Listen here and listen good. I don't often make faux paux so you'd better listen.

Let's start out this way. Do any of you know about the Necronomicon? You know, that book that first had Cthulhu in it? Well, I have to say, it was an awfully lengthy read, the story behind the gods and what they seemed to represent was about as arbitrary as it was linear. To put it in layman's terms; it was as random as it made complete and utter, totally shocking-why-is-there-a-donky-in-my-garbage-disposal sense. For instance, let's dissect Cthulhu shall we?

He's a giant massive what-happens-in-vegas-stays-in-vegas testament. That is to say, he's a massive dead octopus man who embodies that irrational fear you get when you're completely and utterly alone. And he dreams. And that's no joke, he's a rotting dead corpse who dreams of the day he rises from his fallen city (atlantean style) to wreck humanity's shit.

This makes, ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE. And I'm not even talking about the interpretive type of sense. To put it simply, if ordinary mythos in literature was a soldier during WW2, then The Necronomicon would be a modern age prostitute pole-dancing with two Howitzer guns for nipple tassels during the Battle of the Bulge. And the strangest thing about that? The book was published in 1942.

Hopelessly trying to regain whatever semblance of linearity we started out with, we come back to fanficiton. I'm honestly getting tired because I have to view the same type of story written by a different author with a different false facade of a premise to draw the reader in before they pull the proverbial trap door out from under us to show us the main plot which is actually a main character ending up in Equestria and doing stuff in Equestria.

It's either Insert-crossover-here in Equestria, insert fictional character who somehow interacts with the princesses and IS IMPORTANT TO THEM in Equestria, an evil force which somehow predates the sisters in Equestria, self-insert in Equestria, scientists in Equestria, Chessverse in Equestria, Derpy & Dinky fics, someone is dead and everyone is lamenting fics, CUPCAKES AND MLD SPIN-OFFS, ship fics where the ship is the main story point, bronies meet ponies (I think I already mentioned that...I think), random changeling fics where they fall in love, forlorn Celestia, a war fic in which Luan revolts.

That's only some of the many MANY types of fics that I see, and the most disturbing thing is the tenacity they're being uploaded with. It's like a bunch of people have gotten together, preferably in an underground secret bunker in some undisclosed location and are up all day and night producing samey-samey fiction in an effort to dissuade people from reading. Although the same could be said of my reviews, and that of everyone on here (including Major Tom, he's the worst offender). It's amazing really. It's like they have some sort of hatred towards it, like it killed they're wife and kids and they're going off to kill it Max Payne style (only the bullets and slow-mo are bad fics and bad gimmicks.)

And to be fair, I am being a little harsh, the idea section in this particular fandom is kind of running on fumes. What with ponies already having set attitudes and them being all happy go lucky. To some degree, that excuses people. And to some degree, I mean you have a ten second head start before I run you down with my COMBINE HARVESTER.

-A murder mystery within a steam-punk metropolis
-A look inside Fleur-de-lis's mind as she struggles with Dementia
-A clock-work orange esque fic where (insert mane 6 of your choosing here) deals with real-world issues and violent crime as they journey through Equestria
-A fic about a pony from the stars crash-landing in Equestria
-A fic about Braeburn as he struggles with vagrancy during the pony equivalent of the Great Depression/The Dustbowl

These are PRIME EXAMPLES of glorious ideas (you can use all but the first one since I'm already writing about that) that you can, and probably should use. You're fic doesn't have to make any of that boring reality sense if you don't want it to! It could be about the two shoulder deities everyone gets when they're about to make a moral choice (the good imp and the bad imp). And how they quarrel. You could make one about an archeological excavation that stumbles upon the city of Canterlot that has somehow ended up being swallowed by a mountain and is haunted by the spirit of Celestia! There are LITERALLY a well of untapped ideas that could set this site ablaze with new found creativity! Which is why there's no need for another changeling-in-love fic when you can write about the history of the changeling race!

So go! And think before you submit that fanfiction about your OC falling in love with Rainbow Dash but you have a personality complex which makes a bad part of you appear when you're around her! Or else I will stick my boot so far up your ass my foot'll be playing kickball with your Uvula!

*incoming idiocy*

I have a good idea. What if Pinkie was the one that took a bite of her cake in MMMystery on the Friendship express? What if the cake wasn't the real submission and it was made of Styrofoam and she was submitting something else? She'd have the perfect motive to become the lead detective, pretending to solve the case while really averting any suspicion. Then, when the train arrives in Canterlot, she locks everyone in the train car and makes her escape. Twilight's magic wouldn't work because of safety precautions on the train. PINKIE WOULD WIN THE CONTEST FOR SURE

361836
ALL HAIL CTHULHU, DARK LORD OF EVIL!!!

Oh Lovecraft, you have a sick, twisted mind that puts Stephen King to shame. Seriously, this guy came up with the most fucked up stuff I've ever read, and Cthulhu was one of the tamer ones in my opinion. Still find it weird he came up with this stuff in the 1930's and 1940's. Maybe they had stronger drugs back then

Anyway, Lovecraft and MLP crossover would be pretty sweet, although that may not go in the originality department. Meh

361848

That would totally be better than the original episode! Surpirse twist for the win!

