How to Write Fallout: Equestria

"Oh Tumbleweed!" You cry.

"Nevermind the fact that you don't mess around with AU's or OC's (Flash Sentry Papers notwithstanding), and nevermind the fact that you prefer to write silly comedies and/or romantic comedies, and most especially nevermind the fact that you've only played New Vegas which has probably ruined you for the rest of the games in the series 'cause they're not westerns and it's not proper Fallout without a cowboy hat and country music on the radio. All of these bothersome facts aside, please, since you are best at ponies, tell us how to write a Fallout: Equestria story."

WELL LET ME TELL YOU.

Step 1:

Drink drinks. Post-apocalyptic drinks. Which is to say, like, cans of stale Keystone Light that have survived the apocalypse (even the raiders don't drink Keystone) and maybe some weird moonshine brewed from mutant cactus juice.

Step 2:

Listen to this song.

Step 3:

Write. And write. And write. It's good to use a classic of literature as a benchmark, so you can say "I'm gonna write more than that dude. Suck it, Tolstoy."

In all seriousness, though, kkat put together a hell of a thing that a lot of people like, so good on them. While I haven't really delved into the Fallout-equestria-verse (I'm sure there's a 'proper' name for all that), either in reading or writing, I can't help but find the concept of such a 'cornerstone' piece of crossover fanfiction to be somewhat fascinating. One of these days, if I get ambitous, I may put on my academic-hat and try some kind of textual analysis to figure out where kkat's work falls into the grander scheme of fandom and fan-work and, uh, stuff. Alternately, I have a few vague ideas for playing around in that kind of sandbox (even if it looks like the obvious titles are already taken. Hm).

But until then I'm just gonna have another cactus-juice cocktail.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

I tried to write a Fallout: Equestria story once, but I got too caught up in game mechanics to actually plan out half the narrative.

[Purple-Smart Heart]

cactus-juice cocktail

^{IT'LL QUENCH YA!}

[Punk Rock Prom Queen]

4905977
It’s the Quenchyist!

[Cynewulf]

I wish my FOE hadn't 100% utterly flopped.

[Mitch H]

I had some roommates who kept half a case of expired Kirin until one burst in a greasy, syruppy way one hot summer afternoon, all over the floor in the kitchen. Ancient beer is disgusting.

And yeah, aren't like a quarter of the top hundred and fifty longest fics on the site Fallout: Equestria stories? They do rattle on.

[Czar_Yoshi]

4905994 Less than half of that, actually - right now, the original FO:E is ranked 99th for story length on the site (at 620k words) and there are only eleven FO:Es longer than it, with seventeen in the top 150 (sort of. Deleted stories still appear as holes in the numbering system, and there's an eighteenth ranked as #153 that should actually be higher). FO:E stories themselves are abundantly common, but the genre is extremely stacked in favor of a small handful of long, ultrafamous ones (the original, Project Horizons, Murky Number 7, Pink Eyes and maybe a few others). Many of the rest get sunk by a combination of the hatedom that hands out an easy ~ten downvotes for adding your story to the groups, and more seriously a complete lack of attention. While there are a few lesser-known ones that just keep going, it's mostly just a few very long/famous ones that color everyone's idea of the genre and a whole lot of others that die in obscurity before even reaching 50-100k.

It's kind of sad, really, and you never even see groups like Seattle's Angels dedicated to featuring unknown stories going for FO:E. If you ever really want to make someone's day just by leaving a positive comment, there's a whole lot of actually good stuff that's not quite dead yet down in the depths the various FO:E groups.

[Mitch H]

4906024

I've got a story in the top 180 or so. To my everlasting shame. And yeah, I combed through the rest that were above mine in length, looking for stuff I'd care to read. It may not actually be a quarter, but it felt like a lot, given nothing else really has that total, collective throw-weight of word count.

[Super Trampoline]

4906024
That’s a lot of FO:E

[Singularity Dream]

Write. And write. And write. It's good to use a classic of literature as a benchmark, so you can say "I'm gonna write more than that dude. Suck it, Tolstoy."

You give great writing advice.

[Tumbleweed]

4906124

I mean, I am best at ponies.