Everfree Northwest Day 1 · 9:18am May 19th, 2018
I hung out with a bunch of people since I got into Seattle on Thursday. A partial, horribly incomplete list would include:
Xepher (rooming with him, cool dude as always, fair bit of presence IRL. Good at running panels, very efficient and good at sparking/spurring conversation)
Winston (Cool dude as always; a bit quiet, but nice to hang out with and chat with. He’s on the staff, so secretly rules over us all, like Xepher)
Mudpony (I’ll read that story, I swear!)
Novel Idea (Why haven’t I read more of your stuff?)
Monochromatic (First time I’ve met her; totally awesome person. Apparently we’re going to debate whether or not best pony is a social climber. Great panel member, excellent grasp of writing and characterization and choice of best pony. May or may not have accidentally broken her brain by asking whether she thinks in words or images. Er, I mean, it’s not my fault if she ends up blue screening and needing a restart, I swear, it was someone else.)
Ruirik (selling his cool wood stuff as usual; his coasters are quite nice)
Admiral Biscuit (very comfortable t-shirts, also a writer who constantly surprises me with how good he is, which is silly, because you think I would have learned by the third time)
Oroboro (He’s a very sharp panel member as well; said a lot of good stuff. I always liked the cut of his gib <3)
Somber (Sharp cookie, but makes me constantly wonder how it is possible for FIMFiction to have such large semi-independent groups of people)
Albinocorn (Had some good things to say on the panels but I feel guilty for not really engaging enough with him. He was pretty tired by the end of the night, though.)
Piquo Pie (he likes talking almost as much as I do, therefore must be my eternal rival!)
Grand Moff Pony (cool dude as always, bit quiet on the first panel we were on)
Georg (I’m always amused by how people can differ between online and real life; he’s a quieter type, which isn’t really what I’d expected. Nice guy, even if he did steal the top off of Mount Saint Helens)
Morning Sun (Didn’t recognize her at first. She apparently is secretly trying to take over the fandom behind the scenes. Gonna have to start checking Thornwing’s meals for poison)
Tumbleweed (I’m glad I finally got to meet him; RariJack represent! Of course, he’s writing Flash Sentry stories now (they’re pretty good, promise!), among other things. Fun, funny guy.)
LilFunkMan (I couldn’t remember his name, so used the author’s trick of just not mentioning his name in dialogue. I’m sure there’s no way he’d ever realize I was cheating)
White Diamonds (Awesome artist, awesome person. Very nice. Got a Rarijack print and a Rarity mousepad (I needed a new one, and who better than best pony?), as well as a commission. Which is, yes, of course, RariJack. I need to write more Rarijack.)
ImDrunkOnTea (Another awesome person. I’ve enjoyed his panels in previous years and I’ve always enjoyed talking to him.)
Goat Train (Clearly the writers are racist against goats due to the absence of them. Another cool artist. I need to post the commission I got from them last year, but I’ve been meaning to use it as cover art for a story I haven’t finished…)
Harwick (Their first con ever, good artist. Also has drawn RariJack, so clearly is an awesome person.)
AZ Artworks (didn’t know who they were but liked their art. Gonna have to look it up)
Bobdude0 (Dude really loves Sweetie Belle. Can’t blame him, though.)
Fey Market (Sculptor person, made a pretty cool Vinyl Scratch and other ponies out of clay)
Silfoe (Chatted with them for a bit about Tuna and Celerity. Good ships, even if I’ve never written either of them. Made me think about Celerity when we got a question about a ship we’ve never written before that we think can be interesting)
Kiriska (I’m very tired at this point, and I remember talking to them, but I don’t remember what we talked about L)
MidnightPremiere (I remember talking to them, but don’t remember what about)
Promethium (caught me on the stairway, didn’t get the chance to chat much with them tonight but probably will tomorrow. Said very nice things about me, because everyone knows that TD needs a bigger ego. Was very nice to do, though, Thank you 
)
Person who took a picture of me with Georg whose name I didn’t quite catch but who flattered us both. Was nice. I think I might have spoken with them some more. Feel free to corner me and talk to me!
