I think I'm Getting a Little Obsessive (StarTrix Dialogue Research) · 1:34pm Apr 29th, 2022
Okay, a lot obsessive. I'm working on my first serious (though still partially a comedy) story in a hot fucking minute, and it's basically six thousand words of Trixie and Starlight talking to each other (and Twilight at the end)
I've always struggled with writing characters accurately. They tend to talk more like I do. For example, Starlight says "I mean" like six or seven times. She does say that phrase at least once from a preliminary exploration, but I need to go deeper.
How do I figure out how the characters accurately speak? Well,
The MLP Wiki has every episode's transcript on one page: https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Special:BlankPage?blankspecial=transcripts (though going through each individual episode they appear in in wouldn't have been that big of a deal) So:
I'm compiling every single line of Trixie dialogue (easy mode) and Starlight dialogue (hard mode) in two single google docs, which I can then copy and paste into a Word and Phrase Frequency Counter to see what verbal tics (besides the obvious "The Great and Powerful Trixie") they each have so I can more accurately write their dialogue.
I'm figuring it will probably take four to ten hours, but it'll be beneficial doubly because I'll be rereading all their dialogue, most of which I haven't heard in many years since I don't rewatch a ton of episodes.
Ostensibly eventually I'll get skilled enough with the Automate Android app (which as related in a previous blog post I am using to make PonyText automatic) to parse websites (again, ultimate goal is to build a "flow" that applies for acting gigs on my behalf), but I'm a long way from that.
Although... I'm now realizing I don't have to parse a website; I just have to parse a text file... I think the app has a way to specify return carriage/enter so maybe it would be close to doable at my current skill level if I can learn more about how arrays and dictionaries work... hmmmmm (yes, I'm basically self-teaching myself how to code using flowcharts. Again, highly recommend the automate app if you have an android device. it's insanely powerful. (eventually I want to [redacted so I don't ruin the surprise] Wait I'm getting off topic lol)
Anyway, if anyone has already done this sort of thing for these two characters, please point me towards it; there's no point in reinventing the wheel, especially since Trixie doesn't trust wheels. And if you are a coder/programmer/nerd who knows enough coding/programming/nerd shit to write a simple program that would "parse" or streamline or whatever all this shit for me, you'll have my eternal gratitude and maybe I can write you a 100 word shipfic or something idunno. Anyway, I'll absolutely link these google docs and publish the collections as blog posts as well when I'm done.
As a proof of concept, I did Boast Busters, in which Trixie says roughly (I decided to include episode titles which slightly skew everything but barely) 470 words or interjections. My favorite line is the so uncool it's cool insult (After Rainbow Dash says the very season one-ish "They don't call me "Rainbow" and "Dash" for nothin'!): "When Trixie is through, the only thing they'll call you is loser."
So yeah, enjoy an episode worth of Trixie dialogue below and don't forget to like and subscribe!:
S1E6: Boast Busters
Come one, come all! Come and witness the amazing magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!
Watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!
Well, well, well, it seems we have some neighsayers in the audience. Who is so ignorant as to challenge the magical ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie? Do they not know that they're in the presence of the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria?
Heh, why, only the Great and Powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to vanquish the dreaded ursa major!
When all hope was lost, the ponies of Hoofington had no one to turn to, but the Great and Powerful Trixie stepped in, and with her awesome magic, vanquished the ursa major and sent it back to its cave deep within the Everfree Forest!
[laughter] It's true, my enthusiastic little admirers. Trixie is most certainly the best in Ponyville.
Don't believe the Great and Powerful Trixie? [chuckles] Well then, I hereby challenge you, Ponyvillians. Anything you can do, I can do better. Any takers? Anyone? Hmm? Or is Trixie destined to be the greatest equine who has ever lived?!
Hmm, how about you?
Well, how about it? Hm? Is there anything you can do that the Great and Powerful Trixie can't?
