• Member Since 1st Mar, 2014
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BlazzingInferno


Engineer, Brony, Aspiring Author. Not necessarily in that order.

More Blog Posts116

Dec
16th
2020

Meme Time? Meme Time. · 4:17am Dec 16th, 2020

This is PresentPerfect's fault.

1. Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

The second half of 2020 absolutely wrecked my writing productivity. I finally got to work on novel #2 (#1 is in revision limbo, to be picked up again later). I’m not even ten thousand words in, but considering I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head since 2015 it’s about time I do something with it. What I love most about it is that I’m toying with some hopefully new takes on well-trod sci-fi tropes, stuff that would be utterly out of place in Equestria.

That doesn’t mean I won’t turn around and write another pony story should the mood strike. I’m just happy to be writing something again.

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

The current novel has some interesting philosophical concepts about the nature of the self and consciousness. I hope I can pull it off.

I’ve got a couple urban fantasy concepts I’d like to tackle at some point too.

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)

I’ve got a million of these. Name basically any of my stories and I can point to one or more scenes or concepts that drove me to write the whole thing. I don’t want to delve deep into the unwritten ones here because there’s a good chance I’ll get to them eventually, in Equestria or otherwise. Sequel ideas to specific stories are in the most danger of getting lost, but in those cases it boils down to if anybody will read and enjoy them (more on that in #12 below).

I want my pony stories to be undeniably pony, if that makes any sense. Cleave, A Charmed Life, and Where We Belong (just to name a few) worked so phenomenally well for me because they’re deeply tied to the kind of life destiny mechanic that’s in MLP’s bedrock. To put it another way, a cutie mark story anywhere else would require reinventing cutie marks, which would deserve to be a novel in and of itself.

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

Cleave’s opening, because I doubt I’ll ever write a better hook.

The Paths Beneath Us’s opening, because I got close.

Rarity’s backstory in Where We Belong, because it’s one of the deepest mane six character studies (what really makes Rarity Rarity in any and every universe) I’ve pulled off.

The last line in Shell Game, because I didn’t know how to end it… until I did.

The chapter titles on ’Til Sunday Do Us Part, because they still make me laugh

The handful of self-insert blog posts I’ve done over the years, because my characters are surprisingly adversarial: Applejack, Rarity, Rarity Again

5. What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?

Twilight, definitely.

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

Rarity, because she’s so over the top in everything she does be it through conscious whim or happy accident. I can’t pen a dull word about her because her personality demands a heightened level of drama and pizzazz in the writing itself.

Twilight has this same effect to a lesser extent. With her it’s more like I’d better make sure every magical or quasi-scientific fact stated is well reasoned and researched.

7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

Probably dialogue and original concept. I’d love to hear what others have to say.

8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?

I fancy myself to be a hard science fiction writer and yet I’ve spent so much time steeped in fantasy. It might be because I get incredibly antsy when sci-fi plays fast and loose with the sci half of the equation. If your starship travels faster than light, negates inertia, or does some other fantastical thing, your literary explanation for said thing had better make me feel smarter and excited about the (pseudo) science of it. That would probably be less of a tall order if my background wasn’t in engineering.

Fantasy is safer in that way because, short of being a D&D hardliner or something, there’s no definitive rulebook or even hard-and-fast intuition for how magic ought to work.

9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?

Longfic 4 life. But really I’ll make a story however long I feel it needs to be (readers might disagree). By the time I end a story I’ll usually have an idea of what could happen next, though.

I plot things out like crazy, sometimes to my detriment. By that I mean I can get lost and turned around by particularly intricate stories. This one reason that I tend to keep the cast of characters small, usually one or two characters taking the lead and everyone else in a much smaller supporting role.

10. How would you describe your writing process?

A. Have an neat idea that I don’t have time to work on.
B. Write said neat idea down.
C. Periodically revisit the idea over a period of months or years while working on other things
D. Add other concepts and nuance to the idea, combine it with other ideas.
E. (Hopefully) Write the thing.

11. What do you envy in other writers?

Speed. I’ve actually gotten slower at writing than I used to be. The only upside is I fix a lot of first-draft level mistakes before the first draft is actually done.

12. Do you want your writing to be famous?

I’d like it to be known, whatever that means. If nobody is going to read my stuff, I probably won’t write it. I’m a very quiet and private person, but when I write it’s with the intent to share, and I don’t waste my breath or time if I can help it.

13. Do you share your writing online? (Drop a link!) Do you have projects you’ve kept just for yourself?

Why yes

14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?

Usually midway through. There have only been a few cases where the title came first or last in the process.

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

Summaries, but titles are a close second.

16. Tried anything new with your writing lately? (style, POV, genre, fandom?)

Original fiction, for the first time since 2014.

17. 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?

That’s part of the storytelling experience. There’s no getting around it. The tools we have to tell stories are imperfect, which is part of their charm. I can tell you “bed” and the image that pops into your head is necessarily going to be different than mine. If I held up a picture of a bed you’d pair it up a slightly different set of emotions and adverbs than I would.

I can only hope other people think I’m nice and that I write good stuff.

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

Not really. I figure out how a story flows and that’s generally it. I definitely toy with alternative plotlines and such along the way, but the finished product always ends up being my favorite by a wide margin.

19. 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?)

One character interrupting another… and ellipses.

20. 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?)

Some of my longer stories have throwaway details that only a reader picking the story up for a second time will realize are there. I want the second helping to be better than the first.

21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as? (film, webcomic, animated series?)

Should my writing ever become famous, my will shall promise Final Destination levels of supernatural revenge against any of my descendants turning my stories into movies. Each artistic medium has its own strengths and weaknesses, and I’m playing to the strength of the written word.

Some of my favorite stories are told through movies, comics, TV, and games; in every case it’s because the story being told is ideally suited to the storytelling medium. Translating from one medium to another can be transcendently beautiful, but more often it’s ham-fisted and disappointing. The only thing movie adaptations can consistently do better than their written source material is explosions.

22. Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?

Yep, some way more than others. Sometimes I’ll cringe at my earlier writing style and uncaught mistakes, but there’s always something about it that I like, something that still makes me smile.

23. What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?

The conceptual essence of A Charmed Life predates MLP.

24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?

I hope so. If it doesn’t, you’re doing it wrong.

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

Building up to the singular moment in the story that got me excited to write it in the first place. Sometimes that’s the big climax, sometimes it’s some small description that I just couldn’t get out of my head.

Report BlazzingInferno · 349 views ·
Comments ( 8 )

I’m so glad that you’re still kicking!

5416285
Likewise! Rarely do 'still alive' posts carry such weight as they do now…

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

yay memes and peer pressure! :D

This looks like fun. I am tempted to do it, myself.

And I agree entirely that your concepts are pretty unusual. It's kinda-sorta what keeps me coming back.

Like PP said, hurray for peer pressure. This was really interesting to read and makes me intrigued to hear more in future. :twilightsmile:

5416298 Thanks!
Indeed.

Also, do you plan to share links with any finished original projects? I would certainly want to read them.

5416460
Absolutely! I just need to finish them :twilightblush:

5416472
Ah, the ultimate writer's problem. Good luck!

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