Well, the wheel of Fate has determined you to be my next victim in interviewing torture! Get the fluffy pillow!... Wait, this isn't the Spanish Inquisition! Hold on.

Pinkie, get outta my script!
But... I wanna help out...
Pinkie, I said out! No!- don't touch- AH! *CRASH*

Annnnd we're back. So, your number was drawn and it's time to get interviewed! Are you available and still interested in this?

I am available just about all day tomorrow and Thursday and yes, I am very much still interested in this.

Woot woot!
Well, I'll be available for a good chunk of tomorrow and Thursday, so I think we're golden.

Stock starting question, before we get into the meat of things;
You've been a member of this site for roughly four years now! Wow! What brought you to this site and, on a broader scale, to the Fandom as a whole?

Well, I used to write over at Fanfiction.Net. I had known about FIMFiction pretty much since I started following EqD and many stories pointed here. What got me to move over here was me realizing "This site has a thumbs-up/down system. FF.Net doesn't." No one left any kind of actual criticism over at FF.Net, it was always "OMG luv this story!" or "this sux" (and usually, not even that, since most people just stopped reading rather than provide negative criticism). So I came over here with a brand spankin' new side-fic that I was working on, just to kind of see how people liked my writing. The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan started with 1 thumb-up and 7 thumbs-down, and I was determined to climb my way back into positive figures, so I stuck around, eventually turning Apprentice into the longest story I've ever written. I've been here ever since.

As for the fandom, I've been a Netizen since late 2010. I saw the bronies explode into popularity, but I wasn't really a hater. People are gonna like what they like, right? I saw that they had staff and voices from shows from my childhood on there, so on my 19th birthday, I gave the show a shot. Got interrupted watching the first two episodes and had to come back a few weeks later, but after that, I was a brony through and through.

I will say, people do give more constructive criticism here. It's very helpful when trying to perfect a story.
I skimmed the contents of that story and found it interesting enough to make me want to read it later. I've no idea how it got so much flack in the beginning! The concept it intriguing and offers a lot of potential.

It seems to me like writing was always enjoyed doing, huh? What about writing do you love the most? Do you enjoy letting people hear your story? Adding something to an existing headcanon? Or perhaps it's, to quote our group, making yourself known?

I heard a quote once that went something like "A writer is a world trapped in a person." I was always imaginative when I played outside. My stick that was a sword didn't stop being be a sword/keyblade/lightsaber/etc. until I was out of high school, if that makes sense. I love creating things for people to enjoy, and this offered both the opportunity to be incredibly imaginative and still create something completely new (aside from majoring in art, but I wanted to actually make money, so I became a programmer :D).

And if you were to look at my old FF.Net account, you would see a window into my writing style before I came here (I really don't recommend it). I was forced to improve as a writer when I came here. That constant drive to improve is another thing that keeps me invested.

I used to do that too~! I still do, every now and then; pick up a stick and go through a few made-up kata just for laughs.
We all start somewhere, you know. None of us are born writers.

Now, a show related question;
What was your favorite Episode of the series as a whole?

That's tough. I loved Luna Eclipsed for the longest time. Now, it'll have to be Do Princesses Dream Of Magic Sheep?, because Larson teased us about making Mac an alicorn, and we thought he was bluffing!

Haha~! That was, in fact, absolutely amazing. I still like my headcanon though: Red Bull.

So, would it be safe to assume then that your favorite pony is Princess Big Mac? Or Luna? If not, who is it?

Three favorites, actually. Derpy is best, Luna is best secondary, Twilight is best main.

Ah Derpy, we all love you. And Luna is best Princess in my opinion. I love Twilight, but... Luna.

Deep question time;
When was the last time you marched into the dark with only the soft glow of an idea you strongly believed in?

Apprentice. Like I said, 1-7 was its starting point, when you're a guy who has been writing for about 5 years before that. I had faith I could pull it out, even though I kept seeing dislikes here and there. Still, kept at it, and now I'm sitting with over 200 likes and an audio drama in production.

There's also Twilight Sparkle Versus the Forces of Darkness. I know where I'm going with that one, but it's only got one chapter and my own feelings on it are gonna be super-mixed until I finally start getting around to the really fun parts. Just gotta endure... endure my horrid and irregular work schedule and churn out the chapters.

Yeouch. I've been there; uncertain about the story, but chugging through anyway. It's tough, especially when you're not given much time to write.
Tell me; what do you like to see in a story? What, to you, is the most important thing?

Characters, characters, characters.

You could have the most batshit crazy plot and the weirdest plot devices, but if the characters are fully-fleshed-out, relate-able, and dynamic, it can still make the story. I mean, just look at Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World or The Big Lebowski. Half of what makes those movies so much fun is the characters. If there are no characters you can relate to and invest in, your story will have no emotional impact. They have strengths, and they have flaws. No truly passable character has no flaws, not even late in life. They might just get good at resisting the temptation to indulge, but they will still have an Achilles heel in that sense.

And they can't just be nominal, either. A lot of Mary Sues like to throw out "flaws" but they're never touched on or hinder the character in any way. I think my favorite line about this is from the hilarious (and you should totally read it) Kingdom Hearts fanfic "Those Lacking Spines."

