Write what you know? · 3:56am Nov 4th, 2012
I've been thinking about that old adage.
Write what you know!
Now, there's lots I could say about this, good and bad. To be short, it's true-- even if you're writing ponies or scifi or what. You know about interpersonal conflicts and sadness and victory and stuff like that, and no matter how many plasma cannons your story has, you still have to write the truth about the fundamentals of the human experience.
But me being pretentious aside, I've been thinking.
I think I write about what I'm afraid of!
If you've read me at all, you'll nod your head when I say that I have the word "dark" a lot in my tales. Even in the FOE story, darkness plays a role. Memento Mori takes place mostly at night, as does Vigil for the Crusader, and both have an atmosphere of darkness. "The Moon is All Around Us" is a story set entirely in pitch darkness. This new story, which I'm kinda worried about showing you guys, is the same in that department. (Even a quick look at my shipping will show that while darkness is absent, "Where the Fields Are" does take place at night and night is where the fear comes out.)
I'm afraid of the dark!
Seriously. I'm morbidly afraid of the dark. When my parents are out, when I'm home alone on the weekends fresh from Fancy Baptist College (TM)... I plan out how I'm going to turn the lights off downstairs so that I don't have to be in the darkness at all. If I have to walk through a dark hall or room I sprint because somewhere deep inside me I start to panic. It's actually why I sleep with music, to kind of make the dark seem less scary. (And we're not talking little kid afraid of the monsters in his closet here, we're talking I get trapped in a dark room and I'll be bawling. I'm pretty sure it's a phobia.)
So why would I write what makes me frightened the most? I think it's because when I write about it, I can kind of control it? I write about the most ludicrously out there things and when I make the dark do what I irrationally feared that it could do... it's like it won't now. Like, I can say to myself, that's like something I would write. I think it's how I cope.
Have anything like that, if you write? Write what you fear? Or even what you want! Fear and desire are not so far apart.
473029 Doesn't bother me...
I've tried actually. Well... halfheartedly, I've tried. If it's important, I'll sit in the dark or even walk down that god awful hall to hell in church. It's this one hall with a blood red neon sign that says "EXIT" and it is literally the place where all my nightmares live. "Where the Sun is Silent" and "The Moon is All Around Us" come from that hall and how ****in terrified I am of it.
473059 Ha. It's so easy to forget that I'm really a pretty average church-goin' guy. If far better read in both the secular and sacred realms and perhaps more open to whimsical, colorful ponies. Also don't forget handsome and strong yes. Those are things I am. This is now canon.
Knowing that a fear is irrational is such a weird thing. Like, you know it's silly... but then you're having to walk across the dark gym floor and your heart is beating fast and your breath comes quick and short and you just start to panic.
473088 *dies because Flutterdorable*
*revives*
You know, the funny thing is... I'm totally okay with that picture. Haha. The older ladies at my church would find it a bit irreverent, but I think it's not that bad. Silly, but Jesus could have a worse favorite pony.....
Where All Roads Lead was written not long after a friend died in a car accident
Egghead Tales was another attempt at coping with said friend's death—writing something happy to cure the sad, if you will.
Not All Who Wander Are Lost has been an idea I've had in my head for awhile (since late 2011), but the emotional aspects and some things are very similar to my own experiences (earlier chapters especially).
The Mill I think everyone knows the real meaning behind this one by now
Third Time's a Charm RariDash. There really was no other reason
473123 Raridash is always the reason for the season.
I do see that thread there, though.
473138
Well, Third Time's a Charm does have a deeper meaning. It was written so I could have something happy to work on when the mass of depression this is NAWWAL got too overbearing
473147 That does not surprise me in the slightest. I'd be down a bit too! :C Well. Actually maybe not because after writing that thing you just edited I feel fine.
473150
If you did it for 100k+ words, you wouldn't
473155 I will concede this hill and refortify elsewhere the battlefield is yours.
Yeah, a hundred thousand words of Scootangst would weigh on anyone, I think.
473164
Worst part is: I'm not even at 100k words yet and it's wearing me down.... and this thing's going to be almost 200k words long.
473094
Eh, this is better.
my-little-clan.spruz.com/user/535307/members/7F13D934-0E80-4BD9-ADE8-B2E46824540A/big_201221520573256.jpg
Sorry, Flutters. Cheer up, though. Maybe Muhammad still needs a fave pony!
473399
Rainbow Dash is probably the most unintentionally cute pony. (From her POV that is)
473652
"I'm not cute, I'm awesome!"
Agreed. If someone called Dash "cute" she would proceed to deny it in the most adorable way possible—blushing, voice cracks and all.
473669
And then we would all die of adorableness induced heart attacks......I want this in season 3! Who's with me?
473696
I'm with ya