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Eniac

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  1. Eniac

    Narrative

    By Eniac,

    I've left it late again, this time I am too tired to actually do the plot any justice so I am going to look at the simple narrative style.
    The narrative as originally stated will still be first person from each pony including thoughts and speech. This means I don't have to set the scene explicitly allowing my pony creations to choose what they see adding emphasis to their character and soo much more. I would like to do a bit of stream of consciousness but boy am I not skilled enough to pull that of for the whole story. So I will use the idea of visuals, sounds and memories coming together to create apparent leaps in conversation so common in the real world.
    I am currently 'reading' Ulysses and I would not want to put that mental struggle on anyone reading this story. But it definitely makes the interactions more fluid whilst allowing the reader to see how the characters are interacting. But, I do not want to let out the story of Eniac instantly and also do not want the readers to have the full picture otherwise the story will become boring beyond literary techniques I cannot use effectively.
    So the story starts in the landlords perspective as Eniac arrives. Straight in. As in mid train of thought 'cause how am I supposed to discern the start of this ponies thoughts, when he wakes up? So I have to wait a day, writing useless gibberish?!?!? NO. I REFUSE TO HELP THE READER. THEY WILL HAVE TO PICK UP THE FLOW FROM THE GET GO. Anyway, at this point the reader is bamboozled and we have no idea of who Eniac is. Maybe even passing him off as irrelevant.
    Then maybe flow between people until we reach Sugar. Thinking of the same as a cinematic effect I saw where the camera is very blurry moving fast through a scene until the main character pops up and the camera focuses. But in literature.
    Anyway from here we have Sugars narrative getting to know her a bit and her efforts to find Eniac. As this happens snippets of Eniac's thoughts start to jump in. THEN Eniac goes full monologue as we go to him trying to find Sugar, but his thoughts are reserved from himself and the reader! On meeting with have the full mingle of thoughts and speech as they start to open up to each other (Again not a relationship as of yet...) allowing the next chapter to be the staccato thoughts and dialogue between the two.
    Then Sugar finds Eniac's secret, silence except Eniac's thoughts. But then he sees her amazement as her bewildered thoughts enter the literary landscape. Now the thoughts between the two are fluid. Eniac's thoughts become more open and caring and Sugar's are less concerned as to what other's think or what she has to do for them.
    Now we have Eniac becoming more focused on other ponies and the story loses Sugar's thoughts. Then we have a single monologue from Sugar as she decides to leave, just before Eniac has his monologue of not feeling liked for himself but rather his inventions. The two thoughts and dialogues start to merge as Eniac seeks out Sugar.
    THEN THE END There thoughts merge like dialogue as in the feed of each other, complete merge. This is how I feel when talking to my best friends, we start to occupy the same mental landscape. This is apparent with my brother when we are really messing around or comforting each other, I swear we think the same thing and can send thoughts to each other. NO JOKE. I AM VERY SCIENTIFIC AND ANALYTICAL BUT I FEEL THIS IS A THING. the reason is evolution as connecting with others is super important and growing up together means our thoughts are very similar.
    Anyway, this I realise is a major part as it is how I have to see and shape the world. I don't focus on details or the scene I focus on the ponies and their mental landscape everything else slots into place. This is why I focus on characters, they are who the reader relates to and they dictate how the plot moves, not me not the reader. I choose who they are not what they will do.
  2. Eniac
    So the character I portrayed Eniac had a few contradictions so I am going to amend his characteristics. I am also going to introduce how the two develope together and the underlying plot of the story.
    I need Eniac to be new to the pony environment, the easiest way is to have him come into the town this is set in as a stranger, an outsider. This gives Sugar Plum the incentive to find out more about the new pony in town. Now without going into backstory Eniac will start of quite cold and belittling to Sugar, shutting down comments and not giving her any attention. This, however, is a mask that Eniac has put on due to hurt he has received from the place he has come from. 
    In truth he is the wide eyed, curious person mainly mentioned in the first iteration of Eniac. This is still there deep down, but because of his love of the world he can easily be hurt resulting in his sour character at the start, so he keeps a journal of discoveries and tinkers in his home. He is closer to himself here in his haven, of course after he has started to settle. Now all I need is to get Sugar to see him like this.
    There will be a point where Sugar gives up on Eniac and stops trying to interact. It's at this point that Eniac can start to break his fear of connecting with someone. Noone else is interacting with him because of his cruelish nature so when Sugar Plum stops coming he is left alone. Here he actually goes to seek out Sugar with some excuse. Also allows for a bit more bonding as Sugar would see through the fake reason Eniac has given.
    Here Sugar Plum is slowly introduced to the real Eniac allowing Eniac to develope to the excitable pony he really is. But now we get to the point we're Eniac becomes super focused on his curiousity ignoring Sugar as he can now interact with other ponies and the world. Ending up to a situation where both end up hurt, Sugar because she has been rejected and Eniac because his lack of judgement pushes ponies away, this allows for the final realisation for Eniac (to be friends with someone you have to put in effort) and the realisation of Sugar (to be more understanding that not everyone will give you attention the whole time).
    It plays more like real life the two have these flaws which they slowly fix without realising. This reinstates the flaws in some way as the don't realise what they have fixed. But now they can see how they developed and realise how much they needed each other in this process. This is not a romantic novel, I aim to have Eniac and Sugar as close friends at the end. I think this still follows the story arc of a problem, tension, climax, release and then resolve.
    Again leaving it late but I think it is all coming together now. What does anybody reading this think?
     
