Background, and future of Mission to the Pony Planet and future stories · 7:05am Nov 7th, 2018
Now that five chapters of Mission to the Pony Planet (MttPP) are out, I wanted to drop some information on this story and its future as well as info on other stories I've been writing.
If you don't care about the background and just want to know the future situation, skip to "What's next" and "Conclusion."
Origin
As I mentioned in the author's note in chapter one, I've never written anything before—ever. (This of course doesn't count a handful of required school projects from way back, most of which I got through with the minimum specifications.) I'd always wanted to try writing, but it's always been exceedingly difficult for me. I come up with plenty of ideas, but I struggle to get anything down (I even hem and haw over friendly emails to relatives). And I'd never found anything I wanted to spend the time and effort with … until coming across MLP fanfictions.
I started off by helping/nagging authors by sending them fixes for great stories but bad grammar and/or unnoticed typos, then becoming a pre-reader for a few authors. Eventually I dreamed up two rather sizeable story ideas of my own. Between those, I picked what seemed like the easier of the two to start with and began working out an outline.
That outline got far more complicated than I expected.
So, I began breaking it down into smaller chunks which could be uploaded as individual sequels/sidestories of each other. Two "chunks" in particular felt like stories that could easily stand alone as short stories should I come to the conclusion that writing just isn't for me. One of those became "Mission to the Pony Planet."
I decided to try this chunk of the story first, as a test run, despite the fact it falls in the middle of the overall story (which is why it's never explained exactly what is going on with Sunset—that's in the preceding part), and branch out backward if I found myself enjoying the writing process.
That's what happened after finishing chapter five. Not only was I enjoying writing out my ideas, I was getting tired of writing a story about Sunset Shimmer that didn't have Sunset in it.
I decided to pause MttPP after the 5th chapter and go back to an earlier period of the overall story as a 2nd test run. I enjoyed writing five chapters of that, and finally moved all the way back to the beginning and actually finished the first three parts (to be released as separate "stories" on Fimfiction) of the story.
(My overall outline calls for two stories to take place in between each of the Equestria Girls movies: One following Sunset and the CHS crew, the other following the Dazzlings. These cover the aftermath of the movies. After catching up, I had my own ideas to add, not directly related to the movies. Events between the Dazzlings and CHS crew crossover from time to time.)
Trouble
Meanwhile, I began asking some other Fimfiction users for pre-reading help. I had a few takers. They all said they liked what I wrote, a few had some useful criticism and suggestions, but no one actually finished reading despite saying they would do so.
Every few weeks or months I'd ask a few of them again and got replies that they would read some more, but it seemed to be less each time. I tried editing groups as well, but just had a hard time getting feedback.
It likely didn't help that, by the time I finished these stories, I had typed over 160,000 words in about 50 chapters.
This was more than a year ago. MttPP and the other stories have just sat around, unaltered, since. I came up with these stories around the release of Rainbow Rocks, wrote the outline after that, and began writing the stories themselves just after watching Friendship Games back in 2015.
The difficulty in getting feedback kind of wrecked my confidence in my writing, not to mention my motivation, and I never continued past those opening stories.
So, I've just been sitting on them.
What changed
But then I found that Hasbro/DHX is planning their own adventure involving the CHS crew heading into Equestria and turning into ponies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-4JDqpC74s
I figured, it's now or never for MttPP, because it's about to require the "Alternate Universe" tag and I wanted to get my version out first.
Also, I was thinking that publishing these five chapters would get me more feedback on my writing skill (or lack thereof).
I gave MttPP another quick look over last week and finally uploaded it, then published a chapter every other day or so to see what kind of response I'd get.
What's next.
I suppose what's next depends on the feedback I get from the first 5 chapters of MttPP and this blog post.
I'm a bit less interested in MttPP today than when I conceived it, now that it's going to become incompatible with cannon, but I do have an outline for the story, including the ending (in my head at least). The first 5 chapters was act 1. Act 2 would be a chapter for each pony as they explore Ponyville, and accidentally causing troubles around town, plus an interlude or two. Finally, some chapters (5-10?) of the characters meeting their counterparts and getting back home. But with many mishaps along the way. The whole helping Sunset thing is part of the main story. The ending of MttPP is simply connecting back to that and would not actually get into specifics of her situation as that belongs in the next part, to be released as a separate story.
