Post-Scriptum: The Feather

I’ve seen other authors do this kind of thing after finishing a story, so I thought I’d give it a shot and talk a bit about my mindset and process when writing it. Heck, maybe I’ll even keep doing it with other stories! I dunno man, I’m not a psychic.

The Feather was written for the Warm and Fuzzy Feelings event going on over in the Appledash group. It was a brand new story, buuuut it was also a concept I’ve worked with before, in a way. I wrote another story for One-Shotober some years ago with Twilight in Applejack’s place, and the focus was instead on the actual first preening and saving of the feather. I can’t remember if I borrowed that headcanon from someone or if I came up with it myself, but the ideas of preening being a fairly intimate thing and the saving of the first feather were the focal point of Proper Preening. Headcanons are a strange thing like that; I’ve had at least one other experience where I thought I came up with something, only to finally remember that I drew inspiration from someone else’s idea instead. For now, I’m just going to say it was my original headcanon, but will certainly rescind that claim if I’m proven wrong or remember otherwise.

This story has to be the quickest I’ve gone from idea to finished product since back when I would aim to be the first person to write a story based on a new episode, having been conceptualized and finished within 24 hours. By the by, I wouldn’t advise rushing to be the first to write a story based on a new episode like I used to, and it’s not just because we’re not getting new episodes at the moment (unless you’re watching Pony Life, which I have not, although it’s not out of a lack of interest, but rather because I just keep forgetting to do so). Out of Her Shadow went over well, and My Sediments Exactly was certainly a success, but my need to rush hurt the quality of a few others. Marble Madness comes to mind. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is something that most people probably already know. If inspiration strikes and lets you get a good product out quickly, by all means, do so. But don’t let a desire to be FIRST compromise the story you’re trying to tell.

One of my favorite little tricks when writing is to play around with formatting and designations, using them to add to what I’m trying to do. For instance, in Tribus Modem Compelus (This one is NSFW, as a warning) I would typically use “Rainbow” to refer to Rainbow Dash, but when she was under Starlight’s spell and taking Starlight and Rarity’s commands, the narrative switched to referring to her as Dashie instead. Once the spell was removed, the narrative returned to calling her Rainbow. I’m rambling a bit here, but I tried to do something similar with this story. The feather is italicized in every single instance of its usage in the story, save for one. The feather is obviously given great importance and meaning, but it’s only when Rainbow and AJ accept that it’s gone and transfer the meaning from the object to the memory itself that the feather becomes the feather. I just have fun using whatever tools I can to help the story along.

Interesting read? Too pretentious? Let me know! I might continue doing these if there’s enough interesting things to write about post-story.