Do you see this, M.A. Larson?! No S4 Trixie episodes makes Sethisto sad.
About five hundred bronies forgot what sleep was and dragged themselves out to the Mane Hall to witness M.A. Larson, G.M. Berrow, and Amy Keating Rogers discuss their experiences with writing for the MLP franchise. Hit the break for more!
We mixed things up a bit by bringing Joe Stevens from Equestria Inquirer in to moderate the panel today. If you're reading this, Joe, I really hope you get to sit the table more often at future conventions! The questions came fast and furious, so let's get to it.
As a reminder, here's why these panelists are important:
- M. A. Larson: Credits include "Sonic Rainboom", "Cutie Mark Chronicles", "Luna Eclipsed", "Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", "Magic Duel", and "Magical Mystery Cure".
- G. M. Berrow: Wrote Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, Pinkie Pie and the Rockin' Ponypalooza Party, and, coming up, Rainbow Dash and the Daring Do Double Dare.
- Amy Keating Rogers: Credits include "Applebuck Season", "Bridle Gossip", "A Dog and Pony Show", "The Best Night Ever", "The Last Roundup", "A Friend in Deed", and "MMMystery on the Friendship Express."
Onto the questions, Joe.
- Mitch, what's your favorite post-Beatles Paul McCartney band?
- No comment.
- Mitch: how'd you approach writing "Magical Mystery Cure"? Was it always going to be a musical?
- It was gonna be a musical because they allow you to cover in two minutes what would take ten, and there was a lot of stuff that needed to happen. M. A. wrote MMC before some of his other scripts 'cause he knew Daniel Ingram would need more time to score the songs for the episode.
- Do musicals affect script length?
- They're exactly the same. M. A. wrote some of the songs, and Daniel wrote a lot of the others. Some of M. A.'s songs did get cut for time -- so we didn't get to see Steven Magnet sing. Or Rarity.
- No, he's not joking.
- Amy: Does being back for Season 4 feel different?
- It feels a lot more awesome. When she was here last year, she sang her scratch version of "Smile, Smile, Smile". That was around the time Meghan emailed her asking if she wanted to write a musical episode for Season 4. Obviously, Amy's the person for the job. So now there's a musical centered around Pinkie Pie coming down the pipeline. First, Amy gets to write Pinkie Pie, and second, she gets to write songs. She loves both those things, so that was fantastic.
- GM: Since Twilight's a princess now, how did you approach her new change in your books?
- G. M. didn't know her books would be the first story-oriented MLP product with Twilicorn! She approached Twilight's new change knowing she's become a pony who's been given more responsibility, and she's nervous about it. Twilight's wonderful in that she tries hard with everything and is careful, and G. M. imagined that a bookworm suddenly thrust into the spotlight would feel kind of nervous. With prose, you really get to delve into her head and see how she feels about it.
- So Twilight won't be different as a princess?
- She's still the same, only with more responsibility.
- Master of Arts Larson: What's the story behind your use of "alicorn" in "Magic Duel" and "Magical Mystery Cure?"
- Dude, I never wrote "alicorn" in any of my scripts. I called it the "Uni-Charm" in "Magic Duel." And Pinkie was supposed to say "wing party!" in MMC. Someone changed that.
- Amy: Meghan called them "pegacorns" in her scripts. We just started calling 'em alicorns 'cause the fans did. We adjust as we go along.
- Game Master Berrow: You use a lot of pop references in your books. Is this mandated, or do you do that yourself?
- I write 'em in there 'cause they're funny. I only have words as my medium, so I can't do background gags that rely on visuals. And the kids who read my references don't always have to understand them to find them entertaining. I had like 20 bands for Pinkie's Ponypalooza that weren't published.
- Amy "my agent lets me use my first name" Keating Rogers: You use Pinkie Pie a lot, and you like giving her songs. That's almost like your signature, isn't it?
