State of the Author, Pride Month Edition · 10:35am Jun 15th, 2021
The Great Work continues.
It's been a busy time here. Last month was difficult. After being quite productive on The Seven Trials all year I decided it was time to put in some work on the next chapter of Crown of Night. And then I banged my head against the wall on that for basically all of May, and at the end of the month I had next to nothing to show for it. In despair, I decided I had given it the old college try and went back to TST instead.
I then wrote and edited all of chapter 13 of The Seven Trials from scratch in a week. I can't remember the last time a story or chapter cooperated so smoothly. And it's good. It's relatively short at a little over 6k words, but it packs a hell of a punch. This is at the threshold moving into the big final act of the story, and it's kind of affecting me. I've been working on this story for years, and you've all had to listen to me go on about it even though I have little of it to show (for which I always feel very awkward), but now the end of it actually feels within reach in ways that it's never done before. I've never before been so sure that I can actually finish this thing at all and that this won't all have been for nothing.
This chapter also contains what's probably the single most important scene of the entire novel. Which, as is the way of these things, managed to sneak up on me even though it was right there in the plan I wrote back in 2018 and which I returned to earlier this year, and more immediately in the plan for this chapter itself I was working from. In spite of all that when the time came it still caught me completely by surprise. And then I wrote it and it was heartbreaking and revealing in equal measure.
That was at the start of June. I had hoped to keep right on going with chapter 14, but instead I'm again splitting my attention between a bunch of different projects while I wait for my brain to regain its focus. One of those projects, oddly enough, is a ponified song that I don't know will make it into anything even if I write it. Does anyone want to read Star Swirl singing a ponified version of "American Pie" that mixes his story with prophecy of events from the show? Say, wasn't there some site rule or other about song lyrics some years back that banned things like that? Is that still in place?
In any case, writing song lyrics is very hard in ways you don't fully realize until you try. And boy, that particular song is so extremely sincere, even raw, that it boggles the mind to try to imitate it.
Recommendations. I have two other pieces to share today, firstly this essay by Ada Palmer and Jo Walton on what they call Protagonismos:
Protagonismos is the protagonist spark, that quality some characters possess which means the plot will not advance until our hero comes to lead the action, be it to victory or defeat. It’s easier to see in clumsy examples. Think of that formula for an action team, there might be five characters: the smart one, the strong one, the kid, the love-interest, and the…protagonist, whose distinguishing feature may be described as courage, or a pure heart, or determination, but really comes down to writing, that they’re the one who always lands the final blow. The armies will not roll out, the superweapon fire, or the princess fall into the pit until James Bond, or Robin Hood, or Captain Kirk, or Aragon and Frodo (yes, there can be two in one tale) arrive and act.
Many such stories are great stories, it’s a great formula, there’s a reason we’ve been writing it since Homer had the Greeks succeed or fail based on Achilles’ presence on the battlefield. But when we use this formula too constantly, when we make it the dominant structure of our stories, we advance the claim that, even in a thousand different worlds, in utopias and dystopias, in dragon cities and on Dyson spheres, from our cave-dwelling days unto the dimming of the sun, history is decided by the actions of special people dropped into each era to be its destined shaper.
Secondly please watch this positively delightful show of Lucy Lawless interviewing Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman:
A third, linkless recommendation: I recently finally got around to watching Infinity Train.
Infinity Train is amazing. And unlike anything else I have ever seen. And it is a tragedy that it is apparently not going to continue past its fourth season, leaving the story unfinished, but seriously - if you haven't already, go watch Infinity Train. I will not say a word of what it's about but you have to watch it.
And finally, have a preview of The Seven Trials of Clover the Clever, from chapter 7:
The shapeless being that spoke with the voice of her teacher was all around her, the voice broken and jagged with anger. His tendrils billowed and bulged in the darkness, and Clover pulled back until she bumped up against a stone, unseen in the shadows of the trees. “You come to me… You greedy, selfish, careless, cruel little things… You burn everything you touch, and I burn when I look at you. I lose my words. You take everything else and leave nothing but the burning!” The tendrils of fog crept closer, closing the circle behind her and drifting over her to cover the stars. “And all I can think… is that this forest will be so much more beautiful when you are all gone, and that I should make it happen.” Clover’s heart raced as she felt the wisps of sickly air creeping all around her, under her cloak and around her throat, ready to squeeze. “Perhaps I should simply kill you now.”
