Fish and Lillypad- the diary

[Idris 241]

I started "Fish and Lillypad" on Sunday evening after finishing "a horn handled gun". Let's see if I can jot down the process as I go......

 

By Sunday I already know what the title art needs to look like. Jowybean is interested in being comissioned for it. The story has been on the back burner for weeks and I know what I want from the fifth story in the "Pony Poets" series. What I don't know is how to get there? I mean, Filly meets a Merpony. That has to be simple enough? Right?

 

Sunday - I'm typing to Neighrator Pony on skype and talking to my mum on the phone while Cut Glass is milling around the house. NP narrated "Fish in the Clouds" and I'm hoping he will do this one. All I know is that the little filly goes to the river and meets a merpony filly. We bounce ideas like; how do they interact and play. How will 'Fish' enter the river to see Lillypad's life and visa versa? From "The One Who Got Away" I know I want my Merponies to be able to magic legs to travel on land. Mum suggests Lillypad learns the spell and her mum writes it down and gives it to her in a reed bag around her neck. Now we're going places. But how does Fish do the reverse? I soon have 600 words about fish following the stream from her farm down to the river. I stop writing just as a shape moves in front of her under the water.

 

Monday - Fish is going to get some diving kit from somewhere. She has to, so that this story can work! Without it lillypad comes on land and that might as well be 'her friend Janet visits from the town' as plots go.

I begin this section with Fish trying to build a submarine with stuff she finds on the farm. I've jumped to like chapter three or four with this bit. No harm though, I can back-filll later. My aim is to get that cloud grey bundle of fur into a deep river without looking like I hate ponies and only want to drown them. The vehicle for this plot line is this the introduction of a Pony Mare who does diving for a living, in line with her cutie mark. Dad takes Fish to meet her and she provides the tech. I can have fun writing about going there, being there, describing an aqualung (that works for ponies) and coming back. Now it's at 1800 words and I'm thinking about Lillypad again.

I need to write about them meeting and playing together, which we might as well call chapter two.

 

Tuesday- I'm starting a diary thing on MLP Forums so Ponies who want to start there own fan fictions arn't put off by the enormity of chapter two. (Or even the first line) If you have a vague idea what you need from it and an ending, it'll work out fine. Just vomit up ideas and type them in.

It is art afterall

It's now Tueday night. I'm up to 2600 words and i'm making good progress, but I was slowed by 'interfacing' what I had written already. I know Little Fish really well, because I knew her parents before she was born I kind of know how she will bounce.

But Lilypad is a blank sheet. I have decided to make her more precocious than Fish, because in the river she is on the home ground, while Fish is quite literally out of her depth! I'll probably swap that when Lilypad comes to the farm. That's the one thing I see in fanfics, is that easy-going charectors are easy to write for. If you go with 'introvert' combined with 'extrovert' tendencies it gives you a hell of a lot of wiggle room. You don't want characters to be bland, but characters like Pinky Pie are going to be hard to write for. She's great, but she needs momentum, even as comedy relief. I love her, but killing spies by Rara is more tantalising.

 

The main job I have done tonight is to join my chapter-one with my chapter-three. I can break the chapters any way I like, but if I make a big subject jump I may have to announce the chapter in the audio book narration to show the step-change. In text no one will mind if I move time and space to a new scene. On youtube it might be confusing unless the voices change?

I've just written a scene where Fish arrives home and gets tucked up in bed. That's a great point for a chapter change.

 

Next job is to sniff around the ending. I could give little fish her cutie mark, but this is a sweet little slice-of-pony-life and having had a good time can be a good ending. I would like to see a fish on her butt, and this might be the time. But I may decide to spread that to an adventure in a later tale. Oh the decisions

[Idris 241]

Wednesday,

I've made a start on Lilypad the seapony getting legs by a magic spell. I was feeling the moment after drawing the title art layout. I'm no artist but a quick sketch will let the artist see what I was thinking.

A seapony with legs gives me another story tool. It's a cheap shot, but now I can put the pony in Ponyville, (for want of a better description). It's not canon, but it is common. To make these scifi/fantasy things work grab what you can when you can, and twist it if you can. It means in my world all seaponies are unicornseaponies, but what the hay, why wouldn't they be? I get chance to write about her using these strange new apendages too. It's like; "I'm out of bread, I go to the shops, see an old friend, get coffee and learn they have a treasure map." You have to set the charectors on a journey.

So far I am well on to the way to the main three things I want for this story; A narrator, Title art and me amusing myself with another cute story.

Still not sure how big it will be though? I'm up to 3000 tonight.

Thursday;

I nearly painted myself into a corner with Lilypads house. I've no idea what a seaponies house looks like. There's no fire and no table because it is basically a weightless place underwater. I did my best and of course and I can go back and have another go. The main thing I achieved tonight is that I have the bulk of the story up to Lilypad getting her legs. I also introduced her mum. Now I can crack on with what a seapony filly would think of a farm and a small village.

The main lesson here is that some bits you think will be great fall flat when you get into the detail. Fish visiting a seaponies house sounded great in my head, but tonights effort felt meh. Hopefully I can add to the scene by describing the sensation of diving better?

(I've never dived, but I'm not a pony either. I'll make some stuff up)

Just off 4000 words

Friday;

Not the most ideal of days with life stuff. I make the story 4185 words and generally do a quick edit to make sure it balences. Its worth doing this so you keep the whole story in your head (if you can). There is a local rythme to paragraphs and the one that runs through the whole piece. It needs to flow and constant re-reading achieves that.

Still need to fix the underwater house and write Lilypads land trip.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Idris

[Idris 241]

Saturday;

'A bit of tinkering last thing' is how I would describe today. I decided to stop just before Lilypad goes to school. That's a story in it's own right and it doesn't add anything to this one. It could be like a 'next chapter' in a larger work, with "Fish in the Clouds" as an earlier one. Although The Pony Poets trilogy was fun, you can see how some thought on 'The Big Picture' might be a good idea early on? I now have five sort of disjointed works with Sam and Glyn.

I'm up to 4600 words and I would say it needs very little to finish writing. Then I integrate Cut-Glass as a proof reader, since she was a teacher once upon a time. Then it's VA time.

I may add more onto this thread, but the idea was to help somepony get started by showing how I evolve a story in my "make it up as I go along" stance. Once the text is done I will paste that in here.