- I just like Pinkie to sing, and if I write her, she wants to sing. For instance, we knew the big epic "Smile, Smile, Smile" was coming in "A Friend in Deed". Once we named the donkey Cranky and Rob Renzetti gave him "Doodle" as a middle name, it was wonderful. My brain exploded. I got to write the Welcome song after that. Besides, Lauren had established that if anypony was going to burst into song, it was going to be Pinkie Pie. I like bursting into song, too.
- You really ARE Pinkie Pie at this point. Talking about cupcakes and playing your ukulele... in the plane, even?
- Oh, not on the plane. I did that once with Moira and we played together, but my uke would only bother the neighbors and the seats were really cramped. I did, however, hand out chocolates on the plane ride over here, and I do play in the airports.
- G.M.: You use a lot of background ponies in your books. Sometimes you mention them by name, other times by appearance. How do you go about naming them?
- I haven't been given parameters regarding that. My final manuscript will get changed sometimes -- you call her Bon Bon, but she's also Sweetie Drops sometimes. I call her Bon Bon in my first two books, but she changed to Sweetie Drops in Rainbow Dash's book. What the...? On top of that, she's still named Bon Bon in the activities section in the back of that book, too!
- Really, I just choose names I like.
- Bon Bon doesn't get to stay herself. The show changes her voice all the time.
- Yeah, that's her thing.
- M. A.: How do you write songs? Do you sing to yourself?
- Amy: No, I sing to him.
- M. A.: Look at "Cutie Mark Chronicles". I didn't know how to write lyrics. I'd only done that and "Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" before "Magical Mystery Cure", and the latter obviously came from The Music Man. For SSCS6K, I got the feel, the lyrics, and the style, 'cause I don't know much about musicals. ... I don't particularly like them.
- That song where Twilight was sad in MMC? That was 100% Daniel. "Behold, Behold"? Daniel again. I did reference... might have been "Beauty and the Beast" for Celestia's song. That was the vibe I was going for, then Daniel rewrote the lyrics.
- Deleted scenes are rare 'cause they're expensive and wasteful to animate, but a lot can get cut from a script or book. Can you share some of these scenes?
- Amy: I'm hesitant to do so. What if I find a use for them in the future?
- Well, just tell us about Applejack and "MMMystery on the Friendship Express".
- Yeah. At the end, Applejack was supposed to confess to taking a bite of the cake, too. It got cut for time. Twilight was commending her for being honest -- you're so awesome, etc. And AJ cracks.
- "But there's no evidence!" Twilight protests.
- "I'm just better at it."
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THIS IS WHY APPLEJACK IS BEST HORSE, PEOPLE
- It's great 'cause AJ had all these memes promoting her for not eating the cake.
- Anyway, M. A.: Steven Magnet lyrics?
- Gosh. I think it ended with "bring it home, boys." And I had dragons come in and do that whole Fantasia hippo dancing sequence.
- Amy: How do you feel about all the songs in Season 4?
- They sound awesome in my head! I haven't heard the final versions yet.
- G. M.: You've read scripts for Season 4 so you know what to write for your books, right?
- Yeah. While you were asking us for scenes that got cut, I had to rewrite a whole book 'cause I needed to see more scripts! Twilight went around learning how each of the pony tribes lived, but she wasn't a princess in that book.
- The book that's coming up after Rainbow Dash's book, by the way? It features Rarity. It has a title I'm not allowed to share right now.
Audience question time!
- Mitch, you wrote for Gravity Falls. Why was the release schedule weird?
- I dunno. :(
- [Ed.: Disney had only ordered 12 episodes at first, and only realized they were on to something six episodes in. The weekly episodes turned chaotic as the rest of the season had to get written, shipped to Korea for animation, voiced, and finalized.]
- When you're writing episodes or books, how does it feel knowing you're writing for bronies?
- Amy: We still write for the target audience. When we started out, we were also writing for the parents watching with their kids. We're also writing to amuse ourselves as adults. It all plays in together. We know you guys are watching, but we're still just writing for the target audience.
- G. M.: I agree. You want the adults to have a good experience when you're writing something they're gonna be reading, so I don't want to dumb anything down when people sit down to read their kids a bedtime story.
- Adults can giggle about "Coltplay."