  3. Eniac

    Eniac

    By Eniac,

    So I haven't left as much time for this as I hoped to leave, but I am writing a bit anyway. I don't I have the time to really give Sugar Plum a decent fleshing out if any at all. So I will focus on myself, Eniac.
    Firstly, I have sorted out the plot a bit more: The idea will be to have Eniac having a conversation with Sugar Plum about his thoughts and experiences with Equestria. This is going of the conversation I was talking about in the previous post. The idea is to explain ponies and Equestria to someone who is a pony themselves in Equestria. It sounds weird but that's what I am going for. In a similar vain to say Darwin investigating the natural wild life of the Galapagos Islands. Of course Sugar Plum is aware that these things exist but hasn't given much thought about them.
    For this reason I need Eniac to be very curious in nature, he decided to look at the world around him and is intrigued enough by it that he is having this conversation. This curiosity can then lead to a wandering train of thought which may be useful. He is very excitable as well, this is one way I wish to add humour to the story, the reason being his intense curiosity so anything new gives him great joy. He doesn't really think in his head, he is very verbal, again humour, but this also helps to drive the conversation. Though he may wander in his thinking he can become intensely focused, fixating on small details or other people. This can be unnerving but it gives a way for Sugar Plum to slowly get used to Eniac. However, over all of this Eniac is uncaring towards others? Not in a very negative way more in the fact that he does not give them much thought, occasionally belittling them. His love and curiosity for the world around him also extends to other ponies but because of his frantic, uncaring and sometimes hurtful mannerisms they generally avoid him. This will act as a base which he is trying to figure out. Reasons for these traits will be explained in his backstory, which might have been better to write out first but oh well.
    The idea I am going with Eniac is a enthusiastic professor, he is caught up in finding new things and making innovations that he does not realise the others around him or other parts of himself. This is the basis for the character arc of Eniac. Have him slowly realise these other aspects of life and eventually improve himself. So though the plot is an analysis of Equestria and the few ponies Eniac has seen or interacted with, the underlying theme is the improvement of Eniac socially. I feel it's a bit cliched but if I get the characteristics and back story really nailed I will add a couple of interesting twists.
    though I stated that this is loosely based off of a conversation I had, that;s more the concept of what is being said. The development of Eniac is not the development of myself even though Eniac represents one part of me. Sugar Plum will not be directly based of anyone I know personally.
    The story narrative will probably be a dialogue the whole time, possibly chapters (depending on the length) for different encounters between Eniac and Sugar Plum (No other ponies are directly talked to). between direct dialogue the two characters will have internal monologues, I don't know how I will distinguish them yet but that's the plan. Anyway, tomorrow I will add some more.
  4. Eniac

