Welcome to my classroom! In here, I will post about my favorite fics and simple challenges that will help with writing skills (personal coaching goes along with that!). I will also answer any questions that you want to direct to me (if you want a question to be open to any and all professors, then post it in the Study Hall).

Here are my lectures for your perusing pleasure!:
• Writing Your First Story: Tips, Resources, and Other Things You Should Know
• How to Create a Story
• Writer's Block - The Solutions
• Building Round and Realistic Main Characters
• Hooks, Conflicts, and Cliffhangers: Getting and Keeping Readers Interested in Your Story
• "Implying...?" (How to NOT write important parts of your story.)
• Nailing Slice of Life - Why Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is my favorite story of all time
• Writing Time Travel ( WARNING: Super nerdy )
• The Stubbornness of Perspective ( WARNING: Super meta )

- Pro-tips -
• How to Write Sad Stories
• Bad OC's
• Padding for... time? - Feat. ProZD

Feel free to ask me questions!

(Please use the reply button to ask questions so that I can get an alert about it. Otherwise it might take me a while to get to it.)

4883825 Hello PiercingSight! I often have trouble trying to make my wording and sentences clear for readers to understand. Like if I were to use imagery to describe some place or scene, it's pretty hard to make it sophiscated and comprehendable at the same time. Do you have any tips for such problem?

Thanks!

Hopefully this challenge will help you to stretch your creative muscles a bit. You will write 5 short descriptions (250 characters max) for 5 original story ideas, and a long description of each to go along with them. If you want, you can also choose a cover image for each story. Post your descriptions and images in this thread if you want.

Advice on how to do it:
Don't worry about inventing an entire story if you don't want to. Most of the time, the descriptions (and possibly the image) are what grab the interest a reader. What is it that interests a reader? It is seeing a situation that has a lot of potential to make them laugh, to make them d'aww, to make them sad, or even to make them anxious for adventure or resolution. Whatever you decide the story hook is going to be, make it something that would catch the eye of a reader upon seeing the descriptions and possibly the cover image.

When to use this skill:
You can use this skill both before and after you have a story idea, either to help come up with a good story idea, or to find a good way to describe one you already have in an eye-catching way. Readers will only read stories that catch their eye, that get them interested, that make them ask themselves "I wonder what happens in this story." If you can master this technique, then you'll be able to get your stories read.

This challenge is simple. Write an entire fic in less than 250 words, BUT it must create an entire environment and have emotive characters and dialogue. Feel free to post your short fic here, and you may even request advice or critique regarding it.

Advice on how to do it:
The trick is to use implications and evidences to create details in the mind of the writer without directly writing any of them. A good example is the famous six-word story: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." I even wrote a six-word story myself: "I loved her... photographed her wedding." True story. :/

When to use this skill:
This is a skill that can be used to great affect in any story. Perhaps the only risks of using this technique are 1) not giving enough information for the reader to catch on, or 2) implying something so important to the story that it really should be stated directly.

There is a balance to using this technique, but it is among my favorites because it allows the reader to build and imagine a world beyond what the writer has given, giving the reader the opportunity and encouragement to participate in creating the story for themselves. In doing so, the reader becomes much more involved and enveloped in the story, giving it a much stronger effect than it would otherwise. And so, be careful how you use it, but don't neglect it.

4883838
That is a frequent, and perhaps the most common, issue in writing, so no need to feel you are bad because of it.

My best recommendation is to read a lot of your favorite stories and identify how they explain and clarify things that would be difficult for yourself, and to write a lot.

Practice makes perfect, so if you are writing enough, trying to explain environments or ideas that are usually difficult to word correctly, then you will begin to build the habits and instincts that will make it easier for you in the future. Now, it will never become something that is easy to do. To this day, when I'm writing, I still have to mull over some sentences and descriptions to see if they explain what I want the reader to understanding without being boring or overly blunt while at the same time continuing with the flow and feel of the story.

TLDR: Read a ton and write a ton, and you'll develop the skills necessary automatically.

Hi PiercingSight! I wanted to ask, how can I help my creativity? Cause when I try to make a story, it already exist. And it's just hard for me to think up of something..... also how can I add more details? That's really hard for me

4883916
>how can I help my creativity?
Well, there are many ways to assist with creativity, but I think the word you're looking for is 'originality'. Originality is something that a writer really shouldn't worry about too much because each writer will likely approach the same idea very differently, so don't worry about that.

As for being creative in the sense of coming up with ideas, see this lecture I wrote here.

>how can I add more details?
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by this. There are good ways and bad ways to add details and the difference is usually found in learning and practicing other basic writing techniques. Could you explain a bit more what you want me to answer with this question?