- Yeah. The kid doesn't have to understand the reference to find it funny, either.
- M. A.: Writing for young people doesn't mean writing dumb. You can write to kids and still entertain yourself.
- Because of the production cycle, you only knew about bronies while Season 1 had aired and Season 2 was still in writing.
- Amy: Yeah, that's when we learned about you. We weren't gonna change how we wrote the show, though.
- M. A.: It was right around when I was in meetings for SSCS6K.
- Amy: Right around Bronycon 2012, I changed Ditzy Doo to Derpy for you guys!
- G. M.: Yeah, I added her in my books for you guys, too. I just described her as a gray-haired, yellow-maned pegasus.
- Who's your favorite character to write?
- M. A.: We don't write about background ponies 'cause that's animation's job. Rarity, though! She's awfully fun.
- Amy: Pinkie Pie. Duh.
- G. M.: It's a split between Pinkie Pie and Rarity. I got a lot closer to Rarity after writing her book.
- Writing Fluttershy seems difficult 'cause she gets into situations she'd rather not be in. Is it difficult to write her?
- Amy: She's challenging 'cause in group scenes the others will be saying things. What does Fluttershy say? You want her to contribute, but if everypony's ponying up, what then? You have to give her that motivation and find that "oomph" in her.
- M. A.: She's the hardest to write. "Bah, you suck, M. A.! You admit it!" Rarity's big ego makes it easy to poke her and had fun with her. Fluttershy has a low ego that's hard to be funny with. I crossed my fingers that I'd never get a Fluttershy episode!
- There was one moment in SSCS6K, though, where everyone's reaming AJ for running out of cider. Fluttershy was okay with it.
- Fluttershy also had a great moment in "Magic Duel".
- M. A.: That was weird! Shortest script I've turned in, 28 pages.The B-plot still got cut. There was a whole part with Zecora training Twilight.
- Did she lift an X-wing from the swamp?
- I'm not joking.
- Musicals are used to speed things along. Do you enjoy using them in place of 2-parters?
- M. A.: I'd love for them all to be 2-parters. We're freelance. MMC's the only time I've asked to do a musical -- we can only assume we get half an hour to tell our stories.
- G. M.: Yeah, I went way over the page count for Rainbow Dash's book.
- It seems the finishing blow on the villains in every 2-parter comes from magic. Is this a requirement?
- Oh, no. Meghan wrote two, Lauren one, and M. A. one. It's not a requirement to finish with magic, it's just that Twilight uses magic and that's awesome.
- Was it uncomfortable making Fluttershy aggressive in "The Best Night Ever"?
- Amy: No! It was really fun making her lose her marbles! I think I called her Norma Desmond, just totally crazy and losing it. Since writing for Fluttershy is difficult to write [for her shyness], escalating her that way was fantastic. It was fun.
- How'd you get into writing for MLP?
- G. M.: I'd been a ghostwriter for 3.5 years before my editor thought I'd be right for the job. I did a test run, there was a good response, and I got lucky. The show writers are all freelance and they get approached with projects.
- Amy: I wrote Powerpuff Girls with Lauren. I wrote Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends with Lauren. I knew Lauren Faust.
- M. A.: I wrote one episode of Foster's that let me meet Lauren. Amy and I have a mutual friend who I leveraged to work on MLP -- but I asked to work under a different name.
- How does Twilight being a princess affect her friendships?
- Amy: She's still going to have a good relationship with her friends. She's not moving away, she's not shunning them. That's not the pony she is. She only has more responsibilities now.
- Apple Family Reunion: Were those shooting stars supposed to represent Applejack's parents?
- Cindy Morrow wrote that episode -- but yeah. Sibsy said as much in a livestream.
- What's your advice for aspiring writers?
- Write, write, write, and read, read, read. Find what you like and figure out why you like it.
- Last question: It's M. A. Larson's birthday today! How are you going to celebrate?
- I'm going to Bronycon! ... aaaand getting a freaking huge Applejack cake.
Like, holy crap, guys.
Signing out from the Quills and Sofas room, where... I'm surrounded by a LOT of fiction horses.
