought a picture of a person about to get run over by a train was hopeful.)
In unrelated news, thumbs up and down disappeared from all the stories on the "New Stories" page this very minute.
Hope you didn't mind me plopping in afew of mine. I like the group concept.
Hmm. That sounds like a broad tag but it's kinda narrow if it means "it doesn't end on an upbeat note but just a hint of possible upbeatness".
Like, I can't tell which of my stories would qualify. Would Price of a Smile? Would The Element of Surprise? Would Back to Normal? Or maybe none of those fit...? They're all distinct kinds of upbeat-twist-maybe endings.
Also I don't think that's new. They stopped showing thumbs until you get 10 votes sometime last year.
Neato. I have a fic that I'll toss in there. I definitely felt something similar when I wrote it since it wasn't exactly bittersweet or sad. The rough premise was that Twilight was down in the dumps and feeling lonely. In the end she gets cheered up, but her situation doesn't exactly improve or fix itself.
I guess maybe it's technically a bit bittersweet. But it's more like as the story progresses it goes:
SoL -> sad -> bittersweet
Also, what 3969194 said.
3969184 I think ending on an upbeat note is okay. Compare to "The Mailmare". But I see there is a question as to whether "Hopeful" should be the mirror-image of "Tragedy", or restricted to stories that are less than triumphant.
If the story's final note is one of looking forward to greater things happening after the end of the story, I think that's hopeful.
3969231
*headscratch* I wonder if my Schizotech stories qualify...
But I generally struggle with tagging around here even for tags that do exist.
Unless I'm missing a nuance, you could also add many of CiG's fics to it. He tends to put his characters through the ringer in dramatic fics, and typically ends them in a hopeful way.
With my stories you're always hopeful I won't write anymore.
I'm just amused by the present "similar groups" list including the Evil League of Evil.
But joined because it is definitely a thing which should be.
3969382
Villains have always been more visionary than heroes.
"Hopeful"
In a mixing glass with cracked ice:
2 oz pot-still Cognac
1 oz vermouth bianco (a sweet white vermouth, not commonly found)
1 dash orange bitters
1 dash Peychaud's bitters
1/2 tsp gum syrup (a sugar syrup thickened with food-grade gum arabic--optional, but really makes a difference in mouth-feel)
Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail or coupe glass (but all you'll get nowadays is a martini glass, so use that). Garnish with a maraschino cherry.
"Is that your last drink?" "It's Hopeful."
3969231
You might want to make folders for "types" of Hopeful and use the folder descriptions to define them.
I'm still not sure if any of my stories meet the theme, though. Back to Normal's probably the closest. I tend to do downturn-at-the-end stories where there's certainly hope remaining, but things got darker at the end rather than the other way around; or else it's too upbeat to be against-odds-hopeish (like, everything presumably turns out fine). But now thinking about it, there's a slew of different kinds of endings in my writing that are tricky to define. Maybe I'll post about it later on the group.
It's an interesting idea. I'll have to give it more thought.
3969519 Or I might sweet-talk you into being the admin and doing it instead of me?
3969526
I would most certainly not abuse that power to micromanage the categorization of somepony else's conceptual brainchild.
Er, I mean, "I guess if nopony else wants to."
I wonder if Monster/Letters would be 'Hopeful'?
3969585 Depends how it ends. Probably Monsters should be tagged according to how it ends, not how the whole thing ends. I won't object if you think it belongs.
3969538 I made you an admin, but forgot to tell you.
3972275
It's fine! I forgot too.
I might do something productive there eventually, but I just finished my novella and am in a weird "now what do I do" place.