fandom q+a Three Winning Writers Q&A

[Batbrony 16,055]

Good evening everypony, how are you all this fine Saturday evening?  Well, this event has been a long time coming, that's for sure, and I hope you'll all enjoy it very much!

 

For those of you who may have missed the initial announcement thread, Chengar Qordath, Comma-Kazie, and Ponibius are joining us this evening for our monthly fandom Q&A.  All three are truly exceptional authors and editors on Fimfiction, and together have created and fleshed out the main body of very popular stories in the Winningverse, originating with Chengar's insanely well-written ballad of the Winning Pony herself, Cloud Kicker, in The Life and Times of a Winning Pony (which, speaking as a fan myself, if you haven't yet checked out, GET ON THAT SILLY FILLIES, IT'S AMAZING!  ).

 

They've all got an immense, extensive, and varied body of stories worth checking out, and now's your chance to ask them anything at all, whether it be about their head canon, the characters they write about, tips for writing fanfiction of your very own, or just how in the world does one come up with a Winning Pony like Cloud Kicker in the first place.     Since we have three guests this time, feel free to either clarify that any of them may answer or your question, or direct them at a specific guest, your choice.

 

To start things off, I will get the ball rolling with a question I've been wondering since I first got into the Winningverse...

 

What would qualify as a Losing Pony?  :comeatus: 

 

Throw all your questions at them people, like peanuts at monkeys, the more the merrier! 

 

Also, if you would like to support Chengar Qordath's writing, check out his Patreon by clicking on the following link: Support Chengar Qordath.  Writers like Chengar and his friends are all too rare in this fandom, and the more support they receive, the more wonderful works of pony fiction they can produce!   

[PROJECT: Simon 3,954]

Very interesting~!        It'll bring so much fun~           

[Chengar Qordath 67]

 

What would qualify as a Losing Pony?  :comeatus: 

 

Presumably, the antithesis of Cloud Kicker. Her Mirror Universe version (complete with evil goatee). She presumably is an ultra-puritan who believes that sex is evil and sinful, and enjoying it is horrible.

Edited September 20, 2015 by Chengar Qordath

[Comma-Kazie 58]

Welcome to the Three Winning Writers Q&A, and thank you so much for having us! 

 

I’ll start with a little bit about me: I’m Comma-Kazie, and I handle a lot of the editorial duties in the Winningverse. I’ve wanted to be a published author since I was in high school, and graduated from college with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications & Journalism. I discovered ponies in the summer of 2011, and never really regretted throwing myself into the fandom—the richness of art, music, and stories astonishes me, even today. I met Chengar (so to speak) a little after that, and was hired on to help with My Little Denarians. Ponibius joined us a little after that, and we’ve been working on and its offshoot stories ever since.

 

Now, let me start off by stating the obvious: you can have the best story in the world, but if it’s poorly constructed, no one will go past the first page. Proper construction is vital, and to that end, there are three resources that everyone—authors, editors, proofreaders, etc.—should take advantage of. The Elements of Style by Strunk & White is the definitive book on the written word, and we’re fortunate that we can look up specific rules without needing to buy and read the entire thing. 

 

Second, and more specific to the fandom, is the FimFiction writing guide which was compiled by Ezn. Speaking as someone whose education revolved around writing, this guide is a must-have. I paid good money for textbooks of this quality, and not all of them were this specific for fiction or the MLP fandom. Go read it over if you haven’t already, and go give Ezn some love for his hard work.

 

Third and finally, there are a ton of review and editor threads available to authors. Whether you’re starting fresh or just want another set of eyes on your work, the pony fandom is a goldmine. There are a couple of groups just on FimFiction dedicated to helping writers polish their work, and if you want help (or want to help), go check them out.

 

http://www.fimfiction.net/group/198420/proofreaders-editors-authors-and-idealists

http://www.fimfiction.net/group/201936/the-pleasant-commentator-and-review-group

http://www.fimfiction.net/group/197295/authors-helping-authors

http://www.fimfiction.net/group/97/looking-for-editors

 

 

 

What would qualify as a Losing Pony?

