Writing Questionnaire Trend

Hey everyone! I saw FamousLastWords do this questionnaire, and since this is both my first full year of writing fanfics, I'd figure I'd have a go at it myself.

1. Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?
After putting it a lot of thought, I'm gonna give a go at that story of Gallus in the Royal Guard Academy. Giving it the title of Bluebird, it'll follow Gallus from his last year at the School of Friendship and during his time at the Academy, dealing with the challenges of being the first non-pony in an Equestrian military institution and living away from his friends. The first few chapters have been planned out, and I've got a few new characters in mind. Bluebird will probably be my longest story, but I want to avoid getting carried away, so I want to keep new characters and arcs to a minimum, but I do have many of the plot beats in mind.

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project
Let's just say, Gallus' first proper taste of military training won't be as easy as he thought it would be.

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)
I figured Spike moved on from Rarity at some point,

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

From "Strange Day at the Recruitment Office":

The recruiter snorted at the absurdity of the answer, an admission he had never heard in his years of being a recruiter. “Seriously?” he muttered to himself, unable to stop himself from feeling smug at the thought. “Look, unless you’re one of the rare Alicorns in the world, I hate to tell you that your chances of getting anywhere near the Royal Guard are pretty slim if you don’t know what kind of po-“

This exact moment was the reason I wrote this story, although in my head the idea was that the moment the smug recruiter saw Gallus, he froze to the point he held onto that final note until he was out of breath. That being said, StraightToThePoint's reading did an excellent job of carrying out the moment based on what I had written, so I have to commend him for it.

5. What character you’re writing do you most identify with?
I don't think I've written a character that I would identify with myself, as much as I like writing stories of the Young Six, I don't really identify with any of them individually more than the others. I can be shy like Ocellus, easy-going like Sandbar, snarky like Gallus, excitable like Silverstream, a bit of a klutz like Yona and Smolder's softer side.

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?
Funnily enough, it's Sandbar's baby sister, Coral Currents. There's something nice about writing a character so sweet and innocent, just a little pony who likes fishies and playing with her big bro. I'm thinking of giving her a small role in Bluebird.

7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?
In the review of my first story, I was described as a very no-nonsense writer, and I like to agree with. As much as I like the number of headcanons this show encourages, I'm not a fan of writing out lore and backstories unless it's necessary for the plot.

8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?
For the most part, yes. I like comedy over drama, short over long. As for genres, I like fantasies, including sci-fi.

9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?
I'm currently comfortable with short stories, although I'll see how far I can go with this long one.

10. How would you describe your writing process?
I have explained it in an earlier blog post but in short. My initial process involved writing a description of each plot point and then expanding it out with dialogue and describing the scene, but it was a slow one. My current writing process involves writing out the dialogue like a script, with brief descriptions of character interactions in-between. I find it a quicker process since it's easier to expand out the story when you already have the dialogues and actions figured out.

11. What do you envy in other writers?
Drive and consistency.

12. Do you want your writing to be famous?
If I'd want to be famous my writings I'd be writing something more original, I'd prefer writing for the few than the many.

13. Do you share your writing online? (Drop a link!) Do you have projects you’ve kept just for yourself?
Used to be an animation film critic. I've been getting into fandom history for a few years, and have been working on a possible book on furry fandom history since that's the fandom I've had much more experience with (10+ years to be exact).

14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?
Most of the time I've had the title when I already came up with the story premise, although two of my stories (Where she wants to go and Have any of you seen my brother?) I changed the title after I finished the story.

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?
Tags. Sometimes it's hard to tell if my stories should be under a certain category/genre or not.

16. Tried anything new with your writing lately? (style, POV, genre, fandom?)
Best Young Yak was an attempt at writing an entire story in a broken style of English found amongst the Yak characters in the show. I'm not sure whether my approach worked or not since it's still my least popular story, and although it had no negative votes it doesn't tell me if the story itself was done well, comments do that.

17. Do you think readers perceive your work - or you - differently to you? What do you think would surprise your readers about your writing or your motivations?
I guess the most surprising thing is that I got into MLP thanks to the Young Six and the Changelings, instead of the many pony characters that make up the majority of the show. Nothing against the mane six or ponyville residents, but I don't feel that motivated to write stories about them.

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterizations?) Tell us about them.
Ocellus' Family originally had an entire scene where Ocellus' parents were in the feelings forum, talking about how badly they've been trying to develop a bond with their daughter and how bad they feel about it. It was meant to be the moment where they understood that bringing back their daughter wouldn't be easy as they thought, and they needed to connect with her and talk about why she was taken away.

I ended up scrapping the scene as it felt better to simply to just have the moment where Ocellus and her parents talked together with the book.

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)
Said and remarked, I read that British schools teach children to follow lines of dialogue with adding who spoke it and how more often than American schools. I find myself often feeling I'm repeating the whole "he/she said" lines over and over and can't find a way to avoid it.

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Tansy approached the entrance of Ocellus’ burrow, were like the night before was dark. “Ocellus…” she softly called, “I’m sorry for what they said about your vase. I think it looks lovely, it reminds me of you, and it makes me think of how special you really are.”

Unfortunately for Tansy, there was no response from inside the burrow. She placed the vase near the entrance, filled it with soil and emerging from it were a few flowers, pink and bright blue in colour.

I do like foreshadowing and symbolism, when used sparingly they can make the payoff satisfying. Another one I feel proud of is the romance between Silverstream's parents when they were young (before the Storm King took over Mount Aris) in Where She Wants To Go.

21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as? (film, webcomic, animated series?)
Comics for sure, some animated series.

22. Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?
My first Gallus story is still my favourite, but I still think it could do with some revision.

23. What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?
Bluebird for sure. I have a word document containing premises I'd like to write about, and that one has always been on their as other premises have been added or removed over the year.

24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?
Hopefully, I've gotten better. At the very least I'm not writing huge chunky paragraphs as I did in my very first story.

25. What part of writing is the most fun?
Posting them and getting feedback, the comments are usually the best part of writing a good story.