Clover’s horn lit up with a bright flash as she raised her shield spell around her, pushing it away. “I can keep you out,” she said, staring defiantly into the darkness.
“For a while, perhaps. But I’m faster than you,” the voice said, moving around her. “I’m stronger than you. And while you are here, I can go anywhere.”
“I know who you are!” Clover shouted up at it. “I know what happened to you! And you have a right to be angry. But don't take it out on innocent ponies!”
There. Happy Pride Month, everyone. I hope you're all hanging on in these interesting times. Take care of yourself out there.
Infinity Train is definitely on my short list of "Shows I really need to get around to getting around to."
Also, if you have a tune in mind, I can try to lend a hand with the song lyrics.
Best of luck with the Magnum Opus!
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Thanks, and yes you really should watch it. You'll thank yourself for it.
The tune is American Pie.
The story is Star Swirl, sometime between Crown of Night and The Education of Clover the Clever, pouring out his heart in the form of magic song, filled with allusions to the Royal Sisters and prophecy future events from the show. I was struck by inspiration for this when I heard another ponified version of this song and... well, didn't like it much. I thought "I could do better than this... Hmm... Could I do better than this? :archedeyebrow:"
The answer is probably no, I could not. But it's an interesting thing to try. If you'd like to see what I have so far I can take it to DM
Infinity Train is one of those shows like Owl House that... It looks fine, and everyone loves it, but looking in from the outside, nothing about it seems appealing? Not unappealing, just... what is it even about? Why should I watch this beyond peer pressure? :/
I think the lyrics rule pertained/pertains to actual song lyrics ad verbatim (as that would be protected intellectual property.)
I remember skirting around the rule myself back in the day by having Pinkie Pie sing a slightly altered version of the Welcome to Ponyville song from the show in one of my stories. I know I've seen other stories that included parody lyrics to popular songs.
So I believe you're fine on lyrics as long as a) they're not 1:1 the existing lyrics to a song and b) it's incorporated into an actual story.
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I really truly don't want to spoil anything for this show and would sincerely urge you to try it out and see for yourself. It's short, each season is like a movie and I watched the first three seasons in one night.
But if you absolutely want a more detailed recommendation, tonally it's both heartfelt, intelligent, philosophical character-driven drama, all without ever breaking from its cartoon framework. And plotly it's about people trapped in purgatory as a magitech train trying to understand why they're there.
(Owl House is also excellent btw.)
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Hmm, yeah, I guess so. The relevant rule, a point in the list of banned things, reads "Stories containing copyrighted song lyrics. Lyrics from MLP songs are allowed."
Which, I guess altered lyrics aren't copyrighted? I remember seeing a lot of complaining when that rule went into effect but I can't remember if it was people putting just preexisting lyrics or also rewrites.
I put a song and altered lyrics in the AN of a chapter of The Education myself and nobody ever complained.
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I'll heartily second DA's recommendation. Infinity Train is one of those rare stories that works well on multiple levels.
Parody song lyrics should be covered by Fair Use, so you should OK there (it is how Weird Al makes his living after all). If in doubt, you could always ask Knighty and The Powers That Be for clarification. Certainly would not hurt.
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It certainly sounds intriguing to me as well. Seems a rather tall, ambitious order given all the intermingled end rhyming, internal rhyming, and the metre.
My first thought would be to start off devising a solid parody of the "Bye bye Miss American Pie" chorus refrain and anchor the verses around that central theme.
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Luz is a human girl trying to be a witch, despite not having been born to magic.
Eda is an older con-woman with a medicated disabilty, realizing she's the closest thing to a guardian that the kid has.
Hooty is a wooden furnishing given life, that desperately wants to make a connection.
King is mostly annoying, sometimes actually funny and cute.
There's some more people, but the whole thing sets them on a collision course with the literal fascist cult that actually runs the setting. Connected to the larger mystery of why the island they live on is a skeleton of a dead God. That last one's not a spoiler, it gets established by at least the second episode.
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It's so damn good.
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It's a very complicated song
I am utterly boggled that the year is almost half over. I feel like we just barely emerged from winter here.