Re: Fallout Equestria: Murky Number Seven

[OneMoreDaySK]

You "absolutely encourage" that sort of thing, eh? Well then... your chapters are too long, your content too awesome, your update speed gives me an inferiority complex, your characters are too well fleshed-out, there aren't enough sexy MN7 pictures on the Internet, you're much too pleasant, and 470,000+ words isn't enough, damnit!

Oh, and Hello. I've finally decided to give in and get a Cloudsville account, just so I can bug you more often. Write, slave, write!

Well greetings Doctor! Just be sure to hang up your sanity if you ever want to check out the PH thread. Especially if Kim or Kip is active.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

....

Doctor is that you?>.<

[Doctor Whooves]

....

Doctor is that you?>.<

Aye, this be me. Howdy, Admiral.

[Fuzzy]

there aren't enough sexy MN7 pictures on the Internet, !

I think the /mlp/ FOE threads are intent on changing that, if some of their 'drawfriend' requests are anything to go by. Till then I think anyone will have to settle for the Maid Murky and TOTALLY STRAIGHT picture of Protégé and Murky someone sketched out. :p

It seriously makes me chuckle sometimes. But hey, if people like em, then I'm all for folk doing what they want with it all, who am I to say no? xD

[OneMoreDaySK]

The podcast was probably already done, but oh well. I never listen to podcasts, anyway.
The only thing I'd be interested in, I think, would be alternates to your canon. What the original descriptions or personalities of your characters were, locations or plotlines you didn't follow through with, that sort of thing. I like thinking about what the fic would be like if you'd made the other choice in these situations, how the tone or direction would have changed, etc.

So anytime you want to elaborate on that, fuzzy, I'd be interested.

So in other words AU!Murky. Oh dear. HSAU!Murky. /silly
On a more serious note like what would happen if Murky had a spine in the beginning, or if he never heard the Arbu broadcast? Stuff like that?

[Fuzzy]

The podcast actually hasn't recorded yet! So that's a great one to throw them, I'm sure I can dredge up some old notes to find what sort of stuff you're after. There is a lot of it!

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

....

Doctor is that you?>.<

Aye, this be me. Howdy, Admiral.

I thought I was the last of our Great People...

[O. Hinds]

Spoiler, maybe:

Nice turn of phrase there. :)

[OneMoreDaySK]

Chapter 15 Reactions:

Just thought about something. Eventually he's going to have to confront Shackles before leaving, or it will haunt him, right? But when he escapes, aren't cheating alicorns going to just as easily recapture him?

[Doctor Whooves]

Spoiler, maybe:

Nice turn of phrase there. :)

Snigger.

[Moodyman90]

Fuzzy, you're an evil bastard and I love your story.

Also, something crossed my mind... It's all Shackle's fault Murky is rebelling. If Shackle truly is Murky's father, which unless you pull one over on us I'm going with he is, well, it's only natural for kids to rebel against their parents.

And Murky was a good little slave up until Shackle showed up and tried to take him. It was until after Murky met his father for the first time that he tried to escape.
Ergo, Shackle ruined Murky as a slave

[OneMoreDaySK]

Fuzzy, you're an evil bastard and I love your story.

Also, something crossed my mind... It's all Shackle's fault Murky is rebelling. If Shackle truly is Murky's father, which unless you pull one over on us I'm going with he is, well, it's only natural for kids to rebel against their parents.

And Murky was a good little slave up until Shackle showed up and tried to take him. It was until after Murky met his father for the first time that he tried to escape.
Ergo, Shackle ruined Murky as a slave

Don't think so. Methinks that it was LittlePip that game him the support needed to, as Fuzzy says, 'Dare to Dream'.

[Moodyman90]

I know that, but it's just a fun thought. Granted we don't have much intereaction with each other but people should know when I use this , I'm not being serious.
And there's nothing wrong with saying that it wasn't both Littlepip's inspiration and him just subconsciously rebelling against his dad.

I'm just trying to grasps elements of silliness. If it wasn't for the horrific nature of Shackle and what he does you could almost turn this into a kind of sitcom.
"How is Murky going to disobey his dad this time? Tune in next chapter and find out!"

[Kippershy]

So, Fuzzy, got a question for you.
How the hell do you write so much so fast? Do you have a job? Do you literally spend every night writing or something? How do you produce so much and not worry that it's all the same?

I don't read your story, as mentioned in the past, but it always gets me and adds to the whole state of inferiority and such.
(because calling it a inferiority complex would make it sound as if it wasn't true.)

[Moodyman90]

I'm sure Fuzzy himself can give you a more detailed answer but from what I've gathered he has rough details and the direction he wants to go months in advance, specific and fine details nailed down weeks in advance, and barring sickness or anything else just finds and/or makes the time to write.

Most of that is guessing and speculation. I do admit I'm jealous of how he's able to crank out such high quality chapters on a usually regulated basis.