My outline would need some adjustments now as things have changed in the series since Friendship Games and season 5 (when I wrote the story). The updated version I've uploaded to FIM Fiction contains several mentions of their geodes, (in chapter 5, Fluttershy was going to freak out after learning she could talk to that little bird, but she gained that ability in Legend of Everfree so I had to come up with something different), for instance. I added that stuff right before uploading.
Conclusion
Where I left my focus, and where I'd most like to try to pick up again, would be the next part of the main stories focusing on Sunset and the Dazzlings in between Rainbow Rocks and Friendship Games. (The parts that are already finished take place before Rainbow Rocks.) I was thinking I'd give the finished stories another look over and begin publishing them 1 or 2 chapters per week. With (a lot of) luck, I'd have the next part completed by the time I publish the final chapters of each story.
I'll wait for feedback before deciding. Just keep in mind, while I have an idea where MttPP is going and how it will end, nothing else is written yet, and I'd have to rethink a few things. I have another incomplete story with 5 chapters and 13k words (which may also require the Alternate Universe tag soon), and 3 complete stories with over 120k combined words (nearly) ready for publishing. I want to start working on the next parts to those complete stories, but haven't had the motivation/confidence to do so since finishing them in 2016-2017.
And to be clear, all the stories I mentioned, including MttPP, would be in the same continuity as they were all conceived at the same time, as one big epic.
Thoughts…?
P.S.
Thank you all for reading MttPP (and this blog post) and for all your comments on both.
This sounds goods, and I've been enjoying MttPP a lot, so kudos. I wish that I had time to help you out myself, but I just don't have it :(
Good luck.
This has been a pretty interesting story so far and I’m looking forward to seeing where you’re going with it. I don’t think there are many other stories based on the CHS crew going to Equestria, only one or two for various reasons. As for the upcoming special I got really excited about it and I am looking forward to seeing it. It may be the last of the EQG specials and there may be one more film to tie up lose ends with the finish of season nine. If done properly it should end FIM quite nicely, but given the quality of some of the writing that would be a bloody big if. Hopefully your stories will be a nod in the right direction.
Have you ever gotten that feeling that you've just walked past yourself going the other way? Brrrgh.
So in other words, this is where the screen goes all wavy and we see the words "one week earlier" superimposed over an outside view of Sunset's home? Sounds good to me!
And might I say, I am enjoying this thoroughly. I cannot fathom how you were having difficulties getting people to finish this.
The story is looking good so far, I'm eager to see how this all plays out
4964362
I didn't really pause in writing after the 5th chapter of MttPP, I moved right on to an earlier period/"chunk" of the story while pre-readers went to work. Two pre-readers did complete those 5 chapters, but only a few chapters of my other stories. But, again, I did end up writing around 160,000 words by the time I finished the opening chunks of the story and … sort of gave up on going further.
4965697
.
.
.
But that's only a good night's worth of reading material. Why would anyone have trouble finishing that? In any case, I'm glad you're re-visiting this, so to speak. This really is a fascinating story you've written. As to canon incompatibility, an "Alt-universe" tag will solve anything.
4965851
160,000 words might be a good night of normal reading, but editing and pre-reading slow things down as you have to pause anytime there's something spelled wrong, grammatically incorrect, not flowing right, or doesn't make sense, etc., and alert the author, so I do understand the difficulty.
Anyway, what I was trying to figure out with this blog post was what to try for next. Should I try to work on MttPP act 2, or start publishing my finished stories while trying to fill in the gaps between them and MttPP.
There's only been 4 comments so far, but it seems people want more of MttPP, so I guess I'll hold on those other stories and see about reconstructing MttPP's outline to make it mesh with season 8 and the 2017-2018 EqG shorts. November and December are both busy months for me, and I haven't written anything in over a year, so it'll probably take a bit before I hit a stride, but season 9 (likely) doesn't start till the spring meaning there's hope I'll have something to show before then. There's no word on when the special will be out though.
I'm planning to complete all of act 2 and then releasing a chapter every other day or so like I did with act 1. I'm thinking it will be around 8 chapters.
The dazzling story sounds interesting but I would finish this one first. The alt universe tag fixes the cannon issue. Also the Hasbro's version was very short. I would like to see the cmc interact with there non pony sisters more and figure out there from the alt universe. Like the pony main 6 the pony cmc are like future versions of the human cmc. The current pony cmc are helping ponies with there cute Mark's and starting to refine there talents; singing, stunts and potions. I think meeting there pony selfies is going to be fun too. More of this could be my future; rainbow stunt flight or test pilot , futtershy animal reserve, ect.