HiE Fics: Your most loved/hated story ideas?

[CloudFyre 848]

A quick question for all of you fic readers: What are story concepts that you like to see most in a fanfiction work, and what are the concepts that you think are overused? Are there any great ideas that you have yet to see in a story or haven't been used much?

I wrote a HiE (Human in Equestria) fic a while back (to my surprise, it did very, very well), and now that I've improved on my prose, I'd like to write another, much larger fiction work as well. However, I want it to be something that others would really enjoy investing their time in, and for that, I need to know what the majority of people like/dislike.

If I could venture out on a limb here:

Overused ideas:

• Soldier in Equestria
• Humans vs. pony war
• Lunar/Solar Empire war (or less serious factions like that)
• Main antagonist is Discord/Nightmare Moon/Sombra/Chrysalis
• OC's (other than the human)

Unique/underused ideas:

• An initial language barrier, preferably with a non-magic learning solution.
• A plausible "scientific" explanation for magic (or as scientific as one can get with such a concept).

Those are just a few ideas I came up with off the top of my head, but there can always be exceptions to those as well.

Thoughts?

[Winona the Dog 1,984]

Another Overused HiE story: OC x Mane6/background pony

 

Unique Idea: I like it when i see a HiE and the OC isnt a pony. Instead i enjoy a HiE when said human is a dragon,griffion diamond dog etc.

 

 

An initial language barrier, preferably with a non-magic learning solution.

 

 

I've actually read a fic kind of like that. If you weren't a pony you couldn't understand what the ponies were saying so they had to learn it by body language or something.....

 

 

A plausible "scientific" explanation for magic (or as scientific as one can get with such a concept).

 

 

Ehh i don't really know how this would work one cant really explain how magic works......

Edited January 12, 2013 by ~Chaotic Harmony~

[~Master~ Button Mash 2,307]

I wish I would have known that soldier in Equestria was overused before I decided to write one. I've read relatively little fanfiction so I guess I had no way of knowing. I guess the other aspects of it (the fact that it is anonymous, "found" pages of a dream journal) can make up for it enough, I guess. Progress has been slow, though, providing smooth introductions for the Mane 6 has been difficult.

 

Another thing I was considering which might actually be considered original was either ware-ponies or ware-humans. Thoughts?

[CloudFyre 848]

Another Overused HiE story: OC x Mane6/background pony

 

Yeah, that's probably a tad bit overdone too. On the other hand, it's not really an HiE fic unless there's *some* kind of personal feelings towards one of the Mane 6. (But it doesn't have to be shipping, as most people attempt.)

 

Ehh i don't really know how this would work one cant really explain how magic works......

 

I spent waaaay too much time thinking about that topic, and have a rough concept of how to pull off a trick like that.

 

On a related note, I highly recommend reading the Spellwright series - they do an excellent job of making magic seem very natural. As foreign as it sounds, over time the idea seems less and less abstract and very relatable.

 

I wish I would have known that soldier in Equestria was overused before I decided to write one. I've read relatively little fanfiction so I guess I had no way of knowing. I guess the other aspects of it (the fact that it is anonymous, "found" pages of a dream journal) can make up for it enough, I guess. Progress has been slow, though, providing smooth introductions for the Mane 6 has been difficult.

 

Another thing I was considering which might actually be considered original was either ware-ponies or ware-humans. Thoughts?

 

It's not a bad thing, it just means that a lot of people like the idea, all at the same time. XD

 

I have never heard of ware-ponies or ware-humans. That would be...well, I really don't know what to think of that. It's all in the presentation I guess.

Edited January 12, 2013 by CloudFyre