#Discussion #Research

So, I have been working on my Mane 6. Specifically, I am trying to get their dialogue to sound natural. The key, I think, is to have a handle on their idioms. I started with Applejack, as she is the most distinct of the Mane 6.

Then I thought you all might like to see the entire list of canonical idioms for Applejack from the first two seasons. I will post what I derived from the MLP Wiki transcripts, broken down into a few simple categories.

#Discussion

Hello again, fillies and gentlecolts, and welcome to the tenth installment of the “Ask An Equestria Daily Pre-Reader Anything Thread”! Feel free to ask us anything* and we’ll do our best to answer.

*Disclaimer: Our knowledge of quantum physics is limited, so please try to keep questions on that subject to a minimum. Also magnets are kinda hard.

We’d also like to include a brief FAQ in this initial post, since we seem to hear a lot of the same questions:

Q: How long does the pre-reading process take?
A: A few days. If you don't get any sort of response after a week, you can send us an email asking what's up.

Q: Am I allowed to respond to pre-reader feedback?
A: Yes. If you feel that we were incorrect in some assessment of your story, feel free to bring it up in a reply email. Just try to be polite about it.
Oh, you can also send a reply to just say “Thank you.” We like that.…

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#Discussion #General, Story Ideas

Hello, and welcome to the Story Forge, /fic/'s story idea and brainstorming general thread!

If you have a story idea that you do not wish to write, or are looking for a seed of an idea upon which to build your world, consider this place a literary take-a-penny jar. We can also help flesh out your story ideas, but do suggest that once you get the ball rolling, to move the conversation to one of our many fine Review Threads. If you see someone asking for fic ideas, or posting a few, please direct them here.

Previous thread: >>91817
Image source: http://deathpwny.deviantart.com/art/Ponyception-291106077
http://inception.davepedu.com/

#Discussion #Normal #Sad #Shipping #Teen Pregnancy

This story takes place several years after the current time in the show, when Spike and Apple Bloom are teenagers. The story follows their relationship, but things take a serious turn when Apple Bloom becomes pregnant with Spike's child.

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/15533/Zestar-Apple-Flambe

It's a very well-written fic. Obviously since this deals with teen pregnancy the tone is pretty heavy, but the author does a good job presenting conflicts.

There are some parts I'm unsure of, such as Rarity's rather bigoted viewpoint on Spike and Bloom's inter-species relationship, although I'll have to concede that it probably IS in-character of her to feel that way.

For the record, the story is pretty tame in spite of the subject matter.

#Reviewer #Shipping

Hello, everypony! I am Baron Von Clop, and welcome to Ponychan's Equestrian Postal Service branch!

This is a review thread! As the name implies, however, I review ONLY shipping stories!

I'm kind of a sucker for them. Can't help it.

I do have a few rules, however:

1. All stories must contain a main character of your story being shipped. If your story contains grimdark, comedy, etc., alongside the shipping, that's fine, but there has to be shipping somewhere.

2. 10K word limit. More than that and I will just start repeating myself. 10K words is plenty to see what your weak/strong points are and for me to review them.
…

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#Discussion

Pic is kinda related?

Hello, all. I've been writing fanfics for about two and a half months now, and I've learned a lot about not only writing as a craft, but also as a hobby, if that makes sense. While I only consider myself a slightly above average writer at best, I'm hoping what I've learned will help others who are struggling to find their way as an author.

I've gone through some rough patches. There have been times away from the keyboard where I've had too much time to think, and I almost decided to give up. In fact, a couple times I DID give up, only to be drawn right back to the keyboard a couple hours later. Either I truly do love writing, or I just love to torture myself.

-Besides the number one rule, which is KEEP WRITING, I'd say the most important thing I've discovered is do not compare yourself to anyone else. The moment you start kicking yourself for not being good as some of the better writers in the fandom, you have lost. You won't be able to focus on your own writing, only how it isn't the best. At times, I've been heavily discouraged from the simple thought of "I'll never be as good as SSnE, or device heretic, or Absolute Anonymous, etc." Do not do this to yourself. No writer is going to get as good as them overnight, or even within a few months. The only thing you can do is keep writing, get constructive feedback, and keep improving. If you can't shake the jealousy, then channel this jealousy into passion to get better. Don't ignore the works of better authors just because you're jealous. Instead, try to thank these people for crafting such fine works that you can learn from. Bottom line: enjoy the writing of others, but never let it detract you from your own writing and ideas.

