085 Celebration: Five Years of Writing Pony Fiction! · 9:51pm Feb 19th, 2017
085 Celebration: Five Years of Writing Pony Fiction!
The title says it all. Let's talk about the past, the present, and the inevitable future.
THE PAST
Some of you may have noticed that I didn't do my (somewhat) usual Wrapping up / Unwrapping post with the transition into 2017. I skipped it on purpose, knowing that this fifth anniversary was coming and that I would be talking about similar stuff again in February. Sorry for the lack of New Year's wishes on my part! Is it too late to make amends? No? Then cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right! Happy New Year, everyone, may it be full of great ideas and events to be forever remembered!
Let's go back to 19th Feb, 2012 and to the pony that got me into writing. My take on her changed over those five years much like my approach to playing wordsmith, which is why I think her to be a suitable example for the topic at hand. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present the legendary showmare whose skills are beyond measure, the one and only, the Great and Powerful Trixie!
Why Trixie? Maybe because I saw something in her that reminded me of myself. Maybe because, like Trixie, I like being the center of attention at the stage of life, and maybe, just maybe because I’m known of being incredibly vain at times. Make no mistake: there’s few to go toe-to-toe with me on my best day, and it’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. Also: yes, that’s from Iron Man 2 and Game of Thrones, respectively. Obviously, every writer’s own quirks, fears, expectations and idealized self seep into the characters they write. That’s probably why my original Trixie presented in Edge of Reason and Shadows of Canterlot was a field agent of a secret magical organization known as the Conclave. She was loud, boisterous, a daredevil-type of character who pays little attention to what her supervisors think about her way of solving problems. My need for being a hero saving the day stays very strong even now, years after my childhood has finished, so Trixie had to play along.
Trixie’s magic was considerable, but vastly overpowered if we consider things like common sense and reality. And so that exact thing I thought about my ability to write. I thought that I was creating the best thing in the world, the “above average” tier of content, vastly overstating my expertise. To live up to that self-imposed ideal I had to get better, write more, discover new writing insights as soon as possible, which I supposed was mirrored by the opening scene of Arcane Equilibrium where Trixie is going through a self-imposed training regiment to become even better than the author of the story was already allowing her to be. For me, it was no longer about trying myself at writing or improving my English, but about becoming the best. Not ‘the best I can be’. The best.
Aspiration and perspiration in pursuit of self-improvement isn’t necessary bad. The ambition helps you start, begin, it gives you momentum. And so I managed to achieve a lot of good things thanks to that blue, boisterous pony. In time I also grew an ounce wiser, however, and so did Trixie. When I revisited her character years later, she was just a filly (such deep symbolism!). In Where Fillies Fear to Tread she enjoyed playing outside and adventuring around her parent’s cherry farm just for the sake of fun. There were and still are times when I’m writing something, or coming up with a scenario just for fun. I think of my writing as works of art rather than ways to vent, though, which is probably why the level of silliness in my stories stays below this site’s average. The lesson Trixie showed me as I was guiding her through the mundane-yet-not-so hill, river and orchard, was that I am allowed to both write and have fun. Just that. Fun. Nothing more, nothing less.
The filly Trixie grew into the mare Trixie, and just look at how different she was from her “alternate timeline counterpart” of the Conclave. In Stage Revival you can find things that were unheard of in the beginning of my writing. Trixie has flaws. Trixie is vulnerable. Trixie tries her best, but has grown humbler, quieter, more serene. Quite a change from the cheesy epicness-oozing secret agent! She’s not following the path of great magic, she wants to be an actress. She learned her lessons with the space bear and with the Alicorn Amulet, she’s more mature. In Arcane Realms she even has a rambunctious daughter whom she taught that true greatness comes not from achievements, but from doing what you love doing. How far has she come from S01E06! How far she will go from there!
I’m following my own path alongside hers. We had assumptions about the world and about what makes a good writer, what makes a good story. We made mistakes, but we learned from them and we grew. Most importantly, we learned to appreciate what we have even if it's not what we've been dreaming about. Of course we still aim for greatness, as even in my current take Trixie still is a rather recognizable figure in the Canterlot Elite and she definitely has an audience when she appears on the stage. But it is a different kind of greatness, with less spotlight, explosions and sequins, but with more inspiration, motivation, and joy.
