Post #2 · 6:57pm Dec 27th, 2017
OK, so...
I went to work this morning, then basically came right back home because there was literally nothing to do. Six people had shown up for work and there were only two appointments for the whole day: a flat tire repair and an oil change. So I got first dibs at going home since I'm the senior tech there and I get paid the most, which only makes sense from a business standpoint. Plus, this cold is still kicking my ass and I didn't sleep at all last night, so I was happy to leave.
Now that I'm here, I might as well do this blog post and then get some shut-eye.
So where was I? Old video games, tractors, turbodiesel trucks, cancer...oh yeah! MLP. Where did that come from?
Well for starters, I have a daughter, who is now five years old. And guess what? She likes MLP. EqG, to be more specific. (which reminds me, look what she got for christmas, amongst a crap load of other things)
It was summer of 2016, and I was back to work after recovering from my surgery, still getting back into the swing of things. I spent a lot less time in the shop working on my truck by then and had resolved to spend more time with her after having such a medical scare, and on one fateful day, like many times before, she wanted to watch something on Netflix. I asked her what she wanted to watch, and she pointed to one of the thumbnails on the TV screen, which I clicked on, and it came up as 'My Little Pony: Rainbow Rocks.' So I was like: "Sure, whatever," and I pressed play.
Now, I had the laptop on my lap at the time, so I didn't really watch it at all. I'd never seen MLP before in my life, so why would I pay any attention to it? It was just another kids show, as far as I knew. The only thing I noticed was that they were humans, which confused me a little because I thought they were supposed to be ponies, but I just shrugged it off. Like most kids, she ended up watching it like twenty times a day for the next couple of weeks, and I started noticing more and more things about the show that caught my eye; namely that girl with the giant poof of orange hair swinging her hips all over the place all sexy-like, singing a bunch of songs with the purple and blue haired girls on either side of her.
On another viewing, I picked up on a dark scene where two girls were talking in a kitchen, and one of them had red and yellow hair and some enjoyably form-fitting pyjamas on, and she was...putting whipped cream on her thumb? Wow.
Interest: piqued.
Then, on a subsequent viewing, I saw this:
And I was like: "Who the fuck is that mouthful of sweetness?" (and incase you haven't noticed, my avatar is a screen shot from that line)
So from there, I became more interested in the movie; I've always had a soft spot for film and music, and I became quite fond of the battle of the bands montage at the mid-point of the movie. It's such a great sequence, with great visuals and a good song (like all the songs in the movie, really) but not only that, once I actually paid attention to it, it was quite obvious that there was a back story to that Sunset Shimmer character, which I became interested in learning about. So I searched Netflix for other films in the series -- which I found -- and I 'suggested' to my daughter that we watch it, and by that I mean I made her watch it so that it wouldn't look like it was my idea.
I enjoyed the first EqG. I understand it got a bit of hate when it first came out, (which I learned on Google since I was so late coming to this fandom) but I found it to be an enjoyable movie built on a pretty unique premise, and I honestly thought the part where Sunset put Twilight on YouTube banging on the computer like a caveman and drooling all over the books was fucking hilarious.
After that, we naturally ended up watching Friendship Games, which I also thought was pretty good. Then after that, I started watching Friendship is Magic late at night by myself. I liked the show a lot, but because I saw EqG first, I've always felt more at home with the human versions of the characters.
I'll never forget the part that cemented the TV show in awesomeness for me though, and that was the cameo of the Marge Gunderson pony in Season 5.
I mean, this is a character from a movie that is NOT kid friendly, and I thought it was fucking awesome that they had the balls to put her in there.
Anyway, what happened afterwards was that I found a certain allure to these EqG characters; I don't know what it is about them, whether it's the hair, the eyes, or the voices, but I eventually found myself thinking about banging them, (I think many of us have been there; let's not fucking kid ourselves) which I felt super dirty about at the time. In all honesty, it didn't last long and I got bored with it pretty quick, but then Legend of Everfree came out and re-spawned those little fantasies, but it was different this time, because in that movie the girls ended up with super powers by the end.
That got me to thinking: in theory, if I actually knew these girls, if at any time they went into one of these 'battles' like they did with Gloriosa Daisy, I'd be a useless turd. That is, unless I had my own abilities; and this is what sparked the idea for the OC in my story.
It evolved from there, and eventually the character became such a departure from me that he became his own entity, and I couldn't consider myself to be a part of it anymore, which was kind of good because it was fucking weird anyway. I do project myself into the girls quite a bit too though; like Applejack. Growing up on a farm, I got to know a lot of the old boys who farmed the surrounding area, and they all have a particular lingo that is pretty entertaining to listen to. Even when they're just talking about normal things, I have to make a conscious effort not to laugh just because of how they talk. Being Canadian of course, the southern accent is missing, but the dialogue seems to apply well to Applejack's character, especially in her older age.
