"What the fuck is Day Court?" or "Stop subscribing to the Business Factory School of Writing." · 8:46am Jun 29th, 2016
So for a while now something's been bugging me about how you fuckers write, and I've been guilty of it, too. I call it the "Business Factory School of Writing" after Vincent Adultman from Bojack Horseman. Don't know what I'm talking about? Then shame on you, and take a gander:
The problem is when you write about complex things in naive and vague terms. When it's obvious that you haven't put any thought into how something works and it's just interstitial glue to make your story go, you've failed to world build, and you've broken immersion for your audience. Sometimes it's not so bad if it's a tiny, one-off thing, but it's unbearable when you fuckers write a character with complex responsibilities.
So here's my question:
What the fuck is Day Court?
I ask because so often I see it used as shorthand for "I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT CELESTIA DOES, SO I'LL JUST ASSUME MY AUDIENCE DOES". No, fucker, that's not how this works. If you don't know what she does and she's an important character in your story, then fucking figure it out. This is an important part of Celestia's character, so even if you don't heavily explore it you should have more of an idea of what she does than simply "HURDUR DAY COURT". The difference of planning will shine through your writing and your portrayal of Celestia will be so much more interesting. Celestia will have real ethos and she won't just be riding on the coattails of the fandom.
Do this for anything that's the slightest bit complex in your story, and you'll have an easier time writing about it when it comes up.
What's that? Writing's hard? YA DON'T FUGGIN' SAY.
I assume that day court is used for a myriad of things. If we look at around the 12th and 14th century kings and queens in Britain and other European countries we could get an idea for what Celestia would do. This can be anything from solving problems between nobles, getting updates from "peasants" on the situation with food and other necessities. If we assume that their is a tax on food it would be in Celestia's interest to make sure that the farm lands are well protected.
I assume she will have meetings with ponies that are in charge of budgeting, building and plans for what money will be spent monthly and yearly. She will have meetings with Generals to report on any information about potential hostile forces or if troops are required to push back a rouge dragon and the such. Then she will most likely have public appearances stunts that are required weekly if not daily.
I am just speculating here but I also assume she will have to make time for royal dignitaries, deal with trading, land rights, potential problems politically and also visit other countries for good will gestures/ arrange treaties.
I believe Luna would pick these up at night in case of emergencies but would definitely be quieter. I also speculate that part of her job is safe guarding the Equestria's night from monsters, dream based demons and so on.
4055776 See, that kind of thought is what makes Day Court more interesting. My problem is when Day Court is used to get the audience to think of those things for the author. Instead of using Day Court as a shorthand for all of that, a good author can instead talk about that. Detail is never inappropriate in a rough draft.
My point is authors shouldn't write like they're Vincent Adultman, not that these generalized terms shouldn't be used.