THE PRESENT
This brings us to today, more or less. I wonder if I’ll finish this blog before midnight. It would be nice, tomorrow’s a work day.
The above look into the past was all about writing, just as if that was the only thing that was happening in my life. I’m a socially average person at best, so perhaps it was. Sure, I was studying back then, but I had a lot of time I could spare on writing, on creating those wonderful, infinite worlds of imagination into which I could retreat, rest, fool around and from which I could draw new energy for upcoming weeks. But then I graduated and had to take the next step into adulthood and get a job (just as Trixie moved from a full-blown wanderlust to settling down!). It goes without saying that I’m trading free time for money, but thankfully it’s not a bad life and still relevant to my other big interest which is video games. I’m a little over one year into that adventure and although it's great, it is also clear tom me that for now I won’t be able to dedicate as much time to writing as I used to.
Take a look at some older New Year’s recaps and you’ll see me proudly talking about what I wrote or what I was working on month by month. In 2016 I published only two stories: Operation Wonderbit and The Rose and the Snek. That would be a terrible score, but at least I produced some more content for Arcane Realms and finished reworking Of Lilies and Chestnuts. The lessons learned in the past turned out a to be a great help in coping with that. I mean, theoretically I should be feeling terrible with not turning enough ideas into stories as I would like to, but I am actually at peace with that. My writing performance in terms of delivering content isn’t the best, because it doesn’t have to. But it’s the best it can be, and so is Trixie as a now actress, wife, and mother.
So what I am doing right now? Like, right now-right now? The aforementioned Arcane Realms and that’s pretty much it. It’s an important story for me because it features a lot of original characters, and those, as we know, are the best way of letting go of the source material and moving forward. Which brings me to my next point…
THE FUTURE
I used the word ‘inevitable’ in the opening, and I did so purposefully. After five years I’m feeling that I learned all there was to learn from the ponies, and that new worlds and possibilities await me beyond Equestria. I’m at this stage in which I can see the end of my pony-writing career. It’s not being burnt out, thankfully, as writing hooves and horns and stallions and mares is still perfectly acceptable. I’m definitely not fed up with the friendly aura that surrounds those colorful characters, but much like I once decided that dipping into a clop, a gore, a romance and a tragedy was a way to grow from constant adventuring that Trixie was going through, I’m convinced that leaving my beloved Canterlot will be the right thing to do.
Of course this thought I’m sharing in the section about the future, which means I’m not going to disappear anytime soon. I haven’t set myself a date of leaving, it’s more of a milestone, an event that will define the end of the line for me. If you so desire, wish me luck, strength and conviction in reaching that goal. And then, who knows? At some point I will stop writing ponies, but I was writing things before them and I will likely continue to do so years after. Maybe in the future the site will be open to general fiction and I myself won’t find an equally absorbing hobby to replace writing.
I would lie if I told you that the direction I want to take will take me into strange and totally different worlds. In a way, I think I was never writing about ponies, but about characters, challenges, situations and ideas that can as well happen to a great many of people, only that those took shape of an equine more often than not. I suppose that they can all be reshaped into new forms so you can bet your bits that some of them will be familiar. So if I ever write about some ambassador’s daughter, you can rest assured she will have some of Chestnut’s persona within. If a monarch will ever need a trusted aide, the one chosen will do her duties with the unwavered dedication of Iqqel. A wise leader will beam with the light of knowledge akin to a sun, and her incorrigible student will surprise her in both good and bad ways. The father will have regrets. The dream-like states will be a trap.
And of course, a traveling magician will always appear to guide the author whenever he’s lost.
~Prane
And many moooooooore....
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Or at least a few. Plus a handful of those I could never translate into pony. :)
4430048 Well, I was referring to years, actually. I've been writing here about five years too, and sometimes it's fun to look at a Then/Now comparison of my favorite authors (and a little frightening when I look at my own stuff and figure out how much work it would take to revise up to my current skillset.)
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Ah, I see! The then/now comparisons are definitely fun. Too bad writers can't put two pieces of work next to each other and point out "See? See? Progress!" like, for example artists are able to do as they're drawing some of their older works again. Ironically, progress in the picture department is more measurable than the much countable words.