Incoherent Mumblings, and Other Ways to Waste Your Time · 2:38pm Apr 26th, 2012
I doubt anyone will see this, but if I'm going to become more active in this community, I thought I'd better get it down anyway.
I've had a few ideas rattling about in this rickety skull of mine. Let's see if I can convey them in a semi-coherent manner.
The first is a story idea that I've been putting off for the past couple of months now -- a collaberative thing with a friend of mine who has significantly less free time at his disposal than I. Maybe that thing'll get started on at some point in the distant future. Thing is, one of my main failings at creative writing is planning ahead. I could just perpetuate my usual sin and start writing with what I've got, figuring things out for future chapters as I go, but that would only end in long, grotesque waits between chapters, and probably writing ourselves into some hideous tangle later on. I don't want to inflict that mess on anyone.
The second is some kind of weekly or fortnightly crossover-based writing event. Every week or two (haven't decided what would be best), whoever wants to get involved writes a crossover or fusion fic between MLP:FiM and something else, which will vary from week/fortnight to week/fortnight. The idea, I figured, would be to try to get some interesting crossover stuff from sources that haven't been covered yet by this (almost) all-encompasing fandom. Maybe people could suggest what crossover source they want to see next time, since I'm not especially well-versed in pop/geek culture.
The third is a non-pony (and thus not really relevent to the fandom, but I thought I'd mention it anyway) interactive pseudo-videogame story set in a futuristic fantasy world, run through Google Docs. I still need to work on the setting, as well as some characters and a bunch of later plot beats (here's that lack of forward planning raising its head again), but if I can get anyone interested in it, I figured it might raise my motivation to get it ready.
And so ends this largely pointless blog post. If you took the time to read it, thanks for noticing, and maybe give me some feedback on one or more of these ideas -- particularly the second one, since I can probably start that one with the least amount of effort.
Those are all some pretty ambitious ideas.
As for your first idea, planning ahead is a big weakness of mine as well and it does result in some pretty bad waits between chapters (I swear I'm working on chapter 6 right now. Really!). However, you will find that you simply can't plan a story anyway. You can figure out the beginning, the ending and everything that happens in between, but once you start writing, it all falls apart. Characters start to develop in directions you didn't predict, you get some new ideas you want to implement at the cost of the old ones, maybe the tone of the ending is far to dark compared to what you've already written. Basically, when a writer of an ongoing project is being asked something about the far future of his story, he'll probably answer something along the lines of "Don't ask me, I just write this."
I say it's better to get started and wing it. Updates can wait, as long as you actually finish it in the end.
I'm not to sure about the second. Or, at least, I'm not sure if you should put it on a schedule like that. Good art can't be forced, especially when it comes to crossovers, which require some careful planning and research considering the two universes that are being crossed over.
And I have no idea what you are talking about with the third plan, but it must be something pretty ambitious. Is it something along the lines of those old text-based adventures? If so, it might be better to see if you can get a programmer on board to turn it into an actual videogame. I know a guy, and I've seen him doing a lot more complex stuff than this. Finding one shouldn't be too hard.
I wish you good luck on your projects!
Hey, man! Thanks for the words.
Not really much to say on the first one, other than that we already have a vague idea of where the story will start and end, as well as a couple of plot beats somewhere between. Maybe I'll just say "fuck it" and start bashing out a draft of the first chapter on the weekend. Thanks for the support!
About the crossover thing, I meant it as more of a kind of "weekly challenge" sort of deal. It's still in the "wouldn't it be cool" stage at the moment, though, so it's subject to change (or being forgotten on a whim).
I've already decided on a format for the third one; no programming necessary. I write a few hundred words or so, people read it and comment with what they think the protagonist should do next, and then I write another few hundred words or so based on that. The protagonist's capabilities are built around some very loose fake video game mechanics that I've already mostly finished designing. Due to the scope of the project, however, this one is the least likely to get off the ground.
I think I'll need to somehow get the attention of more people if either of two or three are to be viable.
Anyway, I'd better get back to proofreading chapter 3 of Dude, We're Ponies.
So the second idea is just to try to cover every possible crossover until we can't think of anything more?
Winnie the Pooh visits Equestria.
INb4 featured.
87606
Something like that!
EDIT: Oh, and that one's (sort of) already been done: Ditzy Doo and the Blustery Day