It's syllabus week! Well, imagine it's syllabus week. This is where you get to know your fellow students, teachers, and student teachers. There's no format, for formatting is frowned upon here at Characterization Academy. Tell us your story.

I'll start us out.

Name's Bluegrass Brooke. Or Bluegrass or Brooke, Principal, donkey, Kurohime, or whatever you'd prefer. I've been on the site for almost two years. Wow. Yeah, I guess I have. Anywho, I'm a 23 year old woman currently finishing up her final semester of college studying Animal Sciences as it relates to food animal agriculture. If you've any questions about the industry, I'm happy to answer! Educating the public about agriculture is one of my career goals after all.

Though I study science, my real passion is writing, history, and all things fiction. I got into fanfiction around the time I joined the site. Writing has always been a talent of mine as I come from a family of writers. I started writing fanfiction because I wanted to see if I still enjoyed writing as much as I did in high school. Surprise surprise, I did. But, I knew I had gotten REALLY rusty (if the first story I published on the site is any indication). So I practiced and practiced.

I've long since had the goal of writing professionally, and so I approach ALL my stories as if I plan on publishing them professionally. Fanfiction isn't just fun for me, though it is fun. I write to improve my storytelling until it reaches the point I can craft a story worthy of being published. Then I hope to transition to my own personal fiction.

My good buddy, Nomad_Sigma calls me Kurohime for a good reason. I have a fondness for dark romance and enjoy causing bodily harm to my characters. I like dark, serious themes and putting characters into difficult situations. I tend towards the overly emotional end of the spectrum. If this was Star Trek, I'd be McCoy. I love straight romance, particularly Twicord though I'm also a crazy SombraShy and Trenderdash shipper. As a Christian, I often weave in Christian themes and elements into my stories.

I started this group with Miranda Laufeyson because we both agreed that current OC groups on the site were drastically lacking in terms of actual teaching. They served as displays for people's OC's without any real drive to improve or grow as authors and individuals. Well, that's about to change, because here at Characterization Academy, if you're not learning and being challenged, you're likely doing something wrong.

I am SkelePone.

Skelly, Felix, Skele, S.P.

Meal name is Felix Aberg. I am 17 years of age and have been given an additional year to live. I'm a Swedish-American immigrant and I write for hobby, but I may get into professional before I die.
I was diagnosed with melanoma, and it has already gotten into my lungs. When I die I plan on giving my name as SkelePone and passing it on to my friend, Leif Mason. He will be running the SkelePone YouTube channel and finishing any incomplete stories still on my Fimfiction. So don't get used to me, you'll want to get used to Lief.

Personally, I treat everything but LyraBon as a straight ship. I don't ship any of the Mane 6 with each other, but I ship in ways that make sense:
Cheese Sandwich x Pinkie Pie
Twilight Sparkle x Flash Sentry
Fluttershy x Discord
Rarity x Spike
Cheerilee x Big Mac
Derpy x Time Turner (yes, Time Turner. Not "Doctor Whooves")

I try my best to make my OCs three-dimensional. Like Carnegie Porter, any of my llama OCs, Shudderbones, Scout Merit, et cetera.

I'm trying to kickstart a boost in Llama OCs, with my story Llamas: A Drama. My last attempt to influence non-Alicorn and non-pony OCs was in I, Scrappy, a failed project about Automatons.

I am constantly learning the aspects of a good fan fiction, and Lief is already talented enough to write beautifully (he co-wrote the first chapter of Llamas: A Drama with me).

Oh boy, introductions! This shouldn't be awkward at all.

My name is Miranda and I'm nearing fifteen years old. I originally didn't intend to be a student teacher here at Characterization academy, but Bluegrass Senpai insisted, and Senpai's word is law. I have a lot of characters that are complex in their relationships and personalities, but I lack the skill to write stories about them, so. . . Bluegrassbrooke is helping me learn more about how to write proper stories while I just keep my headcanons on deviantArt posts.

I enjoy drawing fan art for original characters that I like as well, so there might be some dishing out of free art as long as my rigorous independent study program gives me time

Well then... introductions.

Hello! I go mainly by Grey or Dusk, but will respond easily to either one, as to Greycat or Greycait. Perhaps our first Canadian admission? Starting to feel old at 23 since that makes me the same age as our principal, so that's a thing. Anyway; graduate with a degree in geography, a minor (with enough credits for a major had it not been for university bureaucrats apparently decided they hated me in my last year) in biology, and a job in neither of the fields. Born and raised in Jamaica, and been a Canadian citizen for near a decade now. You can see the influences in my use of the British English spelling for words. I might have blamed the occasional me/my mistake on it as well, but that's more just my fingers flying to the wrong keys.