  

 

Bullies, sexists, mysoginists, and homophobes. And Spike.

[Trinary 18]

For all three of you monkeys: what scene (from any of your stories) did you have the most fun writing and working on?

[SCS 7,537]

What tends to be the source of your inspiration?

[Chengar Qordath 67]

For all three of you monkeys: what scene (from any of your stories) did you have the most fun writing and working on?

 

Probably anytime Cloud really get into teasing and messing with her friends or some other convenient target. That's always really fun to write.

[Comma-Kazie 58]

For all three of you monkeys: what scene (from any of your stories) did you have the most fun writing and working on?

 

There was a scene in My Little Denarians where we had to come up with the most ridiculous honor guard possible to precede Discord's entrance. We had far, far too much fun coming up with the array of items presented in lieu of swords.

[Randimaxis 8,652]

Uhm, hiya!  Great to have you folks here!  Mad writing skeelz is best pony!

 

Okay, so out of all the ponies that've been seen on MLP:FiM, which one do each of you think would make an awesome character for their own book?

 

That being said, which ones do you think NEED more expansion?

 

(Thank you for your time!)

[Ponibius 57]

Hello, and I'm happy to be here to answer your questions. Starting out...

 

 

 

 

What would qualify as a Losing Pony?  :comeatus: 

 

 

 

A pony whose life is filled with nothing but failure. Like the Flim Flam Brothers, who manage to steal defeat from the jaws of victory in Super Cider Squeeze 3,000.

[Trinary 18]

For any/all of you: which members of the Mane Six (or the other characters who tend to get the most focus in the show) do you have the easiest and hardest time writing for?

[Denim&Venöm 18,953]

I think these posts are on a time delay. I showed up precisely at 8 cst, and nothing. Come here 3 minutes later, things are already rolling. What the hay? 

 

Anyways, welcome to MLPF, and @Chengar Qordath

 

Probably one of the big questions on everypony's mind: Why Cloud Kicker? 

[Chengar Qordath 67]

Uhm, hiya!  Great to have you folks here!  Mad writing skeelz is best pony!

 

Okay, so out of all the ponies that've been seen on MLP:FiM, which one do each of you think would make an awesome character for their own book?

 

That being said, which ones do you think NEED more expansion?

 

(Thank you for your time!)

 

I'd probably have to say Sunset Shimmer, since I've written one novel-length story with her, and have a lot more horse words planned. 

 

As for who needs more expansion, I'd lean towards the Celestia and Luna. Their background/history offers a ton of potential for worldbuilding.

[Ponibius 57]

For all three of you monkeys: what scene (from any of your stories) did you have the most fun writing and working on?

 

Good question, for I've had fun with a number of scenes over the years. It would either have to be the scene in Twilight Sparkle vs. The Haunted Mailbox where Twilight is trying to figure out the nature of the mailbox and whether it's haunted or not, or from Midnight's Shadow where the main protagonist has to figure out how to deal with a mob in her own odd way..

[Comma-Kazie 58]

Okay, so out of all the ponies that've been seen on MLP:FiM, which one do each of you think would make an awesome character for their own book? [W]hich ones do you think NEED more expansion?

 

In their own book? If you mean as a FimFiction story (and not an IDW comic or something like that), I would say Maud Pie has a lot of fun potential.

[Chengar Qordath 67]

I think these posts are on a time delay. I showed up precisely at 8 cst, and nothing. Come here 3 minutes later, things are already rolling. What the hay? 

 

Anyways, welcome to MLPF, and @Chengar Qordath

 

Probably one of the big questions on everypony's mind: Why Cloud Kicker? 

 

Why not?

 

Seriously, she started off as a random background pony I picked for one scene in a one-shot. Then I went and gave her some personality, and next thing I knew, I wanted to write some more stuff with her. From there, things just kinda snowballed.

[Ponibius 57]

What tends to be the source of your inspiration?

