• Member Since 20th Jun, 2012
  • offline last seen Feb 6th, 2022

Starwin


Writer of stories!

More Blog Posts17

  • 220 weeks
    Amazing Fan Art! No, seriously, AMAZING!

    Wait, 2020?! What the... I mean... wow, okay...

    Read More

    3 comments · 553 views
  • 424 weeks
    2016 Update

    Hello everyone! I know it's been a while since I posted anything and without going into way more detail than I think anyone wants, I'll just say that I haven't been super inspired to create this past year. Not just in writing but all creative aspects of my life have been somewhat on hold, not abandon, just not at the forefront. Mostly its just been me escaping reality (into games and tv shows and

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    2 comments · 683 views
  • 468 weeks
    The Stuff and the Things... and stuff...

    Hellos again everyone! I thought you might like an update on some of the stuff and maybe even the things, that I'm working on.

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    2 comments · 535 views
  • 476 weeks
    Where we go from here...

    Wow, I've really neglected my blog posts... Mostly it's because I put my (fun(?)) comments in my authors notes. I would like to get more in the habit of... updates? Sharing stuff? Not sure what to call it...

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    2 comments · 490 views
  • 531 weeks
    Got my Beta Readers!

    Thank you everyone who sent in a request to beta read (I got a lot more responses than I expected). I have sent out messages to everyone I've selected to beta read (based on some voodoo magic, dice rolls and other contributing factors).

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    0 comments · 662 views
May
31st
2013

Unpublished Files – Part 4 · 1:38am May 31st, 2013

Today we dive into attempt number 2 at a sequel to Veil of Thoughts. This one is a little more tricky than the others. It isn't technically one story like previous unpubs, it's a bunch of stories.

Let me elaborate.

One of the concepts I worked on (and still am working on) was doing a series (episodes) of one-shot stories about Twilight Dash. They were written to be stand alone, episode-like, short stories dealing with everything from how the town reacts to TD to mystery / adventure / mind-melding pieces. One of the stories is even a retelling of an episode from season three (Magic Duel), but with TD instead of Twilight and Rainbow as separate characters.

In total, I came up with 48 story ideas which I slowly whittled down to 14 (plus one additional retelling from season 3) and finally actually drafted 6 of them (and have only manged to actually write one to conclusion (magic duel, yay! (It helps to already have a completed work to adapt from)).

So... why are they unpubs if I've done almost half of them? Well, that's where stuff gets a little more complicated. In truth they aren't, unpubs, at least not for sure, not yet.

As I've mentioned before I tried several ideas for a sequel to VoT (some more crazy than others). Most attempts just haven't been what I wanted, they just don't feel... right... if that makes sense. It is, as I have said, been surprisingly hard to create something to follow up VoT.

What made the first story work so well is near impossible to sequalize, without retelling the story. There can certainly be more stories about Twilight Dash (in a 24 hours period I came up with 48 of them), but the trick is can I make those stories fun and interesting in the same was as the original?

And that (at last) brings us to why these will most likely stay in the realm of the unpub. Because, no matter how hard I try at them, they just don't measure up to the original. One-shots simply aren't enough (or the right way) to tell the next story in the way it needs to be told. And the more I try and force it, the less it seems to work.

The one-shots aren't lost to the void thought, and might still make an appearance after I nail down the sequel, but they are sadly not it.

Also, one-shot, three act stories have just proved really hard for me to write, it's so challenging to fit in all my twists!

Oh, also, also (almost forgot) I will also be getting back to work next week on Shadow of the Sun. The story continues on Jun 8th and will once again post every Sat.

Report Starwin · 732 views ·
Comments ( 11 )

Some kind of epic, exciting sequel seems really awesome, and I hope you write one, but I'd also love to see some slice-of-life type stories about Twilight Dash adjusting to their new life. I hope you keep to that idea, even if it's only after the sequel.

