Jul
19th
2013
Tangled Skeins of Story · 5:30pm Jul 19th, 2013
As I work on Gleaming Chains, I keep coming back to the loose ends I laid out for myself to tie up. Of all the faults I may have as a writer, giving myself enough rope isn't one of them. I've got enough loose rope for a rope bridge. I've also got enough rope to... I keep tying the past and the present together. Thematic awareness flows sluggish through my veins.
I mean, really. I'm going to have to explain Star Swirl's bells and I don't know what explanation I'm going to use just yet. My worst fear is that I'll accidentally use an explanation that implies still more loose ends. I really want one that ties that bit up neatly with an, "Oh, that makes sense."
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Causal Quill · 360 views
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Historically, bells were used to ward off evil spirits.
Technically I suppose that could give you the loose end of "what evil spirits was he afraid of?", but with Equestria being an inherently magical place, there are a thousand simple answers to that question and you can pick whichever one seems neatest.
(Personally, my opinion is that at some point the loose ends become irrelevant to your story and, even if they're blatantly hanging out, they can simply be handwaved or lampshaded away. YMMV depending on OCD. Pick at any thread long enough and you can fray and unravel it into a thousand thousand loose bits; but if they're not compelling enough questions to ask and answer, stick to the fun explorations.)
1220752
In this case, you might have noticed that a certain stallion was destined to lie about love to Luna. I'm reasonably sure that his clothing habits related to his ambitions.
I have a very similar problem. I leave loose ends like bread crumbs. I like them to lead somewhere, even if I'm only vaguely aware of where they lead to. I keep a big file of "stuff to remember" for my writing, to reference from time to time so I don't forget anything.
Far too often though, the thread that the loose end leads to ends up being bigger than I ever initially plan.
1221083
I don't keep a file of stuff to remember, just the core writing and an umbra of 'semi-canon' writing snippets. I reread my existing work whenever my writing stumbles to find new things to pick up. I've also noticed the tendency for loose ends to lead to bigger things than they seemed. It's very satisfying when the bigger thing looks like knotwork and gives you a chance to sweep other threads into it at the same time. It looks like it was planned that way from the beginning.
In this case, I'm having trouble coming up with an excuse for Nightmare to do another flashback, since the characters she is interacting with are more knowledgeable than Twilight Sparkle. I've decided to just continue with the story and stay alert for opportunities.
1221098
That's probably the best way to handle it. Let the Muses visit when they will and take the opportunity presented.
I'm re-reading my own writing today to get my head straight and tone done for a bit of writing (i.e.: staring at the Word doc for hours and maybe squeezing out a paragraph or two) before cooking dinner.
Good luck