4883946
1. Thanks!
2. I mean, like put more details of what's happening around the characters? Usually I just put what the characters words are instead of the motion. Also most of the time I just use: ," (name of character) said.

4883953
Oh, okay. Well, that depends. Creating an environment is an important part of a story, and learning how to do it comes with reading a lot. You'll usually want to create an environment that enhances the feeling of your story, and there are plenty of examples both in books and movies. As for conversation and said tags, take a look at this section of the Writing Guide (read all the way through the 'Action Tags' section). You'll find a lot of great advice in the Writing Guide, so I recommend reading the entire thing when you have time. :)

4883964 Thanks!

4883968
Oh, and you'll want to keep a balance between the events happening around characters and the dialogue itself. It really depends on what you want the reader to focus on, which should really be the most important part of the story. If the dialogue is the most important, then not much should be happening outside of it to distract the reader, but if the dialogue needs the environment to keep it going, or if the environment enhances the conversation, then you should give due attention to the environment.

4883972 Oh, ok! ( I am literally about to copy this onto the sticky notes on the computer cause I am not going to remember all of it XD)

4883825 Hello, PiercingSight. I have a problem with talking heads. I've been told that the action during a conversation is half the fun, but I mostly just come up with pointless filler. Ponies nod, or shrug, or scratch their heads, and I end up dispensing with it all and just writing 'said' or writing the dialogue without any attribution. I think I may be missing something.

4884114
Conversations are the most difficult to write. Unless you want to give a slice of life feeling, or a small break in the action for the reader, you should generally filter conversations down to the bare minimums: What the characters in your story want to convey to each other about the relevant situation. This means that the things you want to convey to the reader (exposition) generally should be excluded from the dialogue and placed elsewhere: the thoughts of the main character during the dialogue, implied in the actions of the characters during the dialogue, or perhaps left for the moment the information is necessary when the actions are taken or when the character realizes last minute that they need done.

Exposition is dangerous in that writers love to give a lot more than is necessary and generally write it in places that slow the progress of the story or interrupt the smooth (or bumpy) pacing, so sometimes it's necessary to exclude exposition (even the really cool parts like backstory details) for the sake of the flow and progression of the story.

As for 'said' tags, a lot of the time, they are unnecessary, and they should rarely be simple '... said' tags. Excluding most of them is generally preferred, and authors frequently insert actions where the said tags would be to convey the reactions of the characters or the movement in the environment. My advice to Randomepony2003 also applies, and I feel it would be a good idea to read the dialogue section of the writing guide for examples (Read through the 'Action Tags' section).

I hope that answers your question. If not, let me know.

I posted this question in the study hall, but so far no one has answered it yet.

How to not make a main character clone OC? I have this idea of creating an athlete OC who loves flying at night, a fancolt (pony word for fanboy) for Luna, an outgoing team player, and wants to join the Shadowbolts. He's still in process and he is inspired from Rainbow Dash. I'm having a little trouble in making him his own character without being a clone of one of the show's cast. I'm open for suggestions.

4883825

Hi there. I am currently writing a story and I have the problem that the main characters seem to be going nowhere towards their current goal,instead going off on probably irrevant journeys that do nothing but character development.

I am rewriting it and wondering how I can make the journeys relevant and develop the characters.

4884879
Maybe this lecture can help. Just make sure to give your character enough differentiating features that they don't feel the same to the reader. A lot of that is going to come out in the voice and in the specific actions and habits of the character. The rest can be inspired by RBD, but you must remember that your character is your character, and they can either write themselves, or you can write them. Also, if you want help figuring out what sort of plot methods you can use to develop your characters, you can see the link I'm sending to MoonDusts below.

4885382
I wrote a lecture on the techniques that can help to solve this problem. You can read it here. Just remember that the story is more important than anything else. Focus on the important parts and plan a path to connect them in an orderly fashion before continuing.

4883825 Is it okay if I send you the first chapter of my story to you to review? Can you you tell me if it is okay or not to continue where it's going? I'll send it to you.
Thanks if you can!

PS. It is also a very short chapter clocking in at only 569 words.
Also your profile pic is so adorable!

4885749 Thanks.

4887748
Sure. I'm willing to take a look at it and see what you might need to work on.

And thanks! I love my little avatar! :3

4888483 thank you!

4888483 I forgot how to send it....

4888534
You can PM me the link. Click my username to go to my profile then you can click the message button at the top.

4883886

"Mystery drink!" Twilight squeked as she carefully levitated the fine glass bottle off of her back. After moving into Celestia's rather large castle and her slightly smaller room, she had quickly discovered that Celestia had a love of... well, this. Persumably the nector of the Gods, fit for only the Princess herself, but her scientific analysis of the substance was a must.

