Hello,

My current most popular stories are my Warhammer crossovers, God Empress of Ponykind and The Empress Returns. I'm proud of the work I've done there, but I find myself with a problem: when I try to sit down and write original work, or even other pony works, I always find myself either a) comparing it unfavorably to those two, b) stealing themes and scenes from them rather than trying to come up with something new, or c) loosely trying things back in so they don't stand on their own in the long run. I want to break out and try some new things, but I find that I cannot escape the shadow of those fics.

Thoughts on how to break out? Perhaps some similar struggles and experiences with the matter?

Write in a completely different story genre. Something that can't compare, really. Writing Warhammer crossovers? Write a cuddly romance in a world filled with bunnies that aren't powered by chaos and/or death. And don't link the two.

Write a comedy about puppies or something. The important thing, for me, was to write something maybe not antithetical to the story I'd just finished that I thought was the bomb, but in a different style, with different story beats, and a different tempo.

After I wrote a long romance, I wrote a short, stupid comedy about literal balls of steel. Then I wrote a long slice of life involving humans instead of ponies, and not much romance. After that, a series of short, one-off dramas/slice of lifes. Then a longish mystery.

Expand, explore, write in different modes. Get more tools in your toolbox so not everything looks nails next to the two big warhammers you have.

And just do it.

Oh, also, read lots. Lots and lots. Genre fiction, historical fiction, romance, fantasy adventure, fantasy romance, slice of life... and yes, more sci-fi, but from different worlds and universes. Read sci-fi mysteries, adventures, romances, mil-fic too.

READ ALL THE THINGS. The more you read, the more you'll be aware of more tools and modes you can use, more themes and ideas that you can adapt to your own use. You'll learn more words, more ways to construct a sentence, a paragraph, a plot and a story.

Everyone does it.

Everyone.

Now you go do it too.

6696242
There's no rule that says everything you write has to be on par with previous work; there's a reason the term 'magnum opus' exists. As long as you're setting out to write something good, it doesn't matter whether it lives up to that first couple of fics. Just write what you want to write.

6696242

Write a cuddly romance in a world filled with bunnies that aren't powered by chaos and/or death

I wonder if a cuddly romance between bunnies powered by chaos and or death magic would be a fun story.

Anyway.

Take a bit of time and study why you like Warhammer.
What themes are in Warhammer that you like to work with?

Why?
If you understand the themes you like to play with, you could use them in other types of stories.
The transition to other genres or other types of stories could become easier.

I love Warhammer, got a lot of the games.
Even got some of the manuals.
Used to go downtown, and get copies of the White Dwarf magazine and read it from cover to cover.
But.
I never wrote any Warhammer/Warhammer 40k fanfiction.
Just not interested but I do loove the ideas.
One project I started but didn't finish was a mashup of elements from The Division(PC game)+ Warhammer: Vermintide and MLP.

I know I don't like to do crossovers because it's too constraining, I like having the freedom to pick and choose what elements I want.

Again, take the time and look inside and find out what you like to write about.

Then when you decide to do something else, you have a clue where to go.