 

Inspiration for me comes from a lot of sources. Either from the show itself, books I read, TV shows and movies, or from video games. Sometime from real life even. Inspiration hits me from all directions. It's just the matter of taking that inspiration and developing it into a story or a scene in a story that is tricky. The key has always been to take a specific source of inspiration and run with it to its logical conclusions.

[Comma-Kazie 58]

For any/all of you: which members of the Mane Six (or the other characters who tend to get the most focus in the show) do you have the easiest and hardest time writing for?

 

The easiest for me is Applejack, as I have fun visualizing accents in text, and the hardest would be Pinkie Pie. Her randomness is hard to do well, and JaketheGinger is one of the few writers I know of who can find a balance of zaniness and readability.

[Chengar Qordath 67]

For any/all of you: which members of the Mane Six (or the other characters who tend to get the most focus in the show) do you have the easiest and hardest time writing for?

 

I'm pretty comfortable with all the Mane Six, though Pinkie is probably the hardest one to write for. It's tricky to have her be weird, goofy, and random without making her too goofy, weird, and random. Even the show has a hard time with that sometimes.

 

Rarity is probably the Mane Six-er I enjoy writing from the most, PoV-wise. I had a real blast both times I used her PoV.

[Ponibius 57]

Okay, so out of all the ponies that've been seen on MLP:FiM, which one do each of you think would make an awesome character for their own book?

 

That being said, which ones do you think NEED more expansion?

 

Oh there are a ton of characters that I could give for that. But if I had to pick one... I think Rarity could be a very versatile character who can be put into nearly any situation and still be awesome. She's such a wonderful character with strong motivations and options and I always enjoy her episodes.

 

As for who Need expansion, I would say Celestia and Luna considering how central they are to the world they live in. That could make for a great story.

Edited September 20, 2015 by Ponibius

[Chengar Qordath 67]

Inspiration for me comes from a lot of sources. Either from the show itself, books I read, TV shows and movies, or from video games. Sometime from real life even. Inspiration hits me from all directions. It's just the matter of taking that inspiration and developing it into a story or a scene in a story that is tricky. The key has always been to take a specific source of inspiration and run with it to its logical conclusions.

 

Just gonna second this. As the saying goes, writing is 10% inspiration, and 90% perspiration. It's easy to have a good idea for a story—writing it all out (and editing it) is another matter entirely.

[Trinary 18]

What was the most cringeworthy mistake you ever made in writing your MLP stuff (grammar/spelling, plot point, mischaracterization, etc.)?

[Batbrony 16,055]

Presumably, the antithesis of Cloud Kicker. Her Mirror Universe version (complete with evil goatee). She presumably is an ultra-puritan who believes that sex is evil and sinful, and enjoying it is horrible.

 

Bullies, sexists, mysoginists, and homophobes. And Spike.

 

A pony whose life is filled with nothing but failure. Like the Flim Flam Brothers, who manage to steal defeat from the jaws of victory in Super Cider Squeeze 3,000.

 

All very acceptable responses though I supposed the obvious followup would be whether or not Cloud would bang a Losing Pony, especially Chengar's idea of it?    Anyways, a serious followup question for you all, and one I've always been curious about; you've got some wonderful original characters, and have fleshed out some background characters in fantastic ways as well.  When it comes to main characters, though, particularly the Mane 6, you obviously walk a bit of a balancing act between having them stay true to their characters but also fitting into the Winningverse in their own unique ways (Rainbow Dash in particular is the first that comes to mind, her Winningverse self has always struck me as very distinct from her show self).  How do you three go about deciding how to write all of them, that is, what's a bigger priority, staying true to canon or being distinctly Winningverse characters? 

[Chengar Qordath 67]

What was the most cringeworthy mistake you ever made in writing your MLP stuff (grammar/spelling, plot point, mischaracterization, etc.)?

 

Probably how a couple things that were supposed to seem touching in "Saying Goodbye" didn't come across to all the readers.

[Randimaxis 8,652]

Uhm, hiya... again...

 

Mind if I ask another question?

 

If you were going to ship ponies in a story, which two would you pick to pair up & write about?

 

(I beat Lightwing to a shipping question!  ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!)