    Starting

    By Eniac,

    So the challenge is to write between 250-10000 words, I will most likely be leaning towards fewer, though 250 may be too short. It's like with art a really great artist can paint a large beautiful painting but also only use a couple of strokes to convey a message, the amateur will use a few but still require a lot of faff to get their point across.
    As I am new to the show (halfway through season 5) The writing theme I can only choose is a conversation between two ponies. So my thinking is to try and establish two characters, nailing down some good backstory, characteristics and personality. This way I know my characters and how they will interact in a given situation, it seems a bit excesses for a short story but I am not going into tonnes of detail just enough to make it feel natural, to me at least.
    One character will be my OC, plain and simple I can flesh out my OC as well as work on the story - win-win. I am vaguely aware of my OCs personality and backstory as he mirrors me in a way but is more fun loving and care free, something that is harder to achieve irl. He has a name, a gender so no thinking required there.
    The second character will be female, reason: I have a plan to base it off of a real life encounter I had will a close friend of mine regarding MLP and my enjoyment of it, however this will be set in the actual MLP universe, sort of self analysis of the setting. I came up with a nice name: Sugar Plum it fits in the naming convention, similar to the apple family except the plum family. Also it is close to Christmas so it's on my mind.
    So far that's all I've got, basic plot idea, characters and plan of action (sort of). I will elaborate on the plot when I think I am happy to as I won't be retelling the whole encounter word for word so needs tweaking. First report will probably be adding a few more details to the characters. I don't know if basing the story mostly on real world encounters will be good as it is not specifically MLP, however I will be using the features of the MLP universe in my favour, hoping for it to be comedic to.
  5. Eniac
    So now that I am back out my house with access to all my motors, the raspberry pi and wood I was able to carry out a couple of measurings onto the wood. I decided to use yesterdays sketches as a rough guide as you where to place the motors but actually using the motors and board to get the correct dimensions. Tomorrow and over the week I probably will only be able to slowly draw out all of the pieces without cutting them, that will probably have to wait untill the weekend.
    Tbh I think this was possibly a bad project for lent, the sketching one is great becuase it doesn't need to take long but I can do it anywhere at anytime. It's also a skill with no set restrictions or goals I just sketch a pose I think is interesting or will stretch my ability a bit more each time. This requires more methodical approach while not necessarily always chipping away. But it has kept the project at the forefront of my mind so I guess that's a benefit. After this weekend it will be easier to work on it becuase all the chasis will be ready I just need to program it. Then I can try cool things but that's a week away. Any anypony reading this, which I doubt, sorry for the boring tediousness of the project so far.

  6. Eniac

    Plot

    By Eniac,

    Every time I come back here and read previous entries and think about the next thing I am going to work I see a lot of contradictions or things that will confuse the plot. But, this is just my thoughts at the time. The final story may be completely different. I haven't started writing any actual content yet but I am hoping to bang out big blocks of text a week or more before the deadline and then spend time amending individual chapters and paragraphs. Anyway onto the plot:
    The story has a driving plot for the characters to follow through and make the story a story, but it also has the analysis of the world basically from my point of view. The analysis is not detailed scrutinisation but rather just thoughts and explanations for why I like the show. There is also the point of developing my OCs story, possible backstory as well, so that if I were to use more OC more indepth on the forums I know how he will interact with others. So the point of the story for me: Try out writing, my views on the show and develop my OC into something believable.
    So the driving plot:
    Eniac is a new individual to an unnamed town (might need to give it a name but it is unimportant) where Sugar Plum lives. He arrives during the evening as he does not want to interact with anypony and it allows him to go about his business undisturbed. He has already bought a house or is renting, again unimportant really, and goes in straight away, again to avoid as much contact as possible. Word gets round to Sugar Plum who is then eager to find out more about the new comer.
    Their first encounter is at the doorstep of Eniacs house. Sugar is very eager to find out more and Eniac cuts off her sentences trying to get her to go away. The only reason Eniac opened the door was because he thought it was a delivery or maintenance pony. Because of the fact that Sugar had a chance to talk to Eniac but was unable to get much information she keeps trying. Originally just at the door, but Eniac starts to ignore it, so she slowly catches him when he needs to come out to organise deliveries or buy something important. These usually occur really early or late.
    Eventually Eniac manages to evade Sugar long enough to dishearten her from coming. Eniac starts to realise he can't see Sugar in his daily analysis of the town and begins to worry, he also realises how much he enjoyed the occasional time he was caught of guard and was able to talk about his past and thoughts. He eventually decides to try and find Sugar Plum in the evenings, but she is never around. This leads him to eventually have to find her during the day! Once found, which did not actually take too long in the day, Sugar teases Eniac. In the moment Eniac is not too bothered.
    Sugar thus resumes her daily visits to Eniacs home. During one of these visits Sugar catches a glimpse of one of Eniacs inventions (my thoughts are either artificial wings or an artificial horn, more likely wings) and manages to barge through into the house. At this point Eniac gets very cross but then starts to see the wonder in Sugar's eyes. This leads to slow development the relationship between the two ponies. However they do get on each other's nerves, Eniac's occasional belittlement and lack of interest in Sugar, and Sugar's need for attention.
    Slowly Eniac begins to interact with other ponies and starts to meet with them more often, especially the other scientifically inclined and engineers. This is after Sugar has helped Eniac to deal with other people constructively. So Sugar has been helping Eniac and Eniac has not reciprocated. Eventually, Eniac misses enough meetings with Sugar that she decides to leave (Eniac is such a big thing in the small town that her fun loving and friendliness is forgotten by others). At this point Eniac realises that the other ponies aren't actually interested in him but rather his inventions and tries to find Sugar Plum but can't.
    Now I am unsure how Eniac manages to get to find Sugar Plum, I am more going with the fact that Eniac comes to his realisation as Sugar is starting to decide to leave this way they manage to catch each other before anything permanent happens. Here the final long dialogue between the two can occur, where Eniac and Sugar start with a big argument and slowly come to realise that they are as cross with themselves as they are with each other. Sugar Plum reminds Eniac that he needs to be aware of his impact on all ponies and Eniac reminds Sugar that she won't always be in the spotlight.
    Voila end of story. The more I write about it the more inclined I am to have Sugar Plum and Eniac actually get into a relationship at the end. So maybe this will be a romantic story. But I think that's just because of my current mood over the last few days. Anyway, the plot falls into nice chapters so I can work on those in more detail as well as any supporting ponies.
  7. Eniac

