sgatazmy

 My husband and I have been talking about the Wonderbolts a lot lately.  We've noticed a disturbing pattern.  Episode after episode they seem to take their moral cues not from within themselves but from the outside. 

RD: "Hey, you should be loyal to your teammates and not cast them off to win a competition."
Spitfire: "Oh, right.  Okay." 
RD: "Hey, you probably shouldn't do dangerous stunts that could get other ponies needlessly hurt."
SF: "Oh, right. Thanks, we totally never understood that before."  

So our realization is that some of the Wonderbolts, including Spitfire, seem to be sociopaths.  

This led to the interesting conversation: Just how often do the Wonderbolts have to keep messing up before Rainbow Dash realizes there is something off about some of them.  My husband jokingly said that she probably would never notice until she caught them dumping a body off a cliff. 

RD: "Hey, you shouldn't kill other ponies."
SF: "Oh!  We didn't realize that. You really do have so much to teach us." 
RD: "Uh, shouldn't you have just known murder was wrong?"
SF: "Apparently not, but thank you for the friendship lesson.  We promise not to kill any pony again for minor transgressions."
RD: "Don't you mean you should never kill any pony again? Like at all?" 
SF: "Uh...right. That's compeltely the lesson we just learned. Killing other ponies is not cool."

So I guess I want to write a fic that is not at all serious and very tongue in cheek called: "5 times Rainbow Dash didn't realize the Wonderbolts were sociopaths and the 1 time she did."

I love 5 times fics...

Writing in a new fandom is tough but a fun challenge.  Getting the world right, hearing the voices of the characters, and learning the right type of words can be overwhelming.  I've been writing for over 22 years but it's still something I struggle with.  It doesn't help that I've always been a middle of the road writer despite my best efforts to improve.  My stuff is for some people but definitely not for everyone.  So I've been playing with this whole growth mindset stuff to help me improve and change my outlook.  I'm more willing to take criticism and not feel defined by one fic.  It would just be nice if after having written over 100 fics it would come more naturally by now.

Not that my last fic wasn't received well.  Actually, I assumed it would just get lost entirely in the crowd but it still got some likes and I gained several followers so not a failure at all.  (I realize MLP is the largest fandom I have ever seen and fics get thousands of likes but I don't see that happening for me any time soon and I'm okay with that.) I'm just looking at writing more fic and finding myself so hesitant with every line. I'm worried about getting the voices right and I have so many ideas I can't really sort through them all.

Ugh.  Growth mindset.  Gotta remember that.  Rarely does a fic start out perfect.  It takes time and patience.

What is a growth mindset?  Click on the link and find out.  I think a good way to describe a growth mindset is to consider the following questions:  "Are good leaders born or made?"  In the writing world this becomes, "Are good writers born or made?"  The truth is, I think some people are naturally good writers but I suspect more just read a lot and practice until they become better.  I'm not sure that means anyone can become amazing, but I do think it's rare to find someone who just naturally sits down and write their first fic and it's amazing.   It takes time to learn about active vs. passive voice (and MLP fics seem filled with passive voice...) or to learn how to show and not tell.

I tell my students this all the time in terms of mathematics.  Most of them feel they are bad at math and that this is a defined part of who they are.  My job is to help them understand how that is a fixed mindset and why they need to switch to a growth mindset.  I figure if I have my students write essays on this, I probably should address the areas in my life where I have that fixed mindset.  I'd hate to be a hypocrite.

I think when it came to writing for the last 22 years, I've always believed I never had the ability to get much better than I am.  Seriously, 100 fics with lots of efforts to make each fic the best I can, and I still find myself not much further than where I was. However, I'm not sure that means I can't grow. I just have to find the right way to grow.  The old advice for art is to hang out with people who are better artists.  I suspect this is true for writing.  If I want to improve, I have to hang out with better writers.

I'm thinking of all of this right now because I'm writing a Rainbow Dash fic and I am overwhelmed trying to catch the right voice and world.  I don't know how many drafts it would even take to make this work, but I really want to try and not give up right away.  Of course, I probably should be working instead, but this fic will not leave my head.  I'm really hoping it will be a short story because I'm better at short stories over all and I don't have time for a long fic.  Unfortunately, the fic seems to choose its length and I have no control.  I just hope, with my growth mindset, I can make it a story others will find worth reading.

I have now listened to Lullaby for a Princess so many times.  In the comments for the vid, there is a whole section devoted to people who love the vid and have never watched My Little Pony. There's also a section of people who found the series after watching the vid.  It's so good!

It apparently took 2 years to make. 



If you want to hear an awesome song and see cool animation, click the link above!  So good!  (Takes place 1000 years before the MLP show starts)

 I ran across this 2011 article today about how The My Little Pony universe is awesome in that all characters are mostly assumed to be female unless purposely defined as male.  It is also true that nearly all of the rulers are women.  I hadn't really thought much about that, but I am glad my girls have a fantasy world like this available to them.  The show is full of strong, well-defined women with essentially no focus on romance.  (Although I just watched an episode that I am fairly certain was supposed to be Fluttershy dating another girl but they never really come out and say that is what is happening.)

This article helped me feel a little better about the fact I am starting to be more fannish about this show.  Yes, it is made for kids but it is well done and has themes most shows don't deal with by creating a female dominated world.  It is refreshing to see some American made shows that don't fall back on either mostly male characters or female characters all worried about romance and/or frilly princesses.

Interestingly enough the show does have princesses but it focuses on the great responsibility that comes with the crown vs. just the pretty appeal.

I should mention Steven Universe has similar appeal.

First,  I think I only have 2 or 3 people who read this page so I keep forgetting to come back.  I really would love to build community again so if anyone you know likes Steven Universe, My Little Pony, Stargate SGA, Red Dwarf, etc appreciates gen, and would be good for me to friend, please feel free to send them my way.

On to the point of this post:

The kids and I (and several adults) went to see My Little Pony and loved it.  Upon our return we started talking about the movie and I discovered something: One of the moral dilemmas was not as clear cut for the kids as it was for myself.  For once the message the show hoped to send was so well framed in reality that my kids came to the opposite conclusion!

Any attempts to talk about this moral conundrum are usually met with eye rolls and grunts of despair.  So while the movie framed a great talk for me to have with my kids, my kids refuse to have this talk.  In specific, my 7-year-old says it distresses her to talk about these things and cannot explain why. She says she doesn't know how to have these conversations.

So I realized there was only way to reach a kid who will read any My Little Pony book set in front of her. I need to put the discussion in writing.  So, much to my shock and amusement, I am up early to write pony fanfic.  

So what is the moral dilemma?  The following is cut for spoilers and is written on the assumption you don't really know My Little Pony very well:

( cut for spoilers )So now I have to figure out how to make a fic about all of this...