Hey guys! Blaxbone here.

It happened to me 4 days ago while I wanted to post my story and it failed moderation. I know why and I can't blame them, I tried once again with lazy changings and it failed once again. Now I'm more determined than ever.

But I'm off the topic...

I think it could happen ( and had happened ) to some of you and I wanted to see the " tips " of those who dealt with that.

My first fail was:

Dear Blaxbone,
Your story Lost in thoughts has failed moderation on FimFiction for the following reason: For the sake of readability, please be sure to either tab-indent or double-space out your paragraphs.
This story, as it has been submitted, is not considered to be related to the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic universe. As a general rule, if you can sub out a few names or vocabulary terms from your story and be unable to tell that it’s a My Little Pony fanfic, it is not considered to be related enough. If you have plans to add chapters in the future which will more closely connect this story to MLP, please be sure to have those published before resubmitting.
Please make the required changes and resubmit.

For the sake of readability

The easy part, I forgot to add the regular sections and other things.

[...] is not considered to be related to the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic universe.

As it's said. It also got me the next submit. The thing is my first chapter is ( and will still be ) mostly char depths.

From Nitrous Rainbows

Yours is just too much character analysis so far and less ponies.

Maybe it only happened to me... anyways.

It is true, my chapter was more like an awakning with a zest of ponies...

If you have troubles, maybe you should wait and submit more chapters at a time. Or the easy way, change your story to have more ponies ( maybe add some dream or something... ).

EDIT: Link to the story

4457937 No one can help if you don't link the story here. But from what I saw so far based on your old messages, it was basically internal monologue. Nothing really happened.

Yeah, I was looking for help but not that much since I am actually questioning "story approver" .

I thought it could be interesting in the future if people wants to write their stories and read about the troubles they might get. And not spam the "story approvers" with those.

I didn't want to link the story for now, since I'm actually re-reading it and will maybe change a few things...
But if someone asks for it ( or wants to help ) I'll drop it.

And don't worry about the first chapters, sh@t gots real afterwards.

4457993 Without hindsight, I wouldn't have known it was mlp. I also I did find it hard to track exactly what happened and how it was related to this group as well. Also, there's still no link to the story here, how can anyone help you improve it? And all I have to work with is an outdated version of part of a chapter.

Just copy paste the link of the unlisted story here somewhere. Or use Google documents.

As a note - at one point, 30k-words or complete was a rule introduced when a lot of 'five score plus two' fics were happening, and being abandoned.

Another issue is insufficient ties to MLP.
With the setting having no knowledge of MLP - the chars can't even discuss MLP.
If your chars are living on earth, have no knowledge of MLP, and there isn't something beyond their forms to tie them to MLP, it could strongly be argued that this isn't a MLP story.

To avoid this being common - or worse - a rule being made - try to keep quality high, actually complete stories rather than stalling, and consideration should be made to - if it's not already - a tie of some form to Equestria.

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/2841/4/the-taste-of-grass/four-worth-his-salt - for example - could have been written as 'we got turned into ponies by some unknown force and dumped here' - the tie would be that they make a functioning, recognisably equestrian community.

Edit: I have no control or influence over the moderation of stories.

4458075 Hence the visions/dreams at night or in the rune circles.

4458075

The main story isn't finished yet, I think only Starscribe could change / add MLP features.

For now all we have is the visions at night or from the circles.

We have to wait for the plot to be thicker and exploit more of that

4458823
I'm aware of this problem, and kinda surprised I didn't get failed on these grounds. I do intend to leave the universe in a place that allows other writers to have stronger connections to Equestria. Unfortunately, it will take some time to get there. I'm not going to short-change the story in order to get there sooner. If anyone would want to get a story posted before that point, my suggestion would be to:

1. Focus heavily on the transformation and on being a pony.
2. Don't write a journal format.
3. Focus the description and summary entirely on the content of your story, and don't reference mine until after you pass moderation. I get the sense that spinoffs are judged more harshly. It's okay not to acknowledge the Ponies After People stories until after you get approved, so long as everything else in your description is still true. You can't write a description for a different story and change it, because that's lying and surely against some rule.
4. Don't write a story about isolation. Have another pony with your character from the get-go, so there can be some pony-on-pony interactions going.
5. Have impeccable spelling, grammar, and formatting. Make the story as readable as possible.
6. Make sure your story is not a straight-up retelling of Last Pony on Earth. The Mods have all seen that story by now (even if I doubt any of them care to read it), and they'll be much harsher on a story that seems to be a copy. Make your unique character clear from the start. Make it obvious that you aren't writing the same story starring a different protagonist.

Or wait another month, until Last Pony on Earth is done. At that point, it will hopefully be much easier to get spinoffs written and approved.

4461291

I did some serious thinking for about 4/5 days and I will not post this story until you have finished yours.
I really need to improve in English/writing and give it everything I've got ( not making a chapter in 2 days as I did for exemple )
Plus I'll get more time during the holidays to concentrate on writing. I will not abandon the project though, I will finish the 2nd chapter soon.

Anyway, I'll still let the link for those who want an idea of my work. ( even if it's crappy )