Your blog post reminds me of why Aliens was such an excellent sequel to Alien while the rest of the franchise blew. It didn't try to measure up. It didn't even try to be the same thing. Alien was, and still remains, one of the scariest horror movies ever made. Instead of trying to top it though, Aliens completely changed tone and direction. Instead of horror, it became an action adventure show. The other movies have been one unbroken chain of follow the leader, and I think we all know what happened with them. I don't know if that observation really applies to what you're going through trying to write a sequel to VoT, but it's the best example I can think of that demonstrates the principle Hayao Miyazaki presented when he said "In order to grow your audience, you must betray their expectations."

See to me, it seems like you should take the one-shots and somehow build a story out of them. Slowly build a larger story out of short bits. Little like the Gala arc from season one, for example. (Not that it's a great example. Maybe more like Harry Potter's save-the-world arc? That's not a great example either.)

1116309

"In order to grow your audience, you must betray their expectations."

Which is absolutely true, but the trouble is that what made Veil of Thoughts what it is is that it opened with a betrayal of expectations, and even managed to do it again within the same story. There's some speculatory expectations in the comments, but honestly what I expect (and especially after this blog post) is that Starwin is going to (do his best to) betray our expectations. It's kind of hard to betray expectations when you're expecting betrayal of expectations...

Whittling down story ideas sounds painful... Maybe that's just me. :derpytongue2:

And I have to join 1116309 in saying that if you're trying to get the sequel to feel like the original, don't. It's like raising a second child: Though you should help them be the best they can be, molding them into a carbon copy of their sibling won't help anybody. They're their own person, and need to grow in their own direction, expressing uniqueness rather than conformity.
...If, on the other hoof, you already knew this, feel free to ignore my rambling. :scootangel:

I have an idea. Maybe have the story about how they adjust to their new life. I mean, who's how to they sleep in. What about the pets? Their jobs? What would happen when they reach full harmony?

Just some food for thought. :twilightblush:

1115642
Hehe... know what I'm doing... I mean... yes... of course...

To be honest a lot of it is just experimentation and trying new things, new writing styles and such. Preferably something I haven't tried before.

As I said, one-shots still aren't off the table completely, and who knows, after I finish the draft of my current attempt I might toss that away and go back to the one-shot idea. Only time and the insanity in my brain will tell. :twilightsmile:

1116309
sequel can be challenging. Some story lend very well to having more of them, simply because there was more to tell to begin with.

In film, sequels aren't always written or directed by the original creators, effectively making them paid fanfiction. In these cases the tone can very wildly from movie to movie, sometimes for the good, but most often to the determent of the film. And, continuing with the Aline franchise as the example, we look at what happens when the original director comes back years later to make a kinda, sorta, but not official, prequel.

In the case of VoT, I don't want it to be the original story, it can't be by the very nature of story. But, I also don't want to discard all that made the story what it was.

The trick, is to find the happy medium, let the work be it's own, but have elements that (at least I think) people enjoyed about the first one.

1116554
Actually, there is an underlying "larger plot" in the one-shots, slightly more threaded in then the gala from S1. Part of the idea was to do the 15 "episodes" and end with, or rather roll into, the third story as like the season final.

Of course, since I can't even get the darn sequel off the ground, reaching for a pseudo trilogy might be like shooting for the stars but falling off a cliff.

1117293
Yes and no, whittling down ideas isn't usually too bad for me. Usually when I am trying to make something I come up with as many ideas as I can. Some can help make other ideas better or even be combine together. Others, just aren't that interesting.

As an example, one of the ideas was, "they go camping" which spawns all the possible things that could happen during such a trip. In the end, I just couldn't build a story out of it that was just that engaging.

While I don't want to clone VoT... or maybe... a clone of TD... no, no, bad starwin... I also don't want to make the sequel so radically different as to lose the "feel" of the original. I want to keep the things (that I think) people liked with as little retread as possible and expand upon the ideas that we didn't get to see.

And I never ignore anyone who takes the time to leave me a comment... sometimes, it just takes time for me to respond.:twilightsheepish:

1124343
That is part of what I am going for. The first story was about surviving and as hinted at the end of VoT the next step is living. The problem is, how to turn that into a story.

Slice of life is a totally new type for me, one I haven't even approached before. And I'm finding it very challenging to write. But I'm certainly not giving up, I just have to find what I think will make a fun, interesting and unique (as much as possible) story.

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