-Patience is extremely important. Again, I've irrationally kicked myself for not having written a super cool epic yet. But you know what? These things take time. Of course I'm not going to have written an awesome novel length story in just a couple months. Like any other …

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#Discussion

I'm not really even meaning to talk about the length of these stories, but about the content; however, it seems like "important" stories about Celestia's death or the return of Discord or what-have-you are disproportionately long rather than short. So when I talk about or make reference to "long" stories here, you should understand that I mean this certain kind of story, the kind that's about "important" events, which generally include but are not limited to saving Equestria from certain destruction, fulfilling a timeless prophesy, winning a decades-long war, etc.

I've noticed that almost all my favorite stories focus on what are, objectively, rather small events. Stories about the mane six, or perhaps one of the princesses, saving all of Equestria (or perhaps the entire universe) by defeating some timeless evil prophesied about since before the beginning of history tend, as a rule, to feel underwhelming, while "less ambitious" stories are often much more rewarding. (I'm too lazy to give examples.)

Surprisingly, I've even found that the worlds featured in expansive stories about universe-rending demons often feel much smaller than the worlds of some more focused, tightly-woven stories about everyday events.

What's up with that? It seems like the bigger a story tries to be, the more claustrophobic and sterile it feels. As far as I'm concerned, most big stories fail at the very thing—a feeling of the world's bigness—which seems like ought to be their main advantage over smaller stories.

Is there some reason for this? Is it because authors tend to spread their ideas more thinly in big stories, and they end up feeling less dense and less deep as a result? Is it because novice authors tend to bite off more than they can chew? Is this just a problem that novice authors have, or is it a problem inherent to writing long stories with epic arcs?…

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#Reviewer #Discussion #Presidential

Greetings fellow bronies and brothers in democracy! I am Richard M. Nixon, (former) President of the United States of America. As president, I was a man of firsts. I was first to open diplomatic relations with China (that’s right, you can thank me for ninety percent of the plastic in your home), to make charming home videos about my work in Congress, and to resign the office of president (I didn’t want to be president anyway). Today, I would like all non-Communist brony fan-fiction writers to experience my next first: the first review thread with an objective scoring system.

The units are apples, as IMDB stole my idea for stars (Plus, Applejack had a lot of extra apples lying about).

For information on how scores are calculated, go here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PUSHBP3Rca3y6fWCuOkkiHKo6TWXKbJhrFIMCXlEZzI/edit

Here is how you may interpret each score:

10 apples: Your work rivals the toils Jonathan Swift, the very first writer of pony fan-fiction.
9 apples: Some very excellent work, consider posting to Equestria Daily
8 apples: You are near perfection; a little bit more effort will make your story wonderful.
7 apples: A very good story, two or three more rounds of editing will make your story something special.…

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#Author #Collection

Well, I've been heavily contemplating making an author thread for a while now, and I figure I have enough fics to justify my own thread, if only to have a few posts before it descends into oblivion. I look forward to being a massive disappointment compared to other author threads here.

Why should you read my fics? Um, I guess my two EqD fics are sad in a more realistic and relateable way? And my most notable non-EqD FIM Fiction fic I've dubbed a "bleak fic." So, maybe that's enough to get you interested?

Anyway, here are my notable fics that I'm hoping are around above average quality.

One Simple Choice
When Rainbow Dash is offered a high ranking weather position in Cloudsdale, she must choose whether or not to continue down the path of becoming a Wonderbolt, an eventual possible outcome of accepting the job, or remain in Ponyville and risk letting her dreams slip away for good.

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/06/story-one-simple-choice.html

Currently a work in progress, and I intend for this to be a massive Rainbow Dash character study. Let's hope I can pull it off. I have a lot planned out for later, but any ideas are greatly appreciated.…

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#Discussion #Normal #Sad #Gender Identity

Okay, I messed up the first post. Here's my repost of this fic with the correct tags.