Well, little hayseed?
Oh ye of little talent. Watch and be amazed at the magic of Trixie!
Once again, the Great and Powerful Trixie prevails.
Oh?
When Trixie is through, the only thing they'll call you is loser.
Seems like anypony with a dash of good sense would think twice before tussling with the Great Trixie.
Ooo, what's the matter? Afraid you'll get a hair out of place in that rat's nest you call a mane?
Hah! You think you're better than the Great and Powerful Trixie? You think you have more magical talent? Well, come on, show Trixie what you've got. Show us all.
Ha! Once again, the Great and Powerful Trixie has proven herself to be the most amazing unicorn in all of Equestria. Huh, was there ever any doubt?
Yes?
Guh! Trixie is far too exhausted from performing feats beyond imagination. Begone with you until morning.
Ah.
Trixie thought she said the Great and Powerful Trixie did not want to be disturbed!
[screams]
Wait, you brought this here? [gasp] Are you out of your little pony minds?
Uh, okay. [gulp] Stand back.
Heh. Piece of cake.
[gasp, gulp]
Uh-oh.
I can't.
Oh, I can't, I never have. No one can vanquish an ursa major. I just made the whole story up to make me look better.
That was just a baby?
Huh. You may have vanquished an ursa minor, but you will never have the amazing, show-stopping ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie!
Fun fact: she refers to herself as "The Great and Powerful Trixie" twelve times in Boast Busters. (and according to Control+F, "Great and Powerful" appears 91 times total in the show dialogue.
Note: I'll do EQG and other odds and ends afterwards; they shouldn't be hard compared to the volume of the main series. I'm not insane so I'm not touching the IDW comics or the chapter books or any of the kind of terrifyingly large amounts of tertiary sources out there.
I was hoping to publish this before the end of april, but then I started actual writing and editing for the first time in years and remembered I'm really good at it when I actually try but actually trying takes a fuck ton of time and energy so yeah my Hard deadline is before May 30th because that was when I last published a new story last year >_>
rambling that has nothing to do with the rest of the blog:
speaking of 30 did I mention I turned 30 ten days ago. shit's weird.
Also I ran out of ADHD meds and Meth but for less extreme stimulant needs (i.e. not staying up multiple nights in a row or other bullshit like that), caffeine pills are pretty poggers, and I especially love that they don't make me horny. Last time I got my last scrapes of amphetamines I had left in my system I responded to like 20 BDSM personals on Reddit. (no I do not have porn on Reddit. I do look at porn though although not right now because again, no adhd pills or meth)
but as you can see caffeine pills are still great for rambling ESPECIALLY considering this entire blog is typed on a keyboard rather than my usual voice to text because I'm using my mom's computer since my laptop is buried somewhere in the mess that is my blanket fort bedroom in her garage right now.
I think thats enough rambling though. my eyes hurt from three nights in a row of stare master staring at a computer screen for 7 hours straight and my hands hurt because humans aren't built to do a fuck ton of typing.
I am getting really good at cooking steak I find for almost half off at the market cause the sell by date is rapidly approaching.
fuck my brain eyes and fingers need a break. I love you all drink water and be kind see you around!
Wow not counting the show dialogue I just typed roughly 975 words!
I just try to let the characters speak through me, focusing more on the idea of them than the raw data of their lines. I also say the lines out loud to make sure they both sound like the character and like something any actual person would say.
that actually sounds like a really worthwhile thing to do :O
Yo, why the hell is everyone here older than I am?
Anyway, about the context of the actual blog -
That is way more effort than I am willing to put into my stories, or quality of stories, whether or not I mean for them to have any meaning.
I commend you Trampoline, for being an actually decent author and planning shit out.
You the best of us.
