Do you guys want more complex stories and characters? · 4:52am Nov 21st, 2017
I've had a few people tell me about things they would like to see me do with my stories. While I agree with them, and would enjoy writing more complex characters, I do want some community feedback.
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I've been writing as I do for, oh... Checks her profile page nearly three years now. Wait, what? I've been doing this for THREE YEARS?! Holy cow!
Three years is a LOOOONNNNG time. Especially when I started writing MLP fic mostly because I liked the show, I loved the idea of the world, and I wanted a place to practice my writing since I intend to make a career out of being an author. It's rather hard to build an audience from nothing, so I came here because you guys wanted pony fics that were not just "the show in book form". I'd seen Fallout Equestria, among other such stories. I knew there was an audience here for people who wanted to see ponies in fun/silly action adventure stories.
So here I am.
But there's just one thing... It's possible that for three years I have been making something of a mistake. I assumed you wanted a fusion of action/adventure stories, and My Little Pony. In other words, I thought you wanted elements of the show preserved, with just a few taken out and replaced with action/adventure tropes and elements.
Recently quite a few people have been asking me why my good guys are all well "Good" and come to the same conclusions about what to do. The answer's simple. That's how MLP was up until I stopped watching it due to truly hating a certain character introduced at the start of Season 6 who will remain unnamed. I have the good guys work as a team, support each other, have the same morals, and typically come to the same conclusions.
My villeins are usually one or two note and are inherently evil, because well... I'm writing stories that are based on a kids show with a kid's show's formula.
I thought you guys wanted My Little Pony with minor changes. Under this assumption, I decided to write "What if G4 MLP was an 80's boys cartoon?" That's the best way I can describe my thought process in how I handle story decisions for my fics. Perhaps my memory is fuzzy, but I recall in those the good guys always agree and so on.
But, and this is a big but, several of my readers (Including some fairly high paying patreons) have asked me why my characters are the way they are, and have suggested writing more complex characters (especially villeins). I've been playing with this idea a little in the last two chapters of Voidwalkers. More on that later, but if you liked those two chapters please let me know.
I am gearing up to write my first original novel now that I feel I have gotten enough practice out of the way. What do I mean by gearing up? I mean I focused back on my college days (I minored in Creative Writing) and have reread my entire library of writing help books. And that's actualy quite a lot of books.
I left out my world building specific and scifi specific books >> Also, yes, Olson Scott Card is an asshole, but he DOES know how to write marketable fiction. I think we can all agree that.
I'm already in serious mode. I planed on writing more pony stories, but I didn't plan on improving them. I could, if it's not just a few of you who are tired of the way I have been doing things. It wouldn't be much more effort on my part. Though it would take more time per chapter as I would want to do another draft.
If you already have an opinion, please let me know via the poll or a comment below. If you do not, I plan on telling the next plot arc of Voidwalkers more seriously than I normally would (Without removing the silly/wacky plot elements. I mean in terms of characters being more defined and such.) I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on those coming chapters.
If everyone wants me to do this, I will likely clean slate and start a fresh series of Pony Fic for you so as to not have a billion plotholes resulting from "Suddenly more character depth".
Stick with what works so far. Once you start writing books and not fanfics you should develop characters a lot more, but that’s because you will have more than 50k words to develop a story and characters. But for fanfics? If you try to appease the few, you may lose some of the many.
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Um, about that...
i.imgur.com/RJUDTjB.png
I sort of already primarily do novel length stories :P
4731115
Immediately facepalms.
Point of the matter, I like how you write, don’t change it because if you do it to appease a few people, you could lose a lot more doing so.
I should do research before I run my big mouth.
4731119 That's why I ask my audience questions like this :3 So I can see if it's a few people's gripes, or if it's a few people saying what everyone is thinking. Sadly people dont give me regular feedback, so I need to ask.
Regardless of the, ah, accidental mistake by Purple Pony, she does have a point. If it IS the few who wish for you to change, regardless of how much it might in their perspective improve your writing style, in this industry if it isn't what the masses wish for it isn't going to be nearly as marketable. I admittedly wouldn't mind if your villains had a slight bit more complexity, though I do feel that they have gotten much better as you have continued writing. The King in Yellow and Dawn especially were cases of well-rounded villains, with definite goals and a sense of "Oh crap! Gotta get away!" whenever they showed up. Naturally everything can't be as world-ending as those two but they did work towards their goals.
Come to think of it, I believe Dawn and the King are so standout because they haven't appeared in only one story, and are bigger threats. People appreciate your heroes because they stick around while villains... yeah, villains simply don't. It's not their place to stick around, at least not without action being taken against them. Regardless, Dawn's skulking and the scene of the King in Bat's Academy made them feel less like you pulled some new big baddie for the match regardless of how technically true it is that that evil was spawned just to be defeated or at least pushed away by the good guys.
