Get to know me through this writing meme I stole from tumblr! · 10:06am Dec 13th, 2020
1. Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?
Number one on my list at the moment is editing Soup Boy’s review of MLP Season Nine. My lack of progress on this has made him extremely agitated. I fear that he will start taking pieces of my skin away in retaliation.
The two stories I’m currently most invested in are Magica Ex Dolori, and One Good Turn. The first is a Madoka Magica crossover starring Wallflower Blush and Sunset Shimmer; the other is the second (and probably last) direct sequel to “Teach Me Goodness,” in which Starlight Glimmer and Trixie try to give Cheerilee a Hearth’s Warming worth staying sober for. Both stories are very important to me, for different reasons, and I consider both to be some of the best writing I’ve done for the fandom. They’re also among my least-read works. I wonder if there’s a relationship there.
Besides those, I have a couple of ideas on the back-burner: A story about Lightning Dust trying to pull herself up after the Wonderbolts Academy kicks her out, and two stories about Wallflower Blush stumbling over herself.
2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project
I really don’t know how to answer this without giving any spoilers away.
3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)
There’s a prequel to Pony Gear Solid that I’ve had in mind since the story’s inception, more or less. The bother of it is that I need to finish PGS in order for said prequel to work, and that’s taken me almost ten years to get around to. I don’t think I have it in me to spend another ten years on a continuation.
4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)
There’s a moment in Daring Do’s Adventures in Whackademia, after Rainbow Dash and Daring Do have stuffed a bunch of free bread down their dresses and are trying to sneak away, where Rainbow confronts one of the scholars who’s been giving DD the cold shoulder:
"What is your deal, you old windbag?" she snapped, as the academy – finally – took notice of the confrontation. "Where do you get off, talking to her like that? Holding this stupid grudge because, what, she didn't turn into a stuffed shirt like you and Drunky Hooves back there?"
Rainbow thrust a hoof toward Bailiwick, who quailed. The motion of her limb jarred loose a dinner roll, which slipped from her gown and landed at Pfeffernusse's hooves.
She flushed, yet steadfastly refused to budge from her pose.
I honestly find the image of Rainbow Dash trying to be intimidating and furious whilst bread falls out of her sleeve funnier than anything else in the story, but nobody I’ve talked to who’s read the thing agrees with me. Maybe I just have an obscure sense of comedy.
5. What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?
Typically Cheerilee, or at least, the version of her who appears in Teach Me Goodness and it sequels. I’ve been spending more and more time in the head of Sunset Shimmer, though.
6. What character do you have the most fun writing?
It is a pure pleasure to write for Rarity. She’s usually relegated to a supporting role in stories where she appears, but I would dearly love to write something where she takes center-stage again. She is so, so much fun to craft dialogue for.
Pinkie Pie would be a close second because of the possibilities that present themselves whenever she enters a scene. You can get away with stuff using Pinkie Pie that would never fly with any other character.
2. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?
Dubs would tell you that I use too many adverbs, at least until he gets his mitts on my drafts. It’s not like I can really argue with that take.
I guess I try to define myself as a character-focused writer, though. Cobbling together a compelling narrative is often the most challenging part of writing a fully fleshed-out story for me, because I’m less interested in what happens through the course of the narrative than I am in how the characters react to the events of the narrative: how they shape their outlooks on themselves, or on life, or on some fundamental truth. I think that any story is worth telling, and any premise worth exploring, no matter how basic or straightforward or flat-out stupid, so long as there’s a compelling character journey at the heart of it.
So... I guess I’d define my writing as narratively thin, but character rich?
Oh, I am doing a delightful job of hyping myself up.
1. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?
I dunno; I like to think that I have a pretty diverse, eclectic sense of taste. I think most of my writing tends to be pretty low-stakes, slice-of-life-y, and I can get on board with that any day of the week, but sometimes you just wanna read about Rarity the Swashbuckling Pirate sword-pirouetting crowds of sons-of-bitches to death while she discovers the secret behind the Centrifugal Prophecy.
Or whatever. I don’t remember what the question was.
7. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?
I guess I’m better at writing short, focused pieces, because those are the ones that end up getting finished, whereas my longfics languish in Google Doc Hell for years and years on end.
Anyway, what the fuck is a “pantser,” I don’t understand your stupid zoomer lingo. Fucking kids.
22. How would you describe your writing process?
I usually come up with very loosely defined premises or ideas, and I spend a few days hashing them out in my head: taking walks and sketching out scenes and chapters, hoping I don’t wander into traffic absentmindedly and get kersplatted. If I think the idea has potential and I can’t get rid of it, I’ll come up with a loose outline, sometimes broken into chapters, sometimes not. I get feedback on the outlines from some very sexy and attractive people, and also DannyJ, and refine the idea into something actionable. Then follows weeks of writing, editing, and publication; rinse and repeat with every chapter.
There’s a lot of procrastination, crying, and memeing involved in this process that I’m leaving out.
3a. What do you envy in other writers?
The ability to commit to an idea and finish it without getting too bogged down in work or real life to focus.
Once my adderall prescription comes in, you motherfuckers hogging the featured box had better watch out.
R. Do you want your writing to be famous?
Ahahaha, ummm... I don’t think I would handle fame well. Visibility and appreciation, sure. Appreciation from a lot of people, definitely. Not famous.
1. Do you share your writing online? (Drop a link!) Do you have projects you’ve kept just for yourself?
...I mean...
*gestures*
1. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?
Usually last. Titles are hard to figure out, and I go back and forth on them a lot.
D. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?
I think I’ve gotten pretty decent at summaries over time, so I’d probably go with titles. I had to workshop Magica Ex Dolori for a while before I was satisfied with it (and the fact that it’s not grammatical still irks me a bit).
L. Tried anything new with your writing lately? (style, POV, genre, fandom?)
I have a partially drafted original fiction story. It’s about a woman who works at a mortuary dealing with a backlog of corpses on Christmas. Ho ho fucking ho.
1. Do you think readers perceive your work - or you - differently to you? What do you think would surprise your readers about your writing or your motivations?
Oh, they absolutely do. Speaking of things that irk me.
So, there is at least one writer in the community who, upon meeting and talking with and getting to know me, expressed absolute befuddlement on the dissonance between my writing, and my personality. The sentiment is usually to the effect of “I can’t believe Posh could be both Very Strange, and the author of a story like “Teach Me Goodness.”
(for context, “Teach Me Goodness” is very not-strange, and is probably the most normal thing I’ve ever written).
To be fair, I get it; anybody who knows me on a personal level, outside of these fimfic blogs and bios, knows that I have a very peculiar way of speaking, and acting, and expressing myself, and a sense of humor that... I think “benign surrealism” is the most applicable term? And when you contrast that against how I present myself in writing, the difference can be hard to reconcile. You would probably not think that someone who acts like I do in conversation could say anything of any real weight or substance in their writing. You’d probably expect them to write displaced shlock (as a writer of crossover shlock, I am aware of the glass walls of my home against which my stones now collide).
But I still find statements like that insulting, if in a back-handed way. People assume, when talking to me, that I’m being performative or insincere. They have expectations of what I must be like from my writing, or they just assume anybody who is capital-W Weird is putting on some kind of an act. And, well, no. I really am a walking, talking ball of surrealism and neurosis come to life. But I can be that, and I can write heartfelt, moving stories about self-doubt and emotional maturity, because human beings are complex and multifaceted. So there’s an implication behind statements like “I can’t believe Posh is Weird; he wrote Teach Me Goodness” that I find hurtful.
On the other hand, that also kind of makes me want to double down on the weirdness. I get a very specific kind of pleasure from disabusing people of their preconceptions. So, I guess I shouldn’t complain too much.
0. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.
Oh, plenty. There are, like, pages upon pages of alternative drafts and chapters and cut scenes from Pony Gear Solid that were all tossed out for one reason or another (Soup Boy will never let me live down the original version of chapter four, with its ill-advised timberwolf rape joke), as well as an alternative version of “Often Rhymes” where Cheerilee is much more... mm, forward? Uncomfortably so? Rarity is pretty prominent in it, too. There was also supposed to be a subplot in “Teach Me Goodness” about Cheerilee and Big Mac (her lingering feelings for him in “One Good Turn” is partially a reference to this).
