If you've read some of my Writer's Workshops, you might know I have a... unique view on Pinkie Pie. Basically, I think she's a genius. In any case, I was reading a fic the other day about Pinkie Pie drinking coffee, and the climax involved Twilight literally stealing Pinkie's drink from her. Now, I've read plenty of "Pinkie-drinks-coffee" fics, and I get the principle behind it, but as I read that climax, it suddenly occurred to me how strange it was for it to happen like that. So... the

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We modern-day peeps love happy endings. Tell me, what was the last movie you saw that didn't end on an uncompromised happy note? That's not really how life works, though. Life isn't always that easy. Sometimes victory comes at a very high price. So let's talk about stories that buck the trend of happy endings and go for something a little more somber.

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So recently, I've rambled a lot about plot, character, theme, and framing. But I'm sure you may be wondering, "How can this actually help me? Do any real stories benefit from this sort of rigor?" And to that I say, let's look at a story and see how it works. For this demonstration, I've picked none other than the first Equestria Girls movie. Now, while it has some great ideas here and there, I think you'll agree that it's a bit flawed. Let's get down to the nitty-gritty and see why that

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Hey, everypony! You may have noticed that I just put up two new stories this week. (If you haven't seen them yet, go ahead and check them out! Twilight's Star was Monday, and Cutie Mark Mix-Up was yesterday. [...Okay, so it took until this morning for it to get approved, but you get what I mean.]) I'm trying to update every day until Saturday, when we get new

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What an oddly appropriate topic for a post that's two weeks late. I'm sure literally every writer has been here at one point or another. Whether you've planned the entire story out or just write scene to scene, you've gotten to a point where you have no idea how to get from Point A to Point B. I mentioned once that, as soon as I could get Twilight and Jade on a train in "A Call to Vespers," I could write the next section. Now, oddly enough, in "Mother and Child" I'm having trouble getting

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Seriously, what the heck does that even mean? "Show, don't tell," I mean. You're writing as best as you can, but then some jerk editor like me writes, "Show, don't tell here" on your work like it's a gift from the gods, drops the mic, and walks away. And you're left staring at your story wondering what you did wrong. Truth be told, it, like all writing advice, is very complicated and not always correct. But I'll try my best to help you look behind the curtain and understand what exactly "show,

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The Influence Character is the most important character you've never heard of.

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A lot of my posts so far have been focused on the wide picture. Theming, character arcs, pacing. But what do you do when you get down to the nitty-gritty and want to start writing scenes? Thankfully, I've got just the answer for that, too! It's called scenes and sequels. But before I get to that, I want to talk a little bit about action scenes. Specifically, how extremely boring they are. Have you ever been watching a fight scene or a chase scene in a movie where you started drumming your

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I was already considering doing a post for characters other than the mane 6, but I got a comment from Artamsk saying I should explain the princesses. Well, guess I gotta do it then! Just to fill it out a bit, I'm also gonna do Spike and... let's say Discord.

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All right, here we go for part 2! Let's talk about a fashionista, a speed racer, and a shrinking violet!

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