Anyway, I'm rambling, so I'm gonna leave it at that. Hopefully I'm not confusing ya, and good luck writing Meep! I wish you well when it comes to your standalone writing, and I already wholeheartedly support your fanfiction here!
4731146
Wait, are you a patreon of mine? Crap! I dont see your name on the list :c What reward level did you pick? I want to make sure you got everything.
I do not no abut any one ales but l like the way you rite
)
(i can not spall sorry if it bad
4731151
Nope, though if I did have the extra change to do so I absolutely would. But one can only live off of so many ramen packages. :p
4731181 This is so true y.y You have all my sympathy and understanding. ANd my advice to google "how to spice up ramen."
I like moral ambiguity and breaking characters. I always personally thought that grim determination is a great way for a character to feel, even an antagonist. I like the disruption of black and white, making it rather a clash of ideals, or maybe a broken man.
Also I like when protagonists and antagonists are genuinely polite and cordial with each other like in the princess bride.
I love the way you write already Meep (even if I haven't been able to comment on chapters lately. *cough* I blame the family wanting me to actually 'do' stuff with them.
*cough*) Sure upping the ante on villains a scootch wouldn't hurt (and I wouldn't mind seeing what you could do with such) but as it is your stories are great! Vivid, knowledgeable, full of a fun cast of characters, and I love and enjoy them. ^.^
I also look forward to one day reading your original, published works as well.
You stopped at season 6? Wow!
But seriously I wouldn't mind more complexities in your stories. While I can honestly say I enjoy your writingI read everything you post as soon as physically possible it feels as though you characters and story-line are pretty by the numbers. And while I personally enjoy knowing who is in the wrong in a story all the time most people like occasionally being able to draw your own conclusions. Like in FoE how Littlepip often makes questionable choices that can be seen as virtuous or villainous by the reader.
Not relevant to this post at all but do you read any fics on fimfiction or do just post your own stuff?
My only real complaints about any of your stories is how perfect all the main characters are and how other than their basic abilities and quirks all seem like the same character. While I understand that all your characters are basically all super heroes with exceptional talents they really don't have anything holding them back(with the exception of maybe Lyra) from doing what needs to be done to beat the baddie. Although maybe I'm too big a fan of the complicated edgy flawed hero trope.
Oh and when you publish your first book be sure to post the link to it so I can buy it as soon as I can! I really wanna see what you can do when given total creative freedom.
Go for more depth. Your stories are good meeps, really good, but the heroes agree a bit too much and a bit too easily. The lack of moral quandaries and conflict between the heroes comes out as artificial (thought about that not long ago), although knowing it was on purpose is refreshing news
The villains too, don't be afraid to make them more human. There's no problem in making the heroes question if they're doing the right thing. Bonus points for blurring the line between the two sides, I'd say!
Don't be afraid to be gray, it's the new black!
That doesn't you need or should abandon your silliness. It's an "all you" touch and I believe it would be sorely missed
4731239 Yes I stopped at Season 6. You may not think it due to how I write these stories, but I have a Masters in the HUmanities. THis means I've got a degree that's a bit of everything. Such as phelisophy, phycology, history, art, and so on. It's the "more general education, please!" degree.
I bring it up to say that I am very well versed in phelosiphy, and as a result I have a rather solidified moral code. I don't use it in writing here because I'm just having fun. Suffice to say...
Starlightglimmer is a total monster in my eyes and needs to be killed. Instead, because she merely apologizes for committing some of the worst possible atrosities she's let entirly off the hook and is even REWARDED. This is such a huge evil in and of itself that I am incapable of watching the show anymore without getting very very angry because characters I loved to death are now one of two things:
Total morons with severe brain damage.
Religious Zelots.
Those are the only two kinds of people who can happily pall around with a monster who tortured them, and YES that room piped full of propaganda is torture, look up the UN definitions. What's more, she mutilated all of them by removing their cutie marks, a thing we know radically alters the personality of a pony (a thing that episode also confirms), so on top of subjecting them to a form of torture, she also lobotomized them.
And yet, after their mental faculties are restored, she-who-must-die says "sorry" once and poof! All is forgiven. No redemption ark. No punishment for her evils (even though only death will suffice due to her being 100% insane, see her motive for being evil). She's freed, given free food, free shelter, and allowed access to her former victims and EVEN MORE MAGICAL TRAINING WHEN SHE IS POWERFUL ENOUGH TO SOLO AN ALICORN!
I just can't get back into the show. My suspension of disbelief is shattered beyond repair, and my love for the cannon versions of characters is well and truly dead. Fortunately I still enjoy fanfic :3
I do read some things on FimFIC. Not much, but some. I can't stand to read stories which are not finished because then I have to wait for months only to realize a story has been cancelled :/ What's more most things here are slice of life and I hate that genera with a passion unless it's done in a very particular way. The show was able to make me like slice... But I really only enjoyed the adventure stories :P
I just don't like to read about normal people doing normal things, or even extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. I mean, come on! If I wanted the experience of flirting with a cashier, I'd go flirt with a cashier at any store in town! These are books! The specal effects budget is unlimited. The casting options are limitless! AND YOU WRITE A STORY ABOUT TWO PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT SMALL TOWN DRAMA OVER TEA! BOOO! BOO AUTHOR! *waps with news paper*
If you want them to talk about small town drama they had BETTER be doing it while riding a velosaraptor up the side of mount Doom to meet up with the Decepticon scouting party!