[OneMoreDaySK]

Yeah... from what I can tell, combination extensive planning and a previous life of writing massive entries for online roleplaying games with friends. If you follow the google docs page he has several stages... rough planning, planning complete, writing, pre-production, polishing... I've probably missed some stages, but the general idea is he's turned the writing into a streamlined, assembly-line style production with multiple revisions of laying down framework, filling in the body and then adding details.

Fuzzy's got some serious dedication to his story, here, no doubt about it.

Of course even with all the gridded schedules that he has, Fuzzy still takes time to listen to criticism. That's why he asks for chapter reviews and reactions, and responds to anything you have to say for or against the storyline.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Granted its hard to do a review when you read the story on your phone during your lunch break at work.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

oky found the artist with the style for murky

Spoiler:

also I set this as a synopsis off the top of my head to tehe artist in the hopes of piquing interest

"Murky Number Seven, a born slave, has resigned himself to his life as a slave worker in Red Eye's Fillydelphia reconstruction Nightmare. When he is sent to fight in the Pit as punishment for his poor work performance he sees her, The Stable Dweller, ascend from the Pit and escape Fillydelphia. The born slave is inspired as a spark alights within him, and he struggles to loose the shackles of his slavery. But what do you do when your cutie mark is a pair of shackles?"

does it make you feel any desires to read at all?


oh I umm did get some editing work

"As a born slave Murky Number Seven has resigned himself to his life as a worker in Red Eye's reconstruction Nightmare. When he is sent to fight in the Pit as punishment for his poor work performance he witnesses her, The Stable Dweller ascend from the Pit and escape Fillydelphia. The lifelong slave is inspired as a spark alights within him, and he struggles to loose the shackles of his slavery. But what do you do when your cutie mark is a pair of shackles?"

this is sooo much better...

never mind, I was really just trying an exercise for this stuff and I feel like ive done abysmal...

[Fuzzy]

I'd like to think the synopsis I wrote for it would work fine, but it's really interesting to sit down and try and write one isn't it? Having to condense an entire story into one core concept that must catch attentions. I must have spent a full day writing mine to get it right.

I hate to be "that guy" though, if you ask for feedback on the synopsis you posted, the first thing that I notice is that it's "lose", not "loose." I'm sorry, but I figure you'd rather me be honest if I spot something! ^^;

How the hell do you write so much so fast? Do you have a job? Do you
literally spend every night writing or something? How do you produce so
much and not worry that it's all the same?

I do indeed have a job, a few. I work lots of contract work marketing or auditing for video game companies such as Bethesda, THQ and Sega. I've also done some occasional work in admin or dispensing for the NHS and I run my own martial arts club on the side. The main reason I find so much time to write is by streamlining my home life and the good fact that if I start early enough my job often has me home by about 2-4PM.

Cutting out mass video game playing helps a whole bunch too. A little discipline goes a long way. I can't count how many people I know who ask how to get enough written...then I see them on Steam playing games all the time. Suddenly the reason why they feel they have little time to spend becomes very clear. A little planning and discipline and you can get hobbies, work and writing all into one. Making writing INTO a hobby is the crucial stage. To enjoy sitting down and writing and feeling that "Man, I can't wait to get home and write!" sensation!

I will typically spend 3-4 hours a night writing. On days that I am off work I could do two-three stints of 3-4 hours as well. My average I like to hit is 8 pages per writing shift, or 12 heavily edited in a full day. My record was 23 pages in one night for Chapter 8's finale. I have NO idea how that happened. All I know is my hands were aching by the end of it.

Aside from that, I'll often spend every single day planning to some extent. Music is great for this as you can listen to it in your car or while walking and just imagine scenes to it. Put it together in your head so that when you come to write it...it's all there already. Write synopsi for them, do treatments or bulletpoints. Anything that's quick and nails down the details in advance really helps. I run a routine of

Stage 1 - Rough planning (Thinking while out and about, imagining possible ideas

Stage 2 - Write brief ideas in my notepad, plan out the vague progression of the scene

Stage 3 - Write treatment/synopsis. (Doing a few pages of describing the chapter)

Stage 4 - First draft with Story Editors and 1st Wave prereaders.

Stage 5 - Draft. Prereaders examine

Stage 6 - Editing.

This SOUNDS like a huge process, but look at it. It's still pretty much just "Plan, rough out, write, edit." It only adds a little bit on from how most people work with it, but I find it works for me.

Worrying that it's all the same can be avoided with planning. Centre chapters around central themes. Tell an individual story within each one, vary up your locations. It keeps you, the author, more interested as much as the readers. For example, Chapter 7 (In the Stable) with the audio logs was a joy to write as it was so different from anything previously and took more of a horror angle than anything previously which was more about tense running.

Again, just plan plan plan and try to look at each chapter and ask "What unique thing is this going to tell?" If you can't think of one...then the chapter isn't working very well. I had that problem with Chapter 11 at one point, which was really just Murky in slave life then there happened to be a riot by Barb at the end. Going back in I angled it way more at the element of grey morality and not knowing who you should work with when you're finding out things about even those you considered perfect.

Interestingly, Chapter 11's original name was "Fifty Shades of Grey" referencing the British saying about rain contrasted with grey morality. This woulda been really cool, as think about it. "Fifty Shades of Grey" followed up in its second part by "Sixty Minutes in Hell."