I've got a passion for felines and mythology and a think for doing quick research into topics that catch my fancy. I've got a passion for reading, particularly urban fantasy and science fiction, and a lesser on for the ideas of philosophy. Avid pen&paper gamer, with experience in Dungeons and Dragon 3.5 (less with 4e, none with 5e), Pathfinder, Mutants and Masterminds, Shadowrun (meh...), HC SVNT Dracones (meh...) and World of Darkness (less meh...) I'm also proud of my status as a nerd and wholeheartedly agree with those who accuse me of it. I relish my eccentricities. Wear them as a badge of pride.

Well, not really. I've got no swag whatsoever. I keep meaning to try and get to a convention or something but I'm also kind of lazy (though I prefer to call it apathy and complacence. Has a nicer ring to it) and cheap (which I most certainly refer to as being frugal and economical). Right! I have a penchant towards rambling and heavy sarcastic tint to my personality. I also have a penchant towards ellipsis and semi colons, but that's unrelated. Also brackets. From my rambling I suppose. Compartmentalizing thoughts?

I joined this site about a week after giving into a combination of boredom and a fiends nudging (said nudging having been maintained for about a year and a half). Said week was spent binge watching seasons one through four. I've crashed hard into the fandom since then. Really. Ask my gaming group. I've been nudging ponies and hints of ponies into everything I run since then, and something pony (inclusive of the MLP world and setting) tends to be one of my firsts leaps of logic.

Technically my love of creating is as strong as my love reading, and writing is a marvellous way to accomplish that. Unfortunately I'm not as good at writing as I'd like to be, not only in actually putting manipulators to keys and thoughts to a page, but also in characterization. (And sentence structure at times, and those annoying typos like thing/think, way/why and like/life). Lore building and theorizing is something I do enjoy though. Visual art and music is something I can't even pull off in my dreams though. No shame in admitting that.

I'm also one of those who would enough like to be able to pull off the professional tract in regards to his writing, but knows he's got a long way to go. I also have a tendency to start too many projects and bemoan the fact that I leave them half done as I follow another burst of inspiration.

My primary purpose here? To learn. I can't promise I'll be the most active, forgetfulness is another trait of mine to my shame (as is hiding from responsibility...), but I do know I need to continue to improve, and the aid and opinions of others can be a major boon to that. I can speak from experience that strong characterization seems to be one of my weaknesses. As is writing with is colloquially known as 'the feels'. Yeah... we don't get along well.

Still. What is an academy but a place to learn? Kanpai!

Wow... this turned out way longer than I expected... fancy that.

Oh, hello! So... wow. Honestly, I didnt expect an introduction thread without a form to fill out to introduce yourself. xD.

Well, as you can see, my username is Night Mare Moon, but mostly I go by Nightmare or Moony. Seriously. As for the other tidbits of information, well, prepare your self for an onslaught of information.

I'm a girl who really loves shows like MLP, and you'll find that I actually can have a dark sense of humor. Well, I also am in debate and I like drawing. I admit, I'm not that comfy in my own body(Translation= I don't think I'm gonna be comfortable as a girl) and... wellllllll.... I really hope people here aren't homophobic, because I'm bisexual and proud of it. I'm an aspiring writer/artist that frankly isn't too good at humans but holeh sht my ponies are awesome in my eyes. I'm a multi fandom girl and like the supernatural(Gravity falls anyone?). In my younger years, I can't tell you how many shows I wanted to be real. Pokemon, Digimon, MLP, heck, even dinosaurs even if they weren't a show. Now that I'm older, I'd have to say MLP stuck with me the most and probably got me out of some dark spots in my life when bullies were less then kind in their showing of transphobia.

So, thats pretty much me.

Oh, and I have an AMAZING OC made by Bluegrass. (THANK YOU HE IS AMAZING)

Bye!~

Well... Guess I'll make an introduction as well. Bare with me though, I'm not great at these.

As you can see, my username is SoaringCoal. Originally that was a name I made for an OC I've since then scrapped. But usually people just call me Timber. I'm a 18 year old, soon to be 19, Dane who lives in Denmark. My passions are sports, martial arts, reading and lastly but mostly writing.

I first got into MLP when my two roommates on boarding school pestered me with it for over two weeks, wanting me to watch it. Back then I was very doubtful about the whole brony, pegasister and just the subculture in general. But then I watched one episode, which became another, and another and two days after I emerged from my room as a closet brony. I was caught with the whole mythology of the world. I'm very into mythology and the almost endless possibilities for stories they can give. Since then I've become more open about the whole thing, but out of all of my friends, I am the one who is most into the fandom. 4 months after I came home from boarding school I discovered Fimfiction. For 5 months I scoured the website searching for stories I liked and read them. Then reread them, again, and again.

You see I'm the kind of guy that finds a point in a story that is my favorite. I find it rarely, maybe once per fifty stories but I call it a perfect moment. A moment in a story so perfectly made decriptionwise, storytelling and dialogue that it is just marvelously put together that I can read that point or chapter so many times that I lose count.