I didn't write this fic, but I felt I had to share it.

The story is that Spike, after the Great Dragon Migration, questions his gender identity and concludes that he's not a boy.

So yeah, contains discussions about being transsexual, gender-queer, and "filly-fooler". Still a well-written fic.

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/29997/Strange-Reflections

#Author #Normal #Sci-fi

http://pastebin.com/X1VA7YyK

I bet none of you guys even remember who I am. ;_;

http://www.equestriadaily.com/search/label/Author%3A%20Nukeiffum

#Discussion

Didn't see any thread that recently discussed this issue, so I'm making one.

Hello everypony. My name is Khakispony, and I’m fairly new to the reviewing scene, but I have found one particular writing habit in both fics I’ve reviewed that bugs me immensely. Therefore, I’ve decided to start a discussion thread to see how other reviewers feel about this.

The error I’m referring to is when a writer says the same thing twice. Example: Cherilee stood up, starting the day’s lesson. Starting her lesson, Cherilee...” whatever, I’m too lazy to find a good way to close the sentence. But you see how the first sentence is entirely superfluous. I don’t claim to be a great reviewer, but every fic I’ve reviewed has this problem at some point. Another similar problem I’ve encountered is just adding information that is easily inferred. Now maybe I’m crazy, but when someone writes, “A breeze flowed through the open window.” I always find myself snarkily laughing, like the author expected me to think the window was closed. Its completely superfluous in my opinion. So I wanted to know if any other reviewers run into this problem frequently, or if I have a knack for picking fics that have this problem. Furthermore, is it even a problem in the first place, or am I looking at a pet peeve rather than an actual story hiccup. Finally, if it is an actual hiccup, I know of a term used by my history professor that I like a lot that I would like to introduce into a reviewers lexicon: The Department of Redundancy Department (or Redundancy Department of Redundancy). Thanks for your opinions.

#Author #Discussion

Alright. I have never written a fanfic before, so I need a tad bit o' help. I already have an idea, I just need help fleshing it out.

What is my idea, you ask? "What if Heroes happened in Equestria?"

I welcome critisism.

~Mono

#Author #Discussion

Hello all! Golden Vision, reviewer, here.

I've noticed that inexperienced writers tend to have trouble "breaking into" a fandom, especially one with such relatively high standard for writing as MLP:FiM. I've also noted that quite a few more "experienced" writers tend to be very well accomplished in most areas, with one or two that they just can't seem to get right.

To help with these issues, you can, of course, always read such wonderful contributions to the community as The Editor's Omnibus or EZN's Guide (links at the bottom of this post). I'm not saying that these aren't extremely helpful—they're really wonderful for any aspiring writer—but sometimes words on a page aren't really enough. Sometimes, a more hands-on approach is needed.

So! This Wednesday, May 9th, at 3:30 PM EST, I will be hosting a livestreamed Writing Workshop in order to help any authors who might be interested. Though novice writers are the main demographic, I will gladly lend a hand to any others who think they need or want a hand with a specific issue. Other reviewers or prereaders are also welcome to attend if they would like to help out as well (especially because I hold no illusions that I am the perfect author—I have my blind spots as well).

So, any authors wishing to attend may submit one or two issues in a post through this thread, and I will add it into a queue of things to address during the livestream. For example:

>Can you go over Show, Don't Tell? I keep getting people saying that there's too much of that in my stories, but I don't really get it.
…

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#Collection #zine #TheSolarFlareReview

I'm putting together a regular e-mail/blog 'zine dedicated to fanfiction as a craft. It will feature stories, essays, and how-to columns.

This is both an ego-trip, and my attempt to create the 'zine I want to read.

Compared to Equestria Daily (because everypony will compare this to Equestria Daily):

- SFR will be opinionated and unapologetic. Stories will reviewed*, not just posted.

(*not critique and development "review," the "why you should read this, what's good, what's bad" meaning of by the term.)

- SFR will invest very little energy in developing specific fics and authors. Its goal is to be a showcase for good examples and good theory.
…

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