Then THAT book came out. And I ran away from using that name harder than Usian Bolt.

I'm beginning to feel like I'm lecturing a little...I do hope it doesn't sound like that, I'm just in the middle of an interview styled mindset right now after recording for Wastelander Weekly! I promise I'm not trying to sound like an expert or anything! o.o


It's worth restating though, I'm mentioned it on my tumblr but the chapters are delayed due to my wrist injury. I've been instructed to take "at minimum" a week or two off writing. You ask about my pace of writing...well it seems to have done in my right wrist. 500k words in half a year plus constant IM and writing work reports will do that I suppose...

I figure it's better to have this break now before we hit the Act 2 momentum shift and the build of scale for Act 3. Nothing would be worse than losing a momentum of writing then! Better to heal now than suffer for many more chapters. It won't be a huge delay, I've got really good medicine (Bless the NHS) and a physiotherapist on it.

Thanks for continuing comments folks. Also, swicked, you're pretty much bang on for your answer when you posted. So thanks for doing that when I was away and couldn't reply here myself for so long!

MN7 is a true dedication for me, my first project to really take off. I'm in this till the end. Count on it. ^^

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

oh my It was just an exercise for myself

also I did mean loose not lose...

in other words i i9ntended to use the double O word not a misspelling

also arthritis was ruled out huh? carpal sucks majorly

[Moodyman90]

Hey, injury is always a valid reason for delays. Just take things easy and we'll look forward to when you can return. And defiantly don't push yourself too hard.

Anywhos, since I had the time and my mind crossed it, I went back to thinking about the last chapter, but mainly about Wild Card.

I like him, and certainly does show off just how insane a raider can be. But as small as Barb was, he left some big horseshoes to fill. I'm not saying I'm expecting Wild Card to be Barb 2.0, just he's not a Barb level of... whatever the hell I would rate Barb as for me yet.

[Doctor Whooves]

I'd like to think the synopsis I wrote for it would work fine, but it's really interesting to sit down and try and write one isn't it? Having to condense an entire story into one core concept that must catch attentions. I must have spent a full day writing mine to get it right.

I know; I rewrote mine about half-a-dozen times before posting, and still want to go back and edit whenever I see it. It's not even really a synopsis, really - after about the fifth attempt I just decided to try and write something attention grabbing, and be done with it.

[OneMoreDaySK]

Take care of yourself Fuzzy. Story can wait.
As for Barb's death, there was going to be a power vacuum, except that Shackles pretty much took over. There might be resentment though, so I'm hoping for assassination attempts.

[Cptadder]

Uggh I swore to catch up on the story on August 17th and it's a 100 posts and two solid months later. Don't worry about the delays Fuzzy some of us could use the extra time.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Oh I had a thought, Fuzzy have you asked about the Brown procedure? It's supposed to be an effective endoscopic procedure that helps restore functionality from Carpal Tunnel within a few days after the surgery.

I am sure you could ask about it. Also, I live in Houston, which is home to the Texas Medical Center, which I am told is the leading Medical area in the United States. Granted I know you're in Great Britain, but who knows, maybe the procedure is being used globally.

[Fuzzy]

Oh I had a thought, Fuzzy have you asked about the Brown procedure? It's supposed to be an effective endoscopic procedure that helps restore functionality from Carpal Tunnel within a few days after the surgery.

I am sure you could ask about it. Also, I live in Houston, which is home to the Texas Medical Center, which I am told is the leading Medical area in the United States. Granted I know you're in Great Britain, but who knows, maybe the procedure is being used globally.

I'll bear it in mind, but we'll see what the result is first. Mostly likely cause I'm betting is RSI from keyboard and mouse (I've heard all the jokes, don't even start :p), a worn joint from stuntwork and martial arts or an undetected hairline fracture that has been getting worse.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Oh I had a thought, Fuzzy have you asked about the Brown procedure? It's supposed to be an effective endoscopic procedure that helps restore functionality from Carpal Tunnel within a few days after the surgery.

I am sure you could ask about it. Also, I live in Houston, which is home to the Texas Medical Center, which I am told is the leading Medical area in the United States. Granted I know you're in Great Britain, but who knows, maybe the procedure is being used globally.

I'll bear it in mind, but we'll see what the result is first. Mostly likely cause I'm betting is RSI from keyboard and mouse (I've heard all the jokes, don't even start :p), a worn joint from stuntwork and martial arts or an undetected hairline fracture that has been getting worse.

I know no jokes with RSI... other than the obvious fact is almost sounds like wrist

anyway, good luck and enjoy your tea lots of earl gray

[O. Hinds]

Does the Murky/Protege ship have a name yet? If not, I propose Murkege.

[Fuzzy]

I haven't seen any other names for it, other than "inevitable" if you ask some people. :p

Why do I feel some of your other ships mentioned last night are beginning to get thought of in your mind for names too now, hmm? ;)

[OneMoreDaySK]

How ya doin' Fuzzy? That wrist still bothering ya?

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