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If I or someone else figures out how to automate/streamline it (and it hasn't been done already), I'll absolutely do this for the Main 6 and Spike. No way in hell I'm doing it manually though. Starlight is pushing it as it is. If I'm counting right, she has "
At least one appearance where [she] is the focus of a shot" in 43 episodes. Realizing that searching for her name with a colon will eliminate 99.99% of times her name is part of the dialogue itself, a quick control f of the transcripts page reveals...
1,533 lines of dialogue. Fuuuuuuck okay yeah I'm either figuring out how to automate this or just focusing on starlight episodes that also have Trixie in them.
trixie by contrast has 532 lines, of which boast busters was 34 lines
ooooo imagine feeding all this shit into an AI to generate fake character lines.
okay I should probably go to bed.
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thank you, I appreciate it. but to be EXTREMELY clear, the VAST majority of my stories are shitfics.
just for fun, here are my "recent" story titles:
Oh God Oh Frick I’m Back on My Bullshit, and Just in Time for the May Pairing Contest. Huh, This Title Doesn’t Feel Long Enough. Haha That’s What She Said. Though We as a Society Really Ought To Stop Shaming People for Their Pool Noodle Size.
Apparently the Cadance’s a Bad Mom Contest Ends in Like 4 Hours so Let’s See if I Can Write a Crappy Story Before My Sleeping Pills Kick In / I Wrote It! Now Can I Edit While Delivery Driving? ~OR~ Cadance is Very Racist and Kind of Classist
Trixie has Asomatognosia (sole outlier as far as titles go)
Honestly My Best Chance at Getting a Bunch of You to Read Another Horrible Story of a Mine Is to Give It a Really Ridiculous Long Title and Give It Wacky Surreal Cover Art. Now I Just Need to Add Some Horrible Writing to the Mix and We Should Be Good
Struggling to Title This Story, I Was Going to Call it "'Conversations and Love Songs' is a Paul Simon Compilation from 1988, But This Story Only Contains Conversations, Not Love Songs", But It Turns Out It's Actually "Negotiations and Love Songs".
Last Minute Season 10 Bingo Writing Contest Entry EDIT: This is Very Clearly Being Published a Week After the Contest Deadline. As Often is the Case, I Failed to Finish This in a Timely Manner.
God Darn It's Been Forever Since I Wrote A Good Story.
and of course, still semi-consistently updated almost 7 years after publication, my longest story and my shitfic magnum opus:
⇩ Please Downvote! ⇩
- MLP: FiM
- MLP Gen 5
- Romance
- Comedy
- Random
My OC, Super Trampoline, is dating all of the Elements of Harmony plus the princesses plus the major antagonists plus the minor antagonists too! That's a lot of work! Also, he's obviously the seventh element. Read on for his many amazing adventures!That sounds like an interesting project. Hope it helps, and good luck meeting that deadline.
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On a related note, there was a brief period where I experimented with typing a character's dialogue into 15.ai, converting that text to speech in their voice, and listening to determine if the lines made sense coming out of their mouth.
The process was lengthy, finicky, and ultimately provided only minimal benefits. Oh well. At the very least, I enjoyed giving it a try!
It seems like there may be projects like this out there already which makes sense given you know, there are millions of other scripts and transcripts out there in the world
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34040242/reading-only-the-words-of-a-specific-speaker-and-adding-those-words-to-a-list
Here that feature is but only with a paid subscription to whatever this writing program is
https://writerduet.helpscoutdocs.com/article/92-dialogue-report
And in the process just discovered a new webcomic called pepper and carrot and in the process of that discovered the author is big on helping the internet not suck
https://www.davidrevoy.com/article769/peppercarrot-the-transcript-feature
https://www.davidrevoy.com/article904/how-proprietary-social-medias-are-shaping-the-future-of-peppercarrot
I always just did it the old fashioned way. Either watch a bunch of episodes, or recall from memory. Primarily, though, just write the damn thing. Shit man, I do that too. Write a character roughly (mostly how I speak) and go back and edit it later. I mean, I try to get their speech down in the first draft, but it's never perfect.