Redsquirrel (showed him my secret working space, which I am presently typing at)
Heartshine (haven’t actually gotten to talk to her a whole lot yet this year, but she’s a cool person)
BlazzingInferno (Only got to chat for a bit, but they’re fun to hang out with)
Someone whose name involved laughter I think, with pink hair (She sat next to me on a panel and were a nice facilitator and helped to keep us on topic. I need to catch their name tomorrow.)
And a bunch of other people I’m too tired to individually call out, and because I should have written everyone’s name in my smart phone but didn’t, and it is 1:50 am and it is kind of a blur now.
A very fun blur. Today was a bunch of fun.
I think my biggest lesson that I should have said directly but didn’t is that the most important skill a writer can have is empathy. That is to say, the ability to imagine yourself as someone else, to think like someone else would think, to feel like they would feel. The ability to be someone else is the most important thing that a writer has in their toolkit, as without it, it is basically impossible to write anyone but yourself or very awkward, flat things that aren’t much like people without being able to imagine being someone else.
I think my favorite panel of the day was the shipping panel – we had a very solid crew on board for that, and I think people had a bunch of really good points. We also agreed with each other a bunch, and did a lot of elaboration on each others’ points, which worked really well. The panel ended up flowing very well, and I think pretty much everyone managed to say several important things and give out good advice there about writing romance. It is too bad the old ISD is fairly defunct at this point forum-wise, as it was a really great conversation and was really the sort of thing I remember from there, but in con panel form.
I really need to get more stories published. I have been being lazy. When I get back from the con, I’m probably going to poke some people about glancing over Power of Attorney, which is a short story about Rainbow Dash asking Twilight to sign her Power of Attorney forms for the Wonderbolts which is basically done and probably just needs some sprucing up, and then dive into finishing various other things (The Hereafter, the story in which Granny Smith dies and Applejack has to grapple with a crisis of belief about the afterlife which I’m sure is going to upset some people but which is a story idea I really like; a couple RariJack fics that I’ve had on the backburners for too long (including one from 2013, another from 2016, and a third that I’m halfway through the first draft of); The Pairing Stone, about Marble Pie showing up in Ponyville and announcing that the Pairing Stone has matched her up with Big Mac, who has not yet told Applejack and Granny Smith about his, you know, actual girlfriend yet. Extreme awkwardness and tears ensue; Tell Her What She Means To You, a Mother’s Day story about Twilight and Celestia; and all too many others; and a bunch more things). I just need to pick one at a time and focus on knocking them out. Plus I’ve been knocking around ideas for a Celerity story and a RariTwi story, not to mention my desire to write some PInkieDash because seriously, what happened to that ship?
I’m just being lazy. I need to focus on trying to write at least a thousand words a day. Plus reading and reviewing more stories. I’ve been spending too much time on the wrong things, and I really, really enjoy the pony stuff.
Oh, and I need to write a blog post about Shadow Play, which I’m probably going to forget to write. I watched it for the first time Wednesday night, and I have Opinions. Or rather, an opinion, which I suppose can be summarized as “There are 18 characters in 41 minutes of episode when there could have been five.” Though I strongly suspect that there was little choice in the matter WRT: the pillars who, aside from Starswirl the Bearded, were total non-entities (I like the characterization they gave to Starswirl, though, and I thought it actually meshed quite nicely with what had previously been said about him not understanding friendship).
But first, sleep, and days 2 and 3 of the con.
And watching Uncommon Bond, which I need to watch because I like Sunburst, and I missed watching it in my mad scramble to catch up with the show before the con.
Oh, and finding the Mirror Pool in Seattle so I can talk to all the people at the same time, as there were a lot of people I wanted to talk to but didn't, or didn't get to spend as much time talking to as I would have liked.
