• Member Since 7th Apr, 2012
  • offline last seen Mar 28th, 2023

NavyPony


Navypony is a submariner in the US Navy, but he earns his name for his understanding and love of ships and shipping. Yes, that's shipping ponies.

More Blog Posts16

  • 172 weeks
    Visiting

    Team. All.

    I'm still alive, but going through some major life changes.

    I don't know if I'm still writing on FimFic, but looking at it. Just want to let everyone know that I still care about and appreciate all of you and what you've done for me. Thanks.

    ~NP

    2 comments · 190 views
  • 393 weeks
    Authors

    Authors do their best now and are preparing. Please wait warmly until it is ready.

    5 comments · 569 views
  • 507 weeks
    Surface, Surface, Surface.

    NavyPony is returned from deployment with an update to PG - Opus 2 Movement 4 and Intermezzo 2.
    Props to DirePony for the amount of work he did with me on the Crazy Cat Lady scene - calling that bit co-written would not be an exaggeration.
    And hullo. I must now go watch Season Four.

    14 comments · 710 views
  • 536 weeks
    Deployed

    NavyPony is deployed.
    He will try to write while underwater.
    Not much is going to get done.
    Everything is on hiatus.

    Sorry.

    Very respectfully,
    the NavyPony

    6 comments · 698 views
  • 536 weeks
    Deployed

    NavyPony is deployed.
    He will try to write while underwater.
    Not much is going to get done.
    Everything is on hiatus.

    Sorry.

    Very respectfully,
    the NavyPony

    1 comments · 474 views
Dec
6th
2012

On Private Gig, EQD, and Updates · 2:31am Dec 6th, 2012

It was recently submitted to EQD and turned down for various reasons (which, thankfully were not content-related, although that might've been easier to stomach than the laundry-list of problems I got. Ha). In short, this pre-reader decided that my prose is lacking; I believe the specific phrase was 'needs polish', although I'm not looking at the e-mail right now.

It was a fair enough assertion from the perspective of an EQD pre-reader; most of his/her points were reasonably founded, and while I like to think authors ought to be permitted certain liberties that he/she doesn't, pre-readers can't exactly do their job and cater to opinions.



There is, however, one point with which I firmly disagree: capitalization of the word 'princess'.

~~~~~ GRAMMAR NAZI MODE ~~~~~

For the record, most of my ponies use this word reverently. It's the whole divinity thing, the way many Christians will capitalize the word God and all of the associated third-person pronouns, even though it's not the name traditionally associated with the Judeo-Christian diety. That name was considered so holy that it was never written down in it's entirety, as that would be somewhere between blasphemy and taking the Lord's name in vain. Instead, it was written down without vowels and became the Tetragrammaton, which was still nearly taboo. In most English Bibles, it is recognized as the writing of 'LORD' as opposed to 'Lord' or 'lord'.

Nonetheless, even if you can't stand the concept of religiosity in your ponies (admittedly, there is nothing in the show to suggest that the Royal Pony Sisters are divine, especially with there being another alicorn), capitalization of noble titles is a long-respected tradition. It occurs even if there's no name following the title. Shakespeare, in his plays, capitalized them. You see 'his Grace' all over in King Richard the Third, for instance, and 'the King' in King Henry the Eighth, and it occurs regularly in certain phrases. The real issue is whether or not one is referring to kings in general/indefinitely or to a specific individual. Capitalization of royal titles (using 'queen' as an example) is as follows: Queen Elizabeth, the Queen, God save the Queen, the Queen of England, the Queen's English.

It goes on. I could say 'The Queen was at the Olympic opening ceremony', or as Shakespeare says in King Henry VIII (IV,i,36): 'The trumpets sound. Stand close, the Queen is coming.' In all of these examples, 'Queen' is capitalized because it's clearly implied who and which queen we're talking about.

Alternatively, one would not capitalize the term if it's being used in a less definite sense. Exempli gratia: Queen Mary I was one of England's queens. Princess Di never became queen. She's a queen. She sleeps in a queen-sized bed. He's a drag queen.

~~~~~ END GRAMMAR NAZI MODE ~~~~~

Sorry for the rant. Anyways, the real point I was getting to is that there are some problems that have been suggested with Private Gig, and most of the stylistic issues are with the prose rather than the story itself. Id est, they can be changed without compromising my 'artistic integrity'. Ha.
Expect there to be a pretty long break while I do some extensive-ish edits on PG and resubmit it to EQD. Coupled with my 13-14 hours/day at work, this is making it rather difficult for me to continue working on Op2Movt1. I have it about half done, but don't expect updates soon, and expect the currently-existing chapters to change somewhat.

V/r,
NavyPony

Report NavyPony · 423 views ·
Comments ( 9 )

PG is worth waiting for. There's so much innuendo, suspicion, and rumor - it's delicious.

Eh don't worry too much about EQD. The community has given them too much power and it has gone to their heads. People think that if they are not in EQD they are not good.

Sounds rather pretentious to me. I found your prose to be more than adequate.

...if this pre-reader was so utterly wrong about the capitalization of royal titles, it puts their credibility into question in my mind.

What other claims did this sketchy critic bring forth?

As another pre-reader for EqD, can I just mention that if you dispute a point from one of the others, you're more than welcome to do so through the ficbox. We've had our minds changed and positions clarified previously. Don't be shy about making your point. I'm one of your fans, anyway.

578910
You mean by just sending an email to the submissions box, I presume?

579874

That's correct! just e-mail back to the submission box with the same e-mail thread with any questions/disputes, and we'll take it up for advisement.

For the record? I capitalize 'Princess' all the time. Some of the others don't.

Yeah, it seems like some of the EqD prereaders get too wrapped up in how they, personally, prefer a story to be written. I had some legit remarks when I tried to submit a story, but there was some stuff I was like "But I want it to be that way, why is this a problem?" That's one of the problems you run into when you have to run a submission by a single authority who will inevitably have biases about how a story should be written "properly," even though a fair amount of English grammar is just a suggestion, anyway. They'd probably do better with a panel in order to increase interrater reliability, the larger the better. Then again, it's their site, so they can do whatever they want.

579883
Meh.
Trying to defend myself over a pseudo-nebulous grammar point via the internet isn't worth the time. After all, if this were the only issue with the story it wouldn't have been rejected; my time's probably better spent trying to change the things PG's pre-reader pointed out, right?
Also, I have a question about how the pre-reading system works, but I'll send you a PM about that instead of dragging the conversation out on my comments.

I think you're right about the word 'Princess'. When you submit it again, as long as you stick to the rules you mentioned, feel free to leave them capitalised.

Login or register to comment