I usually post excerpts from scrapped versions of chapters or stories in the Documents blogs... y’know, whenever I get around to writing them.
420. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)
Negative emotions writhing like grave worms, or icewater rushing through veins. I am cognizant of my own cliches, and I try to avoid them. -_-
Uh, lessee, what else... Characters getting drunk and slurring their words a lot. Uh, lesbians? Do lesbians count? I kinda view that as just a reality of writing for a series that’s so predominately female; like, who else are you going to pair Twilight with? Flash Sentry?
Certain characterizations tend to pop up a lot, too. Sunset Shimmer in Magica Ex parallels Twilight Sparkle in Pony Gear Solid, for example. I don’t want to say much more than that.
69. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)
I know that this writing meme is supposed to be fertile grounds for exactly this kind of meta-grandstanding, but I’m generally of the opinion that drawing explicit attention to subtle themes or foreshadowing in storytelling isn’t good writing (just in case you didn’t understand that CoRrUpTeD kInDnEsS is important to Littlepip’s character development, her narration will bludgeon you with it repeatedly until the words cease to hold any meaning). Themes in my writing manifest by accident half the time, anyway, because I’m a hack.
Uh, but I guess I really like developing odd friendships between cynics and idealists? For PGS, see Twilight and Snake, Apple Bloom and Snake, and... pretty much every other MLP character and Snake.
The witches’ names in Magica Ex are not in the least bit arbitrary.
Pi. What other medium do you think your story would work well as? (film, webcomic, animated series?)
Arrhythmia is best experienced as a rock opera.
8008135. Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?
Oh, all the time. I both love, and hate, to do this. Sometimes I’ll do it just idly, and I’ll catch a line that I don’t care for, or a typo that slipped past me, and I’ll go back and fix it when I can. Sometimes, actively, so I can refresh my memory on characterization or plot points. Sometimes it’s just for the cringe factor.
I can’t get through anything pre-2016 in Pony Gear Solid, up to and including the story’s title, without wanting to die.
7177135. What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?
For MLP? I guess the aforementioned PGS prequel.
e=mc^2. Would you say your writing has changed over time?
Everyone’s writing changes over time. Beyond just having a stronger grasp on the mechanics of storytelling and writing, I think I’ve realized what my strengths as a writer are, and I’ve tried my best to develop them. I care very deeply about whether or not my characters’ thoughts and actions come about naturally.
In the past, that... that wasn’t so important to me. 
P05H. What part of writing is the most fun?
Writing is not supposed to be fun. Writing is about making yourself, and everyone around you, miserable. Fuck-ass writing meme.
...
Editing. The editing process is where I have the most fun. I could smear the most slap-dash smear shit up onto my Google Doc, and somehow, by the end of the editing process, with the help of my fabulously talented and sexy editors (and DannyJ), it will become...
Well, something other than shit. Though, it’s not always an improvement.
This is cool! I might actually steal this.
5414620 you’re cool, and I might steal you
One who writes by the seat of their pants rather than planning everything out in meticulous detail.
In any case, yeah, the author's weirdness does not preclude the possibility of heartfelt prose. And this was a fascinating exercise. Thanks for sharing it.
Looks like I have something new to steal.
This was delightful and I look forward to seeing it pop up more often.
Also fuck that person for trying to pigeonhole you. You comes across as bewilderingly odd and erudite and insightful and write beautiful stuff to boot. I see no problem here.
what are numbers o.o
5414657
Loose suggestions of ordinal time, mostly.
Also hello Posh I miss your presence. Hope things are going as well as possible in the hellscape that is this year.
5414736 they are not.
*dabs*
5414655
5414630
5414633
You are all lovely people.
5414626
Eat your soup, soup boy
5414657
5414926
I commit war crimes
i thought i knew how to count