It's so fun being here. I hope everyone else is having a blast too.
For those of you who aren't here, question for you all: do you think in words, or in images, or some mixture thereof?
I think exclusively in words (and to a lesser extent, numbers). I have to actually concentrate and focus to create mental images.
I mostly think in words, too. Mental images are more difficult, which is probably doesn't help when I'm trying to draw things. I'm much better at following the lines then drawing something new...
--Sweetie Belle
Lotta writers at this one. Man.
Tell everyone I said 'hi'.
Glad everyone's doing well, TD. I had to cancel attending this year because of an ear infection and my wavering anxiety. Health must come first before anything. Tell Piquo and Xepher I said hello!
4864008
I shall!
Even though you aren't here, we ended up talking about you (and Bookplayer and Jaxie and Horizon and Absolute Anonymous) because we love you guys and your writing. So even though you aren't here, you are far from forgotten.
4864009
Ah, the joys of illness and anxiety. Sorry you got an ear infection; those are no fun at all. Hope you feel better soon, on both fronts!
4864005
Interesting. I have to admit, before the first time I heard that some people thought in images, I just assumed everyone thought in words and that thinking in images was just a skill some artists managed to acquire. I didn't realize that a lot of people apparently think in images normally. It is literally hard to imagine what that would be like.
It is something I'd assume would get better with practice, since I've read stuff about looking at things and trying to see all the shapes in them and things like that, but it is strange to think about thinking in pictures a whole bunch.
Though I can play songs I'm fairly familiar with in my head. I suspect that's kinda the same principle of randomly singing the songs out loud, only because it's more subvocal, it sounds more like the original artist and has some of the music with it.
--Sweetie Belle
In terms of writing, I probably think more in images, probably as a result of growing up bilingual in Spanish and English. I more often would have trouble coming up with words to describe a scene than an image to describe what I'm thinking.
In terms of thinking about science in my day job, I'm probably thinking more in words as it's often easier to describe something than to draw a picture representing it.
I ran into you at the critique for like, a second yesterday (I was wearing the 'Better not Bitter' Luna shirt), but I'll try and be at the panel today, I swear!
I tend to think in a mixture of both. When I'm writing I have vivid images of what I want people to see when they read. That and what the characters are saying. It's not always successful, as I don't necessarily paint every detail with the words of that image (that's a little bit on the harder side for me), but I always have the visual and at least the dialogue in my head. I've always been a visual learner, so that may be why.
I actually find it amusing what 4864049 said about being better with words with science. That's also visual for me. Anatomy of the body, physics, black holes and the like... I prefer all of those in visuals.
Thinking about how I think makes my head hurt.
Now thinking about it I can't really come up with a definite answer so I think I do a bit of both.
Mostly though it's IKEA-manual style of pictures, I think.
Do you happen to know if there are any recordings of the panels?
4864204
Sadly, there are no recordings of almost all of the panels as there aren't cameras. There might be recordings of the mane stage stuff.
4864105
Herpaderp, yeah. I remember saying hello. Hope to see you today.
Tell everypony I said hi!
TMI: the only times I think in pictures instead of words are if I’m drawing something or masturbating
4864317
That's okay.
I wouldn't need actual video, audio would have been fine.
I always:
See stories in my head as things that are a weird combination of radio drama and movie. The adventure of writing for me, then, is to describe that composite thing in my head using nothing but words.
Mike
There's an interesting but barely studied neurological condition out there referred to as Aphantasia, or the lack of a minds eye, where some people just lack the ability to visualize things solidly.
An easy test I've heard for it is to picture your home in your mind, and without actually going and looking, count the number of windows it has. Even better if its a childhood home you don't currently live in.
I think in a combination of words and images.
It kinda depends on the specific problem. Visualization is more useful for some, while wording out an explanation / solution is more useful for others.