SoaP Update and general writing observations

Hey everyone!

First of all, the amount of attention that Soul of a Pony has received completely floored me. It's been liked and favorited several times, which I never expected to happen (hoped for, certainly, but never expected). It's even earned me a few followers! To repay you all for the kindness, I thought I'd give you all a sort of what-to-expect as far as SoaP updates go. This story will be at least seven chapters long once it's finished, including the two you've already seen. The third chapter is in the works, and I expect to have it done in about the same amount of time as this chapter took. It may take more or less time, depending on my workload and other obligations.

That brings up another point: I had no idea just how much work is involved in writing. As I mentioned in the author's notes in the first chapter, this is my first serious attempt at writing fiction. There's so much to keep track of, just from a story perspective. Where all the characters are, what they're doing, how they're likely to react to a given situation, how they get along with other characters, what time it is, and so many more details have to always be in my mind, even when they're not directly relevant to the plot. Then I have to convey what is happening, which means finding a balance between drowning the reader in exposition and leaving him/her with no clue as to what's happening. How you other authors can write world-shaping conflicts and generation-spanning epics is a complete mystery to me. I have newfound respect for you all.

In some ways, however, I was surprised by how readily the story developed. In this chapter (The Hostess), for example, I started with a relatively simple idea: Twilight soulgazes Pinkie. I then thought about how such a thing would happen, based on what I know of the characters and the setting. I already had the dinner from the previous chapter to work with, and the fact that Twilight was distracted and probably not enjoying herself gave me (and by extension, Pinkie) the perfect justification. The "cyanide cupcake" developed pretty much spontaneously from the scene, as it seemed to me like exactly the sort of thing an incurable prankster like Pinkie would pull. I didn't feel like I had to "force" any of the interactions or events, because I could see how the characters would behave that way.

So, in short, writing is nowhere near as bad as I had previously thought it to be. Without your support, though, I don't know if I would have come to that conclusion. It would have been pretty disheartening to see my first story fail, but the fact that it didn't is extremely encouraging. I can't thank you enough.

~Gizogin