She carefully donned her definitely-not-too-big lab coat and circled the glass, mentally noting all of its features. It appears to be a clear liquid... Is it water? It looks like water, but is it really? Deciding to test her new found theorem, she popped open the cork and levitated the bottle towards her. Tilting the clear bottle slightly, the liquid quickly poured out, and Twilight's eyes began to water as a burning sensation filled her entire mouth.

Throwing the bottle away, she tried to dash towards the bathroom to get rid of the burning in her mouth, but sadly, science proved Twilight's downfall, literatally, as her not-too-big lab coat caught her tiny legs, causing the little filly to faceplant onto the floor below. To make matters worse for the distraught unicorn, the fowl liquid forced its way down her throat as she impacted. The burning spread before... Wait. It wasn't that bad, was it? Sure it burns like thermite in a volcano, but its A hiccup interuppted her thought processes. Quite... Calming. Twilight turned herself back towards the discarded bottle and levitated it over to herself. I think this might take some further testings.

The results of her repeated trials all pointed to one undisputed conclusion. "Yo, Sun-Butt!" a purple blur called from her casual position on the spinning ceiling fan. "I think I can ~hiccup~ get used to this stuff."

This is 300 words, but I don't think I can shorten it any more. And yes, this is a story about filly Twilight trying Vodka. Can I possibly get some critiques on this (other than spelling because I did this in the editor).

4889642
I definitely laughed.

Before I give my critique, I want to challenge you to shorten the first two paragraphs. They definitely can be. Though you may have to exclude some things, you can maintain the important stuff, and imply the rest.

4890327

I'll see if I can post the revision tomarrow, its like 2 am where I am.

4890339
Oh! Then I would suggest some sleep before then. ;P

4890370

"Mystery drink!" Twilight squeaked as she carefully levitated the glass bottle off of her back. After moving into Celestia's rather large castle, she had quickly discovered that Celestia had a love of... well, this. Presumably the nectar of the Gods, fit for only the Princess herself, but her scientific analysis of the substance was a must.

She carefully donned her definitely-not-too-big lab coat and circled the glass, mentally noting all of its features. Is it water? It looks like water, but is it really? Deciding to test her new found theorem, she popped open the cork. Tilting the clear bottle slightly, Twilight's eyes began to water as a burning sensation filled her entire mouth.

Tossing the bottle away, she tried to dash towards the bathroom, but science proved Twilight's downfall, as her not-too-big lab coat caught her tiny legs, causing the filly to face plant onto the floor below. To make matters worse, the fowl liquid forced its way down her throat as she impacted. The burning spread before... Wait. It wasn't that bad, was it? It burns like a volcano, but its A hiccup interrupted her thought processes. Quite... Calming. Twilight turned herself back towards the discarded bottle and levitated it over to herself. I think this might take some further testings.

The results of her repeated trials all pointed to one undisputed conclusion. "Yo, Sun-Butt!" a purple blur called from her casual position on the spinning ceiling fan. "I think I can ~hiccup~ get used to this stuff."

It's down to around 255~ words.

"Hi there~! I'm Pinkie Pie, the best party planner in all of Ponyville! I've never seen you before! And if I've never seen you before then that means-"

Pinkie was cut off by a torrent of vomit hitting her face.

"Oh, sorry about that," the stallion wiped his mouth, "my name is Mood Killer."

"Mister, are you alright?" Rumble looked up, concerned.

"Are we at a school?!?" Mood Killer cringed. "Please don't tell me we're in a schoo-"

"Daddy?" Scootaloo whispered.

Octavia started playing a heart warming tune nearby.

"No." Mood groaned.

"D- Daddy?!?" Scootaloo started to cry.

"Kid, I've been through this seven times before."

"DADDY I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN- ...you're not my Dad." Scootaloo frowned.

Octavia's chello strings all snapped at once.

"Well," Pinkie said, wiping off her face.

"Don't say it." Mood grumbled.

"That was a mood killer!"

4891621
There you go! See you can do it! Now for critique:
- I don't know if Celestia was in the room when Twilight was on the fan or if she was just drunk-speaking. Maybe that should have been clarified?

Other than that, I got nothing beyond one or two grammar and punctuation corrections. Good job!

4893017
You doof. Well done. ;P

4896208

I tried to imply it with the 'called', but it was rather difficult without writing much more than 250 words.

