National Pony Writing Month 2017 aka How I Missed the Mark but Introduced My Friends to Ponies · 2:16am Dec 2nd, 2017
This past November, I wrote My Little Pony fanfiction for the first time in over a year specifically for National Pony Writing Month where the goal is to write 50,000 words in just 30 days. I loved the idea of working on the Equestria Girls universe especially after watching those shorts that were released over the summer. Of course, since November is always such a frustrating month (and I've been doing original fiction for NaNoWriMo every November for a while) I got sick, had friends come to visit for weekends, had to train new people at work, and had a busy Thanksgiving season. Even after all of that, I was still able to catch up one weekend by writing 10,000 words and I thought that since I had been able to do that, I would be able to finish this no problem. I had even been posting “Two Truths and a Lie” as I went so I had the motivation to want to finish it on time for the readers. I thought I had found the recipe to success.
Then, I invited my friends over for a writing night on November 29th. I thought that we would eat and do word sprints and I would get the 2,000 words I needed to write in order to be one step closer to hitting 50,000.
To backtrack slightly, I have been watching ponies since 2011 when a high school friend tagged me as Twilight Sparkle on Facebook. I rebelled against watching it at first claiming that it was “probably stupid” and “definitely childish,” but I was a freshman in college and honestly, I was feeling pretty alone at the time. So I started watching it and I loved it, but I tried to keep that little factoid about be under wraps since usually when I did mention it to a few select people (mostly roommates throughout college) it wasn't exactly something that made me seem cooler.
Now, as an adult, I'm lucky enough to know the most amazing people who are just as nerdy as me so while they were over for our writing night I had no problems asking for ideas for this fic because I had hit a wall. The question pretty quickly led to strings of conversations about our experiences with fanfiction and writing fanfiction, including sharing usernames and our experiences as nerds growing up.
Somehow it turned to them poking fun at me about shipping and what characters I liked and didn't like; which in turn led to me introducing them to fics I had enjoyed in the past and so many jokes. So many jokes. Seriously, I was laughing so hard that I was coughing. It was the most fun I had in a really long time and I think the best part of it was that I got to share something that I loved with people who have practically become my family.
So, I didn't hit my word count that night and because I had to work late on the 30th, I wasn't able to finish those last 4,000 words to win, but that's okay; I have all the time in the world to finish Two Truths and a Lie, but good times like that night aren't always guaranteed.
So, in conclusion, friendship is magic and this December I have to do some more writing.
In other words, you've chosen friendship over fame/popularity witch is always the right choice
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Thanks! I like to think that too. I don't think I'll ever be anywhere near fame/popularity levels haha, but I like to think that my friends are more important than the random story ideas that pop into my head or any competition I get into with myself!