Hello Everypony,

I'm Dramacolt, and I'm an experienced writer on FIMfiction, having been active for the past three years. I came across this group and found the overall concept very cool to explain the thought process of fanfiction, as I have had a lot of process for all of my stories. I'll be using this thread to discuss my stories and how I came to write them all. I hope you enjoy.

Samhainophobia:

This was the very first story I've ever written, both fanfiction and in general. This tells the story of Fluttershy finding the courage to go out and enjoy herself on Nightmare Night, with the help of her friends. Inspiration for the story began in the summer of 2012 (Around the same time I joined the fandom) after watching a video mash-up of Luna Eclipsed with "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas. While getting excited for Halloween as a result, it also made me think about how Fluttershy saw the holiday season, and how she views it as the complete opposite from everyone else around her. This was also a time when Fluttershy was officially growing on me as a character and I was already falling in love with her. Feeling very empathetic for her situation, I decided to give her the Night I knew she deserved.

The writing process began with writing a few false starts to the story and researching everything I could about Halloween and the people who have a clinical fear for it (The title of the story). The whole research process lasted for about two months until I was finally able to think up a plot line I was satisfied with by late September. Writing the official story lasted about a month to make sure it was ready for the Halloween season.

Most of the story was written either at night or very late in the day for two main reasons: convenience with my schedule, and it was the time when my mind felt more empathetic for those in dreadful situations. To help with my process, I would usually watch Flutershy's scene in Luna Eclipsed, paying very close attention to her facial expressions, tone of her voice, actions, and speech patterns. I tried to not view the scene as comical like it was written as, to help me better understand her point of view and what was probably going on in her mind that night. I also listened to some Halloween music including the soundtrack to Sweeney Todd and other Tim Burton related scores. By the time the story was ready to be published, it appeared on the site on the evening of October 21st, 2012; this was almost a whole year after Luna Eclipsed had its world premier (Coincidentally, the story itself is set exactly one year after the events of the episode).

The story started out with some moderate success at the time, reaching about 13 upvotes and 3 downvotes by the summer of 2013. However, by the fall of that year, as I gained more followers and a well-known user was very positive towards the story itself, I noticed it was added to several groups, was getting more views/reviews, and the upvote bar was increasing almost by the day. At that moment, I officially knew that I succeeded with the story, A WHOLE YEAR AFTER ITS INITIAL PUBLISHING!

That's all I can really write for now, but I will be adding more story trivia and behind-the-scenes facts to this post when I find the time to do so. Until then, I'll provide the link to the story for your viewing pleasure.

Samhainophobia