Story ideas I'm not writing (yet...) · 12:30pm Oct 7th, 2016
Part of my weakness as a writer is I love coming up with ideas for stories, then have a hard time actually writing them when I get the chance to.
Admittedly, this is usually because I'm kind of a slacker that prefers to try working on his Steam game backlog, heh. But if I'm already working on another project then I find it easiest to focus on that and just jot down my ideas for other stories on whatever happens to be handy. Blank Word documents, note paper, my tablet's word processor, etc. Most of the time that gets them out of my system and lets me save the ideas to use elsewhere (even if I just wind up stealing a joke or concept from them to use for my current project). Others just kinda fade into my hard drive and I forget about them till I accidentally open the old document ages later. Still others survive the test of time and become stories I'd really like to write someday. A few of those do that even though it's far too late and the canon has long since moved on from when said idea was feasible.
So, just for a weeeeee bit of venting but mostly as a sounding board, here's a few of those ideas (none of which, by the way, are intended for Flipverse):
Discord Displaced: Everybody is familiar with how confident Discord is. Even after his reformation he still loves playing pranks and pretty much reveling in being the Spirit of Chaos. But what if something turned the tables? What if one morning Discord woke up without any of his powers, as an entirely different species, in a world where apparently he and several of the show's other major villains are the Elements of Harmony and Twilight Sparkle and her friends were the huge world-ending threats?
Spike and the circus: Not the intended title for the story, promise. A circus has come to Ponyville offering fun and delights for all ages, and Spike of course goes to attend with his friends. While exploring the tents and games, however, Spike comes across a surprise: Another dragon about his age. One that's oddly silent and runs the second Spike spots him. Spike has a hard time convincing Twilight Sparkle or any of the others of what he saw, so he starts investigating on his own. Is the circus hiding a dark secret? Or is there something more to this shy, scaly new friend then what Spike saw?
Digimon: Seven Seals Because my entire life can't revolve around ponies.
Incidentally if anyone knows any good sites for Digimon fanfiction, feel free to let me know.
A concept meant to take the story back to its early, "children lost in a Digital Wonderland" feel. Six kids from around the globe find themselves yanked into the Digital World when they answer the summons of someone promising to grant them their deepest wishes. Only to find upon arrival that, not only have they actually been turned into Digimon themselves, they've been chosen to fulfill a famous prophecy... from rather the opposite end than would normally be expected.
Good ideas? Bad? So-so? Let me know what you think below!
For the Digimon idea, have you tried FanFiction.Net? They have fanfiction for just about everything under the sun there, and while I don't know much about Digimon at all, I have a hard time imagining that it's own corner of the site is either small or inactive presently.
4244594
I did post to FF.net for a while oh so long ago, but it's a bit like casting message bottles into the sea. Nothing inherently wrong with it, but I think the story has a better chance of getting some attention if it were on a more focused site like this one.
4244979 I see your point; in the big and popular fandoms on the site, it is easier for one's fanfic to become overlooked and lost. My own MLP works that I've reposted there have all gotten far littler attention there than they have here...and they're not exactly massively popular here to begin with.
However, in the littler, not-AS-popular areas of the site, it's easier to not just to get noticed, but also to leave a mark. Back in the day when I was more active on the site, there were a fandom or two I participated in where my followers seemed to at times consider me "one of the greats"...which is flattering but not really true, of course.
In the end, it really depends on the fandom you're posting in on FF.Net and it's overall activity...so yes, there is a certain degree of luck to it.
But dedicated sites to a particular fandom I find also have the problem staying rather niche...anything posted there stays in that little corner of it, noticed by only those that take the time to find it, but potentially overlooked by the larger audience too...not getting the chance to be seen as many readers as it could or even should. FIMFiction gets away with it because MLP is currently so massively big and popular...and MLP is obviously something of a unique case. Point being is that it can work both ways, and that there's a certain degree of luck to success no matter how you cut it.
I say all of this not to try and swing you towards any particular direction, but just to voice some thoughts for your consideration.