'The essential thing about fictional writing is to value the intelligence of your audience,' Twilight read, a slight frown making its way onto her face. 'Following this concept not only simplifies the writing process due to the absence of contrivances, but it can also be used stylistically to great effect. If, for example, you want a character present or absent, you should never come up with a reason for it just to have a reason. Three's a Crowd was terrible, not least because it spend half its running time getting rid of the cast which it didn't even have to include in the first place-'
“Hi.”
Twilight's body jerked around, wincing hard. “Pinkie! What in Celestia's name are you-” But she stopped, abandoning her line mid-sentence and turning back towards the book.
'... in the first place. See, this is a perfect example. I could have made up a lame reason for why Pinkie is now here, but why do that? If I had done it, the readers who know her character are just going to get annoyed because I used her randomness as a plot contrivance.'
Blinking several times, Twilight grasped her quill in her telekinesis, putting it onto the sheet.
'But what happens if I ask her why she's here?'
“Pinkie,” she said simultaneously, “How did you get here?”
“Dunno. I was just talking to Gummy and then – SWOOPS – I suddenly stood here!”
'Yes, well. Here we have an exceptional case where the reader is also a character, but it doesn't take away from the concept. Plus, do you honestly think that every time a writer claims that character A went to place X because of a specific thing, this specific thing really happened? Who determines that he didn't simply teleport him there and came up with a reason in retrospect? In fact, the only way for said reason to hold true in the story itself is if the writer discovered it as a logical progression in his story, and then had the character be at place X because of it, rather than the other way around. Anyway, this is all marginal. The main point of-'
Twilight stopped reading. 'Wait a moment,' she wrote at the bottom of the page, before turning back around.
“Pinkie? How come you are so quiet?”
“Oh?” Pinkie giggled. “Well, it's just that what you're doing seemed super-duper important, and I didn't want to interrupt you, especially cause I came here all uninvited and without even planing to myself, but if you want I can totally talk more and-”
“No, no, that's fine.” Twilight gave a smile. “Actually, it'd be great if you stay quiet for just another minute. I appreciate it a lot. This is really important, uh...” Her frown deepened. “I think.”
'- all of this is a different one. It is an opportunity – a game you'll be playing, but I can't tell you the rules just yet... ha, ha, ha, see what I did there? See how everything could be ruined by lying to you here? No, as you will guess I simply have not thought of any rules yet. We will do this all spontaneously. I'll come up with stuff, and you must try to do whatever I have in mind. But you have to, uh, find the... whatever they are, and deal with them somehow. That should be enough. Yeah. The music will push you to start, but you may read along for as long as you can endure it. Oh, and you can try to find your partners, too.'
Twilight stared at the paper, unsure if what she read was making sense or not.
“Pinkie... can you keep yourself busy for a while longer?” Pensively chewing her lip, Twilight flapped a few pages of the book, watching as text appeared in whichever page she opened. “I need to... huh?”
'Pacing is the most overrated concept in writing,' said the book, but Twilight payed it no mind. 'You aren't reading anymore, are you? Well-'
Something... was there. Something so mercilessly disgusting, so indeterminably abhorrent, that she did nothing at first, simply staring into the air while the horror gradually pierced through the soft blanket of anesthesia with which her shock had covered her mind. It took her a full twenty seconds to realize that it was music... music that squealed, screeched, and then crunched, and then it screamed, and then it snarled. Twilight's hair curled upwards, something walked up her throat, slowly, steadily. “Uh, uhhhhhhh....” She could feel her eyes tearing, every muscle in her body cringing under the merciless onslaught.
'No-one actually cares about pacing, it's just a term people like to throw around to feel smart. If every section in your story is fun to read, then it doesn't matter how long-'
But Twilight had long stopped reading, pushing the quill onto the paper in quiet desperation.
'GET ME OUT OF HERE!'
“Pinkie?” Twilight called, her vision bleary under the tears she couldn't suppress.
“Twilight?” Pinkie Pie rushed up the stairs, her hair straight, her face full of horror. But then, just as Twilight was about to say something it stopped.
“Ah...... ... ... ... AAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!” Twilgiht screamed in pain as it resumed,
a deep and false growl over a mercilessly simplistic beat. “Nooooooo!!!”
“Twilight, make it STOOOOOOOPPPPP!!”
She could feel Pinkie Pie running towards her, the pain carved deeply into her skin, when suddenly...
Author
Topic: M68: Fanfiction Mafia (Game over, Mafia wins flawlessly) (Read 197214 times)