In person, I'm very quiet and shy, which is why Flutters is my favourite character, because I see a lot of myself in her. And like me, I've written her to be the type who is extremely quiet and reserved around most people, but when she's alone or with someone she's comfortable with, she's a VERY different person. (or if she's super-pissed, like we've seen in the story)
Sunset has my sarcastic wit. Very much so. Given her past, I really thought writing her with such a high level of snark suited her, and I enjoy how it collides with other characters. There are a few sequences in the upcoming chapters with her and Twilight, which I like because Twi is so studious and proper, and Sunset just teases the shit out of her. Its a fun dynamic with them being best friends, because Sunset will make a snide comment and Twi will more or less ignore it and continue talking about whatever it was that she was talking about.
And then there's Pinkie Pie, who I had no idea how to write at first. I sometimes find in the show -- or especially the MLP Movie -- they tend to use her character as the proverbial 'jingling the car keys in front of the audience to keep them interested' kind of thing, which I don't like much. Maybe that's just my perception, but I wanted to find a way to give her something I could relate to, so I finally came up with the idea of making her a movie buff, which is really just a projection of my own love of movies, but it makes her more relatable to me.
That's one thing I like about writing them in their mid-twenties; it allows a bit more freedom to inject extra traits into their characters since their interests would most likely have evolved in the years since high school.
And one thing to remember: even though it's told through the eyes of the OC and he is the catalyst that sets everything in motion, at the end of the day, the girls are the real stars of this story.
I wanted it to have a feel similar to 'The Dark Knight Rises,' in that the girls have grown up and settled into normal lives, and nothing exciting has happened to them since the events at camp Everfree. Then they meet Mr. OC and things start to happen, and by the end, they've all returned to the splendour of their teenage years. This is similar to TDKR, where at the start Bruce Wayne was pretty much dormant, living in his mansion, out of shape and doing nothing, but by the end he has his spark back and ends up saving the day.
Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Basically, after coming up with the OC, I would brainstorm ideas and events; most of the sequences that are in the story came from many sleepless nights where I laid awake listening to music, just thinking shit up, whether it was violence or sex, or even regular slice of life type stuff. The weeks passed and this 'movie in my head' had gotten so big -- and yes, when I conceptualized it, I DID think of it as a movie -- eventually I wanted to share it, because I thought I'd inadvertently come up with something that was pretty interesting. And it all came from idle daydreaming.
In the meantime, December of 2016 came and I discovered 'clop' fiction which led me to this website. I began by reading the works of Harms Way and Grasshopper Keller and so on, then after that, Sapphire Valley's 'I belong to You' came out, and I started to seriously consider joining the site.
Eventually, I came out and told my wife about my story ideas, and her response, understandably, was: "That's fucking weird." Which I can't blame her for. I mean, our daughter watched the show, and she liked those same characters. I had to explain to her that even though it started out as being me, this OC had evolved into his own character, and the only things left of me was really the fact that he drove the same truck as me and he's a mechanic.
Eventually, it was my wife who encouraged me to write it, saying I was on 'that pony porn story' website all the time anyway, and that I should just do it. I asked her if she thought people would like it, and she nodded/shrugged, saying the whole premise of the story was a pretty interesting concept, and she asked me: what was the worst that could happen? People might not like it, and if they don't, who cares. Just do it, and have fun.
So I thought: "OK. I'll do it. I can read and write english, how hard could it be?" 
So I started writing on New Year's Eve 2016, and I joined FimFiction on January 3rd, and published the first four chapters on January 11th.
As it turns out, writing fiction is WAY harder than it looks, and jumping into this story with ZERO experience created a bit of a shit-fest in the early chapters. I woke up the next morning after the first publish and was shocked to see my story had only one like, and FOUR dislikes, and I was like WHAAAAAT? By chapter 9, it was still an even 12 up/12 down, but I knew there was some crazy shit coming down the pipe, so I kept at it.
It's definitely a case of hindsight being 20/20; there were quite a few mistakes that I made, one of the biggest being that I didn't name the OC. In all honesty, I was scared that the readers wouldn't like whatever name I picked out for him, so I just made it ______ under the guise that it was more 'interactive.' This was, of course, uncreative and lazy, and I eventually began to wonder how many readers were passing on the story because they thought: "if this author can't be bothered to name his character, then why should I be bothered to read his story?" So, I finally came up with a name and spent an entire day going through the WHOLE story to change all the ______s to Golden Arrow, or Golds.