In January I decided to make my own story. As expected, I was very rusty. Not having used proper english for over a year had thrown out most of what I had learned, which I slowly relearned. But eventually pulled a decent story together. Since then I have been struggling with endless concepts(including sequels for those concepts) floating around in my head. I love creating and telling a story, but I feel like i'm struggling in the process of telling said stories.

My favorite characters are the ones I see with the most potential. Both in backstories and future development. To me those are: Discord and Trixie.

These characters have such potential for development and that is why those are the characters that intrigue me the most.

In time I want to become a decent writer who can put the an average story together, but my goal with my time here is to create a moment that can make other people feel like I feel when I read those few perfect moments that I have encountered.

4739083

Hello, I'm Melly.

Even if I've only been here a few months, I'm not new to FimFiction. I've been reading fics for a few years now. Of course, it's not my favorite subject, but I'll talk a little more about myself.

I'm fifteen, starting my first year of highschool, and I'm working towards graduating in three years instead. I love horses, cats, and donuts. I'm okay with dogs, but I'd much rather wave a stick at a cat or pet it while it's on my lap than run around chasing a dog that will most likely not fit on my lap and can't sit still for a few minutes. I play volleyball so I can get exercise in and spend time with my friends. I'd have to say that serving is my favorite part (lol, I serve underhand. I can't even spike the ball for the life of me.) Athletics aren't really my field of expertise or enjoyment, I mean who really wants to run around for an hour or two and get sweaty over something that doesn't matter; I prefer anything academic and art related. I suppose I'm a decent writer, as I've been told. Can't say if it's true or not. I love to draw and sketch.

Writing stories is little bit of a joke for me. I've got at least four ideas I want to write all at the same time. with about thirty plus still brewing in my mind. Currently, I've got one short story in the serious works. I'd have to say character development and emotion are my favorite parts of writing. Except for the one I'm working on right now, which is a comedy, all my stories have to do with deep emotional issues that the characters must work through. Writing is a bit of a personal involvement to me. There's something about a story that connects with you on an emotional level, makes you cry, and helps you with your life at the same time.

My favorite characters are Discord, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie. My favorite episodes are Return of Harmony 1 and 2, Keep Calm and Flutter On, Twilight's Kingdom 1 and 2, and Amending Fences. While I could talk on and on about the emotional levels in these episodes, I have to say that Amending Fences made me cry (two tears)-- which is a rare thing indeed.
Anyway, I believe I'm done.

~Melly~

Well then this will not be nearly as well written as any of the above or most that will fallow, but here goes.

I am yeaIdonotknow, as my username tells, or you may refer to me as just yea, but since that might get confusing for me, you all my instead use what my friends call me: Roj.

I am of 20 years of age I am currently attending college and majoring in video game art and design, and I have been enjoying myself with it so far.

I choose to join this academy so I could learn how to make better characters for my own storys and games I have been working on. I also hope I could improve my writing skills alongside others.

I have been a member for about a half year but I known about this site longer than that, the reason I got into mlp is mainly because I would watch it with my little sister and it was probably the only time we would be together for a extended period of time without getting angry with one another. I also enjoy it for its beautiful world and fun characters my favorite being discord,because who doesn't like some chaos once in a while.

I enjoy video games(playing and createing), Rp games, reading(genre: romantic comedy,action,fantasy, si-fi are my favorite), a bit of drawing, and technology and all that comes with it.

I am more than sure I made some mistakes here somewhere so just bare with me if you could.

Good ol' introductions, huh? Alright then. Let's do this!

I'm Jason, or 'Azu' as I am generally known as in the wild plains of the Internets. Which is short for "Azurulia"; an online character persona I developed as my first OC before I even knew what an OC was. Go figure, right? Anyway, I'm an easy going 29 year old guy who's trying not to think about the big 30 that's right around the corner.

In my college days I studied geology and philosophy, never using either after finishing. The typical bittersweet college ending. However college wasn't a waste of time, as it was friends I met there that would eventually drag me down the path of becoming a connoisseur of Slice of Life and/or Romance Anime. Which then extended on to Manga, and eventually Visual Novels. Despite my love for a good story and great characters, I never did see myself writing. In fact, I hated writing. Ever since I was a kid I held no interest in it, however it would seem that even back then apparently I had a natural talent for it. I recall teachers often complimenting my narrative assignments. However I shrugged the compliments off as them just trying to encourage me.

Now fast forward to almost 4 years ago when I discovered the magic of friendship and ponies. This was also when I discovered what "fanfiction" really was, and was exposed to some surprisingly good stories; quickly falling in love with this seemingly endless new content involving the characters from the show I loved. roughly three years ago, after reading so many wonderful stories, I felt the urge to give my own a shot as a sort of giving back to the community for the enjoyment it had given me. At first I had absolutely 0 confidence in my writing ability, though that began to slowly change after much praise, feedback, constructive criticism, and tons of experience and practice.