There needs to be more pre-Equestria fictions imo. (Like maybe as to why the Pegasi were heavy set in military.)

I think a big part of it is that certain ideas attract a lot of sloppy writers. It doesn't mean they can't be done well, I mean even though all of the Mane x Mane shippings have been done to death, Donny's Boy and Absolute Anonymous both write DashPie that blows you away; but it does mean that you're going to get a lot of chaff. When you improve as a writer, you have ideas coming out of your mind-testicles faster than you can get them down on paper. I'm guessing most everyone lecturing here has at least one text document on their computer wih a dozen prompts that they want to write, that they've put a lot of thought into, but just don't have time to get into them yet.

I think a big problem is it's a lot of young peeps who just haven't read that much. I've been reading over some old stuff I used to like five or six years ago, and it's only now that I can see they're pretty pedestrian pieces of prose with plot holes out the arse, dialogue written by pouring Wild Turkey 101 into a cliche generator and idiot characters. When you get better as a writer, problems in your writing are much more "I don't know how to fix this particular problem or I don't have time right now" rather than "I can't see what the problem is with this piece of prose." Your own writing depreciates like bananas.

362048 Really? Seems more like someone trying to combine Agatha Christie with M. Night Shyamalan to me. Maybe I should write it...

362817
Well twists worked for most of M. Night Shyamalan's movies (except of course Devil) and it would be an interesting read for sure! So go for it 100%

362826 Devil was basically And Then There Were None. (No shame, Shyamalan. :P) But yeah, I might write that after I finish HAND. (Won't be for a while... xD)
I'm mostly worried about OoC with Pinkie. Although, come to think of it, that wont be too hard to justify. New story idea!

362835
I liked the book better, but you're right. Shyamalan ripped it off! He tends to do that a lot

Anyway, good luck with the story. I'll be sure to dig right into it and pretend to be shocked during the twist

Thanks Mr. Ignorable for mentioning me in your thread.

Kudos to you.

Also, why do people write shit and post shit on this site? It's like clogging up the site with shit. So that's why they either

1. Need to get a pre reader
2. Learn fucking English.
3. The last resort, get the fuck out of here and stay out until you improved on writing fanfics.

Folks, watch some silent movies from the 20s and earlier some time. Most of the story premises that people rave about (the best ones) were well and truly worn by then. Good writing means good writing, but not necessarily originality. I find the idea of staying within the mythos of a world, and not going outside of it, to be more interesting than just saying, OK, everyone is now 'teh gay'. I like FiM for being FiM, simplistic moral fishbowl though it is. Writing something interesting without breaking the basic ideas of FiM is harder, however, than writing about one of the characters or the world having a major breakdown.

395665
That's true, but originality is gonna boost your fic at least several thousand brownie points.

395734 See, the problem is, that most new writers don't know the politics surrounding FIMF and originality. And it really isn't that hard to be original. (Well, actually it is). But the problem is, most new writers can't write PinkiexDash that'll blow people's minds away. and since they're new writers, they're going to write some seriously crap stories because they don't know what else too write. This leads to an Ouroboros like situation where the new writer can't get a good review on their first story because they don't know what to write.

But there's a beautiful, simple answer: Think outside the box. Read stories and gauge the fan's reaction. Meticulously, tirelessly play your ideas out inside your head, create the world first in your mind, then on paper. Because I guarantee you, when given that much love and attention, a story will bloom into something new.

My Little (insert word of choice): (optional) is (optional)
Whenever I see something like this, I always judge it's originality just by it's title. To those that are reading this (which would be not likely) Please think before you jump off the cliff that could end with your untimely shame. It actually helps, and saves kittens. (Please disregard this message if you make troll fics)

Ahem! Anyways, use the title as your bait! The readers will come like hungry fishies. But you have to reel them in, so make sure that description is strong. However, the more they come, the more weight it brings, so build that fishing rod's structure with attention, originality, and proper grammar until it looks like it looks like nuclear reactor that could blow those reader's minds into following your boat! Otherwise, they would just ram your boat until it sinks into the ocean of shame.

Is a giant sphere that wants to pretty much eat every single living thing in the world original enough?

Or a pony with a prismatic blade and a changeling with his shape-shifting powers reduced, traveling to the edge of reality? And beyond?

Fluttershy becoming half-tree?

A race of ponies with elemental powers vs. a dark force of evil?

A psycho-electric pegasus who also has other psychic powers on a mission to master them?

So on and so forth.

(Seriously, my head works like a factory when it comes to this.)

Oh, and if you steal any of these, I will find you and I will kill you.

590253 I think I'll make a story about a giant sphere that eats everything meeting a pony with a prismatic blade and a changeling with his shape-shifting powers reduced, traveling to the edge of reality but then they realize that Fluttershy is half-tree which reveals the hiding place of a race of ponies with elemental powers but a psycho-electric pegasus who also has other psychic powers tries to kill them.

a war fic in which Luan revolts.

Who the buck is Luan?

395691
I agree.
Doing grimdark and killing characters in gruesome ways really take less effort than trying to write yourself out of a world threatening situation with no ass kicking.
Same with taking a bat up to Equestria's canon's head and turning ponies into a bunch of sad, gritty, amoral idiots rather than keeping them all happy and silly.