Notes on My Entries to Dirty Little Secret's Dirty Little Contest · 6:03am Jun 11th, 2020
'Surrender'
-So I've been a fan of the Sunset/Flash ship for quite a while, and I'd always wanted to try my hand at tackling their relationship. The challenge was finding an interesting and different take on it, since it's a ship unlike many others in the whole of FiM. My main inspirations were the Cloptimist's 'In Search of Lost Time' (for the unique idea that while Flash might be physically attracted to Sunset, she can't say the same for him) and DrakeyC's 'Best Friends' (for finding a way for Sunset to retain her villainy while still keeping her romantically involved with someone.)
Eventually, the initial thought of the story broke into two pieces; a multi-chapter story that would have Flash and Sunset grappling with an intense physical attraction while being borderline toxic for one another in every other aspect of a relationship, and a one shot wherein Flash and Sunset go on a date, discuss their feelings, and end up banging in the backseat of Flash's car.
That one shot is 75% done, by the way. 'Paradise By the Dashboard Light' coming... one day...
So why did 'Surrender' swoop in and manifest as the contest entry? This image by VerumTee. It sparked a whole new idea, and before I knew it the story was nearly complete.
-The title came more from the classic song by Cheap Trick than anything else. Imagine my delight when I rewatched 'All Star Superman' and heard Superman's answer to the Ultra Sphinx's riddle.
-The style of the story came from a personal challenge. I've always considered dialogue to be my strongest writing attribute. You can often find me holding whole conversations with myself as I recite and fine tune entire stories so that everything flows right. But that got me wondering; could I write a whole story sans dialogue? I rather like the result.
'Girl in the Tower'
-Let's get this out of the way. Yes; the title comes from the song of the same name from King's Quest 6. I adore it, and consider it one of my very favorite love songs.
-When DLS announced the Bonus Round, I originally had no intention of even trying. Besides the fact that I had other writing obligations, I'd never tackled a serious Celestia romance. But inspiration came, as it often does, from my Favorites. In this case, it was Carapace's 'Radiance.' After giving it another read, the concept of a playful roleplay between Celestia and Rarity seemed like it would be a ton of fun to write. And it was!
-Akumu-no-tsuki literally translates to Nightmare Moon.
-I started formulating the story from the moment Celestia breaks character. Once I had that moment in place, I worked backwards through the main thrust of the foreplay, then went back and wrote out everything else.
-The bit at the end with the planned proposal was one of those moments where the story told me what to write, not the other way around.
'Right Place, Right Time'
-Hoo boy, where to start?
On July 20th, 2015, I contacted Grand_Moff_Pony about doing a guest chapter for his story 'Red Shoe Diaries: Equestria.' I pitched three ideas; Night Light getting back at his cheating spouse with a college co-ed, a time-spanning tryst between Luna and Dr. Whooves, and a swap session between the Cakes and the Riches. The Cakes story eventually morphed into 'A Decent Proposal' and has been stuck in developmental hell for years now. The Night Light idea was dropped.
But that Luna/Whooves story... there was something there...
-My original title was 'the Time Traveler's Mare.' 'Right Place, Right Time' was entirely Grand_Moff's idea. He also cooked up the some of the other details that managed to last from conception to completion, such as Luna finding comfort in Turner in the midst of wartime.
-Here's my original pitch;
"After the fall of Discord, in the midst of Canterlot’s celebrations, Luna encounters a somewhat disoriented but charming earth pony. They discuss science and the nature of time. Luna faces for the first time that she pushes ponies away because deep down she knows that she will outlive them. The stallion urges her to live in the moment and they sneak away to make love. When she wakes the next morning, he is gone.
Years later, Luna meets the stallion again at a conference. They reminisce and sneak off for a quick rendezvous. After, he explains that he might have cracked the secret of time travel as their first night together was only days before for him. He posits that the time travel matrix of his device is unpredictable and can pull him away at any time. Luna doesn’t believe him and storms away just as he vanishes to his own time once again. Luna becomes Nightmare Moon and is banished.
1000 years later, Luna meets the stallion at Cadance and Shining Armor’s wedding. First believing him to be a descendant of her long ago lover, she makes a pass at him. He repeats their previous conversations to her and confirms his true identity. Overwhelmed, she passes out. The next morning, he is there when she awakens. He promises they can always find each other, no matter the time. They make love once again and he vanishes. He leaves behind a journal that holds all the dates and times of their meetings to come, thus giving Luna something to look forward to... she just has to be at the right place at the right time."
-After banging out a rough three act structure with GMP, I set off the write... and crashed almost immediately. The thing was just too damn big. By November, I had decided that enough was enough. I messaged GMP and told him that I was shelving 'Right Place' indefinitely and pitched a new guest chapter called 'Exes and Ohs.' It's awful. The worst thing I ever wrote. GMP is the only one whose ever seen it and the only one who ever will.
-Fast forward to January 2017. I looked at the old pitch and took another crack at it. I cut the whole thing down to just the first scene and again offered it as a guest chapter. GMP accepted and... stalled again. At a certain point, I just accepted that the damned thing would never be written.
And then Dirty Little Secret announced a contest...
-So, after all that, after FIVE YEARS from concept to completion, what was the result? 255 Views and my lowest score in the contest.
-As a whole, I consider it to be among the best things I've ever written. The interplay between Luna and Turner was a joy to write, from their playful banter, to their bitter fight, to their tender romance... I adore it all.
On any other night, they would have been content to simply remain this way for hours, whiling away the night in the most intimate of embraces.
But tonight the night was in need. Tonight, the night was hungry.
Favorite line of the whole story. Killed me to cut it when I cooked up the SFW version.
-The ending was an absolute gut punch when I wrote it. I hope it affects readers as much as it affected me.
'White on White'
-The winner of Dirty Little Secret's Dirty Little Contest! What a shocking turn of events!
-The general idea of this one came from the late night Cinemax movies from my adolescence. Those movies might have only had thin plots to string together scenes of debauchery, but at least they tried. It's a major reason that most forms of adult entertainment that strike my fancy to this day are the ones that at least make an attempt to tell some kind of story.
-The Twilight interruption in the shower just kind of happened naturally. The deadpan "...Rarity, that's gross" made me laugh.
-The idea of Rarity having a crush on Shining popped into my head while I was writing. Not only did it give her some extra reasons for the seduction, but it helped the story have a more satisfying emotional conclusion.
-I know that part of the prize is that DLS is going to write a sequel or spin-off, so I'm going to hold off on my own sequel idea until I see what he has planned. But there is an idea, and it's very much not what anyone is expecting.
That's... about it. I wanna thank DLS for hosting the contest, and offer a hearty congrats to my fellow winners and all the participants.
Well, now I feel bad for skipping Right Place, Right Time. I'll check it out.