I now stand confident in my ability to write and edit, knowing that I am a good writer and even better editor. Am I great? Amazing? The best? Not at all. I still have a long, long way to go before I can even step up to "great," assuming I ever reach that mark. I'll point out that I take writing and editing of fanfiction very seriously, as I plan to become a professional literary editor in the future. While my grammar, punctuation and phrasing aren't the best, I consider my knowledge and experience with characters and subjects related to them to be my greatest strength; along with general story flow.

So as a teacher here at the Academy, I hope to impart as much of this wisdom as I can to students and fellow staff; as well as learning many new things myself. While I consider myself to be an expert on characters and the like, I am in no way a master and still have plenty to learn. Which is why I am here. To teach and to learn.

Also as Bluegrass Brooke listed within the Faculty and Staff Directory, I've somehow come to be known as "The Puppet Master of Feels." A title given to me by my readers and the writers I have worked with on their stories. I believe I earned this due to my ability to show character emotions, as well as swaying the readers. Sadness, joy, relatability, anger, and even rustled jimmies. These are a few of many I can instill in characters and the audience. So I guess you could say I am "the feels guy" to those who know me. If you're looking to add a bit of impact to an emotional scene and feel that you can't quite get it right, feel free to ask me if I could take a look at it. I actually love helping others if I can spare the time.

Setting writing aside, I am a gamer and general nerd through and through. My hobbies outside of writing mainly consist of playing video games and watching anime, reading manga, and playing visual novels. I'm practically an encyclopedia in regards to Slice of life and romance and still seek to add more to my mental collection. A funny thing about me is, that the more people who say they didn't like something because they thought it was too slow or boring, the more likely it is that I will enjoy it.

I think I rambled on enough for now. It's nice to meet everyone.

My username is a joke on a hydrology term, I will admit to being male, but I prefer to keep my real name a secret. I am a technical writer who wants to learn how to not be boring. My writing is precise, but my storytelling is dry and impersonal.

I originally became interested in FiM because it was a nearly unique blend of humor and good characters, while staying clean enough to watch with my baby sister.

Ironically, my first and biggest attempt at writing pony fanfiction is tagged for gore, but that has never bothered me as much as obscenity and debauchery.

My writing tends to be succinct and blunt, which is not always conducive to storytelling.

Yeah! Alright.

I'm RadicalDishonesty, which is a half self-deprecating half bravado reference to the fact that fiction is an entertaining and positive way to lie. It's been shortened to Rad or Radi before, and I'm fond of either.

I'm even older than Azu! But only barely. I mostly try not to sweat it.

I have, throughout my life, always tried to find a way to express myself creatively. I would always be inspired with things, but even my longest-term projects rarely found purchase. It was rather frustrating, and eventually I decided to focus on my career (software development) and not use "I'm trying to do X" as an excuse to delay finding a job.

But... nearly three years ago (mid season three) I started watching FIM after being not-pressured by a friend of mine that did. Later, desirous to get elaboration on some characterization... I finally gave fanfiction a try, which I had mostly bought into the rather exclusively negative stereotypes that are pushed around the internet. Of course, at very least this fandom (and probably many others) have some high-quality authors and works...

Reading was always my first love, staying up past my bedtime, checking out a book every day or two from the school library, trying to figure out which fantasy or sci fi novels I hadn't read yet. It had been a while since I had read a novel, and reading fanfiction around characters I liked quite a bit was like coming back to an old friend. I was hooked.

Eventually I took the plunge and started writing.

As to why I'm in this group, writing may be just a hobby of mine, but I don't engage in a hobby seriously without self-improvement being in my mind. If I'm writing, I want to write well, and I'm hoping that joining and being social about it will help me improve in ways that reading advice articles on my own cannot.

Favorite characters in canon are Spike, for whom I want to see all the good things happen to in canon, and Blueblood, for whom I hope never appears in canon very much at all so fanfiction authors are free to play with his motivations as they feel like.

I may be a bit late, but here’s my entry :

My name’s Striving Scholar, or Tyler if you’d prefer. I’ve been into MLP since mid-2013 and joined this site late last year. Creative writing has always been one of my favorite hobbies, though after joining the FIMFiction community, I have researched and discovered that my current skills (particularly with OC’s) still have a ways to go with understanding certain concepts and ideas that are key to good writing.

I actually have a lot of OC’s of my own, some more fleshed out/ developed than others. In joining this group, I hope to learn how to handle my OC’s better, develop some ideas for when the OC stories can be released and to overall improve myself as a writer as well as help others improve as well. I look forward to working with others here and hope that it will be a great time.

Hey, Brooke, are you still around?