TLDR; Meep likes action and adventure stories. Most fics she's aware of here are slice.
As I said in the blogpost, that's quite intentional as I am trying to stick to a formula. But hey, most people seem to want soem more complexity so here's what Ima do.
I'm goign to write the next plot arc with more complex characters. See how you guys like a midpoint between the best I can do (which is tiring and I have a novel to do that needs my focus) and what I do now.
4731253 I assure you, Neece, I could easily write more developed and compelling characters who still manage to get into a dinosaur laser fight.
I'm fine with how the current stories go. They're fun.
Plus, I'd hate to see the current Equis-canon abandoned.
4731285 I'm not abandoning any cannon. I'm just going to write characters to be a bit more complex. No worries, DJ :3
I can't wait!
But I'm pretty sure I was one of the readers who told you that..
Hope i didnt hurt you, Meep >_<
4732098 You didn't, you only confused me slightly as I thought everyone was 100% content with my writing.
4732233
Nobody is ever 100% content with anything. After all, people hate MLP, people hate friendship, there are people out there who get legitmitely triggered about stuff like spaghetti.
4731260
You know, how you feel about Glim Glam makes sense and I can't honestly bring up any arguments against you other than you can't really kill characters in mlp(except like, Sombra I think(Unless you follow the comics and he lived somehow but who on earth considers the comics canon?)).
As for you thinking most stories are slice of life, while there are a ton of them, on this site there are more action/adventure stories than I could read in my life(still working on it though). Now whether or not most of them are worth reading is up for debate but my point still stands. Currently I have 657 Favorited stories, and those are the ones I really like and want to keep updated on so I don't favorite a lot of one-shots. I'd wager most of them are action and they have a total reading time of 24 weeks. Sadly a good number of them are incomplete, but most of them are finished. Coincidentally I have a ton of story suggestions but I won't bother listing them.
Looking forward to how you change up your formula!I never really cared for relating writing structures as formulas because it makes it sound like if you deviate from it it bad things will happen, like a literary explosion(usually preferable to a chemical explosion at least)
4734845 Well, it actually IS true that if you deviate from the basic formula of a story it wont work as well. A story isn't all shuffling existing elements, or arranging "parts". That sort of thing makes up about 10% of a story, but it's still absolutely critical to get balanced right for everything else (the narrative, the setting, the themes, the plot, the characters...) Most humans expect a story to go a certain way, and deviating from that will often leave readers unsatisfied, or even angry.
There is some science to this art... As there is with all art. If you painted something using only opaque couché few would like the painting (that's the least liked color among humans, and it appears to be rooted mostly in biology. Some instinct or another.) If you composed a song using completely random notes without a determinable melody, few people would like it.
Stories are the same way. There's those technical points you need to get right... But it's just the skeleton. The bare minimum. It's there only to provide readers with the thought "Okay, this is a story. I know these. I like these." The real trick to being an author is wrapping that skeleton in meat, organs, skin, and hair, to create a living thing the reader holds in their hands. THey also help if you're making more than one. The combination of elements that make James Bond who he is are critical to telling a Bond story.
If you changed the Bond formula so Bond was a PI instead of an MI6 agent, it would still work, but it wouldn't feel like a Bond story. The formula helps keep things feeling like themselves. It provides an identity.
TLDR; It's not that the story must be the product of a formula. It's that having a formula helps make for a better, more consistent, story.
4734865
You know, that explains a lot, good stories need structure and an adherence to rules in order to be understood and enjoyed.
I however read fanfiction, where any stupid little idea somebody has for a story can have an audience. And i enjoy the fact that I can read somebodies really weird and sometimes clever ideas that could never be enjoyed by a general audience.
I have recently discovered I enjoy reading a lot more than most proper published w1 storiesorks. Weird huh? I'm lucky the fandom I went with is so obsessive and creative.
There is something to be said about those who against all good reason write down whatever is on their mind as soon as they think it without ever trying to explain their logicWinterSolstice321 I love you but your stories remind me of a particularly explosive train crash taking place too close to a chemical factory. Or those who do the opposite and explain the hell out of every idea just for the hell of it and eventually end up with literally the longest fanfiction on this site(still incomplete with no end in sight whatsoever) so complex it could be split up into like 10 different stories.kudzuhaiku, although he got better with his weedverse series, where he made it into 51 different stories.
tldr: I have awful taste and have no idea what i'm talking about I should probably stop commenting this is so off topic i'm sorry