Scion of Chaos, Retrospective. · 3:02am Jan 8th, 2013
First off, thanks to everyone who read my story, if it weren't for you guys, I don't think I could have gotten through the past 9 months of writing.
I figure I'd write a blog post about the story: How I wrote it, How I feel about it, Alternate Endings and Future plans (though I won't spoil anything for the sequel.)
How I wrote it:
In case anyone was curious about how I decided to write this story. First, I had an idea back when reading my personal favourite fic: "The Sweetie Chronicles" by Wanderer D. (Why won't you update more often?) When reading that story I had decided that I wanted to write a Sweetie-centric story. I knew I wanted it to be an adventure so I brainstormed and came up with a few ideas, but one of them stuck. I knew I wanted to write something about Sweetie Belle, and I knew that I wanted to explore magic a little more intricately. This was also going to be my first attempt at a multi-chaptered story and I knew I had (and still do have) a lot to learn, so I wanted to deal with as few characters as I could over the story, then introduce other characters when I felt my writing could adequately portray the characters. And that's the reason why Sweetie Belle ran into the Everfree.
As for the writing itself well there were two main things:
1. I wanted to update regularly, because I know what it's like to be a follower of a story and REALLY want them to update, but have no idea when it will come. Also I figured it would be a good way to keep myself motivated by setting a very doable 2-week deadline.
2. I wanted to take the story one step at a time, I had a vague idea of the end (see alternate endings for more on that), but I had almost no plan of how to get there. So each chapter I made sure to give a focus. If you are curious, here's a copy paste of how a chapter of mine looks before I've sat down and written it out (it can be quite fun to keep these memos saved away, I get a good chuckle out of how humble a lot of these ideas start out as), here's one such chapter blurb:
* * *
Scion of Chaos Chapter 19 Blurb
Cutie Mark story, that's something that will work better if I just write it, re-write it, and rewrite it, but I need to emphasize certain points:
1 He felt joy before getting it. It was a moment that he was so happy he had forgotten that he was a blank flank, he hadn't even noticed that he had his cutie mark until Lily (?) pointed it out.
2 It wasn't about finding your destiny, no, it was about realizing what you loved and having a reminder upon yourself whenever you looked at your own flank. It was never even the act of chopping lumber that he loved, but the freedom to be in the outdoors, to be able to listen appreciate nature.
3 Girl who became his wife. He was actually worried when he got it, thinking that having the mark meant that he couldn't live in the city. That filly always loved the city, she dreamed of living there.
Anyway after that cutie mark story, she's going to rest a while. She'll wake up with a necklace around her neck
His daughter's necklace.
Talkity talk about the necklace and convinces her to keep it.
She'll leave after having some more of that mushy stuff to eat.
She'll talk with Scoddri about the old pony's story. She'll have a feeling of sadness as she leave the poor pony. She can't really explain it, but we'll know it's because she knows she will never see that pony again.
* * *
Simple, straight forward and usually takes about half an hour to work out the ideas onto a blank screen :)
How I Feel About It:
Honestly, I wrote this initially as a self-challenge, to see if I could finish a multi-chapter piece of fiction. And after even the first chapter the comments (especially Wanderer D's comment, as he's really the only person I recognized at the time) made the story into so much more. Now I was writing with both self-motivation, as well as the motivation from your comments. It quickly became a self-powered mechanism as I pushed myself as hard as I could. I honestly couldn't be happier with how this story turned out, the welcome response it achieved, as well as some of the faults in my writing that were pointed out to me. (Horrible punctuation for the initial three or four chapters being one of them.)
Alternate Endings:
So, since about the 16th chapter or so, I was really not sure how I was going to end the story. I knew where it was going to end, but not how. See I pictured a few other endings and here's what it could have been along with the end we already have:
-Sweetie Belle is turned to stone and Discord is released (dark sequel possible)
-Sweetie Belle Releases discord into the world and she becomes something of a guilty 'enemy of the world' pony. (also kind of dark sequel)
-Sweetie Belle absorbs Discord's element and becomes half-possessed by him (Not as dark sequel)
-Sweetie Belle breaks the element allowing Discord release
I was talking to my friend about it for a while and he told me, "just choose the happy ending, you know the one that fits in with the theme of the story." Or something like that, I'm paraphrasing at this point. So that got me to try and figure out exactly what the overall theme of this story was about. It certainly wasn't an extremely happy theme, so I picked the bittersweet which I felt kind of fit in line with the story (considering Ruben, and Red Timber).
Future Plans: Well of course the sequel will come in due time, though I think this fic will be a bit more ambitious and require more talent as a writer than the last one, since I plan on making all the CMC as the protagonist, and I'll probably increase the setting up to 'teen' instead of 'everyone'. With it set 5 years in the future it will take a fair amount of effort to have every character portrayed realistically and I'll be dealing with other themes as well, probably some slight romance issues and such.
So before I tackle that challenge, I'll be trying my hand/hoof/whathaveyou at a few one-shots. Slice of Life, maybe Romance (probably my weakest genre, but one I want to improve upon), and perhaps even a dark fic. We'll see what ideas I can come up with.
So, thanks again everyone, you've made this a fantastic experience and I endeavor to continue to improve and do my best,
Cheers,
~SilentBelle
TL/DR: You guys are awesome and should feel awesome.
Good... Good...
I expect a story now.
688664
In thirteen days, I should post something, every two weeks. Unless I get swamped by some crazy thing called 'writers block', but that never happens right?
688680 I don't get writer's block. My ADD makes me want to do other things.
I am a captain of all things awesome
I can not wait, when i found your story originally i almost passed it by then i thought ill give it a shot, and lo an behold it was an epic ride, you can really see when you became a more adept writer, and how you started to broaden your writing, and how it became more focused (if that makes sense)
Alas it was a fun read, and will be a fun re-read, for many reads to come
Can not wait for the sequel in the words of Sweetie Belle
ERMAHGERD SEQUEL
Have you considered writing out a few of those other endings? I certainly wouldn't mind the second or third ones.
Something that might suit your interests... Check out A Little Town Called Ponyville. It's a group dedicated to writing good darkfics.
728986 I'll keep that in mind when I decide to dabble in the genre.
Thanks.
Due to the fact that the element is Discord's soul, wouldn't breaking it kill him in his weakened (statue) state?
753567
Yes it would. Death can often be associated as a form of release.