Needing Help · 1:59am Jan 25th, 2021
This should be simple to explain: I. Am. Writing. Zecora. 
UGHHHH!
This is the single most infuriating character to write - EVER! Look, Zecora, I love you and all, but damn your stupid rhyming speech thingy and that calm-little-smile-which-always-looks-smug-whenever-I-see-it-now!
Okay, Imma stop ranting now... I guess what I’m asking for is help(?), not for somebody else to write her part for me obviously, but tips or websites could really be of use here!
I spent about three hours clawing my eyes out before posting this so... 
really should have done this first, shouldn’t I?
She also has this sort of mysterious way of talking, so does that mean no contractions? I’ve been watching those little clips on YT featuring Zecora in the show, but it goes a little fast for me when I’m trying to analyze it and just becomes distorted if I slow the video down.
Well, if you don’t have any advice for me, thanks for reading this through anyways!
~Meowofy
(PS. Yes, I’m bringing Fluttershy and Zecora into Mistress of the Everfree sooner - {Zecora might be in the New Ch.3})
I’ve set up a Quora for this because there isn’t one about it yet, you can either suggest something there (Click on the smug Zecora on top) or in the comments below.
I have never written her before, but here is a rhyming dictionary if that will help...
https://www.rhymezone.com/
Her mysterious style of speech is a nice add in, but not everything she says has to be cryptic either. Again, I don't really know anything. Good luck I guess
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Thanks for the link, I think I’m going to give it a shot - with sometime to familiarise myself with the website (I’m terrible with new things) - and yeah, on second thoughts, no way am I expending 24 hours trying to make her seem cryptic
I personally won't be of any help, but I would recommend getting resources to look up synonyms for words. If you want an example to go off of, there is plenty of examples here on fimfiction. Lastly, you don't have to be perfect. Anyone that expects you to make all of zecora's dialogue perfect is being unrealistic and unreasonable.
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Thanks! I figured a thesaurus would help, but there are so many words to find someword with the end sound I want, so I guess I should do as you suggested and look it up on FimFiction
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I don't know how large of a presence Zecora will have in your story, everyone that makes an attempt to rhyme for Zecora's dialogue tend to keep things short and to the point. Another thing you can do when it comes to names you don't have to use their whole name. My favorite line someone wrote for Zecora was after Pinkie startled her out of meditation Zecora said this, "Have you gone mad Miss Pie? Was there not a calmer method to try?"
Advice on writing is what you desire, I see you find yourself within a mire.
To speak as I, one musn't think fast. Think long and hard, calm yourself at last.
To speak in riddles is not hard to do. Simply allude to that which is true.
Life is hard when words abate. Take your time, it shall surely wait.
Life is a riddle, meant to be solved.
But not all things are meant to be absolved.
That took me two minutes. It's not hard if you fuck around and don't doubt your own writing skills.
I'd recommend looking at songs and poems that specifically rhyme. I hate to recommend rap, but it does rhyme quite often and with appropriate meaning.
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Hehe, I once had a friend who could come up with poems on the spot, but I just had to sit there staring at the computer screen for hours to even get one sentence right
But I’ll take your advice to mind; Thanks!
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Yes, I had somebody else PM me to recommend rap too, though I find it a bit fast, I’m having a look through the written lyrics online. Thank you!
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Makes sense, I guess I can have another character walking alongside her so that she doesn't have to speak as much. And I get the last name thing too, I see how it might help!
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Lol. All I did was think of rhymes, then find words that fit the rhymes. Sound and Pound, Drift and Sift. Find ways to tie the rhyme together, and you've got Zecora.
Oh gods I hate writing Zecora. And she's one of the main characters in one of my stories. I didn't do the rhyming but went for mysterious
rhymedb.com works too :D
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Hm, sounds like a possible way out, but I feel like Zecora’s most characteristic traits are the rhyming and her cryptic-ness - I definitely can’t write mysterious so I guess I have to go with rhyme. *Sigh...*
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Oooh, I’ve been using rhymezone from one of the suggestions before, but I’ll be sure to check this out too, thanks!
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Yeah, rhymedb.com is a little clearer than rhymezone xD, but both works.
When I have written Zecora(which so far has only been one chapter one story), I either keep her rhyming schemes simple or I write her speaking in limericks.
I might be doing this with my story. say that the current events are in a different time, or it is a different Zecora, and write her speech normally, like you would.
I might do that with Applejack in my story, or maybe Applejack had a daughter, who was separated from her, and she was raised as a different pony, who had a different way of speaking. She will then need to be reunited with her family.
Whenever I write poetry, I always have three sites bookmarked for the purpose -- rhymer.com, thesaurus.com, and Wiktionary. Three simple tools, but by their powers combined, I can use them to write any sort of poem, including this epic poem I've put out recently. (Yes, I just plugged my own work, sue me.)
Poetry typically uses meter as well (typically iambic pentameter in English), but the show's scriptwriters flatly ignored it for Zecora's dialogue -- but if you want to expand beyond that, it's something to keep in mind.
One suggestion. Instead of yt videos try to get a script from the show with her parts so you can see it in writing how she talks.
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But I’ll definitely keep her scheme simple - thanks!
I personally am not a big fan of alternative rhyming schemes, I like to have each sentence or phrase rhyming, and I don’t really get how to write them either...
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It’s a good idea, circumstances in which Zecora doesn’t have to stick with her way of speaking - I’ll definitely keep it in mind, thanks!
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) As for expanding the grammar or format, I’d honestly rather just keep it simple - I’ve never written many poems, so I should probably keep it easy for now - but who knows, maybe in the future?
I didn’t really get how to use Wikitionary, but I bookmarked Rhymer and I already use quite a good thesaurus; thank you very much for the suggestions! I had a look at your story and I must say, it was amazing! (If only I had that talent
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Any idea where I can get a script?
I don’t know if it’d really help me either way, since these quotes I found of the MLP fandom didn't, but if you can point me in the direction of a script, I'd be more than happy to try! If not, don’t worry about it, it was a good idea.
https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Transcripts
Will you be updating 'The Young Princess' anytime soon?
Although, side note, Mistress of the Everfree Forest is a very good story. I understand how hard it is to write a rhyming scheme, so I wish you the best of luck with that.
You wanna know what I didn't for Zebra rhyming in my fic? After like two hours of looking up words that rhyme with this and that, not getting much progress, the next chapter I took the cheap shortcut and gave up saying, "Fuck this! This is my story and in this AU I declare that Zebras do not naturally rhyme! Only Zebra shaman's do, and they rhyme because it's tradition and can stop anytime they want!"
Yeah, I get you when it's quite hard to naturally come up with things to rhyme. Especially when you can't just plop the more complex words right out of your vocabulary purely out of memory.
This isn't much advice, but it's what I did.