Another thing I regret a little bit is writing it in first person, partly because it feels off-putting to change to another character's perspective when I need to, especially when the OC is present in the scene. The biggest issue, though, is the sex scenes. First person clop is a little strange to do because it really kind of feels like I'm describing myself having sex, which is a bit weird. This is why avoided writing blowjob scenes, because it requires describing the dude's dick a lot more, and doing that in first person is just...ew. You totally feel like you're describing YOURSELF to everyone on the internet, and that's just wrong.
After being on this site for almost a year now, one common trope I've noticed is new writers writing a self-insert story with their character being something of a Mary Sue/Gary Stu. I begrudgingly admit that I fall into this category; even though I don't consider Golden Arrow to be a self-insert, he DID start out as me, and he does walk a very fine line of being a Gary Stu, just because the nature of who/what he is. I've been conscious of this for a long time though, and I have made an effort to give him flaws, like being stubborn, making the occasional bad decision or telling unfunny/poorly timed jokes.
Other than that, my writing in general was pretty rough in those early days. I habitually misused punctuation as well as certain verbs, and my prose in general sounded clunky and at times stupid, which during a clop scene is very bad. No one gets turned on by a sex scene that sounds like it's being told by a five year old. I have been going back and polishing/rewriting the early parts up to about chapter 18, but I've had to put that on the back burner for now because the new material being written is just taking too much time, so I'll have to come back to it later.
I'd like to think I've learned a lot about writing over the past year; I've read a few different writing tutorials online, read the advice in the comments sections throughout this site, but mostly I've just written a SHIT TON. It's interesting how similar writing is to learning to play a musical instrument; the more you do it, the better you get, and since last January I've published 473K words, and I have about 150K words written that are waiting for publication, so that's a lot of practice that I've gotten.
Anyway, this blog is getting way too long.
There's a lot of stuff coming up in this story. The main arc isn't as grand as the first one; it's more like several smaller ones, and no one travels anywhere this time. It all takes place in and around Canterlot, but I think what happens hits home a little harder, involves more of the main 7, and I feel like its going to be pretty riveting. I personally like it a lot better than the first half, mostly since I'm a better author now and I've spent way more time on it, but I'll let the readers judge for themselves as the story unfolds.
When is it coming back? I think I'll go with my birthday. So...
MLP EG Forever returns:
28-01-2018
Good to hear the story will be returning soon, it's definitely an interesting and original premise as far as I've seen which makes sense since few people have the balls to make their main characters immortal and still try to have a sense of danger and urgency but you've pulled it off well.
I can definitely admire anyone who comes up with an idea and actually goes through with writing a story. I've thought of some ideas but I'm no good at actually fleshing them out. I look forward to seeing what happens next in your story.
cool.
you're right there, almost let this story be after the first few chapters but gave it a chance. very grateful i did that.
can't wait.
Had no idea you went back and gave him a name. Mostly cuz it doesn't notify readers when you make chapter updates, only when you publish new ones.
Anyway, I was wondering where the updates were but to hear you've got quite a lot eases me a bit. You even gave us a date, to boot. Looking forward to that.
4760711
What do you think of the name? It's gotta be better than ______!
4760661
I made the first bit of the story very low key on purpose because I had planned on luring the reader into a false sense of security by making it come across as a cliché FluttershyXAnon story, then blast 'em with the crazy shit later. In retrospect, that was a risky move because it walks a
fine line in keeping it low key, but still interesting enough so as to not lose viewers, and it probably should have been left to a writer with more experience because it could have totally fucked the story over if I really did it wrong.
4760519
I know what you mean about having an idea, but being worried that it won't come out right. It doesn't matter how awesome of an idea it may be; if it doesn't get told in a way that gives the reader the same vision as you have, then the effect is lost. But the only way to know how it will do is to try it!
Anyway, at least now with the busy holidays gone, (aside from New Years) I now have a solid, quiet month ahead of me to try to get as much as I can done before we start again. Right now I'm about 2/3rds through chapter 100, which I wish could have been something bigger since it's a landmark number, but that's just the way things played out. It's a good chapter, don't get me wrong, with some great character interactions, but there's no big surprises or anything like that in it.
Thanks everyone!
4760837
I definitely prefer an actual name over ______, and it fits right in with everyone else's names, so, I like it!
To think that so many started just like that
i realy like this story, so count with me
Happy holidays
I actually plan on writing my first story over break, on pencil and paper of course.