4897149
There are methods of shortening the beginning. You'll likely have to sacrifice part of it though.

Here's a method that shortens it way beyond what is needed:

Young Twilight, in her definitely-not-too-big lab coat, inspected a bottle of clear liquid she had heard Celestia refer to as 'the nectar of the gods'. "It looks like water, but is it really?" she thought. "This calls for an experiment!"

4883886 I don't think I managed environment, but... Well, here ya' go

“Do you ever wonder…”

She looked back at the tree, the leaves dancing in a light, salted breeze.

“No. No, of course not.”

She turned back, looking into the orange sun. It sat on top of the waves, white caps dancing into one another.

She looked down, at the beach far below her.

“I do. I wonder about lots of things nowadays, but I keep finding myself… back here.”

She fluttered her wings a bit, settling them better against her sides.

“I don’t know if I even can, or if… If I tried, I wonder if anything would even happen…”

She looked down the steep slope of the cliff. Idly, she kicked at a rock, and watched it fall.

Standing, she steeled herself. She knew she could do it. She knew it was either try, or feel this way forever.

“I love you.”

She leapt from the cliff, wings tucked.

The leaves of the tree danced in the salty breeze.

4900880
Wow, that's... wow. Well done. I'm now extremely curious as to who she is and who she was saying I love you to. (I have a silly theory that it's Fluttershy saying it to a tree, wishing she could be a tree. But that totally kills the mood ;P )

4900927 I debated adding this, but your enjoyment makes it worth it

Standing, she steeled herself. She knew she could do it. She knew it was either try, or feel this way forever.

She turned from her spot, and gently nuzzled the stone plate under the tree. Her horn scraped gently, adding another scratch to the face of it.

"I love you."

4900985
>New stuff
Oh!... OH!!

4883886

Going to try writing a really short one

Death is my only friend, but no matter how I knock, I am not welcome at his door.

This is an immortal blues story for Twilight. I hope I was able to put enough hints in there to get the darkness of it

4906576
Oooooh, cool concept. I like it.

Hi Piercing I've decided to not include the politics in the story because I thought it would be better to just start it off. What do you think?

>> Piercingsight I may be the only one with this problem, but when I write a story, I always feel like I'm writing too much, but when I read it over, it's way too short, is there any way to combat this or know when I'm writing too much or too little?

4907246
I agree with that decision. Few readers like starting in a political argument for multiple reasons.

4909516
There is no such thing as writing too much or writing to little, but it is important that you control the pacing of your story so that the reader feels comfortable with its length. The feeling of writing too much can come from the sense of the amount of time that you spend writing, and the feeling that it is too short may be that you are trying to pack too much story into too small a space.

As a beginning writer, I used to do the same, wanting to get on with the story from the moment I started. My stories ended up being very short, and feeling very rushed. Eventually, I figured out that the feeling of pacing is extremely important, and is controlled by two things: the amount of words used to describe a situation or event, and the size of your sentences and paragraphs. (See the Pacing section of the writing guide. You can also check out this "poem" of sorts.)

After quite a bit of practice and attempts, making sure to read your writing after you write it, you'll eventually get a feel for the correct balance of pacing you should use in your story and in each situation.

Good luck writing!

4883886 Alright, I don't like this, especially the pacing, but here ya go.

Well, well, well. What do we have here? One Princess Celestia, hoist by her own petard! And I thought you were kind, benevolent, the perfect ruler of a perfect nation.

Guess what? I'm back. The biggest mistake you've ever made, in the flesh. Oh, I can't believe the look upon your face - have you ever had that look before? I suppose something's, I don't know, bugging you?

Ha, bugging you! What a fitting pun! But this is no time for puns. You, Celestia, can't save them. You can't save the ponies you so "love", you almighty goddess of the sun. Look how far you've fallen!

And you created this. You created me. It doesn't matter what Discord did, you made me into who I am, you made us into who we are, you doomed yourself from the very start...

... when you couldn't save us.

Why?

Why didn't you save us? Why did you forsake us, forsake me? Why did you turn our paradise into a wasteland? Celestia, why did you leave? I thought you would always be there for me. I thought we would stay together, through thick and thin.

Celestia... I thought we were friends.

I suppose it doesn't matter what I thought. It doesn't matter that I was your best friend. It doesn't matter that we used to know each other. What matters is that I, Queen Chrysalis, am now your worst enemy.

4999483
Oooh! I like it. Well done!

Question: Is that all dialogue? If so shouldn't it have quotation marks?

5000275 Yeah... I should have done that.

Reading back what I wrote, I feel that I could have adjusted the pacing of the story. In my opinion, the shifts in emotion were abrupt, and happened too fast.

