Life lessons with Bad Dragon: Is Writing Supposed to Be Fun? · 7:50pm May 4th, 2022
There are confused beings out there who seek guidance. And that is why I am here. I serve as a guardian against the fearful, innocent souls who are stuck at the crossroads.
Don't be shy. Come into my den, my victim student. I shall teach you the ways of life and death.
My follower asks: Is writing supposed to be fun?
That is a good question, underling. Sit on my lap and I shall show you a quick and sudden way out of your predicament.
Bad Dragon teaches a valuable lesson:
This is how your keyboard should feel under your fingertips when you write:
You know that voice inside of your head that you call consciousness? While you write, that voice is supposed to keep repeating, "Someone please kill me. This is agony. I don't want to do this." Over and over again.
It should feel like Hellish torture that is ripping your very soul apart.
If it doesn't feel like that, it means that you're not writing for your readers but for yourself. Of course, I can't stop everypony from writing for themselves, unfortunatelly.
If you write for yourself, you have to accept that you will never become a real writer. You have failed in this life as a writer, and you only had one.
With that, tonight's lesson concludes. Another person relieved of the ignorant life.
And this is how my writing improves over time.
Thank you for your sagely advice.
5655386
*rubs belly
The pleasure is all mine.
5655391
BTW, I've revised the drafts of some future chapters in "All The Time In The World" to meet your criteria.
More grimdark, still somewhat lighthearted, but "taking consequences Clock's prognostication up to 11"
5655393 Well, grimdark should never be the goal. It's just a side effect of trying to shatter somepony's mind.
As for the consequences, I don't think you have to worry too much. The character doesn't affect the story too much. His power is such that whenever he uses his power, that power annihilates itself (if he acts on what he predicts, it doesn't come true).
5655402
Right.
What I mean is that I am drafting Clockwork's cutie mark story, and when he discovers his power, a few things happen.
1) The few friends he has (at this point, just Sunburst) freak out and worry that this unicorn has too much power.
2) His mother is scared shitless, knowing that this is probably due to being a demigod.
3) Celestia pretends to like him, and puts him in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. This is not because she suddenly loves her nephew, but because this power could kill ponies if now harnessed properly.
4) He meets his cousin Twilight Sparkle, who at this point just became an alicorn. She becomes a pony that Clockwork can vent to. Less of a friend, more of a horse shrink.
5655406 If this is a story about this character, all these things could work.
But is your story really about this character? From what I understood, this is actually a G5 story and his memories become available to the main cast.
If all you want to do is hammer a nail into a board, all you need is a hammer. You don't need a hammer's backstory and its biography.
What I fear is that you're diluting a story. Remember, the story isn't finished when there's nothing more to add to it. The story is finished when there's nothing left that can be removed from it without shattering it.
5655414
It's a mix of the two.
Clock's memories become visible, and these are his memories. The Mane Five are the cast, and Clockwork is the storytelling device, at deuteragonist at most.
If anything, Luna is a main character, aiding Sunny through her son's history.
5655415 If that's the case, then I'm not sure if you should keep adding on the backstory of a background character.
Perhaps you would be better off writing separate stories. One for G5, one for Luna and one for Clockwork.
5655418
Hm...
I will take that advice into consideration. I wanted to initially do something like this, but I thought I could tie in my OC's narrative with the post ANG Mane cast.
I'll see if I can make it work. if not, I can always reboot everything and try again.
5655420 My advice is that you should stop expanding. The way you're going, with every chapter you write, you'll have extra two more to write and you'll never finish the project. Bring it home, as soon as you can.
That was an amusing interaction. It's fun reading about some little part of strangers' lives.