    Sugar Plum

    By Eniac,

    Here go for day 3 looking more in-depth at sugar plum.
    I'll take a break quick though to say that I am not going to go into as much detail as I thought. Reading back the Eniac post was quite a dump of characteristics none of which were really explored. Two reasons for this: I am leaving writing here until the end of the day so I am tired and feel obliged; and I am not really thinking about the characters, or rather thinking to in-depth right at the start, they have to grow. So to a better introduction to Sugar Plum:
    Sugar Plum is the reason for the interaction, Eniac is not likely to interact on his on volition though he would like to. I see Sugar Plum in a similar vain to Pinkie where she is happy to go up to strangers and find everything about them. Sugar Plum is a people's (ponies) person (pony). However, I don't want the hyper activity of Pinkie because that will make the interactions insanely chaotic, with Eniac going off tangents and Sugar Plum going of the wall. So the only similarity to Pinkie is the extroverted nature to help the plot.
    She definitely needs to be patient and 'caring', not caring in the motherly sense but rather interested in the development of Eniac. Though, this is not her forte, her want to understand and be friends with Eniac causes her to express and develop her caring nature. She develops with Eniac though the focus is on Eniac.
    The important fact is that she is also sensible, not rational necessarily, but sensible. You see Eniac is rational he does not do anything that does not make logical sense, but this means that he does things that don't make emotional or social sense. Sugar Plum needs to be sensible to keep Eniac on track or rather get him on track through the story. Sugar Plum is really the guiding force for the story whilst also being the sound board for Eniac.
    As a result of these core characteristics she is more care free and grounded than Eniac. However, she does have flaws, she does not have quite the determination or commitment that Eniac has. This seems to counteract the fact that she still returns to Eniac, however, Eniac is actually eager to talk to someone so will start to make an effort to keep Sugar Plum coming back. This will create an interesting point sort 1/3 in where Eniac approaches Sugar Plum after she has stopped coming as much.
    Because of her extroverted and semi-caring nature she often forgets herself and is happier to help others than stop to ask if she wants to do that. This again allows Eniac to develop to a point where he can start to act on the fact he thinks Sugar Plum works herself too much. Or rather that she does not tell others when she is upset as she does not want them to feel guilty or sad.
    So I believe this is slightly better and will probably revisit Eniac tomorrow. I can then put in a bit more of the emotional and characteristic interactions between the two. I am thinking that if there is a point where they were supposed to meet but they don't the internal monologue is just Sugar Plum at the start but then slowly add Eniac. This will show that Eniac is starting to think about other ponies socially and emotionally rather than just analytically. Of course during dialogue their monologues will be inter-weaved, though Eniac's will originally be all over the place.
    This is quite the block of text, but though this is a blog for other's to read I see it as more of a log of my thoughts with the possibility that someone may step in and offer some advice. It's quite bland at the moment because it's character development no juicy stories yet. In fact, I think it might be a detriment to anybody who wants to eventually read this (good joke right there). Anyway, I need to make them more readable for my own sake at least. Another fact is that I don't want to edit previous blogs, except for grammar, to keep the original ideas there to draw upon.
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