But at the same time, I feel like I introduced the concept well, and I did an alright job of interspersing story with dialogue, without making it an info dump.

Honestly, I'm more concerned about my plot, or lack of it. For some reason, I can figure out a storyline I'd like to write, and I will start typing a few hundred words, but then I'll just stop. Run out of steam. Find myself lost for words. And I can't figure out how to start writing again, no matter how long I stare at it. If I try to keep going, it becomes a load of nonsensical nonsense that doesn't flow right. I've heard outlining is a good way to avoid this problem, but making an outline is just as hard as writing the story down itself. Any thoughts?

(And I'm not sure what else I need to improve. Is there anything you liked, or disliked? I would appreciate it!)

5004445
Well, let's just focus on one thing at a time.

When it comes to writing what comes next, there are many strategies. But the simplest for me is to keep a notebook collection of all the possible "next chapter" occurances. Basically a "what can happen next", list. I usually don't have one picked out until I'm writing it, and when it comes to how far down the story I can see, I can only have about 2-3 chapters somewhat planned out at a time.

It's like a tree of possibilities that starts losing branches as I climb it, finding the sturdiest ones.

But that's just me.

Here is a lecture that I wrote that explains all the different methods that can help you come up with a story.

And here is a lecture I wrote about how to overcome writer's block and its cousins.

Anyway, I hope these help. Let know if you need anything else! :)

4883825 Most active professor, I do have a question for you. What aspects of characterization do you find people frequently struggle on, and how would you suggest they change their approach on these aspects of characterization?

5007353
That does depend on the characterization that you are talking about.

OC characterization, or canon character characterization?

5007383 Characterization in general. Personally I don't believe the distinction between OC and Canon matters in this regard. They're only distinguished, in my mind, by the level of thought required based on the meta-knowledge that an author can expect the reader to have of them. That's why I didn't specify earlier (and still haven't).

5007434
Ah understood.

There are two things that I see that many writers do wrong.

#1 - They put the character in a situation that the character would never allow themselves to be in, or have the character do things that they would never allow themselves to do. This is especially true of canon characters. And it is also especially true with shipping fics. "Oh, hey these two are together now. Not explaining why, they just are." It's drives me insane. Far too many writers come up with a story idea, then slap their favorite character into it, not because the character fits into the story, but simply because that's the character they want. They forget that the character has a personality of their own, and there are some things that the characters would never do. This is the number one reason that characters come off as OOC.

#2 - They forget that the character has a voice of their own. When all the characters are speaking with the same accent, the same vocabulary, and the same sentence structure, then, whether or not the personalities are correct, they will feel like they are OOC. Characters (especially the ones in the show) should be able to be identified simply by how they are speaking.

How do we fix these problems?

Well, I wrote a lecture specifically on creating characters, and utilizing your character really depends on how well you use those properties of the character.

The first four principles define the core of a character: 1 - Core trait, 2 - Secondary trait, 3 - Trait flaws, and 4 - Level of intelligence.

When writing a main character, a writer MUST have a decent grasp of these traits in the character that they are writing. If the character is canon to the show, the writer needs to have watched enough of the show to know what those traits are for that character.

The 5th principle is HALF of the character: Their voice.

Here's an example of how the voice changes for each character. If I were to ask each of the mane six, "Could you do something for me?", and they all agree to, I will get a different answer from each of them. Watch:

Twilight: "Of course!"
Rarity: "Oh, but of course, darling!"
Fluttershy: "Certainly."
Rainbow Dash: "Totally!"
Applejack: "You betcha!"
Pinkie Pie: "Absotootly!"
Spike: "Uh, sure!"

Obviously this is an exaggeration, but it demonstrates my point.

TL;DR - IF you're going to write a character, you must #1 know their personality and #2 know how they speak. Then, let the character be themselves instead of making them do something that they themselves are not likely to do. If you don't, then the characterization will most certainly be off.

Side note: Now, this doesn't mean stories that don't characterize properly are bad. Sometimes the small changes to the characters' personality allow the fic to be as enjoyable as it is. It definitely can help the shipping fics so long as the story follows a logical path. Nevertheless, I would still like the characters to be in character when it's an option.

5007461 Ah, I suppose I had just taken these two points for granted as a thing that naturally occurs when you like something enough to write fan fiction about it (that you'd represent your own fiction as canon-accurately as you can). I guess I was looking for something a little different, like being afraid to let a character be wrong or not allowing their characters to work with information the audience doesn't have. But, probably not those two things specifically, since I've not many people address them when giving advice. Got any advanced classes I can take?