"HEY! I am SO not a Mary Sue!" Sakura-Rose halted her threatening charge and triumphantly righteous speech, placing her hands on her hips in protest. "I have FLAWS! Like my stepdaddy beats me and he's SOOOO MEAN! And I only got second place in my school spelling bee, and my class rank is only 3rd out of 247!"

Characters have to be realistic, with traits that hinder them that they have to overcome, or else they just lose all realism, un-suspend our disbelief, and ruin any investment we had in the story. But that's not to say to give them absolutely zero redeeming qualities. That's what helps make them a well-rounded, realistic, and relate-able character.

Nova Shine, for example, is charming, cunning, empathetic, and a very likable character, but he's also incredibly sarcastic (as is just about everyone I write about, with some more malicious about it than others), really likes to hold grudges, doesn't really control his anger very well, and is a textbook pisanthrophobe, and this constantly hurts his relationships with others. Similarly, Scott Pilgrim. He is incredibly adorkable, funny, cares about his friends (somewhat), and will fight for them, but he cheats on his girlfriends and he's incredibly self-centered, and more than once, it leaves him alone and friendless. It's also why I find Eustace Scrubb and Edmund Pevensie to be the best characters in Chronicles of Narnia.

On the converse, you look at notoriously bad stories like My Immortal, legolas by laura, or (in my honest opinion) The Twilight Saga. Completely disregarding the very blatant, not-at-all-hidden wish fulfillment, Ebony/Enoby/Ebory/TaEbory/Egogy, Laura, and Bella all end the story the same way they started, have no discernible flaws (except maybe Bella's clumsiness, but that manifests more as a Diabolus Ex Machina than an actual character flaw), and have everything essentially given to them on a platter, a far cry from the characters whose worst enemies are themselves as much as their antagonists.

Wow, I should've asked that question earlier. Super-long reply, go~!
I work hard to make every character I write believable. Even Celestia, for all her power, has some pretty serious flaws; even in vanilla Mlp. I've noticed that some authors write Mary Sues on accident, getting so attached to the character that it's hard to see they're messing things up. I hope people would have the courage to tell me if I do write a Mary Sue without realizing it!
On a side note, Scott Pilgrim is my story! I loved the comics, the game was phenomenal and the movie just tied it all together perfectly.

*Ahem* Back to the interview.

Use five words to describe yourself, then explain why you chose those words.

Eccentric, sarcastic, honorable, creative, and intellectual.

Eccentric - my collection of likes and dislikes is just off-the-wall. MLP is only the tip of the iceberg. And then there's my usual habit of talking to myself, so that I can organize my thoughts, which move so much faster than I can keep up with a lot of the time.

Sarcastic - Think this one speaks for itself. Rubs off on almost all my characters, too. Sarcasm is just my body's natural defense against stupid.

Honorable - I don't lie, I don't steal, I play fair, etc. I mean, there was one time where I knew I was going to break up with my ex-girlfriend, but due to it being Finals Week, I originally tried to wait it out. But the thought of maintaining a relationship that wasn't there made it seem like a lie to me and it made me physically sick in the midst of my study time. Needless to say, that wasn't a fun finals week. You see a bit of this in a lot of my characters too. Aegis hates fighting dirty if it can be helped.

Creative - "A writer is a world trapped within a person." Except it's more like six or seven different worlds, and multiverses and "What If?" scenarios, and that's for just ONE of my stories.

Intellectual - I don't want to sound pompous by putting this here, but I like knowing things. It's why I'm so attached to Twilight, because we both like to learn about new things. I don't think I know everything; I acknowledge that I don't but I want to.

A close sixth would have been romantic, because damn do I like good love stories, but even my tendencies when writing sway toward the platonic romantic genre (grandiose, dramatic storylines and such).

Well, you and I share Eccentric, Sarcastic, and Creative. It's refreshing to see someone with an actual sense of honor these days. I was starting to think Honor was dead. And you and I share a love for romance, it seems.

Mlp is only the tip of the Iceburg, eh? Any other interesting and notable eccentricities that you are willing to share?

Doctor Who, like anyone with a soul. There's a lot of things. Just how I act around people always makes hem look twice.

Believe me, I know that one.
Yeah. He seems to think I'm living in his computer. Crazy, right?
But... You are.
Am I, Inky? Am I?

*Ahem*

Time for the grand finale;
Choose one of these three options and go to town;

1. What is your favorite quote to define who you are? You can quote yourself.

2. If you could change one aspect of the world around you, what would it be and why? This can be anything from your neighbor to the laws of physics itself.

3. If you had to pick one person on this website, besides yourself, to sponsor, who would it be and why?

2. There's a lot of things I'd change. Starting with the fact that there's no such thing as magic in any stretch of the term that doesn't involve smoke and mirrors. Magic is too much fun in games I can cast it in. I mean, we could have an Elder Scrolls system, or perhaps a Runescape magic system, or even the Harry Potter Universe or Equestrain magic. I just want magic.

Oh, Ye Gods, yes! Make me a Dragonborn any day!

Thank you for your time. Is there anything you'd like to add or anything you want to change?

Think we got everything. Be sure to send me the link to the interview!

With pleasure, neighbor.

Inkheart - And Pinkie! - out.

-Inkheart

Nice job!